Buying, selling & collectibles > Evertype: Gladys in Grammarland and Alice in Grammarland

[Evertype]

Evertype would like to announce the publication of Gladys in Grammarland and Alice in Grammarland, by Audrey Mayhew Allen and by Louise Franklin Bache, two educational tales inspired by Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass .



From the introduction:

The two tales in this book are not related to one another, though both are responses to Lewis Carroll’s Wonderland, and both are somewhat didactic in nature.

Audrey Mayhew Allen was born in 1870, and so was about 27 years of age when she wrote Gladys in Grammarland. In this story, Gladys becomes sleepy after class and finds that a Verb Fairy has taken an interest in her education.

Louise Franklin Bache wrote several plays for the Junior Red Cross News, and later published a book Health Education in an American City. The charming Alice in Grammarland was written as a play for “Better Speech Week”, 5–8 November 1923, and “American Education Week”, 18–24 November 1923, and was published in Junior Red Cross News in that month and year. In it, Carroll’s Alice returns to meet her old friends the Hatter and the White Rabbit, together with the King and Queen of Grammarland.

Michael Everson
Evertype
http://alice-in-wonderland-books.com

[3rdpoliceman]

I don't think Alice should be used to educate people. Turning adventures into lessons just makes them lessen from day to day.

[Evertype]

The stories are nevertheless charming.

[3rdpoliceman]

Well, I suppose I can't criticise what I haven't read (apart from Twilight), so I'll take your word for it (though aren't you paid to say that?).

[Evertype]

I'm not paid to publish my Wonderland-related books. If they sell, my investment in typesetting and publishing gets paid off, and if they continue to sell, I get to call it "profit".

I've 24 Alice books out so far. And more in the pipeline. I do hope people buy them and enjoy them.

[3rdpoliceman]

It is good to know that there still are sincere people in this world. (At least, I think you're sincere. Itis very hard to tell...)

[Evertype]

For my part I think that it is a worthy practice to put older sequels and adaptations and parodies and translations back into print. I think that my doing so using a uniform editing and typesetting style creates a really lovely Carrollian library.

(Grumbles a bit.) With regard to my sincerity....

You could buy the books and see if you enjoy them.

[3rdpoliceman]

Of course I believe that what you are doing is important. You're providing a great service to Carrollians everywhere. I have bought some of your books:A New Alice in Old Wonderland and both Irish-la\nguage translations of the books.
I have a few suggestions, though:
1) You seem to focus mostly on sequels and pastiches. Perhaps you could also publish more unusual Alice-inspired works.
2) Why not publish new editions of Sylvie and Bruno, Hunting of the Snark and Phantasmagoria?
3) Also, I think that some books about Carroll and Liddell would be great. Remember how most of the poems in the books are parodies? Why not publish a book with the originals and the parodies together, side by side? And maybe a book about authors influenced by Carroll.
4) You could publish works similar to Caroll's, such as the poems of Edward Lear, James Stephens' The Crock of Gold, Flann O'Brien's Third Policeman, etc.

Keep up the good work, my boojum!

[Evertype]

Of course I believe that what you are doing is important. You're providing a great service to Carrollians everywhere. I have bought some of your books:A New Alice in Old Wonderland and both Irish-language translations of the books.

Splendid! And thank you.

I have a few suggestions, though:
1) You seem to focus mostly on sequels and pastiches.

I enjoy them. There are sequels proper, there are parodies and pastiches, and there are books influenced by Wonderland, like Rollo in Emblemland where usually the story is "child falls asleep and finds self in otherworld".

Perhaps you could also publish more unusual Alice-inspired works.

There is so much, and I have much of it in hand. Alice in Virusland will come out in a book collecting many shorter pieces, for instance. Is that what you are talking about?

2) Why not publish new editions of Sylvie and Bruno, Hunting of the Snark and Phantasmagoria?

Well, I have published The Hunting of the Snark. As it happens, I am preparing an omnibus edition of Sylvie and Bruno. I haven't really made plans about Phantasmagoria, but of course it is inevitible.

3) Also, I think that some books about Carroll and Liddell would be great.

Indeed, but I do not write such books.

Remember how most of the poems in the books are parodies? Why not publish a book with the originals and the parodies together, side by side?

Such a volume would be a bit slim.

And maybe a book about authors influenced by Carroll.

Yes, but as I said, I don't write such books.

4) You could publish works similar to Carroll's, such as the poems of Edward Lear, James Stephens' The Crock of Gold, Flann O'Brien's Third Policeman, etc.

I could. Perhaps after the Carroll.

Keep up the good work, my boojum!

Thank you; I shall.

[3rdpoliceman]

Alice in Virusland sounds like my kind of book. Alert us all as soon as it is published!

[Evertype]

Alice in Virusland is a 24-page story, presented as the Presidential address delivered before the Society of American Bacteriologists at its fortieth annual meeting in San Francisco, 31 August 1938. As I say, it will be part of a volume of stories, to be published in due course.

In the meantime, do enjoy the other books.

[3rdpoliceman]

Any chance of some cyberpunk/steampunk/clockpunk/lolita Alice books?

[Evertype]

What do you mean, "any chance"?

[3rdpoliceman]

What I meant was: is there any chance that any of those sort of books will be published?

[Evertype]

Ah.

Well... I don't know of any cyberpunk/steampunk/clockpunk/lolita Alice books, offhand.