Samuel Langheon Clemens, pen name Mark Twain, was a well-known American writer. His literary masterpieces include The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. But Twain's fondness for young girls is little known, and he even considers himself a "collector" who likes to "collect" teenage girls.
Beginning in 1908, Twain established the "Aquarium" club, consisting of him and 13 girls under the age of 16. He also called the girls his "angel fish" and enjoyed socializing with them and exchanging letters with them. Twain even reserved a room in his house in Connecticut specifically for the club. Despite Twain's defense of the club's innocence, his love for young girls has caused some red flags in his family and community.
In 1907, at the age of 72, Twain began "collecting" young girls. He had just lost his wife and daughter, so he wanted grandchildren so much. In 1908, during a trip to Bermuda, he became obsessed with "angel fish" and began calling his "surrogate granddaughter" "angel fish". He also named his group of girls "Aquarium Club" and even asked members to wear angel fish pins.
Twain's secretary, Isabelle Lyon, often accompanied and arranged for Twain and the young girls to meet. On a trip to Bermuda with Twain in April 1908, she wrote in her diary: "He had an aquarium club of little girls, and those girls were angel fish.....
During the last two decades of Twain's life, he witnessed the deaths of his first and favorite daughter, Susie, his wife Olivia, and his third daughter Jean. Unsurprisingly, the deaths of three family members plunged Twain into a deep depression. And this tragic experience also made him more obsessed with innocence, young girls and being a grandfather. Four years after his wife's death, Twain wrote:
I've reached the age of grandfather, and what I'm missing now is grandchildren. My heart...... Now it's a treasure trove of the little kids I love, and I'm their slave. As far as the grandchildren are concerned, I am the richest person in the world today, because I chose them, and the other grandfathers can only accept them with their arrival.
Mark Twain cherishes the innocence of children because they have not experienced the hardships of adult life. Moreover, he also called himself a "collector" of young girls:
I think we're all collectors... As for me, I like to collect young girls – girls aged 10 to 16. For them, life is a perfect joy, and life does not bring them hurt and pain, nor does it bring them tears.
Twain called his Angel Fish Girls the Aquarium Club. He drafted a charter that laid down the rules for his exclusive club. The rules require girls to "wear badges and headdresses" and state that joining the club "must not exceed school age.". He also hung pictures of angel fish in the billiard room of his home in Reading, Connecticut, and explicitly stipulated in the charter that "non-members are not allowed to take pictures."
Twain called himself an "admiral" and asked the girls to write him a letter at least every three months. If girls don't write frequently, then Twain downgrades them from active members to "honorary members."
Mark Twain's Aquarium Club, Angel Fish Communications, recorded Mark Twain's plans to build a room specifically for his "Angel Fish" at his home in Reading, Connecticut:
The billiard room door will have the legendary word "Aquarium" on it. I took the best pictures of all the Angel Fish, and they were framed and hung on the wall. There is also a bedroom of "angel fish" with two beds, and as providence allows, I would like a fish to live in with her mother.
Twain moved into his home in Connecticut on June 18, 1908. He later called the house "The House of Innocence" because he wanted to entertain many young girls.
Twain's autobiography includes descriptions of his aquarium club members. He described them as "elegant and charming, like flowers," the epitome of the "kingdom of heaven." Mark Twain wrote to "Angel Fish" Dorothy Harvey to celebrate her 14th birthday. He said in the letter: "I wish I could have a free trip every day and do nothing but watch you. ”
After a visit by 11-year-old Dorothy Quick (screenwriter, representative of Mark Twain and Me), he wrote: "As soon as you left, I went to bed, and after that there was no reason to live, and all the sun was gone." How do you think I would live without you? ”
To Helen Martin, Twain described her as "a smart, cute little girl," saying, "I miss you, dear Helen." Although I miss Bermuda too, I don't miss you much. Because you are rare. ”
Most of the girls come from prominent and wealthy families because they live in the same social circle as the well-respected writer. For the girls' parents, Twain was so interested in their children as an honor. Later he also met many girls who took boats to England or Bermuda.
On a trip to Bermuda, Twain met 12-year-old Helen Allen. The Allen family was an old friend of his, and Twain had lived in their home during his visit to the island. Twain later described Helen Allen as "perfectly cute and fascinated at first sight." ”
By the end of 1908, Twain had admitted 12 members and one honorary member to the Aquarium Club. He made a list of the girls in order of age, and all of them were between the ages of 10 and 16.
Twain wrote: "All the female students on the list above are my angel fish, my club members... The Bermuda angel fish with its gorgeous blue decoration is undoubtedly the most beautiful fish... The club's badge is the color of an angel fish, made of enamel, and worn as a lapel pin – at least that's how girls wear it. ”
Twain was keen to write letters and stay in touch with members of his aquarium club. However, in September 1908, Twain's daughter Clara returned from Europe. She wasn't entirely in favor of the private club and eventually changed the name of the house from "Innocence at Home" to "Stormfield."
Twain then no longer kept Angel Fish's letters, and shortly after her arrival in the United States, their correspondence records ceased. Although they may have been completely innocent, Clara Clemens insisted against her father's correspondence with the girls. In the end, though, John Cooley published all the surviving letters in his book Mark Twain's Aquarium: Correspondence with angel fish.
Long before 1902, Mark Twain founded The Juggernaut Club, another organization dedicated to female pen pals. According to biographer Albert Bigelow Paine, the club sounds a lot like an aquarium club, but the main difference is that its main members are not teenage girls:
They formed a strange society with young women—one in every country in the world. They should write to him every once in a while about issues that may be of interest to both parties, and he will actively reply and print out a copy of the club's charter for each member.
The identity of the Giant Deer Club is largely unknown, but the distribution of the club's membership seems to be very different from that of the Aquarium Club, and the only member record that exists is that of Helen Picard. Today, the University of California, Berkeley, has a collection of 19 letters from Picard to Mark Twain. It is clear from her letter that she is a 29 year old single woman with her own desire to write.
No incidents of abuse have been reported, but some of Twain's work over the years has raised questions. He wrote about young women and sex in His book Letters from the Earth, a satirical essay critical of religion and morality published after his death. He said:
A woman starts at the age of seven until she dies of old age, and for 23 days of each month (without pregnancy), she is ready to act and capable. Just like a candlestick has the ability to receive candles, it can do a good job every day.
Twain later severed ties with some of the young girls. At one point he exchanged letters with 15-year-old Gertrude Natkin, but he soon discovered that she was expressing romantic feelings to him. So Twain began to worry and stopped writing to her.
Although Twain collected angel fish, he also spent more time with women of a more suitable age. At the age of 19, Mary Madden could not have become an angel fish due to her age, but she and Twain went on a five-day trip to Bermuda. He is also said to have an affair with the writer Charlotte Teller, a neighbor in New York. Their flirtation made Twain's secretary, Isabelle Leon, feel jealous, so much so that she deliberately provoked a friendship between the two.
In the last years before his death from a heart attack in 1910, Twain's investment and interest in the club declined. As can be seen from his surviving letters, his tone changed from 1908 onwards, complaining that the girls were growing up too fast and that he wasn't particularly interested in the topic of their boyfriends.