Alice’s Adventures Under Ground.

CARROL, Lewis. [Charles Lutwidge Dodgson].

Item Number: 88080

London: Macmillan and Co, 1886.

First edition of the original manuscript which was later expanded and published as Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Octavo, original scarlet cloth, elaborate gilt titles to the spine and front panel, gilt vignette to the rear panel, triple gilt ruled. All edges gilt, black endpapers, text printed in the author’s handwriting including thirty-seven illustrations in facsimile, advertisements at rear. Association copy, inscribed by the author on the half-title page to his cousin, “May Knight from the Author Jan. /87.” In very good condition with some toning to the spine. An excellent association.

Alice's Adventures were "born on a golden afternoon" in July 1862, when the Rev. Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (better known as Lewis Carroll) took the three small daughters of Dean Liddell of Christ Church on a boating trip up the Isis. Carroll delighted the three children by relaying Alice's adventures, and eventually promised his favorite among the three, Alice Liddell, to write the story down for her. Carroll composed the original manuscript for the work in 1864 which he presented to Alice dedicating it as "A Christmas Gift to a Dear Child in Memory of a Summer's Day." He later expanded the manuscript from 15,500 to 27,500 words which included the addition of some of the tale's most memorable characters such as the Cheshire Cat and Mad Hatter.