Pictures And Conversations
"And what is the use of a book," thought Alice, "without pictures or conversations?"
John Tenniel's illustrations capture the essence of Wonderland: in many respects, they are as important to the story as Carroll's dazzling text. The artist elaborated on the author's initial drawings, making the characters and their interactions vibrant and magical.
Tenniel's illustrations appeared exclusively in black and white for the first 25 years of publication. In the 1880s, he and Carroll began working on an abridged version of the story for younger children, which would include twenty of the illustrations enlarged and colored. The artist's own hand-colored proofs guided Edmund Evans, one of the leading color printers of the day, when preparing the edition.
Through the Looking-Glass
"Let's pretend the glass has got all soft like gauze, so that we can get through. Why, it's turning into a sort of mist now, I declare! It'll be easy enough to get through — "
Shortly after publishing Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland in 1865, Carroll wrote to Macmillan that he was contemplating a sequel. A book of transformations, Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There takes place six months after our heroine wakes from the dream of Wonderland, when she is seven-and-a-half years old. The book was eventually published in 1871 (with an 1872 title page), and again featured illustrations by John Tenniel that were engraved by well-known Brothers Dalziel firm. Work on the book was slow, partially owing to the pace set by Tenniel, who was at the height of his career and had initially declined the commission. As with Alice, Carroll carefully oversaw the design and production of the book, giving precise instructions for the size and placement of illustrations within the text. The first two impressions sold out within seven weeks of publication, and it, too, has never been out of print.
Thus Grew the Tale of Wonderland
Wonderland, this world of logical nonsense, continues to grip our imagination. What began as a simple tale, first told to delight three young children one summer afternoon, has grown beyond the bounds of its original format and narrative. Parodied and adapted in countless ways, the characters and themes of the story continue to live independently as cultural reference points. Alice and her companions first leapt off of the page under the careful eye of the author, who paid close attention to the use of the narrative until his death in 1898. Carroll himself worked to develop the Alice market by issuing tie-ins, licensing the characters for specific products, collaborating on the first stage adaptation, and publishing a facsimile of the manuscript. Following his death and the expiration of copyright in 1907, the characters of Wonderland have more fully infiltrated our world in endlessly unexpected and adaptable expressions.
CHILDREN'S LITERATURE AT THE MORGAN
The drawings and hand-colored proofs for Alice are part of the Morgan's rich collection of children's literature, which includes the earliest written record of the Mother Goose tales (a 1695 illustrated manuscript of Charles Perrault's Contes de Ma Mere l'Oye), illustrated letters of Beatrix Potter, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's original watercolors and heavily-revised working manuscript of The Little Prince (1943), and the drafts and drawings for Jean de Brunhoff's Histoire de Babar (1931).
VISITING WITH FAMILIES
A gallery guide will be available for families, and Wonderland coloring sheets for younger visitors will be on hand for those dining in the Morgan Café. The exhibition installation will include a reading area with colorful carpets and stools where visitors may sit together and page through copies of Alice.
Editor's Note: A few years ago, we purchased - separately - the University of California Press Pennyroyal Edition of the two 'Alices'. Though a much darker designed and illustrated version by master artist Barry Moser, it too, is a treasure in our house. The Morgan is a marvelous Library (with a hidden door, if we remember correctly) to explore and appreciate. Its shop is marvelous, too, in content and setting. We still have one or two unsent Christmas cards from several decades ago.
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