Published in 1926, Show Boat tells of three generations of the Hawks-Ravenal family and the Cotton Blossom Floating Palace Theatre on the Mississippi and other rivers, from the Reconstruction Era of the 1880s, to the Gilded Age and Roaring Twenties. The story was made into a Broadway musical in 1927 and into films in 1929.

NOTE: There are issues of race in the story, particularly anti-Black stereotypes and derogatory terms. It is policy to record texts as written. - Summary by TriciaG