INSCRIBED BY LEWIS CARROLL
Notes by an Oxford Chiel
James Parker and Co., 1874.
First collected edition. Publisher's green cloth titled in gilt to the upper cover. Issued with the collective title page and contents leaf. Author's presentation copy, inscribed on the front pastedown, "H. A. Barclay with the Author's sincere regards Ap. 27 1875". Two later notes of provenance are written on the free endpaper. All edges gilt. A near fine copy, with a little wear to the spine ends, else clean and bright.
A rare collection of Dodgson's famous 'Oxford Squibs', good natured satires, usually of a local political nature disguised in the sort of 'nonsense' writing popularised in the author's fiction writings.
The first section, The New Method of Evaluation as Applied to , for instance is not part of Dodgson's noted work on number theory, but a comment on religion within the Oxford University with such reasoning as,
"let H=High Church, and L=Low Church, then the geometric mean = HL: call this 'B' (Broad Church).
. . HL=B2"
The other parts comprise, The Dynamics of a Particle; Facts, Figures, and Fancies; The New Belfry, of Christ Church Oxford; The Vision of the Three T's; The Black Cheque, A Fable. The pamphlets were published individually between 1865 and 1874 and collected here for the first time.
Presentation copies are rare with only two others offered at auction in the last forty years. The recipient of this copy, the Reverend Henry Alexander Barclay, was a life-long friend of Dodgson's, having been at Christ Church with him, and Dodgson would often visit him in Brighton during the summer.
Stock ID: 39705
£4,500.00
