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DODGSON, Charles Lutwidge (“Lewis Carroll”) (1832-1898). Elisi Katika Nchi ya Ajabu [in Swahili]. Translated by Ermyntrude Virginia St. Lo. Conan-Davies. London: The Sheldon Press, 1940.
8vo. Numerous wood-engraving illustrations by Conan-Davies. Original black-lettered red cloth (spine and some edges sunned). Provenance: Red Cross and St. John (stamps on front pastedown and on p. 29).
FIRST COMPLETE SWAHILI EDITION (a translation in Swahili of Chapter I was published in 1911), with text that is completely adapted for Swahili children and probably the first Alice to illustrate the main protagonist as a young Black girl from Africa. “Little Elisi has short kinky hair that is braided into rows. She wears a white wrap dress with a diagonal decorative pattern that reaches just below her knees, most probably a khanga cloth. She has no shoes. Conan-Davies […] therefore portrays a sociopolitical and cultural environment that is completely Swahilized” (Hadjivayanis, “The Swahili Elisi” in Alice in a World of Wonderlands, p. 569). Hadjivayanis calls the Swahili Elisi “a scarce book”, with only one copy of the 1940 edition present on Copac (the research libraries catalogue of the UK and Ireland). Lovett 827 (1961 edition); Weaver, p. 134.