Knight Letter No. 49

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THE LEWIS CARROLL

SOCIETY OF NORTH AMERICA

NUMBER 49 SPRING 1995

Celebration and Reflection at the Twentieth
Anniversary Meeting

On Saturday, November 12, 1994, after a delightful
lunch in most convivial company at the Nassau Inn, some
sixty members and guests walked across the Princeton cam-
pus to McCormack Hall for the twentieth anniversary meet-
ing of the Lewis Carroll Society of North America. It was
on January 1 2, 1 974, at the same Nassau Inn, that Stan Marx
had gathered together the following people to help him in
the founding of our society: Alice Berkey, Morton Cohen,
Doris Frohnsdorff, Martin Gardner, Edward Guiliano,
Michael Hearn, Joyce Hines, Florence Lennon, David
Schaefer, Maxine Schaefer, Justin Schiller, Elizabeth Sewell,
Alexander Wainwright, and Raymond Wapner. From that
first fifteen, the society has grown to an international mem-
bership of almost 400; has published a distinguished series
of scholarly editions, chapbooks, and newsletters; and has
met semi-annually across North America from New York to
San Francisco and from Toronto, Canada, to Austin, Texas.
At the center of all of these activities, or at least not very far
removed from them, remained Stan Marx. Although there
was much excitement about our twentieth-anniversary meet-
ing, enthusiasm for the on-going Lewis Carroll pamphlets
publishing project (which Stan had
directed) and the new Alice database
among many other things, the recent
death of Stan Marx on July 13, 1994,
tempered our joy. The fact that we
were meeting again at Princeton af-
ter twenty very successful years was
itself a tribute to Stan Marx. At the
tenth anniversary meeting, also held
at Princeton, Stan had given a talk en-
titled "There's glory for you." Of the
Lewis Carroll Society of North
America I think it could be said
"There's glory for Stan Marx."

Dr. Stephen Ferguson, Assis-
tant Librarian for Rare Books, wel-
comed us back to Princeton and en-
couraged us all to visit the exhibit of
Carroll materials from the Parrish

by A ugust Imholtz

Collection that Dr. Alexander Wainwright of the Firestone
Library had mounted in the lobby. Outgoing president Charlie
Lovett thanked Dr. Ferguson and Princeton for their won-
derful hospitality, and also acknowledged our superb pro-
gram coordinator, Janet Jurist, for arranging the meeting.
He then requested a moment of silence in honor of Stan Marx
before introducing former LCSNA President Professor Ed-
ward Guiliano who wished to say a few words, in a moving
tribute to Stan, Ed recalled how he, while still in graduate
school, first met Stan through Anne Clark in England, and
then focused his remarks on Stan's generosity to all those
whom he happened to meet. He said that he had learned
much from Stan about poetry, literature, and books, but most
of all about livingwell. The memory of asimple hamburger
lunch with Stan in Union Square in New York City encapsu-
lated for Ed the joy of living that Stan brought to everything
he did.

John Wilcox-Baker had come to the Princeton meet-
ing from England and spoke for all in Great Britain who
knew and loved Stan Marx. John fondly recalled the warm
welcome with which he was received by the Marxes when
he first visited their home in Roslyn,
New York, in connection with the
work of raising funds for the Lewis
Carroll Birthplace Trust. With a qua-
vering voice John quoted the last sen-
tence of Charlie Lovett 's Knight Let-
ter (#47) tribute to Stan Marx: "I
know that all who knew him will
agree that this world is a good deal
richer for Stan Marx having been
here, and poorer today for his depar-
ture."

Before introducing the first
speaker on our program. Charlie dis-
tributed a Twentieth Anniversary
Meeting keepsake, a fine reprinting
of Stan Marx's Shaw Alphabet
"Jabberwocky" and announced the
formation of a Stan Marx Memorial

Twentieth Anniversary (continued from page i)

Fund Committee to determine the kind of outreach programs
to be undertaken in memory of Stan Marx. Further details
will appear in forthcoming issues of The Knight Letter.

