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Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass
both inscribed by Lewis Carroll

Alice in Wonderland

Through the Looking Glass
CARROLL, Lewis. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. London: Macmillon, 1868. Octavo, original red cloth recased. WITH: Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There. London Macmillon, 1872. Octavo, original red decorated cloth rebacked with original spine laid-down. Very handsomely boxed (box not pictured). $15,000.

Two of the worlds most beloved children's books, each inscribed by Lewis Carroll.

"Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and its hardly less famous sequel Through the Looking Glass, although ostensibly written for children... are unique among 'juveniles' in appealing equally if not more strongly to adults. Written by an Oxford don, a clergyman, and a professional mathematician, they abound in characters- the White Knight, the Red Queen, the Mad Hatter, Humpty Dumpty- who are part of everybody's mental furniture. And the philosophic profundity of scores, if not hundreds, of these characters' observations, long household words wherever English is spoken, gains mightily from the delicious fantasy of their setting" (Printing and the Mind of Man, 354).

Alice in Wonderland is an 1868 edition, the "Eleventh Thousand", two years after the first authorized edition and inscribed, "Harriet Selina Watson / from the Author"; Through the Looking Glass is the "Eleventh Thousand" printed in 1872, the same year as the first edition, and inscribed: "George T. Hine and Mrs. Hine/ with the Author's / Kindest regards / June 3, 1872."  Signed copies of Alice and Looking Glass are rare, with inscribed editions of Alice, in particular, extremely scarce and when found and most often much later editions. We can locate records for only two earlier inscribed copies having appeared for sale in the last twenty years: a rebound 1867 edition, the "Eighth Thousand", and the famous Jerome Kern copy of the first edition signed. Both books with usual wear to fragile cloth. A most desirable and rare set of two of the most important books in children's book collecting.

 

Science/Technology/Medicine

Literature/Modern Firsts

Americana/History/Travel

Art/Illustrated/Children's