Steamboat Books by Dorothy Heckmann Shrader

Based on a lifetime of memories, decades of research, and an extensive archive of rare historic photos, Dorothy Heckmann Shrader’s Steamboat Trilogy paints a true-life picture of steamboating on the Missouri River. The author died in 2004, but her memory—and her memories—live on in this remarkable chronicle.

The rowdy port of Hermann, Missouri provides a colorful backdrop for the books, which span 150 years and three generations of steamboating Heckmanns. Reaching back before the Civil War, Steamboat Legacy (now out of print), the first volume of the trilogy, is based on diaries Shrader’s grandmother kept faithfully for forty-three years.

Steamboat Treasures (published in 1997) follows the exploits of Shrader’s uncle, “Steamboat Bill,” a colorful and prolific writer whom the "Waterways Journal" dubbed the Mark Twain of the Missouri River.

Steamboat Kid (published in 2000) brings the saga full circle, as Shrader tells her own remarkable life story. She describes growing up in a town so German that English was spoken as a second language and childhood summers spent tramping up and down the river aboard her father's big excursion steamer, the John Heckmann.

Entertainer John Hartford wrote introductions for all three books. “My feeling for these books runs deep,” he said. “For river buffs, historians, folklorists and readers in general, Dorothy Heckmann Shrader’s Steamboat Trilogy is a keeper.”

Shrader's books have won a number of major awards, including the Literary Award from the Missouri Library Association, the Walter Williams Award from the Missouri Writers Guild, and the Donald B. Wright Award from Mercantile Library. “Thanks to Dorothy Heckmann Shrader much of the colorful history of the steamboat era of the lower Missouri and its tributaries has been preserved,” said James Goodrich of the State Historical Society of Missouri.

Steamboat Treasures and Steamboat Kid are available for $12.95 in paperback and $17.95 ($10 off the cover price) in hardcover. To order, print and mail this order form to:

The Wein Press
7430 W. Forevergreen Dr.
Columbia, MO 65203



[Order Form]	Based on a lifetime of memories, decades of research, and an extensive archive of rare historic photos, Dorothy Heckmann Shrader’s Steamboat Trilogy paints a true-life picture of steamboating on the Missouri River. The author died in 2004, but her memory—and her memories—live on in this remarkable chronicle. The rowdy port of Hermann, Missouri provides a colorful backdrop for the books, which span 150 years and three generations of steamboating Heckmanns. Reaching back before the Civil War, Steamboat Legacy (now out of print), the first volume of the trilogy, is based on diaries Shrader’s grandmother kept faithfully for forty-three years. Steamboat Treasures (published in 1997) follows the exploits of Shrader’s uncle, “Steamboat Bill,” a colorful and prolific writer whom the "Waterways Journal" dubbed the Mark Twain of the Missouri River. Steamboat Kid (published in 2000) brings the saga full circle, as Shrader tells her own remarkable life story. She describes growing up in a town so German that English was spoken as a second language and childhood summers spent tramping up and down the river aboard her father's big excursion steamer, the John Heckmann. Entertainer John Hartford wrote introductions for all three books. “My feeling for these books runs deep,” he said. “For river buffs, historians, folklorists and readers in general, Dorothy Heckmann Shrader’s Steamboat Trilogy is a keeper.” Shrader's books have won a number of major awards, including the Literary Award from the Missouri Library Association, the Walter Williams Award from the Missouri Writers Guild, and the Donald B. Wright Award from Mercantile Library. “Thanks to Dorothy Heckmann Shrader much of the colorful history of the steamboat era of the lower Missouri and its tributaries has been preserved,” said James Goodrich of the State Historical Society of Missouri. Steamboat Treasures and Steamboat Kid are available for $12.95 in paperback and $17.95 ($10 off the cover price) in hardcover. To order, print and mail this order form to: The Wein Press 7430 W. Forevergreen Dr. Columbia, MO 65203