Book Search Results

London: Macmillan and Co, 1872. First edition. Very good. Extraordinary first state of the sequel to ALICE'S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND, one of only three known copies of the book containing two original pencil sketches by Tenniel. Few works can claim the breadth of cultural influence of Carroll's two Alice books. In this book, Alice returns to Wonderland by stepping through a mirror, playing out her journey like a game of chess. THROUGH THE LOOKING GLASS is quoted in works as wide ranging as FINNEGANS WAKE and HARRIET THE SPY, and inspired the Beatles song "I Am The Walrus." It also contains the great English nonsense poem "Jabberwocky."This copy bears pencil sketches of Humpty Dumpty (reproducing, in reverse, the illustration from page 118) and Alice holding a fawn (page 63). The images are reversed in imitation of what Tenniel would have drawn on the wood. This copy is unrecorded in Schiller's 1990 Census, "Drawings Made by Tenniel as Part of Inscriptions of Books." Schiller lists two copies of this title with original drawings. Tenniel scholar Matthew Demakos notes that there is a third in the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas (this one with only one sketch), making the total four (including this copy). Two of those copies (housed at The Watkinson Library of Trinity College and the Berol Collection of NYU) have two sketches, as in this copy. The drawings in this copy are different from those in the other three. Based on the two censuses, this is the only remaining copy of THROUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS in private hands that contains original pencil drawings by Tenniel. A remarkable literary rarity from one of the great author-illustrator pairings in English literature. Octavo. 7'' x 4.5''. Original full red cloth, triple gilt-rule borders, central gilt-stamped icons on both boards, gilt-lettered spine. Blue coated endpapers, all edges gilt. Half title. Wood-engraved tissue-guarded frontispiece and 49 in-text wood engravings by Dalziel after Tenniel. One page of ads at rear. [12], 224, [4] pages. Half title inscribed ("Ever yours / JT") and illustrated by Tenniel with two pencil sketches from the book: the top portion of TTLG118 (Humpty Dumpty offering his hand) and TTLG63 (Alice clasping her arms round Fawn). Half title with additional ink gift inscription. Burn & Co. binder's ticket on rear pastedown. Housed in a custom maroon slipcase and chemise. Boards moderately soiled, spine toned and soiled, with additional wear to spine extremities, light bump to front corner, expert repair to hinges, a few instances of soiling to text. [Attributes: First Edition; Signed Copy; In Dust Jacket]

Macmillan, 1877. Fortieth thousand, i.e. a later issue of the first edition as per Williams Madan Green 84. Publisher's special deluxe binding of white textured paper covered boards to imitate vellum, with gilt lettering and vignettes, in the exceptionally rare unprinted original lilac dustwrapper. All edges gilt. Author's presentation copy, inscribed on the half title, "May Forshall from the Author / Dec 3. 1877" A fine copy with exceptionally clean white covers and bright gilt, just a couple of trivial marks to the edges. Internally fresh with tight hinges. Two pin holes to the front endpaper and a faint mark to the edge of the preliminary pages. Dustwrapper rather worn, with small chips to the spine ends and corners and a larger chip to the corner of the back panel. An exceptional copy. Included with this book is an original carte-de-visite mounted photograph of Mary Forshall taken by Carroll, numbered by him (2485) in violet ink on the reverse. Black and white illustrations throughout by John Tenniel. Mary Forshall (known as May) was the daughter of the Highgate physician Francis Hyde Forshall, an acquaintance of Charles Dodgson's. Dodgson recalls his first meeting with May in a diary entry of 27 November 1877, "Dined with Sampson, to meet Dr. Forshall with his sister, etc., and May Forshall, a nice child of 10." In the 1 December 1877 entry, Dodgson mentions May "came to be photographed" at 11am, an appointment which was repeated two days later, with the result that Carroll took, "5 negatives, of which 2 failed". It was on the second meeting that Dodgson presented one of his newly received copies of Through the Looking Glass, in a specially commissioned presentation binding. Dodgson took an obsessive interest in the production of all his books and would habitually order small quantities to be bound up in a variety of non-standard styles and hues for his own use, wanting to have a ready supply of special bindings, which differed form the shop bought version, to be used as presentation gifts. Of these styles, the white binding seems to have been the one chosen by Dodgson for his most favoured presentations. It is also a style of binding which has fascinated latter day collectors. For the publication of The Hunting of The Snark, the year before this book, Dodgson had commissioned an array of coloured bindings including "20 bindings in white vellum and gold". This was changed to parchment style paper or cloth and gold, on economic grounds. Dodgson appears to have placed a similar order for both Alice (then in its sixth edition) and Through the Looking Glass, which were delivered late in 1877. They are now of the utmost scarcity, seldom appearing in commerce. When they do, they are usually in a poor or repaired state, as the fragile white boards were particularly prone to damage. In this case the presence of the original dustwrapper, itself probably a unique occurrence, has meant that the white binding has remained in exceptional condition. Williams, Madan, Green 84 [Attributes: First Edition; Hard Cover; In Dust Jacket]

