{"product_id":"mark-twains-aquarium-the-samuel-clemens-angelfish-correspondence-1905-1910-paperback","title":"Mark Twain's Aquarium: The Samuel Clemens-Angelfish Correspondence, 1905-1910 - Paperback","description":"\u003cdiv\u003e\u003cp style=\"text-align: right;\"\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/reportcopyrightinfringement.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\"\u003e\u003cb\u003eReport copyright infringement\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cp\u003eby \u003cb\u003eMark Twain\u003c\/b\u003e (Author), \u003cb\u003eJohn Cooley\u003c\/b\u003e (Editor)\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"What I lacked and what I needed,\" confessed Samuel Clemens in 1908, \"was grandchildren.\" Near the end of his life, Clemens became the doting friend and correspondent of twelve schoolgirls ranging in age from ten to sixteen. For Clemens, \"collecting\" these surrogate granddaughters was a way of overcoming his loneliness, a respite from the pessimism, illness, and depression that dominated his later years. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eIn \u003ci\u003eMark Twain's Aquarium\u003c\/i\u003e, John Cooley brings together virtually every known communication exchanged between the writer and the girls he called his \"angelfish.\" Cooley also includes a number of Clemens's notebook entries, autobiographical dictations, short manuscripts, and other relevant materials that further illuminate this fascinating story. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eClemens relished the attention of these girls, orchestrating chaperoned visits to his homes and creating an elaborate set of rules and emblems for the Aquarium Club. He hung their portraits in his billiard room and invented games and plays for their amusement. For much of 1908, he was sending and receiving a letter a week from his angelfish. Cooley argues that Clemens saw cheerfulness and laughter as his only defenses against the despair of his late years. His enchantment with children, years before, had given birth to such characters as Tom Sawyer, Becky Thatcher, and Huck Finn. In the frivolities of the Aquarium Club, it found its final expression. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eCooley finds no evidence of impropriety in Clemens behavior with the girls. Perhaps his greatest crime, the editor suggests, was in idealizing them, in regarding them as precious collectibles. \"He tried to trap them in the amber of endless adolescence,\" Cooley writes. \"By pleading that they stay young and innocent, he was perhaps attempting to deny that, as they and the world continued to change, so must he.\"\u003ch3\u003eAuthor Biography\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eSamuel Clemens (Author) \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e SAMUEL CLEMENS (1835-1910) remains one of America's most influential, prolific, and most widely read authors. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cb\u003eJohn Cooley (Editor) \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e JOHN COOLEY is a professor emeritus of English and environmental studies at Western Michigan University. His publications include \u003ci\u003eHow Nancy Jackson Married Kate Wilson and Other Tales of Rebellious Girls \u003c\/i\u003eand\u003ci\u003e Daring Young Women\u003c\/i\u003e and \u003ci\u003eEarthly Words: Essays on Contemporary American Nature and Environmental Writers\u003c\/i\u003e. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNumber of Pages:\u003c\/strong\u003e 328\u003c\/div\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eDimensions:\u003c\/strong\u003e 0.73 x 9 x 6 IN\u003c\/div\u003e\n            \u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublication Date:\u003c\/strong\u003e September 01, 2009\u003c\/div\u003e\n            ","brand":"BooksCloud","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47468563661053,"sku":"9780820334981","price":66.87,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/3414\/0157\/files\/aC8yTE40cVhJQVRSNkVZcXoxQ2hOZz09.webp?v=1777290467","url":"https:\/\/booktolia.com\/products\/mark-twains-aquarium-the-samuel-clemens-angelfish-correspondence-1905-1910-paperback","provider":"booktolia","version":"1.0","type":"link"}