I always knew Mark Twain was an interesting character; today I was perusing a site I've mentioned before (Today I found out) and came across an interesting article about his habit of 'collecting' young girls. That immediately brought up creepy serial killer images for me, probably because I'm reading a book by Terri Reid called Bumpy Roads and the serial killer in the book calls his victims a 'collection'.
Anyway, for Twain, apparently these girls were more like surrogate granddaughters; he called them the "Aquarium Club" and his "Angelfish" and had a guest room in his home specifically set up for them to come and stay as well as a room decorated with their pictures on his wall.
You can read the post on "Today I found out" here. Letters he exchanged with these girls have been collected and published in Mark Twain's Aquarium: The Samuel Clemens-Angelfish Correspondence, 1905-1910
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