Edna Ferber
Show Boat
"Show Boat" by Edna Ferber is a novel published in 1926. It follows three generations of performers aboard the Cotton Blossom, a floating theater traveling the Mississippi River from the 1880s to the 1920s. Against the backdrop of America's changing landscape—from Reconstruction riverbanks to Jazz Age New York—the story weaves together romance, family drama, and the harsh realities of racial prejudice. Lives intertwine and secrets emerge as the show boat drifts through small Southern towns, carrying both entertainment and scandal in its wake.