Early Books

The Nursery “Alice.”

By Lewis Carroll.

Illustrated by John Tenniel.

London: Macmillan and Co., 1890.

Carroll decided around 1881 to produce a simplified edition of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland for children aged “nought to five.” The book is only 64 pages long and includes just twenty of Tenniel’s illustrations, but these are now colored, enlarged, and often slightly modified. The cover illustration, by E. Gertrude Thomson, leaves no doubt that Alice is dreaming.

The first printing, in 1889, was rejected by Carroll, who said “the pictures are far too bright and gaudy, and vulgarise the whole thing.” This copy, from the approved edition published in 1890, was inscribed by Carroll to Margaret Ellen Hart.

Exhibit item 2.7