New York: D.Appleton & Co, 1866. First edition, second issue (i.e. the first published edition of the original sheets). Original red cloth lettered in gilt with triple gilt ruled borders and gilt vignettes to covers. Dark green endpapers, all edges gilt. A very good copy indeed which shows a little wear to the spine ends, but is bright and clean and most unusually, completely free from repair. Internally fresh with a bookplate to the front endpaper and the front hinge starting. An exceptionally well preserved copy. Forty two illustrations after John Tenniel. An original printing of Alice was undertaken by the Clarendon Press in Oxford in early 1865 and famously recalled because John Tenniel considered the printing unsatisfactory. In April 1866 Dodgson (having consulted Tenniel) authorised Macmillan to sell some of the recalled 1865 sheets to the New York publisher, D. Appleton with a new title page printed at the Clarendon Press and bound in London. Thus, although distributed in America, this edition represents the earliest practically obtainable issue of the original printing of Alice in Wonderland. The success of the book was immediate, its influence far reaching and opened the floodgates to a regular procession of successful children's novels to follow. PMM 354 (note); Williams, Madan, Green and Crutch 44. [Attributes: First Edition; Hard Cover]

[Sometime after 1865]. A superb illustration from the greatest children's book in the language A fine, spectacularly detailed finished drawing of the image that appears on page 138 of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, the image in reverse of the printed woodcut but with the artist's monogram in the correct orientation. The drawing was done by Tenniel sometime after publication of the book, presumably as a private commission. Dodgson originally commissioned Tenniel based on his reputation as the leading artist for Punch and very much deferred to his opinion. Famously, in 1865 he suppressed the first issue of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland because of Tenniel's dissatisfaction with the quality of the reproductions of his drawings. They worked together again for the sequel, Through the Looking-Glass, but after that Tenniel politely declined to illustrate more of Dodgson's works. Nevertheless, Tenniel was willing to accept commissions to redraw popular images from the Alice books, mostly in mirror-image copying the general design of the Dalziel wood-engraving, thus giving the pleasant illusion that they were the actual source for the wood-engraving, as Justin Schiller notes (Goodacre-Schiller, p. 61). In this case, the drawing is the same size as the published version, though more finely detailed. In his time, Sir John Tenniel (1820-1914) was most famous for his political cartoons. However, "the general public knows him now only for his illustrations in the Alice books, an irony not lost on historians. For when as an established artist he undertook to illustrate the first Alice book by an unknown author and lent his established reputation to the venture, he knew, of course, that his name would demand critical attention for the book and would in great measure be responsible for any success it might meet with... today Tenniel, having 'raised the political cartoon to a new level of dignity and importance... is one of the best known of all English book illustrators solely because his drawings are inseparable from Lewis Carroll's immortal Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass'" (Cohen & Wakeling, pp. 10-11).Provenance: American philanthropist and lawyer Bronson Winthrop (1863-1944), his sale, Parke Bernet, New York, 12/13 March 1945, lot 156. Schiller locates one other comparable commissioned drawing of the sleeping Gryphon, in the New York Public Library Owen D. Young--Albert Berg Collection. Original artwork in pencil on white wove drawing paper without watermark. Image size approximately 85 x 60 mm with large margins all round. John Tenniel's monogram to the lower right. Portion of backing from previous mount cut round and retained, with ink inscription of Mr & Mrs Ben Wolf, art collectors of Philadelphia; the 1920s label of Kennedy & Co. Rare Prints, 693 Fifth Ave, New York; 1970s sticker of Newman Galleries, Philadelphia; more recent Christie's 19th-century paintings department sticker (untraced on the Christie's website). When examined out of frame and mount, small chip to top edge and slight thinning of paper where previously mounted (visible only when held up to light), the very lightest toning around the image where previously exposed in the mount, else fine. Goodacre-Schiller A33. Morton N. Cohen & Edward Wakeling (eds.) Lewis Carroll and His Illustrators: Collaborations & Correspondence, 1865-1898 (2003). [Attributes: Signed Copy]

[Los Angeles, Paramount Pictures, 1933]. Folio (220 x 354 mm). (3), A1-8, 642, 4 ff. Mimeographed typescript and storyboard comprising 642 illustrations by William Cameron Menzies. Extra-illustrated with 44 black and white production photographs. Contemporary giltstamped full red morocco, spine gilt in compartments. Signed by 27 members of the cast. Copy owned by Charlotte Henry, the actress who played Alice, signed and inscribed by her to another girl on the frontispiece photograph: "To Ann Waddington from Alice in Wonderland / Charlotte Henry". De luxe copy, owned by "Alice", of the script to the 1933 Paramount Pictures adaptation of Lewis Carroll's classic. The script appears to have been available in a numbered edition (number 22 was sold at Sotheby's in 1975) and an un-numbered edition for members of the production (cast-member Ronald "Baby LeRoy" Overacker’s copy sold at Bonhams, Los Angeles, in 2019); both were bound in wrappers. The present specimen is a sumptuously bound, extra-illustrated edition for the actress who played the title character, featuring not only 44 inserted black-and-white production photographs (captioned on the reverse), but also the signatures of 27 cast members on the half-title. - Despite an all-star cast including Cary Grant as the Mock Turtle, Gary Cooper as The White Knight, W. C. Fields as Humpty Dumpty, Edna May Oliver as the Red Queen, Edward Everett Horton as The Hatter, Charlie Ruggles as The March Hare, and Baby LeRoy as The Joker, the film adaptation proved a famously unsuccessful experiment by Paramount. It remains the only major live-action Hollywood production to adapt Carroll's original "Alice" stories. Charlotte Henry (1914-1980) enjoyed her first leading role as Alice, beating over 6,800 other actresses who auditioned. The recipient Ann Waddington, to whom Henry gifted her sumptuous memento, is unidentified. - The American film director, screenwriter, and producer Joseph L. Mankiewicz (1909-93) enjoyed a long Hollywood career. He is best remembered for "All About Eve" (1950), which was nominated for 14 Academy Awards and won six. William Cameron Menzies (1896-1957) was a hugely influential production designer and art director. He received an Honorary Academy Award "for outstanding achievement in the use of color for the enhancement of dramatic mood" in "Gone With the Wind". - Occasional tears to some leaves, some photographs with creases and tears, occasional child's scribbles. Binding worn with joints splitting and rubbed at extremities, covers scratched, hinges split. A unique survival. [Attributes: Soft Cover]

