Dorothy Quick: Mark Twain's ‘Little Fish’

Dorothy Quick (1900-1962) was one member of Mark Twain's small group of young girls that he called his "little fish" and "Aquarium Club." He especially liked being with these pre-pubescent girls and amusing and teaching them. Of all these "little fishes" and members of a two-person Aquarium Club, Dorothy seemed in many ways to be the most satisfying and promising of all to Twain. He taught her all he could about becoming an author, as she did with some success. Though she did not become a major authorwas really only a minor one-her career and accomplishments in their own right and especially because of her relationship with Twain should be of collateral interest to Twain scholars, to those interested in minor figures in American literature, and especially to those students of crime fiction. Her association with Twain was nicely catalogued in her book Enchantment: A Little Girl's Friendship with Mark Twain (1961), published near the end of her life when she had the advantage of looking back over her career and its association with her mentor, and subsequently republished as Mark Twain and Me (1999). In her reminiscences Dorothy was eager to say that Twain had been a major influence on her: "From SLC [as she liked to call him], I learned reading and writing; but I learned even more than that, for I learned, too, the simplicity that goes with greatness and it was a lesson I never forgot." Twain's influence seems to have been in a general way, with genuine love on her part for the older man she almost worshipped but going on her own way as author and person thinking about life. There is no mention of Mark Twain, or a person like him, in any of her writings other than a line or two in her poetry which might loosely be likened to him. She may have developed similar interests because of her association with the older man but she surely developed her own ideas about the Hereafter and the pleasures of Heaven. She was self-reliant and pragmatic, apparently devoid of any of Twain's humor or cynicism but with a strong will which drove her to speak her mind as she pleased. This personality resulted in pleasing and interesting books in poetry, crime fiction, and drama. Early on in their relationship Twain stirred Dorothy's desire to write and told her that she had the talent if she had the determination. He shared his writing with her, got her involved in it as co-author and participant, and in so doing ignited a spark that might otherwise not have flamed. Once, he had written, or half-written, a story in the tradition of Frank Stockton's "The Lady or the Tiger," in which the hero is about to open a door and be rewarded with a beautiful lady or eaten by a ravenous tiger. In his story Twain's hero had been held up by a robber in the woods as he was on his way to see his fiancee and had had his trousers stolen. Seated in his carriage with his lap robe covering his nakedness, the hero looked respectable. But as he drove, his carriage came upon his impatient fiancee earlier than expected, and she insisted that since they were in a beautiful spot they should picnic where they had met. The hero was reluctant to get out of the carriage and horrify his fiancee but felt he could not explain his unwillingness. The hero had worked himself into such a messy situation that there seemed no way out for him. Twain read the story to Dorothy and asked how they might get the hero out of his predicament. Dorothy pondered the situation a minute, then wrote the solution. She had the hero reach over and prick the horse in the flank and then the horse ran away. Before he came back, the hero secured new trousers, returned to his fiancee and thus saved his love affair and fortune. Twain was delighted with the solution and told Dorothy: "There's no doubt about it, Dorothy. . . . Anyone with that much imagination would have to be [an author]." At that point Twain formed the Author's League of two-himself and Dorothy. He was to teach her what he knew about writing and she instruct him in what she knew-which was, "to be young," as Twain said (74-75). …