Released in 1872 by the American Publishing Co., Roughing It is a semi-autobiographical account of Clemens' five and a half years spent in Nevada and California during the early 1860s.			First edition had 591 pages; there were 304 illustrations.
Following the great success of The Innocents Abroad, Twain sought a subject for another travelogue; he decided to "do up Nevada and Cal."				While Clemens was on a lecture tour toward the end of 1871, he was informed that the manuscript was too short; as a result, he had to tack on three lengthy appendixes.
Twain family life was beset with tragedy during the writing of the book in 1870: His father-in-law died in August; his wife, Livy, became seriously ill; her friend Emma Nye died at the Clemens home in Buffalo in September; and in November the couple's first child was born prematurely, and both mother and son became extremely ill.			Twain held back review copies from most reviewers; he thought the book "would be considered pretty poor stuff,& that therefore I had better not let the press get a chance at it"; his judgement was wrong - the book was a critical and commercial success.

We had no time to make the customary inquisition into the workings of polygamy and get up the usual statistics and deductions preparatory to calling the attention of the nation at large once more to the matter. ...With the gushing self-sufficiency of youth I was feverish to plunge in headlong and achieve a great reform here—until I saw the Mormon women. Then I was touched. My heart was wiser than my head. It warmed toward these poor...creatures,...I said, "No—the man that marries one of them has done an act of Christian charity which entitles him to the kindly applause of mankind, not their harsh censure—and the man that marries sixty of them has done a deed of open-handed generosity so sublime that the nations should stand uncovered in his presence and worship."

Summary

Orion Clemens is appointed Secretary of the Nevada Territory. He invites his brother Sam, the narrator, to come along with him, in the capacity of a private secretary. The brothers take a three-week stagecoach trip from St. Joseph, Missouri, to Carson City, Nevada. Along the way, the travellers stop in Salt Lake City, where they visit Brigham Young, and there are several chapters devoted to the Mormons.

Once in Carson City, Sam becomes involved with silver mining, travelling aroung the territory searching for riches. After numerous adventures, Clemens finds no fortune in mining, and accepts an offer to work as a city editor for the Virginia City Territorial Enterprise.

Clemens eventually moves to San Francisco, where he works as a reporter and lives through an earthquake. He travels to several mining camps in northern California, and although he has some interesting experiences, he doesn't find his fortune.

In the final portion of the book, Clemens travels to Hawaii as a correspondent for the Sacramento Union. The final 15 chapters are devoted to his travels around the islands.