DODGSON, Charles Lutwidge (“Lewis Carroll”) (1832-1898). Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. London: Macmillan and Co., 1866 [1865].
8vo (194 x 127 mm). Half-title, with 42 illustrations by John Tenniel. Original red cloth, gilt-stamped, spine gilt-lettered, edges gilt (rebacked preserving original spine and endpapers, extremities darkened, textblock a bit shaken and a bit worn at corners, several marginal repairs); slipcase.
SECOND EDITION (i.e. FIRST AUTHORIZED EDITION) and First Published English Edition, earliest state with pale blue endpapers (rather than the more usual dark green), with inverted “S” in the last line of the Contents page.
PRESENTATION COPY, INSCRIBED BY THE ILLUSTRATOR JOHN TENNIEL WITH AN ORIGINAL DRAWING ON THE HALF-TITLE: “With [monogram] JT’s kind regards / Xmas 1867” underneath which is a reverse image drawing of A38 (the woodcut appearing on p. 170) showing the Mad Hatter with tea-cup and toast. ONE OF ONLY 5 KNOWN COPIES OF DRAWINGS MADE BY TENNIEL AS PART OF INSCRIPTIONS IN BOOKS according to Schiller’s 1990 census (this is letter “b” on that list) but one of only 2 copies of an original Tenniel drawing in an 1866 Alice.
A UNIQUE COPY, with no other drawings of this version of the Mad Hatter (A38) listed in that census of presentation copies. It is reproduced in Frances Sarzano’s 1948 monograph on Sir John Tenniel, in the series “English Masters of Black-and-White,” p. 57, where it is identified as the property of H.M. Lingford; this was sold at Sotheby’s London as part of his important “Lewis Carroll” library, 6 November 1952, as lot 201.
In 1863, Dodgson began contemplating whether he should publish his story of Alice but was doubtful of how it would be received. His friend Robinson Duckworth, who was present on the original boating expedition where Alice’s adventures were first told, reassured him that it would be successful just so long as he could persuade “some good artist to illustrate it”, and suggested John Tenniel who drew excellent cartoons of animals in Punch. The two were introduced on 25 January 1864 and shortly after Tenniel wrote back telling Dodgson that he was up to the task. “As Dodgson could not illustrate his stories himself, he did the next best thing, he employed an expert artist to make the illustrations which he could see in his own mind but lacked the skill to reproduce on paper, paying for the work himself and, so far as possible, ‘using’ the artist as if he were a piece of machinery hired for the purpose. This explains why Tenniel’s illustrations are so much a part of the two Alice books that no other artist has ever come near to equaling them” (Green, Lewis Carroll pp. 42-43).
Grolier Children’s One Hundred, 35; Lovett 3; PMM 354 (note); Schiller Census pp. 62-63; Williams 10; Williams-Madan-Green-Crutch 46.