[CHARLES LUTWIDGE DODGSON] (1832-1898)

Charles Lutwidge Dodgson was a lecturer at Christ Church, Oxford, a clergyman, and a professional mathematician. It is not surprising, then, that this "juvenile"--originally written for the three Liddell children, daughters of the Dean, but particularly for Alice Liddell (later Hargreaves)--should have such a strong appeal for adults. Alice, as well as its equally famous sequel Through the Looking Glass, both of which were written under the pseudonym Lewis Carroll, abounds in sophisticated humor, satire, puns, and philosophical observations.

When Dodgson decided to have Alice published, he had to pay for the printing of 2,000 copies himself. It was done at the Oxford University Press and was to be published by Macmillan on commission. The 1865 Oxford printing--now more familiarly known as "the 1865 Alice"--proved unsatisfactory to both the author and the illustrator and Dodgson had all copies recalled after a few had been sold or distributed by presentation. He regained all but ten copies, kept two himself, and distributed the remaining recalled copies (thirty-six) to hospitals. A second edition of Alice, more to the author's standards, was published by Macmillan in 1866, printed by the firm of R. Clay.

The remaining 1,952 copies of the first edition were not wasted, however, as an offer was received from Appleton in New York to buy the unsatisfactory 1865 copies for sale in America. After consulting with Tenniel, Dodgson authorized the sale on April 10, 1865. Early in 1866, the new tipped-in title pages with the Appleton imprint were printed by the Oxford Press for 1,000 copies, which were bound in England and shipped to New York, constituting a second issue of the first edition. The remaining 952 copies, the third issue, were shipped to New York in sheets and bound there with a new title page printed in America.

The copy exhibited is the second (American) issue of the first edition, and is bound in the same red cloth as the first issue, showing Alice holding the Pig on the front cover, and the Chesire Cat on the back.

Gift of Edith du Pont Pearson