In 1960, an hour-long adaptation was broadcast on NBC starring Andrew Prine and James Daly. Various sections of Roughing It were borrowed by television series such as Bonanza. Thomas, Nevada, the main character 'Little' Henry Lord is reading Roughing It when he learns that his father has fallen from the Hoover Dam. Thomas, a 2018 historical novel set in St. astronauts Frank Borman and Jim Lovell read Roughing It aloud to pass the time aboard NASA's Gemini VII, a 14-day-long Earth orbital mission in December 1965. This memoir provides examples of Twain's rough-hewn humor, which would become a staple of his writing in such later books as Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884), The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876), and A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court (1889). Roughing It illustrates many of Twain's early adventures, including a visit to Salt Lake City, gold and silver prospecting, real-estate speculation, a journey to the Kingdom of Hawaii, and his beginnings as a writer. Twain consulted his brother's diary to refresh his memory and borrowed heavily from his active imagination for many stories in the book. After a brief stint as a Confederate cavalry militiaman (not included in the account), he joined his brother Orion Clemens, who had been appointed Secretary of the Nevada Territory, on a stagecoach journey west.

The book follows the travels of young Mark Twain through the American West during the years 1861–1867. Higbie, later a civil engineer who died in 1914.

Roughing It is dedicated to Twain's mining companion Calvin H. It was written in 1870–71 and published in 1872, as a prequel to his first travel book The Innocents Abroad (1869). Roughing It is a book of semi- autobiographical travel literature by Mark Twain.

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