By Mady Renn
CONTRIBUTOR
Down The Huntington’s rare book collection, there’s a different kind of rabbit hole: one that holds the whimsical publication history of Lewis Carroll’s “Alice in Wonderland.” Seemingly contradicting, not one but two different first editions of Carroll’s illustrated novel reside in the collection.
While it may seem paradoxical (and quintessentially Carroll-like) to have different “first editions,” it is due to the original 1865 iteration being deemed substandard by the novel’s artist, John Tenniel. John Tenniel was commissioned by Carroll’s publisher to create the woodcut illustrations for the manuscript.
The woodcuts were then sent to the engraver and owner of the publication, George Dalziel, who printed the first edition. However, Tenniel complained to Dalziel that the illustrations were printed inaccurately, and requested a reprint. Thus, in 1866, a second “first edition” was printed, and “Alice in Wonderland” was born.
In the alternate universe that is Wonderland, Carroll experiments with language, space, and time. His fiction stretched language and the power of literature so wide, that he changed the way we understand language to this day.
On the 150th anniversary of a novel that changed the very meaning of a novel, we celebrate a world created to allow questioning with childlike enthusiasm.
Visit The Huntington’s rare book collection for yourself, but don’t forget to stop for tea with the mad hatter, and follow the white bunny around the gardens—just try to keep your head along the way.