Our first speaker, Dr. Edvige Giunta of Union Col-
lege, has supplied us with the following abstract of her fas-
cinating and ground-breaking talk, "Wonderland Wanderlads:
Lewis Carroll through James Joyce's Looking Glosses".
Joyce's letters establish his first reading
of Carroll as occurring in 1927, by which time
Joyce had published all his works and had been
working on Finnegans Wake for a few years.
Joyce's claim has led critics to regard the
Carrollian materials as a later addition to "Work
in Progress." However, the intricate biographi-
cal/literary connections between the two authors,
and Carroll's pervasive role in the "Circe" chap-
ter of Ulysses, completed in
1921, complicate the history of
their relationship, compelling
the reader to be wary of accept-
ing the seemingly uncompli-
cated account provided by
Joyce and readily accepted by
his critics. Unlike Homer,
Shakespeare and Dante, who
massively dominate the pan-
orama of Ulysses, Lewis Car-
roll represents an almost clan-
destine presence in "Circe," the
chapter Joyce chose to depict
the descent into the uncon-
scious, the "rabbit-hole" of
Ulysses. Bloom's connection
to Carroll, and HCE's connec-
tion to both Bloom and Carroll
- specifically his stutter, his
sleepwalking, his somniloquy,
and his attraction to young girls - trace the be-
ginning of Joyce's use of Carroll to the years of
the composition of Ulysses. In his letters, Joyce
chose to misrepresent this reading of Carroll as
"bits and scraps" he had only "heard." Instead,
as he delved deep into the biography of Carroll
and into his writings - long before 1927 - Joyce
discovered connections between himself and
Carroll that enabled him to transform Carroll into
another of his "counterparts," a layer of his
palimpsestic and protean literary persona. His
elaborate disguise of the date of his "meeting"
with Carroll elucidates his attitude towards and
redefinition of the literary allusion, and his self-
mocking interrogation of the relationship be-
tween author and literary precursor which this
notion of allusion entails. Joyce thus establishes
the allusive game as a complicated intertextual

Bloom's connection to
Carroll, and HCE's
connection to both Bloom
and Carroll — specifically
his stutter, his sleepwalk-
ing, his somniloquy, and
his attraction to young
girls — trace the begin-
ning of Joyce's use of
Carroll to the years of the
composition of Ulysses.

exchange that shatters hierarchical distinctions
between high and low genres, great and minor
authors, imitated and imitator, life and fiction.
Rather than striving to assert his originality,
Joyce constructs his relationship to Carroll as a
narrative in itself, a secret textual event embed-
ded in the larger Joycean narrative, meant to
function as yet another puzzle to keep "the pro-
fessors busy."

We were very fortunate to hear the poet Nina Cassian
as our second speaker. She is the author of over fifty books
in both her native Romanian and English, as well as a com-
poser of chamber music, critic, and translator into Roma-
nian of authors from Shakespeare to Mayakovsky. Before
reciting, almost acting, her marvelous sounding Romanian
"Jabberwocky," she explained how she herself has at vari-
ous times in her life identified with Alice in the Pool of Tears,
or in being watched by Playing Cards, and how she has set
out to traverse a very long dream
of her own. She even invented her
own language whose name comes
from a Romanian root meaning "to
break." Placing Lewis Carroll
firmly in {he avant-garde tradition
stretching from Villon and
Shakespeare to lonesco, she also
discussed the influences on her
own writing and attitude to lan-
guage, and acknowledged the in-
fluence of the Romaian mathema-
tician and poet Ion Barbu.
"BtzdTbocul," her version of
"Jabberwocky" was published af-
ter a long delay in the journal
Secolul 20 (July 1991). It begins:
"Dadeau in plopot ^opi asprili /
Trombind, bor^ind prin ierboteci..."
and although not many of us in the
audience could understand Roma-
nian, all agreed that Nina Cassian had captured something
very much of the spirit of "Jabberwocky" which clearly was
not lost in translation.

After a brief break, Charlie rapidly led us through the
business portion of the meeting. He summarized the state of
the society, our financial position, publications schedule, and
forthcoming meetings. The slate of nominated officers: presi-
dent, Joel Birenbaum; vice president, Rosella Howe; trea-
surer, Francine Abeles; and directors August Imholtz, Ellie
Luchinsky, Kay Rossman, and Stephanie Stoffel was pre-
sented and all were duly elected. Our retiring secretary,
Maxine Schaefer, who for the past twenty years has been the
only secretary the society has ever had, was praised by Charlie
Lovett for her unstinting dedication to the society. A small
part of her task had been answering thousands of letters. In
recognition for her selfless work, Charlie presented Maxine
with a custom-designed Dormouse teapot as a token of the

continued on page 5

Society Welcomes New Officers

One of the aims of this society is to promote the min-
gling of people as well as ideas, in keeping with that, the
following brief statements will serve as "How d'ye do's" to
introduce our new president, secretary, and editor.

