Skip to main content

Full text of "Knight Letter No. 76"

See other formats 


■^^i;)iy^ 


KNIGHT  UTTER 


The  Lewis  Carroll  Society  of  North  America 


spring  2006 


Volume  II  Issue  6 


Number  76 


Knight  Letter  is  the  official  magazine  of  the  Lewis  Carroll  Society  of  North  America. 

It  is  published  twice  a  year  and  is  distributed  free  to  all  members. 

Subscriptions,  business  correspondence,  and  inquiries  should  be  addressed 

to  the  Secretary,  PO  Box  204.  Napa  CA  94559. 

Annual  membership  dues  are  U.S.  $25  (regular)  and  $50  (sustaining). 

Submissions  and  editorial  correspondence  should  be  sent  to 

the  Editor,  preferably  by  email  (wrabbit@worldpassage.net) , 

or  mailed  to  1251  San  Antonio  Rd.,  Petaluma,  CA  94952. 

ISSN  0193-886X 


Mark  Burstein,  Editor  in  Chief 

Sarah  Adams,  Matthew  Demakos,  Associate  Editors 

Andrew  H.  Ogus,  Designer 


The  Lewis  Carroll  Society  of  North  America 

President: 
Alan  Tannenbaum,  tannenbaum@mindspring.com 

Vice-President: 
Mark  Burstein,  wrabbit@worldpassage.net 

Secretary: 
Cindy  Watter,  hedgehogccw@sbcglobal.net 


www.LewisCarroll.org 


On  the  Front  Cover: 
Mary  Kline-Misol 

Hatter,  1998 

Acrylic  on  canvas 

60" X  50" 

seep.  7 


^^ 


CONTENTS 


THe   ReCTORY  UMBRBLLA 

J^ 

A  Gardner's  Nosegay:  Further  Annotations 
Martin  Gardner 

1 

You  Really  Ought  to  Give  Iowa  a  Try 
Mark  Burstein 


Folklore  and  Mythology  in  the  Alice  Books 
Frederick  C.  Lake 


Aboard  the  Trojan  Horse 
Mark  Burstein 

13 

Evolution  of  a  Dream-Child:  Images  of  Alice 

and  Changing  Conceptions  of  Childhood 

Parts  I  and  II 

Victoria  Sears 

19 


MISCHMASCH 


LGAVeS  FROM  THG  DGANGRY  GARDSN 
24 

RAVINGS 
26 

SGRGNDIPITY 

28 

Another  Contemporary  Sylvie  and  Bruno  Review 
Clare  Imholtz 

29 


An  Archetype  of  Transformation 
Jenifer  Ransom 

30 

CARROLLIAN   NOTGS 

33 

Sic,  Sic,  Sic 

The  Rath  of  Grapes 

Dodo  Dada 

Of  Sex  and  Queens 

Serendipity  Do 
Andrew  Sellon 

Deliva  Falletta 

Dodgson  on  Holiday 
Clare  Imholtz 

Take  the  Kids 


OF   BOOKS  AND  THINGS 

37 

Alice  and  the  Dean 

Leave  This  Stone  Unturned 
Andrew  Ogus 

Mystery  Solved 

Reduxio  ad  Absurdum 
Sarah  Adams 

Ten  for  Ten(niel) 
Sarah  Adams 

Alice,  Where  Art  Thou? 
Clare  Imholtz 

FROM  OUR   FAR-FLUNG 
CORRGSPONDGNTS 

40 

Books — A  r  ticks — Cyberspace 

Conferences  and  Lectures — Exhibitions 

Performances — A  uctions 

Media — Things 


First,  apologies  for  a  "late"  delivery  (characteristic  of  a  certain  pigment- 
impaired  lagomorph).  This  edition  contains  the  first  instance  of  reporting 
two  meetings  in  one  issue;  we  felt  this  was  a  better  solution  than  to  have 
another  long  delay  before  you  could  read  about  our  recent  Southern  Cali- 
fornia confabulation. 

Speaking  of  deliveries,  it's  been  a  bit  hectic  here  since  the  arrival  of 
the  newest  member  of  our  cult,  Sonja  Eames  Burstein,  born  on  April  7.  I 
tried  to  name  her  Alice,  Lily,  Dinah,  Kitty,  Rose,  Ada,  Mabel,  Isa,  Xie,  Louisa, 
or  Carol  or  something  somehow  related,  but  my  beloved  wife  Llisa  wasn't 
crazy  about  the  idea.  She  herself  came  up  with  "Sonja"  and  imagine  our 
surprise  when,  after  hearing  the  news,  Mariah  Isakova  revealed  to  me  that 
Sonja  (cohh)  was,  in  fact,  the  Russian  word  for  "dormouse"!  Even  later,  I  re- 
membered that  CoH^  6  cmpane  duea  {Sonja  in  the  Land  of  Miracles)  was  the  first 
Russian  translation  of  Wonderland  (in  1879).  Curious  how  that  worked  out. 

In  this  issue  we  welcome  back  Martin  Gardner,  who  has  bestowed  upon 
us  some  further  annotations;  the  long-awaited  paper  on  folklore  and  my- 
thology by  Rick  Lake  (delivered  to  our  society  at  our  Spring  2004  meeting) ; 
Jenifer  Ransom's  views  on  mushrooms;  and  the  first  part  of  a  series  on  the 
evolving  image  of  Alice  by  Victoria  Sears. 

Gotta  run.  Sonja  is  sneezing,  and  I  don't  want  her  to  turn  into  a  pig. 

Mark  Burstein 


1^^ 

^s^ 


^ 


^^^ 

^^^ 


7^ 


MARTIN  GARDNER 


T/j^  eternally  productive  Martin  Gardner,  in  between  edit- 
ing a  ''heavily  revised"  edition  of  The  New  Ambidextrous 
Universe:  Symmetry  and  Asymmetry,  from  Mirror 
Reflections  to  Superstrings  (which  contains  many  Car- 
rollian  references  in  regard  to  mirror  reflections)  and  assem- 
bling a  collection  of  essays  on  G.  K.  Chesterton,  among  other 
projects,  still  finds  time  to  keep  up  with  the  latest  in  Carrol- 
Han  scholarship.  In  KL  75,  he  added  nearly  thirty  annota- 
tions; here  are  his  latest  contributions. 

New  Notes  and  Corrections 

The  page  numbers  are  for  "The  Definitive  Edition" 
of  The  Annotated  Alice  (Norton,  2000).  Pagination  is 
different  in  the  Penguin  British  edition. 

14.  Add  note  5a: 

Brian  Sibley  noticed  that  in  Tenniel's  picture 
(p.  22)  of  the  White  Rabbit  trotting  down  the 
hall,  no  lamps  are  hanging  from  the  ceiling. 

15.  Add  a  ^^^  at  the  end  of  the  top  paragraph. 

23.   Add  to  note  4: 

See  also  "Alice  in  Mathematics,"  by  Kenneth  D. 
Salins,  in  The  Carrollian  (Spring  2000). 

28.   Add  to  note  10: 


See  Brian  Sibley's  delightful  essay  "Mr.  Dodgson 
and  the  Dodo,"  \n  Jabberxuocky  (Spring  1974). 
He  quotes  Will  Cuppy,  "The  Dodo  never  had  a 
chance.  He  seems  to  have  been  invented  for  the 
sole  purpose  of  becoming  extinct  and  that  was 
all  he  was  good  for." 

36.    Insert  the  following  between  the  two  paragraphs 
of  Note  4: 

See  "A  Tail  in  a  Tail-Rhyme,"  by  Jeffery  Maiden, 
Gary  Graham,  and  Nancy  Fox,  in  Jabberwocky 
(Summer/ Autumn  1989),  and  its  references. 

48.   Add  to  Note  2: 

See  an  earher  article,  "Alice,  WTio  Are  You?"  by 
Fred  Madden,  \n  Jabberwocky  (Summer/ Autumn 
1988).  He  also  mentions  that  Carroll  owned 
a  copy  of  MacKay's  book,  with  its  chapter  on 
"Popular  Follies  in  Great  Cities." 

64.   Add  to  Note  4: 

John  Shaw,  writing  on  "WTio  Wrote  'Speak  Gen- 
tly'?" m  Jabberivocky  (Summer  1972),  also  gives 
a  history  of  the  controversy  in  which  he  played 
such  a  major  role.  He  provides  a  bibliography 
of  56  publications  of  poems  that  begin  "Speak 


1 


gently."  Carroll's  parody,  he  concludes,  "may 
well  be  an  echo  of  all  of  them  rather  than  any 
one  of  them." 

Carroll's  parody  has  been  set  to  music  by  Al- 
fred Scott  Catty.  The  score,  undated,  is  repro- 
duced '\n  Jabberwocky  (Winter  1970). 

65.   Add  to  Note  5: 

Tenniel's  picture  of  Alice  holding  the  pig  is  one 
of  his  very  few  illustrations  showing  Alice  full 
face,  looking  straight  ahead.  Note  the  foxgloves 
on  the  left. 

