Carolyn:  Three children, writing reviews?  I'm as impressed with that as I
am with fact you
presented a paper at the Mark Twain Conference.  I've heard glowing
descriptions of how
good Elmira can be and saw pictures which were delightful.  I hope I get to
attend one of
these conferences and meet some of the people we read here, including you!

I find myself definitely stimulated by much of the conversation here, to the
extent that I
think about it even when I'm away from the computer.  So far I'm lacking the
energy to say
all that I'd like.  I can say that I regret not  joining this site long,
long ago!

But I came upon an email I wrote to a far=away friend last year which you'll
probably understand
perfectly.   Specifically the joy part.  I quote:


subject    My Thesis

 6/13/07

My friends, the Dabaghians, came over last night.  I had a kitchen sink soup
(I could never reduplicate it cuz I can't even remember all I threw into it,
except that it was my first venture into BARLEY.)  They brought bread and
dessert.  We usually watch a video but last night, for some reason, we just
talked.  They hadn't been able to get some of the things I've sent out, like
"Women in Art." so they saw it here.

I started talking about my new search skills (which Maryellen already knew.
Nobody told me!)  She mentioned that among her various interesting searches
was the time she ran into Leo's PHd dissertation.  She remarked that there
were lots of digitalizing things afoot, including getting dissertations and
various papers on line.

This moved me to google the name I had when I got my MA: Jeanne Adamson.

Two pages of hits.  On first page I saw reference in Peace Corps places that
Arianne Laidlaw had been Jeanne Adamson.  At the very top of the second
page....be still my heart....was  " Mark Twain's Nemisis:  His brother
Henry."  B y Jeanne Adamson.

THAT'S ME!!!!

And indeed, there it was,  with 24 preview pages available (which of course
I've clipmarked) and all it would take was $32 for me to download the whole
thing.  Which I won't do, because obviously I already have a hard copy.

I was so excited I ranged from happy, to joyous to J E R B (remember?  Joy,
ecstasy, Rapture and Bliss?  I don't go there so often anymore.)  I gave
Maryellen a big hug but that wasn't enough.

So I did a jig.  No kidding.  I thought of snoopy  and did a dance for joy.
It was so exciting!!!  Today when I told my friend Loretta she remarked that
makes me an internationally published author.  heh heh.

But what is creepy is that the company who is doing the digitalizing
declares its copywrite over the material!  Does that seem right?  Seems odd
to me.

All excited about it, as I said, I clipmarked the 24 available pages and
reread them.  Maryellen read the first paragraph with me and I was
embarassed.  The first paragraph consisted of one unbelievably long single
sentence.  Could use a rewrite.

What I found by reading those pages was how much I've forgotten and I found
it interesting!  But I also realized it would have been better to say more
in the introduction about where I'd
go with the topic.

Never mind.

I had found all my notes AND the thesis sometime last week as I've been
pouring over my file cabinets to find my most recent Mark Twain files.
(Still unfound.  VERY frustrating.  Where could they be?)  The thesis was
around 190 pages so I haven't reread it in years, but I'll bet I will.  It
was much longer than it need be for a Master's Thesis, but I was on a roll.

My advisor at the time wrote on the final draft at the end: "Wow."  I had a
dynamite last paragraph quote from Mark Twain about readers of his pages in
"1960," the very year I'd written
my paper.

I love pleasant surprises.

YEA!"


Carolyn, thesis was written in 1963 instead of 1960, but I was still struck
by quote I mentioned.
Also, I'e thought over the copyright question and assume it is because even
though I wrote it,
THEY made digital copy so finders keepers.  Still seems a bit odd to me.  I
have since found
the missing papers, my research on the topic I mentioned I stumbled upon
while doing
research at the Mark Twain Papers.  I still haven't reread the thesis,
except for parts.  One
thing that delights me is that I have a photocopy with Fred's (The editor
there then) remarks.
He actually told me he'd be glad to edit anything I wrote since he ended up
seeing everything
submitted for publication about Mark Twian anyway.

Wish I could attend the ALA conference in SF.  So near!  But I'm booked for
another
\conference that weekend.

A pleasure meeting you here,
Warm regards,
Arianne