For those of you who haven't heard yet, 1, Joel
Birenbaum, am the new president of the LCSNA. 1 imagine
that up until a few years ago most of you would not have
recognized my name. Before that 1 had attended meetings
on and off (more off than on)^ read my Knight Letter reli-
giously, and occasionally sent some tidbit in to the editor. In
the last few years I have written many articles for the KL
(last issue's was exceedingly long), curated an Alice exhibit
at the Newberry Library, cre-
ated a bibliographical data-
base of all editions of /\//ce '5
Adventures in Wonderland
(a work by its nature always
in progress), discovered a
possible origin of the
Cheshire Cat, was a member
of the International Lewis
Carroll Conference commit-
tee, and led a tour of East
Coast Carroll holdings for
foreign visitors.

So, what's the point?
The point is that I under-
stand that most members of
the Society are content to
remain in the background
and participate passively. I
believe that this is a part of

any organization's group dynamic, but, due to the geographic
dispersion of our organization, this is even more pronounced.
For this reason it is critical that our newsletter provide the
link that ties us all together. For many members the KL is the
ONLY link to the Society. 1 am confident that our new editor
will provide a newsletter that is both informative and enjoy-
able.

Let me share with you some thoughts about the
LCSNA. The LCSNA is first and foremost a literary society
whose objective is to further the study of Carroll and bring
to the public a greater awareness of his accomplishments.
There has been some concern that if we are not careful, we
will turn into a fan club. In fact the LCSNA has been re-
ferred to in these terms in a couple of articles. As every edu-
cated person knows, this does not make it true. On the other
hand, is being a fan of Lewis Carroll such a bad thing? If
this means that you are enthusiastic about his work in gen-
eral or one work in particular, I think not. There is room for
both scholars and fans in the LCSNA, as long as we don't
lose focus of what the Society's purpose is.

1//? ^Dicip, \ q iaqs ioQ

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\ q tot vdS <!^yz\,

" IV^ 9 V\S^hi^ ti %7\ !
Q i\i qA ^71, q icxi qA iAt !

q JDVAzS ^AtoSvi !"

From Stan Marx's translation oU abberwocky into the Shaw Alphabet

1 am not a Lewis Carroll scholar. I came to the Society
because of my interest in collecting illustrated editions of
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and my desire to meet
others with similar interests. I am pleased to say that the
LCSNA has filled this need beyond my greatest expecta-
tions. I have made lifelong friends around the globe through
this pursuit. Although this is not the primary purpose of the
Society, it is certainly a welcome side benefit. So, I will leave
scholarly work to those more qualified. What 1 hope to bring
to the position of president is a non-Alician, but very
Carrollian, sense of order. I will be an administrator. That
means others will have to do the hard work. We as an organi-
zation will set goals and I will
do all in my power to see that
we reach those goals.

My predecessor, with
the help of the board and
membership, has kept us on
the path of scholarly accom-
plishments that was started
by our first president, the
late Stan Marx. Our publica-
tions have consistently been
of a high quality and we are
in the midst of a very impor-
tant project to publish all the
pamphlets of Charles
Dodgson. To date we have
published two volumes and
are doing well enough finan-
cially to continue with the
next volume. I am pleased to
announce that Charlie Lovett has agreed to be the chairman
of the publications committee. I am certain that he will main-
tain a level of quality that will be a source of pride to us all
and will serve to enhance our reputation in the literary com-
munity.

At the Spring meeting, in turning over the virtual gavel,
Charlie Lovett presented me with a challenge — to bring a
new and younger generation of Carrollians into the Society.
1 will accept the challenge most gladly. I agree that this is an
absolute necessity if the Society is to thrive into the next
century. Aside from that, 1 love a challenge. I feel there is a
timeless quality to Lewis Carroll that has, and will surely
attract every generation. We simply have to make it known
that we are here and ready to share current ideas and to en-
tertain new ones.

I welcome all suggestions, criticisms, and lavish praise
from our members. Write me at 2765 Shellingham Drive,
Lisle IL 60532, call me at (708) 964-1413, or e-mail me at
joel.birenbaum(aatt.com. At the very least, I will be acces-
sible.

continued on page 5

Alice's Adventures in Cyberspace

by Joel Birenbaum

The Lewis Carroll Home Page is now an official stop
on the Information Highway. I assume that many of you are
unfamiliar with the structure of the electronic community,
so I will present a little background material. There is a won-
drous network called the internet that allows computers from
around the world to communicate with each other. Universi-
ties and corporations may have direct links to the network
whereas individuals may link to the network via a service
provider like America on Line, Netcom, CompuServe, or
Prodigy. It provides instant (well, fairly rapid) access to in-
formation and graphic images with a range far in excess of
any conventional encyclopedia.