68.   Add  to  Note  10: 

Ferdinand  J.  Soto,  in  The  Carrollian  (Spring 
1998)  suggests  that  Alice  left  a  straight  road  and 
for  a  short  distance  followed  a  circular  path  that 
put  her  back  on  the  straight  road.  Of  course  the 
simplest  explanation  is  that  Tenniel  failed  to 
notice  that  Alice  had  "walked  on." 

120.   Add  to  Note  2: 

Adams  has  denied  that  he  had  Carroll  in  mind 
when  his  computer  Deep  Thought  answered 
the  "ultimate  question."  It  was  no  more  than  a 
joke — a  random  number  that  popped  into  his 
head.  (See  Knight  Letter,  Summer  2005.)  For 
more  speculations  about  42,  see  the  three  ar- 
ticles on  the  topic  xn  Jabberwocky  (Spring  1993) 
and  musings  by  Charles  Ralphs  and  others  in 
Jabberwocky  (Winter/Spring  1989). 

136.  Add  to  Note  2: 

Many  attempts  have  been  made  to  justify  the 
eccentric  moves  in  Carroll's  chess  game.  See 
"Looking-Glass  Chess"  by  Rev.  J.  Lloyd  Davies  in 
the  Anglo-Welsh  Review  (Vol.19,  Autumn  1970) 
and  "Looking-Glass  Chess"  by  Ivor  Davies  in 
Jabberwocky  (Autumn  1971).  The  most  detailed 
analysis  is  A.  S.  M.  Dickins'  lecture  "Alice  in 
Fairyland,"  as  edited  and  expanded  in  Jabber- 
loocky  (Winter  1976).  The  Fairyland  is  "fairy 
chess,"  a  common  term  for  variants  of  chess 
based  on  unorthodox  pieces  and  rules. The  ar- 
ticle is  cited  again  in  Chapter  3,  Note  1,  and 
Chapter  9,  Note  1.  Incidentally,  Bird's  opening, 
mentioned  earlier  in  this  note,  is  pawn  to  king 
bishop's  four. 

137.  Put  a  ^  after  the  chapter  title. 
Add  new  note: 

An  early  draft  of  the  table  of  contents  for 
Through  the  Looking-Glass,  located  in  the  Hough- 
ton Library  at  Harvard  University,  shows  that  this 
chapter  was  originally  to  be  called  "The  Glass 
Curtain";  Chapter  V  was  once  two  chapters, 
"Living  Backwards"  and  "Scented  Rushes,"  most 
likely  divided  before  the  paragraph  beginning 
"She  looked  at  the  Queen,"  (p.  200);  Chapter 
VIII  was  called  "Check!";  and  Chapter  XII  was 
written  in  as  "Whose  Dream  Was  it?".  See  Matt 


Demakos's  "The  Annotated  Wasp,"  Knight  Letter 
(Winter  2003). 

146.   Add  to  Note  9: 

For  some  strange  reason,  not  yet  understood, 
here  Tenniel  gave  the  White  King  the  same 
crown  as  worn  by  queens,  as  he  did  with  the  Red 
King  in  the  previous  picture!  Were  they  simply 
blunders  on  his  part?  If  so,  why  did  Carroll,  who 
surely  knew  that  a  chess  king  is  topped  with  a 
cross,  not  object? 

155.   Add  to  Note  42: 

It  is  easy  to  write  nonsense  parodies  of  "Jabber- 
wocky": simply  substitute  new  nonsense  words 
for  Carroll's.  More  difficult  is  to  substitute  words 
that  make  a  sensible  lyric  poem.  For  example. 
Harvard  professor  Harry  Levin,  in  his  fine  essay 
"Wonderland  Revisited"  in  Jabberwocky  (Autumn 
1970),  does  just  this  to  produce  the  following 
lovely  quatrain: 

'Twas  April  and  the  heavy  rains 

Did  drip  and  drizzle  on  the  road: 

All  misty  were  the  windowpanes, 
And  the  drainpipes  overflowed. 

181.   Add  to  Note  1: 

A  much  later  jingle  is  worth  quoting: 

A  divinity  student  named  Tweedle 
Refused  to  accept  his  degree. 

"It's  bad  enough  to  be  Tweedle,"  he  said, 
"Without  being  Tweedle,  D.D." 

Note  that  "Fiddle"  can  be  substituted  for  "Twee- 
dle." 

208.    Put  '^'^  at  the  end  of  the  first  line  below  the 
poem. 

Add  new  note: 

4a.  Alice's  version  of  the  nursery  rhyme,  with 
its  faulty  last  line,  actually  appeared  in  an  1843 
London  book  titled  Pictorial  Humpty  Dumpty.  See 
Brian  Riddle's  "Musings  on  Humpty  Dumpty," 
\r\  Jabberwocky  (Summer/ Autumn  1989).  The 
jingle's  final  line  is  usually  "Couldn't  put 
Humpty  together  again." 

226.  Add  to  Note  8: 

See  "Carroll,  the  Lion  and  the  Unicorn,"  by  Jef- 
frey Stern,  in  The  Carrollian  (Spring,  2000). 

241.   Add  to  the  end  of  the  fourth  paragraph  from 

the  bottom  (after  "deep  ditch")  the  numeral 

8a 

Add  new  note  8a: 

Frankie  Morris,  in  Jabberzvocky  (Autumn,  1985) 
conjectures  that  the  White  Knight's  inability  to 
stay  on  his  horse  may  have  reflected  the  notori- 
ously bad  horsemanship  of  King  James  I. 

Sir  Walter  Scott's  novel  The  Fortunes  of  Nigel 
said  the  king  had  a  specially  constructed  saddle 
to  keep  him  locked  on  his  horse,  and  Dickens, 


i 


260. 


in  his  Child's  History  of  England,  called  James  I 
"the  worst  horse  rider  ever  seen."  In  1692,  his 
horse  stumbled  and  threw  him  into  an  icy  river 
so  that  only  his  boots  were  visible.  This  may  have 
inspired  Tenniel's  drawing  of  Alice  rescuing  the 
White  Knight  from  a  ditch. 

At  the  end  of  the  third  paragraph  from  the  bot- 
tom, after  "thirty-times-three,"  add  the  numeral 
13a. 


Add  new  note  13a: 

Three-times-three  was  and  still  is  a  popular  way 

of  ending  a  toast  with  3x3  =  9  cheers. 

Tennyson,  in  the  conclusion  of  "In  Memoriam," 

writes: 

Again  the  feast,  the  speech,  the  glee  ... 

The  crowning  cup,  the  three-times-three. 

281.   Add  in  the  margin: 

In  2005,  at  a  Christie's  auction  in  New  York  City, 
the  galleys  sold  for  $50,000. 


298.  Add  the  following  paragraph  to  the  note  given 
in  my  previous  supplement: 
See  also  a  special  issue  oi Jabbenvocky  (Summer 
1978)  devoted  to  the  symposium.  Although  the 
consensus  was  that  the  "Wasp  in  a  Wig"  galleys 
were  authentic,  all  agreed  that  in  the  episode, 
although  it  presented  Alice  in  a  new  light,  the 
writing  was  not  Carroll  at  his  best,  and  that 
Tenniel  was  justified  in  suggesting  that  it  be  ex- 
cluded from  the  book.  There  was  no  agreement 
on  where  Carroll  intended  the  episode  to  be 
placed. 

308.   Add  to  the  end  of  bibliography: 

Artist  of  Wonderland:  The  Life,  Political  Cartoons, 
and  Illustrations  of  Tenniel.  Frankie  Morris,  2005. 


Mary  KUne-Misol 
Oracle,  2003 
Acrylic  on  canvas 

M     70"  X  24" 


-^^ 


Y®it  l.(ii!JUl^  Oi!§M  t©  Qm%  Imm.  n.  Tsj 


MARK  BURSTEIN 

-    ^3©-    - 


It  is  difficult  indeed  to  think  of  Iowa  without  hum- 
ming "Seventy-Six  Trombones"  or  another  of  the 
fine  songs  from  native  son  Meredith  Wilson's  The 
Music  Man.  In  some  ways,  our  fall  meeting  could  have 
been  in  that  River  City  in  1912  he  so  idealized:  the 
sun  was  shining  brightly  on  the  cornfields  as  we  ar- 
rived; it  was  "Discover  Victorian  Iowa"  week,  with  its 
attendant  festivities;  and  we  dined 
in  Edwardian  splendor  at  a  man- 
sion on  Saturday.  But  I  am  getting 
ahead  of  the  story. 

Friday  afternoon  saw  the  Max- 
ine  Schaefer  Reading  at  the  Willard 
Elementary  School,  where  fourth- 
graders  were  initiated  into  the 
world  behind  the  looking-glass  with 
a  dramatic  reading  by  Pat  Griffin  of 
the  "Humpty  Dumpty"  chapter,  and 
seemed  delighted  to  receive  their 
copies  of  the  book. 