Maecenas Press - Random House., New York, 1969. Folio. (430 x 285 mm). pp. 155. Carroll's text illustrated with an original frontispiece etching signed and numbered by Dali in pencil and twelve colour woodcut plates' this copy with the additional suite on Japon Nacré. Loose as issued in original publisher's black cloth silk portfolios each with Dali to covers, loose in original carrot morocco-backed cloth box with ties (the ties lacking as usual). The deluxe edition with the additional suite of Salvador Dali's illustrations for Lewis Carroll's proto-Surrealist masterpiece. From the edition de luxe limited to 200 signed and numbered copies on vélin de Rives with the additional suite of all the plates on Japon Nacré including the frontispiece etching which is signed in pencil by Dali; the full edition was 2,500 copies on Mandeure paper. [Michler & Löpsinger 321 - 333]. [Attributes: Signed Copy; Hard Cover]

Harper & Brothers, New York and London, 1901. xvii, 193 pp. With forty full-page illustrations in tint from drawings by Peter Newell. Original artwork 11 x 7 inches, matted and framed. Volume 8vo, publisher's gilt art vellum, t.e.g., in green gilt dust jacket and publisher's printed two-part box. First Peter Newell edition. Very fine original condition; the book is unopened. There is some light soiling and wear to the publisher's box. Unlike the published illustration, the original drawing depicts Alice in a delicately colored pink-flowered dress, with rosy cheeks and lips, a gold necklace, and a red ribbon in her hair. The Queen and her entourage, by contrast, are largely in monochrome with only faint touches of color (lips and tongues). [Attributes: Hard Cover; In Dust Jacket]

London: Philip Lee Warner, publisher to The Medici Society; Riccardi Press Books, 1914. A fine copy of one of ten copies printed on vellum Riccardi Press edition, number 4 of 10 copies printed on vellum. A further 1,000 copies were printed on paper. The Riccardi Press was founded by Herbert P. Horne, who designed the typeface. It began to be used as the imprint for Medici Society publications in 1909.
Will Ransom notes in Private Presses and their Books that the vellum copies issued by the Riccardi Press were "bound in limp Kelmscott vellum". The dust jacket on this copy is a remarkable survival. As a plain dust jacket using low-grade brown paper with flaps (which are roughly cut) it might be seen as a protective covering supplied by the binder rather than a publisher's jacket. Alternatively this may be an addition by an early owner. The spine of the jacket has lettering added by hand. Quarto. Original limp vellum, lettering to spine and front cover in gilt, green silk ties. With plain dust jacket. Housed in a custom brown cloth slipcase. Illustrations by John Tenniel. Some very light browning; a fine copy which is bright and clean. Dust jacket worn with loss and tears. Ransom Riccardi Press 12

Macmillan and Co, London, 1872. 185 x 122 mm. (7 1/4 x 4 3/4"). 6 p.l., 192 pp.; 6 p.l., 224 pp. Two separately published volumes. WHIMSICAL INLAID PICTORIAL BINDINGS BY KELLIEGRAM (stamp-signed on rear turn-ins), "Alice" in hunter green crushed morocco, upper cover with large central inlay of the Mad Hatter in various colors of morocco within an ogival gilt frame, corners with gilt roundels inlaid with images of other characters, among them the Mock Turtle and the Dodo; lower cover with central inlay of the White Rabbit, and inlays at corners including the Cheshire Cat and the Dormouse; raised bands, spine gilt in compartments with centerpiece representing the four playing card suits, gilt titling, turn-ins with gilt-ruled borders, endpapers painted saffron yellow; "Looking-Glass" in dark brown crushed morocco, upper cover with central inlay of a (smiling!) Humpty Dumpty teetering on a blind-tooled wall, cornerpiece inlays including the Red and White Queens; lower cover with central inlay of the walrus attired in country tweeds, corner inlays including Tweedledee and Tweedledum; raised bands, spine gilt in compartments with chess-piece design, gilt titling, turn-ins with multiple gilt rules and leafy sprays at corners, ochre silk endleaves, original red cloth covers and backstrip bound in at rear; all edges of both volumes gilt. Both volumes housed together in a custom dark green crushed morocco solander box, the back designed to look like two volumes with raised bands and gilt lettering. With 92 illustrations in the text (42 in "Alice," 50 in "Looking-Glass") by John Tenniel (including frontispieces). Alice with faded ownership inscription dated 1881 on preliminary leaf. Williams & Madan 46d, 84. Alice with occasional small stains or thumbing to text (mostly marginal, never serious), but very good internally; "Looking-Glass" clean and fresh internally; BOTH BINDINGS IN SPARKLING CONDITION, virtually unchanged since the day they left the bindery. These charming, vigorously inlaid bindings are the finest and most delightful examples of whimsical Kelliegram pictorial bindings we've ever seen, and they are perfect for the two well-loved works in children's literature offered here. Originally written to amuse the child of Dodgson's Oxford colleague, "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" and "Through the Looking-Glass" have been continuously reprinted for well over a century, and have inspired any number of works in other media. Intricate, inventive, absorbing, humorous, and revolutionary, the works differed by miles from most children's literature of the period, which was meant first and last to inculcate. Dodgson's clever tales were brilliantly illustrated by John Tenniel (1820-1914), the principal cartoonist for "Punch Magazine," and the Kelliegram Bindery used his instantly recognizable characters to decorate our bindings. The firm of Kelly & Sons had one of the longest histories in the London binding trade, having been founded in 1770 by John Kellie, as the name was then spelled. The firm was continued by successive members of the family into the 1930s. William Henry Kelly helped to develop the company in the first half of the 19th century, and he was succeeded by William Henry Kelly, Jr., then Henry Kelly, and finally Hubert Kelly, who took control in 1892. Under Hubert's direction, the bindery became known for its fanciful pictorial bindings, of which our set is a notable example. The contents here are in good order, especially given the work's juvenile audience, and the bindings are in perfect condition. First work: Sixth Edition, "Thirty-Seventh Thousand"; Second work: First Edition, "Thirty-Second Thousand" (i.e., a later issue). [Attributes: First Edition]

