Dear C.J. Peiffer:

Thanks for writing about your feelings and experiences at the various
conferences.  Very
encouraging.  Your mention of being an amateur (I am, too) is something I've
been thinking
about.  Isn't the derevation of "amateur" "Lover of..."  We should be PROUD
of ourselves loving
Mark Twain as we do.

I also peeked into your artwork and hope one day to have you design a stamp
for me.  I also was in the Peace Corps  in Cameroons, AFrica.  I brought
home an African Grey Parrot which
I mention because of the parrot on your site.  Coco laid an egg (her only)
at 23 and died at
35, long before I'd expected.

Regards, Arianne
t
On Tue, Mar 25, 2008 at 12:22 AM, C.J. Peiffer <[log in to unmask]>
wrote:

> In response to Carmela=92s =93Intimidated by professors=94:
>
> I attended my first conference on Mark Twain Studies in Elmira in 1997. I
> d=
> idn=92t know what to expect and admit I felt rather intimidated meeting
> the=
>  authors or editors of many of the books that lined my home shelves.
>
> I am not a professional Twain scholar, just an amateur one. I=92m not a
> col=
> lege professor either. At that time I had been teaching in public schools
> f=
> or 28 years, but I taught art, not literature.  The closest I ever came to
> =
> being part of an English department was teaching English as a foreign
> langu=
> age in the Peace Corps (Brazil.)
>