We  met  in  the  Iowa  State  His- 
torical Building  on  a  sunny  Satur- 
day, October  15,  in  downtown  Des 
Moines  ("The  Monks,"  though 
none  were  visible).  Actual  biplanes 
were  hanging  from  the  ceiling,  and 
exhibits  ranged  from  the  accom- 
plishments of  famous  lowans  to  the  somewhat  surreal 
display  of  objects  that  had  been  swallowed  or  coughed 
up,  from  the  collection  of  a  local  bronchologist. 

First  up  was  a  welcome  from  our  president,  Alan 
Tannenbaum,  to  the  forty-two  or  so  souls  gathered  in 
a  meeting  room,  and  a  few  announcements,  by  and 
large  bemoaning  the  nondelivery  of  two  packages  of 
books:  Frankie  Morris's  Artist  of  Wonderland  (p. 38) 
and  Charlie  Lovett's  Lewis  Carroll  Among  His  Books  {KL 
75:29).  (They  never  did  show  up.)  Alan  also  reported 
on  a  most  cordial  visit  he  had  with  Martin  Gardner, 
who  happens  to  live  on  the  route  betwixt  Austin  and 
Des  Moines. 

David  Schaefer,  a  charter  member  of  our  soci- 
ety and  one  whose  Carroll  collection  began  with  his 
mother  in  the  1890s,  treated  us  to  complete  or  par- 
tial showings  of  nine  Alice  films,  only  two  of  which  are 
commercially  available.  Movies  were  beginning  to  be 
shown  in  London  as  early  as  1896,  often  at  the  end  of 


theatrical  presentations,  so  it  is  possible,  although  un- 
verifiable,  that  our  Mr.  Dodgson  actually  saw  one.  It 
has  been  speculated  that  he  perhaps  shunned  them 
as  lower-class  entertainment. 

"Electric  palaces"  ("nickelodeons"  in  the  U.S.) 
soon  flourished,  and  Cecil  Hepworth's  silent  Alice  in 
Wonderland  came  out  in  1903.  David  had  the  good 
fortune  to  meet  Hepworth's 
daughter,  who  gave  him  some 
stills  from  the  missing  scenes, 
the  correct  colors  in  which  to 
tone  and  stain  the  film,  and 
an  advertising  soundtrack, 
promoting  the  then  radically 
long  ten-minute  film  (the 
audience's  attention  span 
was  gauged  to  be  three  min- 
utes), which  proclaimed  it  to 
have  "no  pantomime  or  stage 
effects."  The  actors  were  re- 
cruited from  Hepworth's  film 
crew.  David's  "colorizing," 
achieved  digitally,  had  the  con- 
sequence of  making  the  film 
a  bit  contrasty  and  lacking  in 
detail,  but  it  did  convey  to  us 
a  sense  of  how  it  must  have 
looked  to  the^w  de  siecle  Siudience.  (See  KL  72:40-41 
for  details.  The  film  is  commercially  available.) 

Next  up  was  the  production  by  Thomas  Edison's 
company,  shot  in  the  Bronx  in  1910,  and  long  be- 
lieved lost.  This  one  was  rather  charming,  and  many 
of  the  characters  were  portrayed  by  young  children. 
(Except  Alice,  of  course.  The  tradition  of  actresses  of 
teenage  or  later  years  playing  her  was  unbroken  until 
Irwin  Allen's  casting  of  Natalie  Gregory,  then  nine, 
in  his  1985  production.)  Costuming  was  particularly 
outstanding,  and  the  entire  movie  unfolds  like  ani- 
mated illustrations. 

A  16mm  film  released  in  1930  of  an  "Alice  in 
Wonderland"  dance  sequence  from  the  United  Artists 
picture  Putting  on  the  Ritz,  with  music  by  Irving  Berlin, 
was  next.  One  of  the  lyrics  said  it  best,  "through  the 
looking-glass  into  Wonderland."  It  was  a  very  acro- 
batic ballet,  with  its  star,  Joan  Bennett,  used  to  her 
best  advantage,  that  is,  neither  singing  nor  dancing, 


but  just  mugging  occasionally.  One  odd  bit  of  busi- 
ness had  the  Lion  propositioning  the  White  Rabbit. 

Commonwealth  Pictures  of  Fort  Lee,  New  Jersey, 
put  out  what  was  called  "the  first  sound  talkie  for  chil- 
dren" in  1931,  a  year  before  the  better-known  Para- 
mount effort.  The  actress  portraying  Alice  (who  must 
have  been  in  her  thirties)  sounded  more  than  a  bit 
like  Lina  Lamont  (who,  in  Singing  in  the  Rain,  utters 
the  immortal  line  "Whaddaya  think  I  am,  dumb  or 
sumpm?"). 

We  were  then  shown  the  newsreel  footage  of 
Mrs.  Hargreaves'  arrival  in  New  York  in  1932  for  the 
centenary  celebrations.  Her  welcoming  committee 
consisted  of  the  head  librarian  of  Columbia,  and  the 
head  of  the  chemistry  department,  surely  no  irony  to 
the  legions  of  her  fans  thirty  years  hence. 

A  1955  Popeye  cartoon,  Swee'Pea  Through  the 
Looking-Glass  led  into  a  Three  Stooges  animated  car- 
toon from  the  same  year.  Moe  was  depicted  as  the 
White  Rabbit,  the  March  Hare,  the  King  of  Hearts, 
and  three  "Moe-m"  Raths.  Larry  was  the  caterpillar, 
the  dodo,  and  several  others.  Dialog  was  of  the  "I'm 
the  Queen  of  Hearts,  you  stupid  fuzzball"  caliber.  A 
1967  cartoon.  Abbot  and  Costello  in  Blunderland,  with 
the  voices  of  Bud  Abbott  and  Stu  Erwin,  followed  the 
characters  through  a  slapstick  farce  as  they  avoided 
Hopalong  Tragedy,  a  40-foot  rabbit.  Lines  such  as 
"I'm  not  the  Queen  of  Hearts,  I'm  the  Queen  of 
Clubs  (boink!)"  ensued.  Last  up  was  the  fabulous 
Betty  [Boop]  in  Blunderland,  from  the  Fleischer  Stu- 
dios in  1933,  widely  available. 

Although  the  cafe  in  the  building  was  unexpect- 
edly closed,  fortune  smiled  upon  us  in  the  form  of 
"World  Food  Day,"  whose  venue  was  a  three-block 
festival  of  food  booths  from  all  over  the  planet.  I 
passed  on  the  suitably  Carrollian  deep-fried  Schweine- 
flugel  (pig's  wings),  and  found  myself — outdoors  on 
a  sunny  day  in  Iowa — listening  to  a  live  band  from 
Central  America  while  munching  on  pad  thai  and 
spanikopita,  sipping  freshly  brewed  tea  from  China. 
Not  what  I  was  necessarily  expecting. 

We  also  had  time  to  wander  among  Mary  Kline- 
Misol's  stunning  retrospective  of  paintings  (more  on 
that  below).  As  I  mentioned,  it  was  "Discover  Victo- 
rian Iowa"  week  in  Des  Moines,  sponsored  by  the  State 
Historical  Society,  and  a  parlor  had  been  set  up  within 
the  exhibition,  such  as  might  have  been  in  a  Midwest 
home  in  1880.  There  was  a  (suitably  costumed)  story- 
teller for  children,  and  printed  suggestions  of  read- 
ings, games,  and  activities  were  available. 

After  lunch.  Dr.  Genevieve  Brunet  Smith  (above 
right),  our  erstwhile  secretary  and  longtime  mem- 
ber, the  artistic  director  of  Histrio,  a  Washington, 
D.C.,  theater  performing  French  plays,  spoke  next, 
although  "spoke"  is  too  mild  a  verb  for  her  perfor- 
mance. The  talk,  "Portrait  of  an  Artist,"  a  fascinating 
look  at  Dodgson/Carroll  through  seven  facets,  was 


an  utter  delight,  as  Dr. 
Smith  pulled  out  all 
the  stops  from  her  act- 
ing training,  and  gave 
an  extraordinarily 
animated,  flamboyant, 
fabulously  theatrical 
reading  of  her  paper, 
which  contained  a 
recitation  of  the  young 
Dodgson's  poem  "My 
Fairy."  The  facets,  for 
the  record,  were  "a 

man  of  God,"  "a  man  of  science,"  "a  man  of  letters 
(pun  intended),"  "an  illustrator,"  "a  photographer," 
"an  inventor  and  a  composer,"  and  "an  indefatigable 
walker." 