London: Macmillan and Co., 1866. 1st Edition. Hardcover. 8vo - over 7¾ - 9¾" tall. 8vo (194 x 128 mm). [12], 192 pp., half-title, electrotyped frontispiece protected by tissue guard, and 42 illustrations from the woodcuts by Dalziel after John Tenniel. Original publisher's pictorial red cloth ruled in gilt, covers with gilt vignettes (Alice on front, Cheshire Cat on rear), spine lettered in gilt, light blue endpapers, Burn's ticket on lower pastedown. Binding completely untouched with some light spotting and soiling to cloth, upper joint with a bit of deterioration to cloth at head, about 5 cm split at lower joint towards head of spine, corners bumped, light wear and fraying to cloth at spine ends and corners, signature 'P' slightly pulled with resulting cracking in gutter between pages 104/105, front endpaper split at fold. Internally bright and clean with very little age-toning only. Provenance: Harry Vinton Long (armorial bookplate to front pastedown). A near fine, completely unsophisticated copy in the rare first-state binding with light blue endpapers. ---- PMM 354. FIRST PUBLISHED EDITION. The first edition of 2,000 was recalled by Dodgson, following the unsatisfactory printing of Tenniel's illustrations, and was never offered for public sale. Only about 20 copies of this 1865 Macmillan survive, most in institutional collections. For this new edition the book was re-set by the printer Richard Clay from a copy of the 1865 Alice (prepared by The Clarendon Press, Oxford); it is this version which formed the basis for all future Macmillan editions. This copy is of the first state with inverted "S" in the last line of contents page and with the earliest known end-papers in light blue (later bindings have dark green end-papers). Whereas most first edition copies on the market have rebacked spines or at least repaired joints, our copy doesn't show any such intervention. Near Fine.

New York: Appleton, 1866. First US edition. hardcover. Very good. The first US edition, with the original sheets from the UK printing, and a US title page. Very good in original cloth boards with repairs on spine. and front and rear gutters. Piece of rear fee end paper missing at top. Previous owner's name and date on front free end paper. Housed in a handsome clamshell case.[Attributes: First Edition]

Oxford: University Press, n.d.; 1870; 1878; 1878. Four mathematical pamphlets offered together, preserved in a folding clamshell case.

University Press, 1878. Four cyclostyled pamphlets of problems used by Dodgson (1832-1898) in his math class. He moved to Oxford as a mathematics lecturer in October, 1855 where he remained until 1881. Cyclostyle was an early device used to duplicate handwriting in which a pen with a small toothed wheel pricks holes in a sheet of waxed paper, which is then used as a stencil.

Dodgson acquired his "electric pen" in 1877 and describes it in a letter dated 28 June 1877: it "seems to be quite the best thing yet invented for taking a number of copies of MSS, drawings or maps. The 'pen' consists of a needle, in a holder like a pencil: the needle is worked in and out with enormous rapidity by electricity and projects far enough to go through a thin sheet of paper... the paper thus prepared is placed in a frame with blank paper underneath, and an ink roller is passed [over it]... copies are easily worked off at a rate of 2 a minute."

The pamphlets offered here, produced in unknown but very small numbers, were used by Dodgson in his classes (and are listed in his Mathematical Pamphlets as 6, 15, 13 and 23). The first listing contains manuscript corrections made by Dodgson in his characteristic purple ink.

1. Formulae. (Group C.). [Oxford: c.1878]. Bifolium (222 x 142 mm). Without wrappers, as issued. With Dodgson's manuscript corrections. The formulas correspond to the topics in sections G and L of A Guide to the Mathematical Student in Reading, Reviewing, and Working Examples (1864).

