first edition
1866 · New York
by CARROLL, Lewis
New York: D. Appleton and Co, 1866. Full Description:
CARROLL, Lewis. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. With forty-two illustrations by John Tenniel. New York: D. Appleton and Co., 1866.
First American edition (i.e., first edition, second issue). Octavo (7 1/2 x 5 1/8 inches; 190 x 130 mm Bound from the suppressed sheets of the 1865 English edition, with the half-title and title now cancels. Small octavo. [12], 192 pp. Text illustrations.
Original red cloth. Covers with gilt triple fillet border and central gilt vignette within three circular lines of Alice holding the pig on the front and the Cheshire Cat on the back. Spine lettered in gilt with gilt ornament and three gilt lines at head and foot. All edges gilt. Original blue-black coated endpapers. Some rubbing to boards and spine and a bit of soiling to covers. Previous owner’s neat signature on half-title. Page 15 is badly torn with a large portion of the text missing. Small marginal closed tears to pages 5, 31 and 117, not affecting text. Page 8 with a small hole slightly affecting the illustration on the verso. Page 19 with a closed tear just touching a few letters. A small closed tear to front free endpaper. Binding slightly skewed. A bit of occasional soiling. Still, overall a good, unrestored copy.
“The first edition, familiarly known to book-collectors as ‘the 1865 Alice’, was printed at the Oxford University Press. This edition was at the last moment canceled by the author, for whom Macmillan’s were publishing ‘on commission’ (i.e. as agent, not sponsors) because of what was considered the poor printing of Sir John Tenniel’s almost equally famous illustrations. The few early copies sent out were recalled; seemingly with fair success, since less than a score are known to survive today. The book was then reprinted, by Clay, with the title-page re-dated 1866, and this constitutes the first regularly published edition. Dodgson thriftily sold 500 copies of the suppressed 1865 printing for publication, with suitably altered title-page, by Appleton’s of New York in 1866” (Printing and the Mind of Man). According to this passage, it clearly states that the present edition, is the only available edition with the true first edition sheets. Although Printing and the Mind of Man states that the 1866 English edition is the first available printed edition, the fact that they made new plates means that this is, in actuality, the second English edition. Lovett and Lovett 2. Printing and the Mind of Man 354 (the 1865 first issue). Williams, Madan and Green 44.
HBS 69308.
$6,000. (Inventory #: 69308)
CARROLL, Lewis. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. With forty-two illustrations by John Tenniel. New York: D. Appleton and Co., 1866.
First American edition (i.e., first edition, second issue). Octavo (7 1/2 x 5 1/8 inches; 190 x 130 mm Bound from the suppressed sheets of the 1865 English edition, with the half-title and title now cancels. Small octavo. [12], 192 pp. Text illustrations.
Original red cloth. Covers with gilt triple fillet border and central gilt vignette within three circular lines of Alice holding the pig on the front and the Cheshire Cat on the back. Spine lettered in gilt with gilt ornament and three gilt lines at head and foot. All edges gilt. Original blue-black coated endpapers. Some rubbing to boards and spine and a bit of soiling to covers. Previous owner’s neat signature on half-title. Page 15 is badly torn with a large portion of the text missing. Small marginal closed tears to pages 5, 31 and 117, not affecting text. Page 8 with a small hole slightly affecting the illustration on the verso. Page 19 with a closed tear just touching a few letters. A small closed tear to front free endpaper. Binding slightly skewed. A bit of occasional soiling. Still, overall a good, unrestored copy.
“The first edition, familiarly known to book-collectors as ‘the 1865 Alice’, was printed at the Oxford University Press. This edition was at the last moment canceled by the author, for whom Macmillan’s were publishing ‘on commission’ (i.e. as agent, not sponsors) because of what was considered the poor printing of Sir John Tenniel’s almost equally famous illustrations. The few early copies sent out were recalled; seemingly with fair success, since less than a score are known to survive today. The book was then reprinted, by Clay, with the title-page re-dated 1866, and this constitutes the first regularly published edition. Dodgson thriftily sold 500 copies of the suppressed 1865 printing for publication, with suitably altered title-page, by Appleton’s of New York in 1866” (Printing and the Mind of Man). According to this passage, it clearly states that the present edition, is the only available edition with the true first edition sheets. Although Printing and the Mind of Man states that the 1866 English edition is the first available printed edition, the fact that they made new plates means that this is, in actuality, the second English edition. Lovett and Lovett 2. Printing and the Mind of Man 354 (the 1865 first issue). Williams, Madan and Green 44.
HBS 69308.
$6,000. (Inventory #: 69308)
(310) 659-3674