After  we'd  settled  back  into  our  seats  recovering 
from  the  wild  ride.  Dr.  Frankie  Morris  (below)  took 
the  lectern.  A  Ph.D.  in  Art  History,  an  experienced 
commercial  artist  and  portraitist,  and  the  author  of 
Artist  of  Wonderland:  The  Life,  Political  Cartoons,  and 
Illustrations  of  Tenniel 
(reviewed  on  p.  38), 
she  engaged,  in  a  talk 
largely  drawn  from 
her  book,  in  what  she 
termed  "myth  break- 
ing," portraying  Ten- 
niel as  an  actor,  a 
sportsman,  and  a  fun- 
loving  socialite,  who 
was  healthy  and  ath- 
letic into  his  nineties 
despite  the  childhood 
loss  of  the  use  of  his 

right  eye.  Tenniel,  historically  important  for  his  polit- 
ical cartoons  for  Punch,  which  were  said  to  have  "pre- 
cipitated wars  and  destroyed  cabinets,"  is  so  entwined 
in  the  public  consciousness  with  our  society's  name- 
sake that  in  her  talk  Morris  once  accidentally  referred 
to  them  by  a  portmanteau,  "Carriel."  She  discussed, 
with  great  knowledge  and  insight,  the  relationship  of 
the  two  men  (e.g.,  Tenniel  lowered  his  usual  fee  for 
illustrations  to  £138  for  the  complete  set  of  42  draw- 
ings), the  engraving  process  of  the  Dalziels  and  Ten- 
niel's  contributions  to  the  art  of  the  woodblock,  and 
other  related  matters. 

After  a  short  break  and  a  trading-and-selling 
frenzy  among  the  attendees,  Morris  presented  her 
second  talk,  "Attitudes,  Misery,  and  Purring  When 
You're  Pleased."  This  fascinating,  free-wheeling  talk 
is  slated  to  be  published  as  an  essay  in  The  Carrollian, 
so  we  can  only  go  over  highlights  here.  She  spoke  to 
Parables  from  Nature  (1855-1871),  a  five-part  series  for 
children  by  Dodgson's  friend  Margaret  Gatty,  and 
their  influence  on  the  Alice  books;  "Anglo-Saxon  at- 


% 

1 

M 

wk 

Bouf 

^H 

»^~ 

WRo  tl^^ 

^^H 

It 

^B^ 

n 

titudes"  in  relation  to  the  theatrical  term  "attitudes" 
in  Dodgson's  time  (also  called  tableaux  vivants  or  poses 
plastiques) ,  which  she  illustrated  with  some  occasion- 
ally hilarious  slides  of  British  matrons  in  their  "up- 
lifting" poses;  and  discussed  echoes  of  Percy  Bysshe 
Shelley  in  Carroll's  early,  "melancholic"  poems. 

Three  collectors  then  presented  aspects  of  their 
collections  via  PowerPoint  slides,  as  prelude  to  a 
panel  discussion.  First,  August  Imholtz  chose  to  dis- 
cuss just  one  small  corner  of  his  collection,  one  oc- 
cupied by  Russian  translations.  Although  he  regrets 
that  he  does  not  possess  the  first  translation  (1879), 
he  has  great  depth  in  his  holdings.  He  began  in  me- 
dias  res  talking  about  Nina  Demurova,  who  was  ap- 
proached in  1967  to  translate  a  Bulgarian  edition 
into  Russian.  Being  of  a  practical  mind,  she  inquired 
whether  it  wouldn't  be  a  bit 
more  appropriate  to  translate 
it  from  the  English  into  Rus- 
sian, which  she  so  successfully 
did.  August  proceeded  to  show 
us  mainly  illustrated  covers  of 
the  books,  which  he  catego- 
rized among  the  "traditional, 
primitive,  crude,  cutesy,  fanci- 
ful, stylized,  hideous,  brilliant, 
or  merely  grotesque."  Demuro- 
va's  1978  retranslation  for  the 
science  publisher  Nauka  also 
contained  annotations  and  es- 
says, one  by  the  chief  trainer  of 
cosmonauts! 

"Hello,  my  name  is  Joel 
and  I'm  an  Alice  collector," 
began  the  second  talk,  by  for- 
mer president  Joel  Birenbaum, 
who  quite  rightly  compared 
us  to  a  group  of  "Alice-holies 
Anonymous."  "Hello,  Joel!"  we 
properly  replied.  He  echoed 
the  sentiments  of  all  collectors, 
saying  that  he  felt,  like  Alice  in 

the  WTiite  Rabbit's  home,  that  his  house  was  shrinking 
as  his  holdings  grew.  He  began  by  discussing  "Alice  in 
Popular  Culture"  (Booker's  recent  book  of  the  same 
title  barely  glanced  the  surface,  Joel  feels),  as  "all 
things  Alice"  have  infiltrated  and  permeated  our  ev- 
eryday lives.  He  next  talked  about  "Alice  in  the  News," 
illustrated  by  his  July  1992  discovery,  in  the  church  in 
Croft  where  the  senior  Dodgson  had  been  rector,  of  a 
stone  carving  of  a  cat's  head,  floating  in  the  air  a  few 
feet  above  the  floor,  just  like  the  Cheshire  Cat.  A  small 
story  in  the  Northern  Echo  was  picked  up  nine  days  later 
by  the  Chicago  Tribune,  giving  it  front-page  coverage, 
under  pictures  of  the  Pope  and  George  Harrison. 
From  there  it  went  to  the  wire  services,  NPR,  Readers ' 
Digest,  and  so  on  throughout  the  known  universe. 


ANGLO-SAXON  ATTITUDES 

CHARACTERISTIC  DRAWINGS.  ILLUSTRATIVE  OF  THE  BIBLE  STORY. 
FROM  THE  MANUSCJUPT  OF  THE  CAEDMONIAN  POEMS 
IN  THEJUNIAN  CODEX 


"Alice  in  Advertising"  showed  our  heroine  hawk- 
ing insulation,  light  and  power,  tomato  juice,  Philco 
refrigerators,  Ford  cars.  Guinness  beer,  and  so  on 
throughout  the  years.  Alice,  he  speculated,  is  the 
most  recognized  icon  outside  of  Mickey  Mouse,  and, 
as  she  is  out  of  copyright,  a  lot  easier  to  tie  one's 
product  to.  "Alice  in  Packaging"  showed  her  on  tea 
and  toffee  tins,  clotted  cream  fudge,  and  so  on;  he 
narrated  a  small  digression  on  how,  on  his  first  wed- 
ding anniversary,  he  and  Debbie  found  themselves  in 
an  otherwise  empty  cow  pasture  in  Lyndhurst  where 
Alice  once  had  lived.  "Alice  in  Cloth"  showed  her  por- 
trayed on  pillowcases,  bedspreads,  curtains,  and  the 
omnipresent  t-shirts;  "Alice  Here,  Alice  There,  Alice 
Ever^-whichwhere,"  a  miscellaneous  category  showed 
her  on  posters,  cards,  stamps,  rulers,  and  even  goth 
dolls;  and,  finally,  "It's  in  the 
Cards,  Alice"  displayed  greeting 
cards.  Joel  finished  by  saying  he 
did  not  have  time  to  even  begin  to 
show  all  his  other  ephemera:  po- 
litical cartoons,  games,  toys,  etc. 
Joel's  talk  is  on  the  Web  at  www. 
lewiscarroll.org/meeting/2005fl/ 
popweb/popculture.html. 

The  present  writer  took  the 
microphone  for  "My  Life  with 
Alice:  A  Scrapbook,"  the  story  of 
his  collection  from  1928  (when 
his  grandmother  put  Alice  wall- 
paper in  the  nursery  of  his  father, 
Sandor),  through  their  serious 
collecting  years  from  the  mid- 
'70s  to  the  present.  Sandor,  a  for- 
mer Society  president,  traces  his 
love  for  Carroll  back  to  the  first 
grade,  when  he  was  in  love  with 
his  teacher,  a  Miss  Kathleen  Sher- 
man. She  happened  to  be  playing 
Alice  in  a  local  production,  and 
he  became  enchanted.  This  tale 
had  a  charming  follow-up  in  1983, 
when  our  local  paper  had  an  article  on  the  collection, 
and  Sandor  shortly  thereafter  received  a  call  from  a 
Mrs.  Reno  Biagini,  whose  maiden  name  was — Kath- 
leen Sherman.  They  had  a  lovely  reunion,  fifty  years 
later. 

One  of  the  things  that  is  particularly  uncommon 
in  this  day  and  age  is  that  our  entire  collection,  now 
numbering  over  3,000  books  and  1,300  objects,  was 
assembled  the  old-fashioned  way,  without  using  the 
vast  power  of  the  Internet  in  search  engines  such 
as  eBay  or  Alibris.  Photos  of  some  of  the  more  rare 
items  were  shown:  Chepmell's  A  Short  Course  of  His- 
tory, Lawrence  Melnick's  unique  hand-illustrated  and 
calligraphed  Looking-Glass,  some  fine  hand-bindings. 
The  Holy  Land  by  Reverend  Canon  Duckworth,  Car- 


^'^  '  A,   ^,xr 


roll's  own  cribbage  board  and  Alice  Liddell's  accor- 
dion, now  fully  restored. 

Other  collectors  had  sent  in  slides  of  various 
items  from  their  collections:  David  Schaefer's  unique, 
original  puppet  of  the  Hatter  from  the  1951  Bunin 
film;  a  100-foot  roll  of  "Alice  in  Picnicland"  (a  runner 
for  a  supermarket  display);  lawn  statuary,  jewelry,  and 
on  and  on. 