2. Formulae. [Oxford]: 19 March 1878. 8vo. (218 x 140 mm). Without wrappers, as issued. This work consists of 18 formulas corresponding to the topics in section L of the pamphlet A Guide to the Mathematical Student in Reading, Reviewing, and Working Examples.

3. Algebraical formulae and rules for the use of candidates for responsions. [Oxford: University Press, 1870.] Bifolium (230 x 144mm). Printed on cream paper. Dodgson's diary mentions only Algebraical formulae for responsions (WMGC, 65) which he took to the University Press on 21 May 1868. It is possible that the present pamphlet is an expanded and improved version.

4. Arithmetic. I. [Oxford: University Press, c.1870]. Bifolium (227 x 144mm). Printed on cream paper. The pamphlet consists of templates for 33 examination problems divided into 5 sections: integral numbers, vulgar fractions, decimal fractions, concrete numbers, and rule of three. The problems are stated in skeleton form, leaving blanks for the variables, so that new problems can be generated easily.

ABPC records only one other copy of each, the Falletta copies, selling at auction in the past thirty years (Christie's, November 30, 2005).

UK: Macmillan and Co, London, 1876. The First UK printing published by Macmillan and Co, London in 1876. The BOOK is in Very Good+ condition. One of approximately 100 copies in the publisher's deluxe binding of red cloth, although only 80 copies may have been ready for Carroll to sign at publication. Full gilt illustration on the front and back covers, all page edges gilt with coated black end papers as issued. The 'Burn' bindery ticket is present (as called for) on the rear paste-down. Complete with all nine illustrations by Henry Holiday with plain tissue guards (one tissue guard is missing). With 'Baker' not 'Butcher' on p. 83. Easing of both hinges but less so the front hinge. The binding remains tight. Slight pushing at the spine ends and a little light rubbing at the corners. The gilt cover decoration remains bright. A few minor marks to a handful of pages but generally a clean copy internally. 'Blairhame' bookplate of the noted bibliophile to the the front pastedown. The book has NOT undergone any restoration or repairs. The book has been inscribed at publication by the author to the half-title: 'William M. Wilcox, from his affte. Cousin & Godfather, the author, Mar. 29. 1876'. With the personal stamp of 'W.M. Wilcox' to the upper half-title page. Wilcox was to sadly die later that year of tuberculosis. Biographer Morton N. Cohen connects the creation of 'The Hunting of the Snark' with the illness of Carroll's cousin and godson Charlie Wilcox. On 17 July 1874, Carroll travelled to Guildford, Surrey, to care for him for six weeks, while the young man struggled with tuberculosis. The next day, while taking a walk in the morning after only a few hours of sleep, Carroll thought of the poem's final line: 'For the Snark was a Boojum, you see'. [Morton N. Cohen (1995) : Lewis Carroll: A Biography.]. A number of Carroll's relatives including Uncle William Wilcox and many of his Wilcox cousins (Kate, Bessie, Charlie, Leonard, William and George) all died during the period 1868-76 (Lewis Carroll Society). 'Although best known as the author of 'Alice's Adventures in Wonderland' (1865) and 'Through the Looking Glass' (1871), Lewis Carroll, was also an avid reader and writer of poetry. He greatly enjoyed the poems of the Victorian writers Alfred, Lord Tennyson, and Christina Rossetti. His own poems were varied . some humorous nonsense, some filled with hidden meanings, and some serious poems about love and life. [Snark] stands out from all the other poems that Carroll wrote. It has inspired parodies, continuations, musical adaptations, and a wide variety of interpretations. Carroll originally intended it as a set of verses to be included in another of his children's stories, but it grew too long and became a book in its own right (Wakeling). Although typically found in black-blocked buff cloth, Lewis Carroll wrote to his publisher on 21 March 1876 ordering copies of The Hunting of the Snark in various colours stamped in gilt, intended as gifts for friends and his family, requesting '100 in red and gold, 20 in dark blue and gold, 20 in white vellum and gold.' Housed in a custom chemise and half morocco slipcase with gilt tiling. Regarding copies inscribed by the author on publication day, Peter Harrington Books 'trace at auction since 1975, seven copies in red (including the author's own retained copy), five copies in blue, and one in green (Peter Harrington Cat.). A significant presentation copy. More images available on request. Ashton Rare Books welcomes direct contact. [Attributes: First Edition; Signed Copy]

