Lewis Carroll Collection of Children's Literature Rare Books AUCTION

Profiles in History Presents:

Auction 38

The Patrick McInally Collection of Children's Literature

The Lewis Carroll Collection

December 16, 2009

Lewis Carroll - Alice Liddell

On July 4, 1862, the shy, deeply religious Charles Lutwidge Dodgson Lewis Carroll (1832-1898), together with his fellow Oxford don, Robinson Duckworth, took the three Liddell sisters (Alice, Ina and Edith, daughters of the Dean of Christ Church) on what was perhaps the most famous picnic of all time Duckworth and I made an expedition up the river to Godstow with the three Liddells; we had tea on the bank there, and did not reach Christ Church again til quarter past eightOn which occasion, I told them the fairy-tale of Alices Adventures Under Ground So was created initially just for Alice, and with no thought for its future life perhaps the worlds most famous and best-loved childrens story. It is now so much part of our heritage that it is difficult to comprehend how revolutionary this story was in its conception and execution. In modern times, it is said, Lewis Carroll is second only to the Bible and Shakespeare in the number of times quotations from the Alice books and his other works appear in our literary or common discourse.
As the inspiration for the Alice stories, Alice Pleasance Liddell (1852-1934) has a unique place in literary history. But Dodgson himself also practiced another art in addition to writing, one that has been fully appreciated only in recent years: the as it then was pioneering and painstaking art of photography. And if Alice, with her pure, unclouded brow and dreaming eyes of wonder (Dodgson) was his Muse for his greatest literary works, she was equally so as his model for some of the most touching and enchanting pictures ever produced in this medium. It was, of course, through photography that Dodgson first met Alice on April 25, 1856, when he went with Southey to the Deanery to take a photograph of the Cathedral.
On November 26, 1864 Dodgson presented to Alice the manuscript of Alices Adventures Under Ground. In April 1928, four years before her death, Alice Liddell sold this manuscript together with a few other items from her collection at Sothebys in New Bond Street where it was sold for the record price of the £15,400 (the equivalent of over $75,000 at that time) to an American collector. Some years later a group of American bibliophiles banded together to re-acquire the manuscript and present it to the British nation, in gratitude to a noble people who held Hitler at bay for a long period single-handed. It now resides in the British Library.

Alices Adventures Under Ground, rare facsimile edition

Alices Adventures Under Ground, First Edition, presentation copy inscribed by Lewis Carroll to the mother of Edith
Blakemore, one of his child-friends.

The Nursery Alice, rare First Edition, presentation copy inscribed by Lewis Carrolls sister

The Wonderland Postage-Stamp Case, inscribed by Lewis Carroll

An Easter Greeting to Every Child Who Loves Alice., inscribed by Lewis Carroll to Edith Blakemore, one of his child-friends

Through the Looking-Glass, First Edition, the Dedication Copy, presented to the original Alice by Lewis Carroll and signed by her

Original ink draw ing of Edith Blakemore by Lewis Carroll

Lewis Carroll signed letter sending a specimen of his
Stamp-Case depicting Alice

Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There, First Edition, First Issue. Presentation copy with two fine
original pencil draw ings by John Tenniel of Alice and Humpty Dumpty

Alices Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There, Limited Editions Club, each signed by Alice Hargreaves

Eight or Nine Wise Words about Letter-Writing, inscribed by Lewis Carroll to Alice Blakemore, the mother of one of his
child-friends

Original John Tenniel draw ing of the Gryphon from Lewis Carrolls 1865 Alices Adventures in Wonderland

For more information:

http://www.profilesinhistory.com

3100-859-7701

Category:

Entertainment

Tags:

• patrick mcinally
• alice liddell
• alice in wonderland
• lewis carroll
• john tennial
• through the looking-glass
• under ground
• nursery alice