A  short  Q&A  panel  discussion,  moderated  by 
Alan  Tannenbaum,  followed:  the  most  memorable 
question  being  about  the  fabled  Protocols  of  the  Elders 
of  Wonderland. 

Our  gracious  and  talented  hostess,  Mary  Kline- 
Misol  (right),  spoke  next  to  the  central  reason  we 
were  in  Des  Moines:  her  Alice  Cycle,  a  retrospective 
of  42  paintings  from  1988  to  date.  Her  work  began 
two  decades  ago  at  Drake  University,  where  her  thesis 
show  involved  drawing  a  "visual  narrative,"  and  her 
theme  was  the  Alice  books.  To  see  her  paintings  to- 
gether for  the  first  time  was  extraordinarily  moving, 
both  for  the  artist  and  those  of  us  privileged  to  be  in 
attendance.  (For  those  who  were  not,  she  has  most 
generously  offered  to  send  them,  without  charge, 
the  stunning,  full-color  catalog!)'  Her  exquisitely 
rendered,  powerful  paintings  (many  are  quite  large, 
the  biggest  50"  x  80")  celebrate  Carroll's  characters 
in  an  exuberant,  yet  personal  way:  e.g.,  a  giant  Duch- 
ess (seen  from  Alice's  diminutive  perspective);  im- 
ages of  transformation  and  growth,  often  based  on 
photographs  of  Alice  Liddell;  a  diptych  called  Nemesis 
(Alice  and  the  Queen  of  Hearts).  Two  of  these  images 
grace  our  cover  and  page  3. 

"I  have  always  been  drawn  to  acrylics  and  con- 
tinue to  work  with  them  today.  My  paintings  develop 
with  images  often  spontaneously  unfolding  as  the 
work  progresses.  Figures  and  objects  appear,  only  to 
be  hidden  under  subsequent  layers  of  paint  as  I  at- 
tempt to  catch  that  elusive  moment  that  will  commu- 
nicate my  inner  vision.  My  techniques  include  scum- 
bling (painting  thin  layers  of  opaque  light  color  over 
dark  colors,  which  gives  a  broken  color  effect)  and 
glazing  (brushing  a  transparent  paint  over  another, 
thoroughly  dried  layer  of  opaque  paint).  These  tech- 
niques mix  the  colors  optically  rather  than  on  the 
palette,  and  the  result  is  a  shimmery,  opalescent  sur- 
face, creating  a  unique  'shine-through'  stained-glass 
effect  that  cannot  be  achieved  with  a  direct  mixture 
of  paint.  The  technique  of  glazing  came  out  of  the 
Northern  Renaissance,  where  it  was  used  to  give  more 
dimension  to  egg  tempera  paintings.  Flemish  paint- 
ers perfected  the  technique." 

It  is  difficult  to  imagine  a  more  enchanting,  mag- 
ical, and  masterly  collection  of  artworks  around  this 
theme.  Please  send  for  her  catalog  and/or  visit  her 
Web  site,  www.angelfire.com/art/MKMisol/. 


We  then  moseyed  over  to  the  Salisbury  House 
for  an  elaborate  banquet  hosted  by  Mary  and  her 
husband,  Sinesio.  The  House,  an  official  "national 
treasure,"  is  a  mansion  of  42  (of  course)  rooms,  right 
off  42nd  (of  course)  Street,  modeled  after  the  King's 
House  in  Salisbury,  England.  Built  between  1923  and 
1928  for  Carl  and  Edith  Weeks  and  situated  on  a  ten- 
acre  landscaped  garden,  it  was  designed  and  built  to 
look  like  a  centuries-old  English  manor  and,  as  such, 
incorporated  elements  from  Gothic,  Tudor,  and  six- 
teenth-century British  buildings,  including  the  ceiling 
from  the  White  Hart  Inn  in  Salisbury,  where  Shake- 
speare's troupe  is  believed  to  have  performed.'^  Some 
of  our  older  members  may  have  recalled  the  fireplace 
in  the  dining  room  as  the  spot  from  which  Vincent 
Price  hosted  The  Chevy  Mystery  Shoxv  in  1960.  Tours  of 
the  house  were  available,  and  the  eclectic  collections 
of  paintings,  rare  books  and  documents,  and  rugs  and 
tapestries  were  on  view,  although  many  of  us  chose  to 
remain  in  the  foyer,  among  the  hors  d'oeuvres  and 
the  exceptional  paintings  of  the  six  wives  of  Henry 
VIII  by  one  Mary  Kline-Misol.  After  that,  it  was  "all 
feasting  and  fun"  long  into  the  evening.  Mary,  who 
put  the  entire  program  together,  and  Sinesio  are  to 
be  congratulated,  roundly  commended,  and  thanked 
for  a  most  enjoyable  and  unforgettable  day,  and  their 
exquisitely  generous  hospitality.  We're  delighted  to 
have  given  Iowa  a  try. 

1  Write  to  her  at  1660  NW  120th  St.,  Clive  lA  50325, 
sending  $2  cash  or  check  to  cover  postage.  Email: 
smkmisol@mchsi.com. 

2  vvww.salisburyhouse.org 


V  -1 


jolktore  ml  j|t|lt|otogt|  In  \\c 


FREDERICK  C.  LAKE 


'.:>x '" 


Critics  have  pondered  the  books'  magic  and 
tried  to  explain  it.  What  are  they  all  about,  they 
ask,  and  why  so  universally  successful?  What  is 
the  key  to  their  enchantment,  why  are  they 
so  entertaining  and  yet  so  enigmatic?  What 
charm  enables  them  to  transcend  language  as 
well  as  national  and  temporal  differences  and 
win  their  way  into  the  hearts  of  young  and  old 
everywhere  and  always? 

-  Morton  Cohen,  Lewis  Carroll:  A  Biography 

The  fantasy  classics  of  the  nineteenth-century  Ox- 
ford don,  mathematician,  cleric,  and  photographer, 
Charles  Lutwidge  Dodgson,  writing  under  the  name 
Lewis  Carroll,  are  among  the  most  popular  books  in 
the  world.  Do  the  disciplines  of  folklore  and  mythol- 
ogy— the  study  of  mankind's  most  timeless  and  uni- 
versal tales — help  to  explain  why  these  works  are  so 
universal  and  enduring? 

Folklore  was,  perhaps,  among  the  first  critical  ap- 
proaches ever  suggested  for  these  books.  The  idea  is 
in  a  letter  to  the  author  himself,  from  a  fellow  aca- 
demic pointing  out  the  parallels  between  the  Alice 
books  and  classic  world  myths: 

Are  we  to  suppose,  after  all,  that  the  saga  of  the 
Jabberwocky  is  one  of  the  universal  heirlooms 
which  the  Aryan  race  at  its  dispersion  carried 
with  it  from  the  great  cradle  of  the  family?  You 
really  must  consult  Max  Miiller  about  this.  It 
is  probable  that  the  origo  originalissima  may  be 
discovered  in  Sanskrit,  and  that  we  shall  by 
and  by  have  a  labrivokaveda.  The  hero  will  turn 
out  to  be  the  Sun-God  in  one  of  his  Avatars; 
and  the  Tumtum  tree  the  great  Ash  Yggdrasil 
of  the  Scandinavian  mythology.^ 

This  article  was  first  presented  as  a  talk  at  The  Lewis  Carroll 
Phenomenon:  An  International  and  Interdisciplinary  Conference 
on  April  3,  1 998,  at  Cardiff  University  of  Wales,  as  adapted 
and  abridged  from  "Folkloristic  Aspects  of  Lewis  Carroll's  Mice's 
Adventures  in  Wonderland  anrf  Through  the  Looking-Glass,  " 
presented  to  the  Committee  on  Degrees  in  Folklore  and  Mythology  in 
partial  fulfillment  of  the  requirements  for  the  degree  of  bachelor  of  arts, 
with  honors,  from  Harvard  College,  Cambridge,  Massachusetts,  on 
March  21,  1980.  This  talk  was  later  given  at  a  meeting  of  the  Lewis 
Carroll  Society  of  North  America  at  Harvard  on  May  8,  2004,  and 
adapted  for  print  by  the  author. 


Robert  Scott,  Dean  of  Rochester,  wrote  the  letter 
in  1872,  shortly  after  the  publication  of  Through  the 
Looking-Glass  and  seven  years  after  Wonderland  had  first 
seen  print.  Under  a  pseudonym.  Dr.  Scott  published  a 
German  translation  of  "Jabberwocky,"  and  suggested 
that  his  rendering  was  the  Germanic  original  from  the 
dark  past.  Carroll  good-naturedly  sent  Dr.  Scott  a  sup 
posedly  older  version  of  the  poem,  a  Latin  translation 
by  Carroll's  own  uncle.''  Both  Scott  and  Carroll  sensed 
the  link  between  traditional  narratives  and  the  two 
Alice  books.  But  that  was  that.  Neither  man  elaborated 
further.  Here  we  continue  the  task. 