The Suppressed 'Sixtieth Thousand' issue, presentation copy from the author to the Mechanics Institute with presentation ink-stamp to title. In the original pictorial red cloth, gilt edge tooling. Spine lightly sunned, gilt titles & tooling, edges bumped. Internally, half title, frontis, [11], [1], [1], 2-224 pp, [4] adverts, 50 illustrations, a.e.g., black endpapers, very slight pulling to one gathering, slightly cocked. Housed in a custom half red morocco gilt over red cloth drop-back-box, gilt titles to spine, gilt tooling & titles to morocco label to upper board. A Very Good example. (185*124 mm). Scarce. Only 4 copies known to exist in the original red cloth. Up until as recently as 1990 Lovett noted that 'no copies of the 60th thousand in standard binding have been recorded' (p.21). Copies rebound for the Mechanic's Institute were known, but it is only in the last few years that Selwyn Goodacre has managed to trace 4 copies in the original cloth, one of these now lost (Selwyn Goodacre, unpublished census). This suppressed issue was, according to Carroll, riddled with printing production faults. The illustrations were over-printed, the pages badly folded and it led to him threatening to terminate his contract with Macmillan. This had already been an issue for the first edition of the 1865 Alice, which was recalled after Tenniel complained about the quality of the printing. On receiving the first 6 copies of this issue, Carroll wrote a letter to Frederick Macmillan, stating that: "the book is worthless ... much as I should regret the having to sever a connection now lasted nearly 30 years, I shall feel myself absolutely compelled to do so, unless I can have some assurance that better care shall be taken, in future, to ensure that my books shall be of the best artistic quality attainable for the money" (Letters p.995). Only 60 copies had gone out when Carroll intervened. He asked Macmillan to destroy the remainder of the edition, which led to 'Through the Looking Glass' being out of print until 1897. He did later change his mind about destroying the remaining copies of this edition, and instead favored rebinding it and distributing it to charitable institutions, as had been done with the first suppressed Alice. (Williams, MacLean, Green & Crotch 84b; Selwyn H. Goodacre "Lewis Carrolls Rejection of the 60th Thousand of Through the Looking Glass"; The Book Collector Summer 1975 p251-56).

London & Oxfordshire; Macmillan & Rocket Press; 1988. First Limited Edition; ninety-one prints from the original wood blocks engraved by the Brothers Dalziel from drawings by Sir John Tenniel & one print from electrotype. Three Volumes; Impl. 8vo; 91 wood-engraved plates and 1 electrotype plate, each loose in folding wrappers as issued, housed in two morocco-backed solander cases, titles lettered in gilt on black labels, some minor spotting to the spines, one label scratched, otherwise fine, together with a separate cloth bound essay on the publication and the wood-blocks, illustrated with three tipped-in plates; the three are housed together in a grey cloth box, fine set. This set being number 29 in an edition of 250 sets. Since the first printings of Alice in 1865 and 1872 there have been hundreds of editions of the Alice books with the Tenniel illustrations. All of these editions were illustrated with electrotyped plates including the first editions. The wood-blocks for Alice were never used for printing of the first edition, it was thought that they would not stand up to pressure of completing the first edition. The blocks were originally sent by Macmillan to the printers to have electrotype casts made for printing of the first editions, they stayed with the printer then in rural Suffolk. Given the ravages of the second world war it was thought by the publishers that the original woodblocks were lost. Fortunately the blocks were recently rediscovered by Macmillan in a Bank Vault. Its perhaps a measure of the fame and significance of Tenniel's Alice illustrations that no one had ever dared to throw away the now obsolete blocks that carried Tenniel's images. Out of the ninety-two blocks only one has disappeared - 'Alice and the Dodo' (Wonderland p. 35) perhaps appropriate that the Dodo wood-block, if any should have disappeared. Despite the passage of time the recently rediscovered Alice blocks were found to be in an excellent state. Macmillan commissioned The Rocket Press to make a deluxe edition of the Tenniel Illustrations by hand-inking the original blocks and printing all 91 images on a precision cylinder proofing press onto acid-free mould-made paper and board specially made by the Zerkall mill. Each printed image was then placed into its own folder, each folder being printed with the relevant lines from Alice. After printing the blocks were given to the British Library never to be used again. Ensuring that this printing of Sir John Tenniel's Wood-Engraved illustrations will remain the only edition ever printed from the blocks. [Attributes: First Edition]

MacMillan, 1866. 1st Edition. Hardcover. Very Good. 1st published edition, 1st issue with inverted "s" on last line of table of contents, but second issue endpapers -- dark green instead of light blue. Very good in original cloth, with original cloth of spine laid on new cloth underneath. Housed in a custom-made collector's slipcase.[Attributes: First Edition]

Poulton-Lancelyn, Bebington, Wirral, 1953. 354 leaves, foliated [1-3], i-vi, 1-181, [1]; [1]-163. With numerous corrections, and occasional notes on rectos and margins. 1 vols. 4to. First Publication of the Diaries of Lewis Carroll: the Editor's Manuscript. Before the publication of this work, the Diaries of Lewis Carroll had been largely unavailable after their temporary disappearance following the publication of Collingwood's THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF LEWIS CARROLL in 1898. When, at last, all but 4 (which were lost) of the original 13 volumes reappeared in a cellar, Dodgson's nieces and Executors of the estate commissioned Green to undertake the editing and publication of their uncle's diaries. Green's book was the first publication of the diaries, and, until recently, it was all that has been available to scholars who were unable to consult the original manuscript (now in the British Library). Even though Green and the family made some deliberate omissions, it is the first major transcription of Lewis Carroll's famous Diaries to appear in print. As Green noted, "The fact that the Diaries have been inaccessible for the general critic, biographer and research student has led to the suggestion that they contain information about Lewis Carroll which his pious relations wish to keep from the world. That rumour can be now set at rest once and for all: they contain nothing whatsoever about Lewis Carroll that the world at large could not read." Green describes the editorial process and remarks "Thus family troubles were, naturally, entered into the Diaries, and family feeling has as naturally wished to keep those personal matters private." The manuscript, closely written in Green's clear hand, contains numerous interesting notes and directions to the printer/ publisher which are not included in the published version, as for example this note on a separate leaf, dated Sept. 1951, at the end of Volume I: "NOTE TO PUBLISHER. The next section of the Diary, from July 12 to Sept 13, 1867, was sold to Mr. M.L. Parish [sic] of Pine Valley, New Jersey, and privately printed for him in an edition of sixty-six copies with the title TOUR IN 1867 BY C.L. DODGSON. It was published in 1935 . [as part of] THE RUSSIAN JOURNAL AND OTHER SELECTIONS . by E.P. Dutton and Co. New York. If desired, this can be included in the present book as Chapter VIII of Volume One . it is felt by the Editor and Miss Dodgson that the decision whether to include this extra material must be left to the Publisher. R.L.G. Sept: 1951" Some minor wear at edges, and slight occasional soiling, but overall very good, and an impressively preserved manuscript in its entirety. Custom morocco-backed slipcase and chemise 354 leaves, foliated [1-3], i-vi, 1-181, [1]; [1]-163. With numerous corrections, and occasional notes on rectos and margins. 1 vols. 4to [Attributes: Soft Cover]