Recently you may have read about a network within a
network called the World Wide Web (WWW). Resident on
the Web are Home Pages, which are files on computers in a
specific format which contain whatever information the
owner cares to put in them. Universities have Home Pages
that are like the introductory pages of a catalog or brochure.
Businesses may have Home Pages that promote products or
are actual sales catalogs. Individuals may also install Home
Pages that can be used to express personal opinions or sim-
ply maintain an electronic presence. Generally this is done
by college students who don't have to pay for access. These
pages are composed of text and graphics, but more impor-
tantly each page can have hypertext links to other pages on
the Web. If you click your mouse on the blue highlighted
text or border, the page currently displayed will be replaced
by the page at the address referred to by the text. The page
addresses can be on the same PC or on one in a different
continent. Hopping from page to page is called "surfing the
net". In order to participate in this electronic surfing, you
must have a program like Netscape, Mosaic or Lynx loaded
on your PC or accessible via your service provider.

Now back to Carroll. On January 27, 1995 the Lewis
Carroll Home Page was officially opened. The page is di-
vided into sections denoted in a table of contents. The sec-
tions are: What's New, Lewis Carroll organizations. Infor-
mation, Events, E-texts, and Graphics. The What's New sec-
tion is meant to be used by people who frequent the page
often and don't want to sift through all the material to find
what has been added since their last visit. Lewis Carroll or-
ganizations is a list of ... you guessed it. The Information
section has a pointer to a woefully short biography of
Dodgson as mathematician that is resident in the UK and to
a list of reference books supplied by yours truly. The Events
section will have upcoming LCSNA meetings and any other
events of which I am made aware. E-texts are pointers to
Carroll texts available on the internet in electronic form. This
section also includes pointers to other HomePages that have
pointers to Carroll texts. The texts include both Alice books

and the Hunting oftheSnark. The Graphics section has point-
ers to graphic images related to Carroll. For the most part
these are scanned in illustrations to the Alice books and the
Snark, but there are also a couple of photographs and an

Whereas I am sure
Carroll would have
been more
comfortable
travelling by rail,
I think he would be
pleased to know he
was travelling at
electronic speeds
on his 165 th
birthday.

original artistic piece. The bulk of scanned illustrations and
those of highest quality are hosted at the University of Sus-
sex at Brighton.

The Carroll Home Page can be found at URL (address)
http://ux4/cso/uiuc/edu/--jbirenba/carroll.html. 1 would like
to thank my son. Josh, for taking time from his busy sched-
ule at the University of Illinois to install this page and make
the numerous updates. I will try to get this page added to the
many internet literary directories as I believe this will give
more people access to information on Carroll and will pro-
vide more exposure for the various Carroll organizations.
Perhaps this is one place to look for the next generation of
Carroll enthusiasts.

Whereas I am sure Carroll would have been more com-
fortable traveling by rail, I think he would be pleased to know
he was traveling at electronic speeds on his 165th birthday.

New Officers (continued from page 3)

Twentieth (continued from page 2)

Dr. Genevieve Bruaet Smith, who has most graciously
consented to take on the responsibilities of Secretary, was
born near Versailles. Her intention was to become a psychia-
trist, but her medical studies were cut short by an unfortu-
nate train accident. She came to the United States in 1962 in
the company of her husband, Clark Smith. It was while earn-
ing her doctorate at the University of California in Berkeley
that a mentor proposed that she write her thesis on the influ-
ence of Lewis Carroll on Eugene lonesco, Jean Cocteau, and
three other French poets. In her own words, "I was very
taken by the subject and did a lot of research on Lewis Car-
roll. Later on, though, 1 had to change mentors and wrote my
dissertation on lonesco." She has lived mainly on the East
Coast since then, currently dwell-
ing in Washington D.C., and is
the Artistic Director of the The-
atre HISTRIO, which performs at
the French Embassy, as well as
being an instructor at both the
Smithsonian Institute and Johns
Hopkins University. Her address
corresponds with that of the So-
ciety, below.

