Today would have been the 184’s birthday of Lewis Carroll (pen name of Charles Lutwidge Dodgson), the author of the Alice in Wonderland books.
Dodgson was born on 27 January 1832 in Daresbury, Cheshire. He died on 14 January 1898, not long before his 66th birthday.
If you want to know more about Lewis Carroll, read the biography on my site.
Remember the Kickstarter campaign to fund the printing of a replica of the “Alice’s Adventures Under Ground” manuscript? Originally only the people who backed the project would receive a copy. However, there are still several copies available, so you can still get one if you’re interested!
There are currently 640 copies of the Premium Edition (which is machine bound, with a fake leather jacket) left, and 196 Limited Editions (hand bound, with genuine leather jackets). You can only order them in 2016, because after that, the publisher’s contract with the British Library expires.
There might be another printing round, but this depends on whether the contract can be extended, and it will be for the Premium Edition only. So make sure to secure a copy while you can!
Bradford Exchange just released an authentic reproduction of the suppressed first edition of “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland”.
When “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” was published, illustrator John Tenniel was displeased with the printing of a.o. his illustrations. Lewis Carroll therefore decided to recall this first edition. Currently only 22 known copies remain, of which only 10 in their original bindings.
The Christmas season has started! How about decorating your tree in Alice in Wonderland style? Continue reading for lots of Christmas tree decoration ideas.
Hang lawn flamingos, Wonderland character stuffed toys, a clock, a brass bugle, and other Wonderlandish items in the tree;Gregory Maguire, author of amongst others the ‘Wicked’ books, is known for his fictional novels in which he gives a new take on well known fantasy stories. He has recently published “After Alice”, in which Alice’s friend Ada follows her to Wonderland. We see the story we know so well through her eyes.
Although I have never read Maguire’s other books, I am familiar with the musical ‘Wicked’, which was based on his book. I was thrilled with the original take on the familiar ‘Wizard of Oz’ tale and hoped he had done the same to the Alice in Wonderland story. However, I am sorry to say that I was quite disappointed.
“After Alice” in fact tells two tales: the one about Ada, following Alice through the rabbit hole, and the one about Alice’s sister, Ada’s governess, and other people who remain in Oxford and have to deal with the disappearance of both girls.
To celebrate 150 years of the publication of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, the British Library in London is holding an exhibition about Lewis Carroll’s story, to explore how Alice has captured our imaginations for so many years.
The exhibition displays Lewis Carroll’s original manuscript with hand-drawn illustrations, alongside editions by Mervyn Peake, Ralph Steadman, Leonard Weisgard, Arthur Rackham, Salvador Dali and others. You can also see newly commissioned articles, a selection of manuscripts, reviews and literature relating to Alice in Wonderland, that show how the story has been re-imagined, re-interpreted and re-illustrated over the last 150 years.
The recently published book “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland decoded” claims to explain the meaning of the ‘Alice’ story. The author identifies all kinds of hidden references behind the story on many levels, including links to mathematical problems, the classics, and real people that lived in Victorian Oxford.
According to author David Day, it is almost impossible that the ‘Alice’ story does not have a deeper meaning. Lewis Carroll was many things: a reverend, a mathematician fond of the subject of logic, schooled in the classics, very critical towards the way dean Liddell was running Christ Church college, and much more. Also, besides the ‘Alice’ books, he published many critical pamphlets and articles with similar underlying references. Therefore, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland must be more than merely a children’s story.
Day argues that the story is centrally: