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From:
Alan Kitty <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Mon, 28 Aug 2017 11:25:10 -0400
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It is certain that familial connections play a role in forming us. However, the breadth of Clemen's reading habits would have led him to Shelley's Frankenstein (1818) early in life and later, to Stevenson's Jeckyl and Hide (1868). Into the mix, we can add a long list of Philosophies, classic and modern, including the Bible, for likely influences. In fact, all Western Religion's are steeped in blatant references to the duality of humankind. And surely, hearing the story of man's expulsion from the Garden could have supplied enough mental fodder for a lifetime of Twain's Twins. 

Sent from my iPhone

> On Aug 27, 2017, at 5:30 PM, Arianne . <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> 
> I've been re-reading my thesis written in 1963 and thinking about what I
> discovered since at the Mark Twain Papers in 1978.  (Life tends to
> intervene).  If it is not inappropriate to ask, could anyone tell me who,
> if anyone, did the best most thorough job on the relationship between Twain
> and his brother Henry since then?  As far as I know, nobody.  I see Henry
> as the source of Twain's interest in and identification with twins.
> 
> Back in 1963, right after handing in the paper to the  University of Texas
> at El Paso for my MA, I left for Peace Corps service in Cameroons, West
> Africa.  When I came back I went for my Phd at University of California in
> Berkeley.  Had to leave after only three months when my mother had a
> stroke.  I was there because of the Mark Twain Papers and asked to see the
> first scrapbook which, I think, was delivered to me by Fredrick Anderson,
> who in 1978 eventually became my mentor.  When I came back to Berkeley
> after an interval at home in Sacramento, I learned he had died which broke
> my heart.  Nevertheless, it was back then that I met Robert Hirst who read
> something I'd written about another issue I'd stumbled upon in Twain's
> first scrabbook.  He never read the original thesis which brougt me there
> in the first place, though.
> 
> I wrote the thesis, went to the Peace Corps, and entered  UC Berkeley as
> Jeanne Adamson.  When I returned to the Mark Twain Papers in 1978, I was
> Arianne Laidlaw.  The ladies will understand.  Passports confirm all my
> name changes.
> 
> 
> Looking forward to any views
> 
> 
> -- 
> Arianne Laidlaw

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