Paramount Pictures, Hollywood, California, 1933. Mimeographed manuscript of the Joseph L. Mankiewicz screenplay. Illustrated with six hundred and forty two pages with drawings and designs by William Cameron Menzies with an additional eight page prologue and four page epilogue. Original brown paper wrappers (the cover title page and half title page are detached). This massive and heavy 646 page screenplay (13 3/4" x 8 1/4", 3 inches thick) turned out to be impossible for the cast to handle and a more traditional 200 page version was designed for use on the film, the illustrations were removed and the text reset. While Norman Z. McLeod is credited as director, Menzies stepped in to direct when McLeod became ill during the filming (Curtis, page 142). Very good. A Lewis Carroll rarity. Provenance: estate of actor Baby LeRoy who appeared in the film as "Joker" at the age of two. See pages 134-149 in James Curtis' "William Cameron Menzies" book for details on the filming of Lewis Carroll's classic books. [Attributes: First Edition; Soft Cover]

Macmillan and Co, 1866. 1st Edition. Hardcover. Near Fine/No Jacket. This is the first U.K. edition of "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland," published in 1866. Prior to this book, another edition was printed in England with an 1865 title page, but Carroll rejected those sheets and they were sent to America to be printed by D. Appleton with a new title page dated 1866. THIS book was printed and published back in London after the American edition and with a new 1866 title page. This edition is also confirmed as a 1st edition, 1st state of the U.K. edition, with the first printing issue point as shown in the photos: inverted "S" in the last line of the contents page. Redone spine, light edgewear and fading on cover and edges. Previous owner and previous bookseller's bookplate on front pastedown. Light soiling on pages, endpapers are loosely attached to spine. Soiling on rear endpaper and pastedown. In cloth cover and custom-made slipcase.[Attributes: First Edition]

The second, first published edition, 1866 In the original publishers gilt red cloth, 3 circular lines containing a picture of Alice holding the Pig on the upper cover with the Cheshire Cat to the back cover, a little rubbed & soiled, cloth worn at some extremities. Internally, half-title, frontispiece, [10], [1], 2-192 pp, frontis, with tissue guard, 42 illustrations by John Tenniel, a couple of short tears, some foxing, pale blue endpapers (earliest state), hinges with signs of repair, a.e.g. Housed in a custom red half morocco over red cloth drop-back- box, gilt titles to spine, gilt titles to morocco label to upper cover. (193*126 mm). (Crutch 46. Madan 33. Williams 10). A better than usual copy of Alice with an ownership inscription on half-title dated in the year of publication ( M.A. Watson Binfield 1866) a bookplate to fpd (Latham). The contents 'S' is normal whilst page 30 is correctly numbered. Dodgson, author, mathematician, and photographer, whose writing meant a great deal to him; writing was the main course by which he could do something for others, to fulfil a deep religious desire to contribute something to humanity-it was his offering to God. After resigning his mathematical lectureship in 1881, at the age of forty-nine (he retained his studentship and resident privileges at Christ Church to the end), he devoted himself primarily to his writing. Often standing at his upright desk (he calculated that he could stand and write for ten hours a day), he turned out a myriad of works. See ODNB.

William Heineman/Doubleday Page, London/NY, 1907. Quarto. xi, 162pp., + 12ff. plates. One of 1,100 copies. Because Rackham was away from London while this book was in production, most copies of the deluxe edition went unsigned; however, this copy has been signed by Rackham on the limitation page. Contains thirteen large tipped-in color plates and many black & white drawings, which offer Rackham's distinctive, new interpretation of scenes made famous in Tenniel's classic illustrations, such as Alice's encounter with the caterpillar, the Caucus Race, and the Mad Tea Party. Hudson describes Rackham's undertaking as "the most controversial of his career," but concludes that "he has certainly made the greatest impression of all Tenniel's multitude of successors." The book opens with a "proem" by Austin Dobson that cheekily addresses the challenge of illustrating such a classic work, saying, "here comes a fresh costumier" to interpret the story according to his own taste. In the publisher's gilt-stamped white cloth bearing the title and a design of the Gryphon and Mock Turtle on the front cover. Cloth shows light finger soiling and minute toning to spine and endpapers; rear hinge started. T.e.g. A pleasing copy overall. (Latimore & Haskell, p. 28; Hudson, pp. 70-78). [Attributes: Hard Cover]

