THE FIRST PUBLISHED EDITION
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
Macmillan, 1866.
First published edition. Finely bound by Chelsea Bindery in full red morocco with vignette of Alice holding the pig to upper cover and the Cheshire Cat to rear; raised bands on the spine and gilt titles. All edges gilt and olive endpapers. Pages 17-24 misbound after page 32. Illustrations in black and white by John Tenniel. A beautiful copy of this most important piece of children's literature.
This classic story was thought up by Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (pseudonym Lewis Carroll) on a summer's day on the river Isis near Oxford. During the day on the river with friends he told the tale of Wonderland to 3 little girls from the Liddell family. Later Alice Liddell begged Dodgson to write the story down for her. He did this and added a few of his own illustrations. Before giving the book to Alice, Dodgson showed the book to several friends, including fantasy writer George MacDonald, who encouraged him to have the book published. In order to get the tale ready for publication it was enlarged and punch illustrator, John Tenniel, was commissioned to do the drawings. Macmillan then printed around 2000 copies of the book in 1865, but both artist and author were unhappy with the poor quality printing and insisted it was reprinted before being published. Using a different printer this 1866 version is the first published edition. It has gone on to be considered one of the finest children's books ever written.
Stock ID: 21699
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