Emerson links Aldrich and Twain together through their two bad boy characters. According to Emerson,Twain was consciously drawing on the themes already being developed by Aldrich and other literary contemporaries; "like Aldrich's boy, Tom Bailey, Tom Sawyer is a bookish boy, and the book as a whole has a bookish, 'Eastern' quality" (92). This similar literary fascination could link the two writers and highlight their friendship.
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