Mark Burstein, the new
editor of the Knight Letter, claims
a genetic predisposition to all of
this madness. His late grand-
mother Lottie decorated the nurs-
ery in her house with Alician
wallpaper, which may have had
a subliminal effect on her son,
Sandor, whom most of you know
as a renowned collector of Lewis
Carroll, past president of the
LCSNA, and Master of the Press
of the Roxburghe club. Mark

went to school at the University of California at Santa Cruz,
where his independent major, "Number, Symbol, Myth, and
Consciousness" (with a mathematics minor), produced a the-
sis on a structuralist analysis o\ Through the Looking Glass,
which story is recounted in his popular talk "To Catch a
Bandersnatch". Together with his father, he formed the first
authorized branch of the LCSNA, the West Coast Chapter, in
1979, where he served as "Warden of Outland" and edited
The Herald. The WCC flourished for a good ten years before
disbanding after accomplishing many of its major goals, in-
cluding the geographic decentralization of the LCSNA. He
has given a multitude of talks to the Society, including "Alice
Does Wonderland" (on Alician erotica), "Alice Through the
Television Tube" and has written for Jabberwocky, Fine
Print, and other magazines. In his other lives, he is a com-
puter programmer, supernumerary for the San Francisco Op-
era, and renowned authority on, and collector of Walt Kelly.

gratitude of us all. Dr. Genevieve Smith has generously
agreed to serve as interim secretary.

August Imholtz spoke last on the program on the topic
"Jabberwocky Revisited: More Noncsense?" He reviewed
some newer critical readings of "Jabberwocky," presented
some observations on the philosophical meanings of non-
sense, indulged in an outrageous speculation of his own on
the Russian verb meaning "to capture a chess piece" and
the decapitation of the Jabberwock in Carroll's poem, and
concluded with an obscure parody of "Jabberwocky." He
began with Sidney Halpern's 1965 Psychoanalytic Review
article "The Mother Killer," in which the author sees
"Jabberwocky" as an echo of the Sumerian creation epic

Enuma Elis in which matriar-
chy is replaced by filiarchial
forces in the form of Enlil (the
very model of a beamish
Sumerian boy). From
Sumerian clay tablets, he
jumped ahead four thousand
years or so to Shakespeare's
quartos and folios for critic
Frank McCormick's analysis
of "Jabberwocky" as a kind of
Hamlet-\he. The linguistic ba-
sis for his argument may be
found in Horatio's "gibber"
speech in the first act of Ham-
let. And in this vein he finally
assessed Professor Jean-
Jacques Lecercle's recent re-
valuation, or transvaluation, of
Dr. Abraham Ettleson's
Through the Looking-Glass
Decoded in an article entitled
"Lewis Carroll and the Tal-
mud" published in the journal SubStance (vol. 22, no. 2/3.
1993). At times it was somewhat difficult to follow August's
explication of these texts because he was laughing so much
as he delivered his talk. Finally, citing no less an authority
than Harold Bloom, who said that the only meaning of a
poem is another poem, he recited Paul Kieffer's splendid
"Jerseywocky" with its "belmar blade going hackensack"
and which begins (and ends): "Twas bergen, and the eric
road / Did mahwah into patterson: / All jersey were the ocean
groves / And the red bank bayonne."

In bringing the meeting to a close, president Joel
Birenbaum thanked Charlie Lovett for so ably and effec-
tively serving as president of the society for the past four
years, as editor of The Knight Letter, as a coordinator of the
Second International Lewis Carroll Conference, and as co-
editor of the Lewis Carroll pamphlets publishing project.
Charlie was applauded by all for his contributions to the
society and the memory of Lewis Carroll.

Memorandum © Leslie Allen 1995

Ink on Paper - Created for the Knight Letter

Editorial—

By Mark Burstein

"He thought he saw a Garden-Door

That opened with a key:

He looked again, and found it was

A Double Rule of Three"

It is with great excitement, humil-
ity, and trepidation that 1 begin my stint
as editor of this august journal (pun in-
tended). Perhaps it is unwise to begin
with an apologia, but as I write this I
have no doubt that there will be some
rough edges in this first issue. Charlie
Lovett has done such a fine job, stand-
ing on the shoulders of giants as it were,
bringing the Knight Letter into the elec-
tronic / desktop arena among other lit-
erary accomplishments. I had hoped to
simply take his templates and churn out
an issue. No such fortune. He do Mac, I
do Windows.