In  the  first  stanzas  of  the  prefatory  poem  of  Look- 
ing-Glass, Carroll  twice  calls  the  book  a  "fairy-tale," 
and  concludes  the  poem  by  reminding  us  of  that. 
"Fairy  tale"  may  signify  any  fantastical,  nonsense  story, 
as  the  two  books  patently  are.  But,  as  critics  acknowl- 
edge, Carroll's  nonsense,  like  the  fairy  tale,  harbors 
ideas  of  sober  worth.  Thus  we  ask,  is  the  label  only  a 
metaphor,  or  does  it  more  exactly  define  the  works 
on  their  formal  models  in  English  narrative  tradition? 
Are  they  "folk  fictions  of  which  magical  or  supernatu- 
ral episodes  are  a  necessary  part,""*  called  "Ordinary 
Folk-Tales"  by  Antti  Aarne  and  Stith  Thompson  in 
their  monumental  index  of  tale  types?^ 

Whether  or  not  it  was  Carroll's  conscious  inten- 
tion to  do  so,  circumstances  surrounding  Wonderland 
and  Looking-Glass  suggest  that  they  were  effectively 
modeled  on  folktale.  Specifically,  Victorian  attitudes 
towards  the  folktale  and  children's  literature,  women 
in  the  European  bardic  tradition,  and  traditional  sto- 
rytelling all  influenced  the  Alice  books. 

As  the  nineteenth  century  progressed,  an  increas- 
ing number  of  Victorians  came  to  believe  that  folktale 
was  particularly  appropriate  for  children,  and  that 
being  so,  tales  for  children  should  be  folktales.  Thus, 
protest  was  heard  when,  early  in  the  century,  English 
children's  literature  turned  to  facts  and  moralizing, 
and  away  from  the  traditional  imagination.*^  In  a  let- 
ter to  Coleridge,  Charles  Lamb  asked,  "Is  there  no 
possibility  of  averting  this  sore  evil?  Think  what  you 
would  have  been  now,  if  instead  of  being  fed  with 
tales  and  old  wives'  fables  in  childhood,  you  had  been 
crammed  with  geography  and  natural  history?"' 


Since  domestic  authors  at  the  beginning  of  the 
nineteenth  century  did  not  meet  the  demand  for  the 
sort  of  Hterature  Lamb  and  others  admired,  England 
looked  elsewhere.  In  the  stories  of  Hans  Christian 
Andersen,  a  reviewer  found  "one  notable  and  delight- 
ful exception.  ...  On  the  quaintness  of  author — only 
approached  or  excelled  by  those  of  Hawthorne — we 
need  not  descant  now."^  In  1823,  Taylor  produced 
the  first  English  rendering  of  the  German  folktales 
collected  by  Jacob  and  Wilhelm  Grimm;  similar  works 
would  follow.^ 

In  his  youth,  Carroll  showed  his  distaste  for  the 
standard  fare  for  children.  Some  of  his  early  poems 
parody  the  conventional,  pietistic  middle-class  chil- 
dren's literature.'"  He  also  began  to  bring  folklore 
into  his  writings.  Other  poems  were  reworkings  of 
such  folk  ballads  as  "The  Twa  Brothers.""  The  open- 
ing verse  of  Useful  and  Instructive  Poetry,  the  first  of  the 
family  magazines  written  by  the  young  Carroll  to  en- 
tertain his  large  family,  was  titled  "My  Fairy."  Written 
when  Carroll  was  thirteen,  its  first  line  was  propheti- 
cally, "I  have  a  fairy  by  my  side,"  a  harbinger  for  this 
master  of  fairy  tales  to  be.''^ 

By  the  time  Carroll  published  Wonderland,  Victo- 
rians were  more  susceptible  to  the  study  of  folklore. 
The  works  of  the  philologists,  such  as  Max  Miiller, 
were  objects  of  keen  interest.'^  Although  a  few  English 
authors,  Kingsley  (in  The  Water-Babies)  and  Thackeray 
(in  The  Rose  and  the  Ring),  for  instance,  moved  in  the 
direction  of  the  fairy  tale.  Wonderland  embraced  it.  A 
crowd  of  emulative  children's  works  followed  Carroll, 
with  authors  frequently  assimilating  fairy  tales  and 
folk  material  into  their  writing. 

Carroll  stood  apart  from  other  writers  who  were 
interested  in  traditional  tales;  additionally,  he  ad- 
opted the  legendary  poses  of  the  unlettered  storytell- 
ers. We  may  look,  for  example,  to  Homer  as  a  model 
of  these  figures,  whose  methods  were  decoded  in  The 
Singer  of  Tales,  Albert  Lord's  monumental  work  de- 
scribing the  techniques  of  oral  epic  poetry  as  well  as 
storytellers'  techniques  from  oral  tradition.''*  Hom- 
er's invocations  to  the  muse  are  familiar.  The  spirit  of 
the  muse  is  the  bard's  inspiration;  the  poet  is  merely 
made  clairvoyant  by  her.  The  goddess  herself  is  the 
source  of  the  tale,  and  Homer  calls  on  her  spirit  to 
tell  it  through  him.'"' 

Alice  Liddell  was  Dodgson's  muse.  "The  sole  me- 
dium of  the  stories  is  her  pellucid  consciousness," 
wrote  Walter  de  la  Mare."'  Carroll's  photographs  of 
her  reveal  an  ethereal  character,  as  does  the  terminal 
poem  of  Looking-Glass: 

Still  she  haunts  me,  phantomwise, 
Alice  moving  under  skies 
Never  seen  by  waking  eyes.'" 


In  Wonderland's  prefatory  verses,  which  depict  the 
now  famous  boat  ride,  a  pantheon  of  muses  governs 
the  author: 

Imperious  Prima  flashes  forth 

Her  edict  "to  begin  it": 
In  gentler  tones  Secunda  hopes 

"There  will  be  nonsense  in  it." 
While  Tertia  interrupts  the  tale 

Not  more  tha.n  once  a  minute.'** 

The  storyteller  is  indebted  to  a  feminine  model 
not  only  for  inspiration,  but  also  for  preserving  his 
tales.  The  English  folktale,  as  it  has  survived  to  mod- 
ern times,  is  in  large  part  a  tradition  of  stories  told  by 
older  women  about  younger  girls.  Rather  expectedly, 
most  of  the  informants  listed  in  Katherine  Briggs'  Dic- 
tionary of  British  Folk-Tales  are  women.'-' 

At  Wonderland's  conclusion,  Alice  recounts  her 
dream  adventures  to  her  older  sister,  who  then  falls  to 
dreaming.  A  grown  Alice  replaces  the  teller  of  tales  in 
this  vision.  Like  the  man,  Carroll,  who  precedes  her, 
she  gathers  young  children  to  hear  her  stories.  In  the 
passage,  the  older  girl  "pictured  to  herself  how  this 
same  little  sister  of  hers  would,  in  the  after-time,  be 
herself  a  grown  woman  . . .  and  how  she  would  gather 
about  her  other  little  children,  and  make  their  eyes 
bright  and  eager  with  many  a  strange  tale,  perhaps 
even  with  the  dream  of  Wonderland  of  long  ago."-" 

The  scheme  for  the  transmission  of  oral  tales, 
ultimately  derived  from  oral  literature,  frames  the 
creation  of  Wonderland  and  Looking-Glass.  A  female 
muse  (the  child  Alice)  inspires  the  male  bard  (Lewis 
Carroll).  The  bard  entrusts  his  tales — about  girls  and 
maidens  (the  fictional  Alice) — to  an  older  woman 
(the  mature  Alice  of  her  sister's  dream),  who  passes 
his  stories  to  yet  other  children.  Carroll's  muse,  un- 
like those  of  Virgil  or  Milton,  is  not  a  literary  device. 
In  fact,  it  could  be  said,  no  muse  more  liberally  be- 
stowed her  blessings  on  a  storyteller.  One  woman,  in 
her  real  and  fictional  form  and  in  her  two  ages,  ful- 
fills all  the  necessary  roles. 

With  his  own  words,  the  author  calls  us  down  a 
folkloric  rabbit  hole.  In  addition  to  his  bardic  pose, 
aspects  of  Dodgson's  personal  behavior  resemble  that 
of  the  oral  traditional  storyteller.  The  materials  of  the 
oral  conteur  2ire  preexisting.^'  The  same  world  is  acces- 
sible in  every  retelling  of  the  story,  and  the  conteur  can 
imaginatively,  even  playfully,  manipulate  his  materi- 
als.'^^ Unlike  print,  the  oral  medium  is  not  static,  and 
thus  we  find  multiforms  of  traditional  stories.  The 
tales  he  told  "were  not  entirely  new.  Sometimes  they 
were  versions  of  old  stories;  sometimes  they  started 
on  the  old  basis  but  grew  into  new  tales. "'^"^  Carroll 
wrote  down  the  original  narration  of  Alice's  adven- 
tures merely  to  accommodate  those  who  insisted  that 
he  preserve  his  oral  story. 


