“A BOOK… WHICH WILL BELONG TO ALL THE GENERATIONS… UNTIL THE LANGUAGE BECOMES OBSOLETE”: FIRST AUTHORIZED ENGLISH EDITION OF ALICE’S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND

CARROLL, Lewis. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. London: Macmillan, 1866. Octavo, mid-20th century full red morocco, elaborately gilt-decorated spine, raised bands, all edges gilt. $14,500.

First authorized English edition of Carroll’s cherished romp through the realm of nonsense, illustrated with 42 engravings by John Tenniel, handsomely bound by Riviere & Son, with original cloth-gilt at rear.

"More than a flare of genius," Alice's Adventures in Wonderland "was the spiritual volcano of children's books" (Darton, 260). "Historians of children's literature universally agree that [its] publication… marks the liberation of children's books from the restraining hand of the moralists" (Carpenter & Prichard, 102). A mesmerizing masterpiece of comic nonsense, Alice also demonstrates Carroll's gift for recognizing "the child's inner fears, wishes, intelligence and imagination. He unleashed thousands of children's minds… and invited them to laugh" (Silvey, 124). "It is, in a word, a book of that extremely rare kind which will belong to all the generations to come until the language becomes obsolete" (Sir Walter Besant). First published and authorized English edition, preceded only by the extraordinarily rare suppressed 1865 London edition, of which only about 20 copies are known to exist, and the scarce New York edition of 1866. Lewis Carroll Handbook 46. Lewis Carroll at Texas 3. See PMM 354. Bookplate. Newspaper clipping laid in.

A bit of foxing to front blank endpapers only. A beautifully bound copy with the original cloth bound in.