This meant I had to start nearly
from scratch while attempting to keep
the design elements the same. I will
spare you the litany of my travails with
a new (for me) page making software
yclept, naturally, PageMaker. We're just
now starting to become tentatively
friendly, after I got over the fact that
their manual lies through its metaphori-
cal teeth.

Due to constraints of a variety of
schedules and circumstances, I will not
be able to see this before it hits the
printed page, so may I beg your indul-
gence and pardon in advance for any
compromises I have had to reach in or-
der to produce this issue on time. 1 have
fretted inordinate amounts of time over
the logo, for instance, to little result.

Let me again express my deepest
gratitude to August and Joel for supply-
ing so much of the text. Issue #49 (a
number fortuitously coincident with our
local sports franchise) marks (intended
again) a new beginning with promise
of greater things to come.

'"But why don't you scream
now?" Alice asked, holding her hands
ready to put over her ears again."

'Why, I've done all the scream-
ing already,' said the Queen. 'What
would be the good of having it all over
again?'"

/ Carrollian

Notes

Alice in Wondertown

Daniel Diaz Torres 's 1991 film
Alicia en el pueblo de Maravillas is to
Cuban cinema what The Birth of a
Nation is to ours - the most controver-
sial film in the history of the nation.
After a critically and popularly ac-
claimed run of just four days, the
movie was yanked from circulation by
the government and has been the sub-
ject of a raging political struggle ever
since. y4/zc/a tells the story of a young
woman who finds herself in the gro-
tesque, surreal, satirical universe of a
small town sanitarium. Animation,
Carrollian references and the absurdist
spirit of Wonderland abound. Diaz
Torres, the subject of a lengthy inter-
view in Cineaste, vol. XX no.l, says
that Alicia will be rereleased in Cuba
this year.

Alice in Wonderglass

August Imholtz reported seeing
a "splendid" performance of Susan
Botti's chamber opera Wonderglass,
which played December 15th and 16th
in New York City. Ms. Botti, the com-
poser, librettist, and soprano produced
this work under the auspices of the

New York Foundation for the
Arts and the National En-
dowment for the Arts. The
piece featured a octet of live
musicians, animated films,
and six operatically-trained
singers (Carly Baruh, her "Alice", was
eleven), and is described as "exploring
the visions and adventures of Lewis Car-
roll and his creations".

Aldous in Wonderland

Julia ("Judy") Arnold was a young
favorite of Dodgson's, whom he photo-
graphed "in Turkish fashion" posed in
his study "gazing 'through' a looking
glass" in 1871. Small wonder that her
son, Aldous Huxley (1894-1963), had
such a strong affinity for Carroll
throughout his life, and that it was he
whom Walt Disney first contracted to
write a treatment for Carroll's best
known tale.

A fascinating article "Huxley's
'Deep Jam' and the Adaptation oi Alice
in Wonderland'" which appeared in The
Review of English Studies (Clarendon
Press, Oxford), vol. XLIII no.l 69, Feb-
ruary 1992, throws light on an otherwise
most obscure piece of film history. Piec-
ing together the story with access to the
Disney archives and Huxley's corre-
spondence, the authors, Leon Higdon
and Phill Lehrman, spin a fantastic yarn.

Apparently, Walt Disney had
originally envisioned a film to be called
Alice and the Mysterious Mr Carroll

continued

Whether you are looking to begin a
collection, increase your knowledge
of books and book collecting, or hold
your own in a conversation with bib-
1 iophi les. Everybody s Guide to Book
Collecting is for you. Written by col-
lector/dealer/retiring LCSNA presi-
dent Charlie Lovett and humorously
illustrated by LCSNA member
Jonathan Dixon, it is organized in a
series of questions and answers, from
"What is an antiquarian bookfair
like?" or "How can I find a book re-

BIBLIOGRAPHER'S

O

o

70

m

70

storer or binder?" to "How
should I catalog my collec-
tion?". Lucid, informative,
and highly recommended for
everyone from neophytes to
mavens and everyone in-be-
tween. The price is $9.95 postpaid
from Write Brain Publishers, 10714
West 1 28th Court Suite 201 , Overland
Park, Kansas 66213.

©Jf P(©#P^ Sc ®^^^(Ti,

which would combine animation and live action. The frame
story would involve Carroll, a purported romance with
Ellen Terry, Alice, Dodgson's hopes and struggles to be-
come a librarian, Oxford politics, the governess Miss Beale
(Disney always relished a strong villainess) and Queen
Victoria as the deus ex machina who provides the denoue-
ment.