The  parallelism  of  the  Alice  books  suggests  that 
they  resemble  each  other,  as  do  the  multiforms  of  an 
oral  traditional  tale.  The  topical  details  vary,  but  the 
motifs  they  represent  remain.  In  the  duad,  the  same 
heroine  leaves  on  a  dream  journey.  The  kings  and 
queens  of  Wonderland's  game  of  cards  correspond 
to  the  kings  and  queens  of  the  chess  game  in  Look- 
ing-Glass.  At  the  end  of  her  first  set  of  journeys,  Alice 
gains  a  towering  stature,  and  at  the  end  of  her  second 
she  becomes  a  queen.  Both  stories  conclude  with  the 
chaotic  degeneration  of  their  respective  worlds  and  a 
rude  awakening  for  the  heroine. 

More  importantly,  however,  the  books  appear  to 
be  multiforms  of  tales  from  oral  tradition  itself.  They 
exhibit  story  patterns  that  have  been  discovered  in 
the  imaginative  traditions  of  many  groups,  narrative 
patterns  encompassing  both  lore  and  myth.  The  anal- 
ysis of  the  disciplines  of  folklore  and  mythology  has 
many  approaches,  ranging  from  historical  through 
psychological  and  semiotic.  "Folk  and  myth"  studies 
may  also  be  multidisciplinary  and  include  compara- 
tive literature  or  religion.  There  are  some  approaches 
that  would  be  familiar  to  those  not  in  the  field:  Jung- 
ian  analysis  could  reveal  the  universal  archetypes  of 
human  thought;  mythic  analysis  could  illustrate  how 
they  are  another  incarnation  of  what  Joseph  Camp- 
bell calls  mankind's  great  monomyth:  "always  the  one, 
shape-shifting  yet  marvelously  constant  story  that  we 
find,  together  with  a  challengingly  persistent  sugges- 
tion of  more  remaining  to  be  experienced  then  ever 
will  be  told."24 

We  will  not  attempt  an  encyclopedic  foray  into 
the  mythic  elements  of  the  Alices  here;  such  a  task 
awaits  a  future  scholar.  The  works  are  infused  with 
the  essence  of  folklore  and  mythology — completing 
such  a  scholarly  venture  would  open  the  narrative 
and  symbolic  elements  of  the  Alices,  like  a  prism  re- 
vealing the  spectrum  of  colors  within  its  white  light  of 
imagination.  The  spirit  of  Dodgson  would  be  amused 
by  such  exegesis.  However,  here  we  shall  start  nar- 
rowly, and  find  or  identify  the  inextricable  links  be- 
tween the  AZic^  books  and  a  select  number  of  timeless 
girl-tales  found  in  traditions  worldwide.  As  creating 
tales  for  the  amusement  (not  betterment)  of  little 
girls  was  the  author's  original  intent,  we  will  defer  to 
his  spirit. 

A  simple  folkloric  method  will  serve  to  start.  The 
AZic^  books,  among  other  things,  are  a  literary  trans- 
formation of  interrelated  classes  of  tales  from  oral 
tradition,  which  convention  describes  as  the  Substi- 
tuted Bride, '^''  the  Search  for  the  Lost  Spouse,  and, 
most  familiar  to  us  all,  Cinderella.  This  broad  classi- 
fication suits  the  structure  and  heroine  of  the  books, 
although  their  details  reveal  links  with  a  diverse  range 
of  traditional  materials.  A  literary  rendering  of  these 
tales  was  not  new:  a  version  of  the  Substituted  Bride 
is  found  in  Genesis  in  the  story  of  Jacob  and  his  mar- 


riages to  Laban's  two  daughters. ^'^  Classical  antiquity 
offers  Apuleius'  "Cupid  and  Psyche."  In  fact,  "Cupid 
and  Psyche"  is  the  folklorists'  synonym  for  the  tale 
of  the  Search  for  the  Lost  Spouse,  which  frequently 
combines  with  elements  of  the  two  others.  Literary 
adaptations  of  the  Cinderella  story  are  numerous. 
Most  know  the  story  by  way  of  Perrault's  seventeenth- 
century  retelling,  although  some  of  the  embellish- 
ments and  details  in  his  version  are  unknown  in  oral 
tradition. '^^ 

Nevertheless,  the  Alices  are  not  mere  retellings 
of  tales  heard  elsewhere.  They  are  a  manifestation  of 
basic  imaginative  designs  that  are  virtually  worldwide 
narrative  currency. 

The  similarity  between  the  structures  of  Wonder- 
land and  Looking-Glass  is  more  apparent  when  they 
are  compared  to  the  Search  for  the  Lost  Spouse. 
What  distinguishes  that  tale  is  the  breaking  of  a 
taboo:  The  heroine  fails  to  follow  the  instructions  of 
an  enchanted  husband  or  other  member  of  her  fam- 
ily. After  the  violation  she  embarks  on  a  journey.  In 
her  travels  she  endures  tasks  and  experiences  associ- 
ated with  maturation.  At  the  journey's  conclusion,  she 
may  reunite  with  her  husband  or  family  or  acquire 
a  new  status.  Often,  the  heroine  becomes  a  queen, 
since  her  previously  enchanted  husband  proves  to  be 
a  prince. 2** 

Disobedience  is  implicit  at  the  start  of  both  of 
Alice's  adventures.  In  the  opening  scenes  of  Looking- 
Glass,  Alice  is  curled  up  in  an  armchair  playing  with 
her  kitten.  Because  of  the  cat's  mischief,  Alice's  talk 
turns  to  the  subject  of  punishment:  "'Suppose  they 
saved  up  all  my  punishments?'  she  went  on,  talking 
more  to  herself  than  the  kitten.  'What  would  they  do 
at  the  end  of  the  year?  I  should  be  sent  to  prison  I 
suppose,  when  the  day  came.'"  Or,  if  the  punishment 
was  to  go  without  dinner,  at  the  end  of  the  year  she 
could  skip  the  meal  for  quite  a  while.  "'Well,'  Alice 
says,  'I  shouldn't  mind  that  much!'"  But  the  violation 
that  begins  her  Journey  is  associated  with  the  look- 
ing-glass itself.  After  she  passes  through  the  mirror, 
which  hangs  over  the  chimney-piece,  she  discovers 
that  the  house  on  the  other  side  of  the  mirror  also 
has  a  fire  in  the  fireplace.  When  she  enters  Looking- 
glass  House,  "The  very  first  thing  she  did  was  to  look 
whether  there  was  a  fire  in  the  fireplace.  ...  'So  I  shall 
be  as  warm  here  as  I  was  in  the  old  room,'  thought 
Alice:  'warmer,  in  fact,  because  there'll  be  no  one 
here  to  scold  me  away  from  the  fire.  Oh,  what  fun  it'll 
be,  when  they  see  me  through  the  glass  in  here,  and 
ca'n't  get  at  me!'"^^ 

As  for  Wonderland,  Alice  would  never  have  got- 
ten there  if  she  had  not  been  disobedient  or,  at  least, 
impetuous.  She  is  sitting  by  her  older  sister,  very  tired, 
when  the  White  Rabbit  first  runs  by.  The  narration 
implies  that  Alice  should  have  been  corrected  for  not 
thinking  about  following  a  talking  rabbit.  "When  she 


10 


thought  it  over  afterwards,  it  occurred  to  her  that  she 
ought  to  have  wondered  at  this.'"^" 

It  is  remarkable,  however,  that  the  details  Carroll 
uses  in  his  tales  of  maturation  are  like  those  in  the 
variants  of  the  Search  for  the  Lost  Spouse.  The  motif 
of  the  glass  mountain  or  glass  house  is  associated  with 
a  variety  of  traditional  girl-tales  in  diverse  cultures.'^' 
A  typical  labor  for  the  heroine  on  her  search  for  her 
lost  spotxse  is  to  climb  a  glass  mountain.  The  first  time 
she  tries,  she  fails.  Only  after  a  period  of  service  is 
she  worthy  of  the  task.  In  the  first  chapter  of  Wonder- 
land, Alice  grows  shorter  after  drinking  a  potion.  She 
wants  the  gold  key  on  the  glass  table  in  order  to  open 
the  door  to  the  garden,  yet  she  is  so  small  she  can- 
not reach  it.  She  tries  to  climb  one  of  the  glass  table's 
legs,  but  it  is  too  slippery.  Only  after  the  social  rigors 
of  Wonderland  can  Alice  move  on  to  the  next  level  of 
maturity.  At  the  beginning  of  her  next  journey,  she 
easily  accomplishes  the  climb  up  to  and  through  the 
looking-glass. 

