Mark Twain himself had three daughters, but only outlived one of them, and so it should come as no surprise that in his later life he counted the interactions he had with his dozen or so “surrogate granddaughters” to be his “life’s chief delight.”
What is surprising, given all that, is that the humorist wrote his Advice for Little Girls in 1867, five years before he would become a father, so whether this is advice from an uncle, an observer, or a former little boy, is up for debate.
(Click all to embiggen.)
These illustrations for Twain’s piece were created by Vladimir Radunsky, a living children’s book author, not a contemporary of Twain, though his drawings are charmingly timeless.
See the whole book at Flavorwire, and the whole text here.
(via Jezebel.)