In an early meeting, Disney is quoted as saying "I'll
tell you what has been wrong with every one of these pro-
ductions of Carroll. They have depended on his dialogue
to be funny.. .There is a spirit behind Carroll's story. It's
fantasy, imagination, screwball logic. ..but it must be funny.
I mean funny to an American audience. To hell with the
English audiences or the people who love Carroll..."
[Excuse me? - ed.]

So Huxley was hired as a "fiend" of the subject of
Alice, in a letter he speaks of "preventing producer and
director from putting in too many anachronisms and im-
possibilities." An epic struggle was clearly in the making.
Ultimately, however, Disney rejected the script for being
"too literary" and the movie which emerged six years later
did not name Huxley as one of the thirteen story editors
listed in the credits for the movie "Based on the Story by
Lewis Carrol (sic)". However, the complete story treatment
as reprinted in this article presents a fascinating possibility
- one that may have been somewhat realized in Dennis
Potter 'sDreamc/?/ Wand in innumerable stage productions.

Bibliographic Request

Jon Lindseth and Bea Sidaway are attempting to com-
pile a census of the recipients of the 1872 First Edition
presentation copies of Through The Looking Glass which
Lewis Carroll inscribed "Christmas 1871". According to his
diary, he inscribed one hundred copies. Their census is up
to forty names now and they would much appreciate hear-
ing from anyone who is fortunate enough to have one of
these copies or know something about the subject. They
can be reached at 1 -800-321 -31 70 x 2059 or at The Kindt-
Collins Company, 12651 Elmwood Ave., Cleveland OH 44222
or at 21 6-252-5639 (Fax).

Art

The Concord, Massachusetts, Free Public Library, 129
Main Street, Concord MA 01 742, Special Collections, has
four small (ca. 8" x 11") dioramas by Louise Stimpson,

creator of the large three-
panel Alice diorama at the
Boston Public Library.

Silver State Fine Art
Gallery is putting out a gar-
ish $2500 serigraph by Ms. Jett Jackson called "Alice in Won-
derland" due out in March. Contact 1 -800-999-9ART.

LCSNAmemberTony Diterlizzi is from Jupiter (literally).
He's an illustrator who has had his fantasy art published by
TSR, the company that brought you Dungeons and Dragons.
Joel writes, "One feels comfortable walking into his studio, but
then you realize you are being watched. There are Muppet-like
creatures peering from every nook and cranny. Tony is into
several different media including character soft sculpture. His
dormouse is so realistic that you are tempted to shake it and
wake it up. He has also brought to life Tenniel's Cheshire Cat,
White Rabbit, and painter cards. Adding to the Carrollian at-
mosphere is a collection of antique camera equipment placed
strategically around the house. Tony also does conventional
drawings, paintings, computer-enhanced art, and will some-
times accept commissions." Contact him at 1 20 Sherwood Circle
#9B, Jupiter FL 33458 or (407) 743-4393.

Unexpected Fans Department

From an interview published \n Mediterranean
Review, V^\x\{cx 1971:

Oliver Evans: What other writers do
you particularly admire?

Paul Bowles: I'm always more inter-
ested in living writers than in dead
ones. ..and then of course there's Alice.

OE: Alice?

PB: In Wonderland. It's one of the
books I've most enjoyed in my life.
I'm always rereading it...

Paul Bowles, composer, translator, expatriate,
and author of The Sheltering Sky, Let It Come
Down, etc.

F.

Mff(

Publications

"A Lewis Carroll Pillow Problem:
Probability of an Obtuse Triangle" by
Stephen Portnoy, Professor of Statistics
at University of Illinois, takes Carroll's
1 893 problem of the odds of three ran-
dom points having an obtuse angle, and
corrects Mr. Dodgson's statistical rea-
soning. Statistical Science, vol.9 no.2.
May 1994.

For those interested, articles on "Pla-
nar Boojums" have appeared in
Physica, May 1992, vol. 178 no.l and
in Watsonia, vol. 18, Feb. 1991

Family Fun magazine, April 1994,
shows how to host an afternoon Mad
Tea Party. Their suggestion that the kids
change places every few minutes dis-
plays a remarkable optimism.

Philosophy of Nonsense by Jean-
Jacques Lecercle (Routledge) contains
an important study "The Intuitions of
Victorian Nonsense Literature".

