[MOSER, Barry, illustrator]. -- DODGSON, Charles Lutwidge (“Lewis Carroll”) (1832-1898). Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland [and] Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There. West Hatfield, MA: Pennyroyal Press, 1982.
2 volumes, large folio. Calligraphic titles designed by G.G. Laurens, marginal notes and chapter headings printed in red, blue and green; 95 wood-engraved illustrations in both volumes by Moser; BOTH VOLUMES WITH AN EXTRA SUITE OF THE ENGRAVINGS EACH SIGNED IN PENCIL BY MOSER, including the “Dear Reader” leaf in Alice also signed, together loose in grey cloth portfolios as issued. Original morocco-backed and edged boards gilt, gilt-lettered spine; each housed with suite in original morocco-backed folding boxes (small stain on fore-edge of both boxes). Laid in with letterpress preliminary announcements for both titles.
FIRST MOSER EDITIONS, LIMITED ISSUES, number 153 of 350 copies SIGNED BY MOSER on both colophons. A monumental project, the Pennyroyal Alice took nearly two years to produce, was both a commercial and a critical success, winning Barry Moser the American Book Award for Design in 1982. Critics called the illustrations “dark”, but Moser, whose youngest daughter, Madeline, was the model for the Pennyroyal Alice, intended them to be “whimsical and humorous displaying a kind of calculated pandemonium” (see Pennyroyal Checklist). Lovett 425 (Alice).