1894. THE AUTHOR OF ALICE IN WONDERLAND, LAMENTS: ?IT IS HELPFUL AND COMFORTING, WHEN THERE IS SO MUCH SKEPTICISM, AND EVEN ATHEISM, AROUND ONE IN OXFORD, TO KNOW THOSE TO WHOM CHRISTIANITY IS NOT ONLY A REALITY, BUT THE REALITY OF LIFE.? DODGSON, CHARLES L. [LEWIS CARROLL]. (1832-1898). English logician, mathematician, photographer, and novelist, especially remembered for Alice?s Adventures in Wonderland (1865) and its sequel, Through the Looking-Glass (1871). Revealing Autograph Letter Signed, ?C.L. Dodgson? Four full pages, small octavo. ?Ch[rist] Ch[urch]? Oxford, England. March 18, 1894. Very fine condition. To ?My dear Mrs. Egerton? Dodgson writes: ?Your letters make me feel more and more glad that I have been allowed to add you and your girls to my list of friends. It is helpful and comforting, when there is so much skepticism, and even atheism, around one in Oxford, to know those to whom Christianity is not only a reality, but the reality of life. I shall like to come and have some chats with you. You ask if I think it ?right? to make a rule not to see Pantomimes in Lent. Surely, in one sense of the word. But the word is used in two senses (as of course you know): (1) a thing which it is wrong not to do; (2) a thing which it is not wrong to do (and also not wrong not to do). The first sense means ?it is a duty?; the second ?it is allowable? ? I think it ?right? in the second sense of the word: but I need not say that, if I thought it ?right? in the first sense, I would not go myself. But questions like this belong to the ?Church? observances, and rules of human origin ? not to the essence of Christianity. ? As life draws on to its end, I seem to feel, more and more, that all Christians, Church, and Dissent alike, are brothers (and sisters) and should love each other as such. Sincerely yours, C.L. Dodgson. My cold is better, I thank you for your kind wishes.? A most interesting letter from Dodgson?s pen. Letters where the author reflects or comments on their own personal religious beliefs rarely make it to market. In this letter, Carroll clearly approaches the topic with the mind of a mathematician and the beliefs of a theologian. Wikipedia adds some information which further reveals important background information to the possible contradictions expressed in Dodgson?s own position. They state: Charles?s father was an active and highly conservative cleric of the Church of England who later became the Archdeacon of Richmond and involved himself, sometimes influentially, in the intense religious disputes that were dividing the church. He was high church, inclining toward Anglo-Catholicism, an admirer of John Henry Newman and the Tractarian movement, and did his best to instill such views in his children. Young Charles was to develop an ambivalent relationship with his father?s values and with the Church of England as a whole. The British definition of Pantomimes is: a theatrical entertainment, mainly for children, that involves music, topical jokes, and slapstick comedy and is based on a fairy tale or nursery story, usually produced around Christmas. [Attributes: Signed Copy]

London: Macmillan and Co., 1876. First edition. One of approximately 100 copies in the publisher's deluxe binding of red cloth issued for presentation; the present was inscribed by Carroll two days after publication. Full gilt illustration on the front cover, all page edges gilt, dark blue end papers, Burn bindery ticket on the rear paste-down. In pleasing Near Fine condition overall, with just a touch of toning to the spine and gentle wear to extremities. Front hinge tender but holding. Complete with all nine illustrations by Henry Holiday. With misprint "Baker" not "Butcher" on p. 83 (also found in later printings). Inscribed by Carroll on the half title: "Mary Evans from the Author. March 31, 1876." This copy last appeared on the market in 1938 at the Parke-Bernet Galleries sale in New York. Housed in a custom half morocco case with chemise. "Although best known as the author of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865) and Through the Looking Glass (1871), Lewis Carroll...was also an avid reader and writer of poetry. He greatly enjoyed the poems of the Victorian writers Alfred, Lord Tennyson, and Christina Rossetti. His own poems were varied -- some humorous nonsense, some filled with hidden meanings, and some serious poems about love and life...[Snark] stands out from all the other poems that Carroll wrote. It has inspired parodies, continuations, musical adaptations, and a wide variety of interpretations...Carroll originally intended it as a set of verses to be included in another of his children's stories, but it grew too long and became a book in its own right...Although issued in a pictorial buff coloured cloth, he had copies bound in red, blue, green, and white cloth, all with gold decorations, to give away to his friends and family" (Wakeling). The present copy is one of these, bound in striking red and gilt. Near Fine. Near Fine. [Attributes: First Edition; Signed Copy]

Paris: The Black Sun Press, 1930. Oblong small quarto. Printed wrappers. A fine, nearly untouched copy, without foxing, in glassine wrapper and somewhat worn and soiled publisher's slipcase and chemise with split at one joint. First edition in this format, American deluxe issue. Illustrated with six original color lithographs by Marie Laurencin printed by Desjobert of Paris. From a total edition of 790 copies, this is one of twenty copies of the American issue specially printed on Hollande Van Gelder, with a duplicate suite of the six lithographs, in sanguine, bound at the end. Five of the six lithographs in the suite are signed by the artist, with the sixth signed in the plate. Laurencin has also signed the limitation page. Neither the copies on Rives nor the special copies on Japon were issued signed, either on the colophon or on the lithographs - the latter are only signed in the plate. MINKOFF A39. MONOD 2304.