Walt Kelly (1913-1973), one of
America's greatest comic artists
("Pogo") and illustrators was a devoted
fan of Lewis Carroll. A catalog of his
published drawings of Carroll material
can be found in Much Ado: The
Pogofenokee Trivia Book; an essay,
"Three Little Maids: Walt Kelly and the
Nonsense Tradition (of Lewis Carroll
and James Joyce)" can be found in The
Walt Kelly Collector 's Guide and a se-
ries of previously unpublished illustra-
tions to Humpty Dumpty's "Little
fishes" poem can be found in the Pogo
Fan Club's Fort Mudge Most, issue #
41, all available from Spring Hollow
Books, 6908 Wentworth Ave. So.,
Richfield MN 55423.

Analog Magazine's Oclober 1994 issue
printed part 3 of a story called
"Starmind". The White Rabbit was
identified as the Mad Hatter. Shame.

d

(p/^/^e^/

r/?m

c/e/fti^

British zoologist and journalist Matt
Ridley's book The Red Queen: Sex and
the Evolution of Human Nature
(Macmillan, 1994) quotes TTLG and
formulates "The Red Queen Theory" on
sexuality and human nature.

Art & Artifacts

This fine rubber stamp is available from
Ready-Made Rubber, RO.Box 563,
Bownieville CA 95936.

Looking for tree ornaments?
EXIMIOUS of London offers Alice,
Hatter and Hare #3503 and/or King,
Queen, Knave of Hearts #3703 for $40
a set @ 1-800-221 -9464. ..Bergdorf
Goodman offers seven ones - hand
made, hand painted fabric for $185
(®1 -800-967-3788... The Smithsonian
catalog shows five porcelain and fabric
decorations for $18 or $75 for the set
@ 1-800-322-0344.

Gump's, 240 Post Street, San Francisco
CA 94108 (1-800-284-8677) has dis-

tributed its holiday catalogue which
includes a Halcyon Enamel Sea Shell
box (item LH52C - $190) whose outer
lid shows a beach scene, but inside is
inscribed, "O oysters, come and walk
with us. ..along the briny beach. Lewis
Carroll".

A tin box decorated with Tenniel Alice
illustrations and a functioning clock on
one side is available from the Norm Th-
ompson catalog #10608 for $39. 1 -800-
547-1160. PC Box 3999 Portland OR
97208.

Video

The Whole Toon Catalog, RO. Box 369,
Issaquah WA 98027, features animated
works on video. Their Alices include
Disney's, Svankmajer's, Bunin's,
"Betty in Blunderland" (Betty Boop
Collection, vol.1), "Alice in Wonder-
land in Paris", "Alphabet Conspiracy"
{Bell Science Series) with Hans Conried
as the Mad Hatter, Disney's "Alice in
Cartoonland" {Cartoon Classics vo\3),
"Porky in Wackyland" {Cartoon Col-
lection vol.1), "Care Bears in Wonder-
land", and Vince Collins' outrageous
"Malice in Wonderland" {Adult Anima-
tion).

Computers

Nippon Books is coming out with an
"interactive museum Alice" on CD-
ROM. Their catalog reads, "ALICE was
created through the cooperation of three
artists working in three different fields -
the painter Kuniyoshi, the musician
Kazuhiko Kato, and the computer
graphics artist Haruhiko Shono." 1-
800-652-1410 for further information.

Softlink Europe has a library automa-
tion catalogue called Alice, whose logo
is an unmistakable drawing of our hero-
ine. 26 Hanborough House, Lodge
Road, Long Hanborough, Oson 0X7
2LH, England.

For assistance in preparing this issue we would like to thank: Joel Birenbaum, Richard Boothe, Sandor Burstein,
Barbara Felicetti, Rosella Howe, August Imholtz, Janet Jurist, Charles Lovett, and Lucille Posner.

Knight Letter is the official newsletter of the Lewis Carroll Society of North America. It is publishhed quarterly and
is distributed free to all members. Subscriptions, business correspondence, and inquiries should be addressed to the
Secretary, LCSNA, 1655 34th Street NW, Washington DC 20007. Annual membership dues are $20 (regular) &
$50 (sustaining). Submissions and editorial correspondence shold be sent to the Editor, Mark Burstein, P.O. Box
2006, Mill Valley CA 94942 or via e-mail at S=Burstein%G=Mark%Bechtel@mcimail.com.