In  the  story  of  the  Substituted  Bride,  the  heroine 
confronts  a  rival.  A  key  motif  of  the  story  persists:  when 
the  heroine  comes  to  take  her  rightful  spot,  she  is,  at 
first,  unrecognized.  Alice,  too,  faces  a  similar  prob- 
lem at  the  conclusion  of  Looking-Glass:  Alice's  long 
march  down  the  chessboard  ends  when  she  crosses 
the  last  brook  and  becomes  a  queen.  A  golden  crown 
appears  on  her  head,  and  the  other  queens.  Red  and 
White,  appear  at  her  side.  Alice  knows  she  is  a  queen; 
she  has  discovered  a  crown  on  her  head.  The  others 
are  not  so  quick  to  see  it.  In  fact,  the  Red  Queen  in- 
sists on  treating  Alice  like  a  child:  "Speak  when  you're 
spoken  to!"  Only  after  the  Red  Queen  realizes  that 
Alice  calls  herself  a  queen,  she  breaks  off,  thinks  a 
while,  and  then  protests  to  Alice:  "What  right  have 
you  to  call  yourself  so?"-''^ 

The  story  of  the  Substituted  Bride  is  complete 
when  the  heroine  vanquishes  the  rival  and  wins  her 
husband.  On  her  last  turn  in  the  chess  game,  Alice 
captures  the  Red  Queen  and  checkmates,  or  "mates," 
the  Red  King. 

Alice's  actions  are  like  those  of  the  heroines  in 
the  tales  of  the  Substituted  Bride  and  the  Search  for 
the  Lost  Spouse,  but  in  character  she  more  resembles 
the  unpromising  heroine  of  the  Cinderella  story.  The 
features  that  distinguish  the  cinder-girl  remain  in 
powerful  associative  orbit  about  the  tale.  As  a  rule, 
Cinderella  is  the  youngest  daughter;  she  must  also 
overcome  "shiftless  habits,"'^'  and  her  place  is  by  the 
ashes  of  the  hearth.  Alice  is  all  of  these.  In  Wonderland, 
she  is  the  youngest  sister.  She  is  also  less  industrious. 
Her  sister  reads  while  "Alice  was  beginning  to  get  very 
tired  ...of  having  nothing  to  do."'^  Similarly,  an  idle 
Alice  in  Looking-Glass  tells  her  cat  that  she  has  been 
watching  the  boys  collect  wood  for  a  bonfire.  Most 
striking,  however,  is  Alice's  continual  association  with 
hearths  and  ashes.  When  she  passes  through  the  mir- 


ror into  Looking-glass  House,  one  of  the  first  things 
she  notices  is  the  chess  pieces  among  the  cinders.  She 
proceeds  to  pick  up  the  WTiite  King  and  dust  off  the 
ashes.  Finally,  during  one  of  Wonderlands  growing  in- 
cidents, Alice  gets  so  tall  her  feet  go  almost  out  of 
sight.  She  says  she  will  have  to  send  them  boots  every 
Christmas  by  carrier.  The  address: 

Alice's  Right  Foot,  Esq. 
Hearthrug, 

near  the  Fender, 

{with  Alice's  love)  ^^ 

The  architecture  of  the  books  becomes  clearer 
when  they  are  viewed  with  other  stories  in  oral  tra- 
dition. In  fact,  some  things  are  apparent  only  when 
viewed  with  their  folktale  counterparts.  The  struc- 
ture of  events  in  Wonderland  and  Looking-Glass,  for 
instance,  is  discernible  when  compared  with  widely 
scattered  versions  of  the  Search  for  the  Lost  Spouse. 
Alice's  attack  on  the  Red  Queen  is  not  just  an  obliga- 
tory conclusion  of  the  chess  scheme,  although  the 
commonfolk  women  from  whom  related  stories  were 
collected  in  the  British  Isles  would  be  likely  to  under- 
stand the  Red  Queen's  fate.  WTiat  she  signifies  derives 
not  only  from  the  text  of  Carroll's  tale,  but  also  from 
the  multiforms  of  the  comparable  tales  in  oral  tra- 
dition. Each  oral  tale  reinforces  the  next,  and  their 
seemingly  incomprehensible  elements  gain  mean- 
ing through  their  repeated  association.  Oral  tales 
explain,  through  the  recurrences  of  tradition,  what 
is  happening  in  each  other. ^^  In  relation  to  the  oral 
tradition  of  comparable  tales,  Alice's  fall  down  the 
rabbit  hole  is  not  an  isolated  or  chance  event.  Rather, 
it  is  a  necessary  first  step  in  the  fantastic  journey  un- 
dertaken by  countless  girls  in  their  transformation,  in 
fable,  to  adulthood.  Following  something  down  a  well 
is  a  familiar  means  by  which  a  traditional  tale  initiates 
such  ajourney. 

More  broadly,  the  descent  into  the  underworld  is 
a  universal  mythic  motif  found  in  Sumerian,  Norse, 
Greek,  Latin-  and  North  American  Indian  myth,  to 
name  just  a  few  ancient  traditions  originating  long 
before  Dante  wrote  of  his  descent  into  the  inferno. ^^ 
In  each  case,  the  culture  creates  its  own  details  rel- 
evant to  its  world  and  beliefs. 

The  case  of  "the  best  known  of  all  folktales,"  as 
Stith  Thompson  calls  Cinderella,  demonstrates  the 
topical  variety  a  story  pattern  may  exhibit.^**  Not  all 
of  the  Cinderella-type  stories  have  identical  feattires. 
The  abusive  stepmother  fails  to  appear  in  every  tell- 
ing of  the  tale.  Like  Proteus,  daimon  servant  of  the 
god  of  the  sea,  the  tale  "will  assume  all  manner  of 
shapes  of  things  that  move  upon  the  earth"'^''  and  stay 
the  same  vmderneath. 

Thus,  what  distinguishes  folktales  or  myths  is  not 
their  particular  manifestation,  but  the  energy  they 
bring  to  bear.  The  natural  world  offers  a  fitting  an- 


il 


alogue,  as  modern  physicists  are  struck  by  their  fre- 
quent inabiHty  to  distinguish  matter  from  energy.  A 
tale  or  mythic  archetype  can  shed  its  narrative  matter, 
change  guises,  and  still  retain  its  essence.  This  occurs 
in  folktale,  and  in  the  works  of  Lewis  Carroll.  The 
examples  presented  here  are  only  several  among  the 
numerous  parallels  with  folklore  and  mythology  that 
can  be  discerned  in  the  Alice  books.  No  wonder  that 
a  century  after  the  author's  death,  readers  have  been 
haunted  by  an  energy,  a  text  fraught  with  meaning, 
which  escapes  identification. 

In  the  rendering  of  Carroll's  books,  the  folk  and 
myth  model  bears  the  Victorian  trappings  well.  Tales 
in  the  oral  tradition  or  from  the  mythic  realm  must 
always  adapt  to  contrasting  contexts.  The  folktale  is  a 
remarkable  imaginative  tool  that  succeeds  in  all  sorts 
of  applications  and  still  remains  the  same,  a  story 
about  what  makes  a  socially  competent  woman  sur- 
vives different  uses,  despite  parochial  twists.  Although 
layers  of  detail,  like  a  view  through  a  kaleidoscope, 
transform  our  view  of  the  essence  of  the  story,  com- 
parison and  close  scrutiny  reveal  that  the  timeless 
and  universal  tale  is  still  there. 

'    Epigraph.  Morton  N.  Cohen,  Lewis  Carroll:  A  Biography 

(New  York:  Knopf,  1995),  135. 
'^    Robert  Scott  to  Lewis  Carroll,  1872,  quoted  in  Robert 

Phillips,  Aspects  of  Alice  (New  York:  Vintage,  1971),  377. 
^   Carroll  to  Robert  Scott,  February  27,  1872,  in  Morton  N. 

Cohen,  with  the  assistance  of  Roger  Lancelyn  Green,  The 

Letters  ofLeivis  Carroll  (New  York:  Oxford  University  Press, 

1979),  172. 
"*    Katherine  M.  Briggs,  A  Dictionary  of  British  Folklore 

(Bloomington:  Indiana  University  Press),  Part  A,  1:133. 

^    Ibid.,  1:133. 

''    Donald  Rackin,  "Corrective  Laughter:  Carroll's  Alice 

and  Popular  Children's  Literature  of  the  Nineteenth 

Century,"  Journal  of  Popular  Culture  12  (1972):  244. 
"^   Charles  Lamb  to  Samuel  Coleridge,  October  23,  1802,  in 

Rackin,  "Corrective  Laughter,"  244-5. 
^   Anonymous,  "Children's  Books,"  The  Athenaeum  \900 

(December  16,  1865),  844,  in  Phillips,  83-4.  Anderson's 

tales  were  not  true  folktales,  but  his  ovm  invention. 
^    Dennis  Butts,  "The  Beginnings  of  Victorianism"  in  Peter 

Hunt,  Children's  Literature:  An  Illustrated  History  (Oxford: 

Oxford  University  Press,  1995),  86. 
'"   Rackin,  "Corrective  Laughter,"  247-8. 
"    M.  A.  Baxter,  "The  Twa  Brothers:  The  Original  of  the 

Two  Brothers,"  Jabberwochy  S,  no.  2  (Spring  1979),  43-5. 
''^    Cohen,  Lewis  Carroll,  12-4. 


'•'   Robert  D.  Sutherland,  Language  and  Lewis  Carroll  (The 

Hague:  Mouton,  1970),  43-6.  Miiller  held  a  professorship 

at  Oxford  from  1868  to  1876,  and  was  a  Christ  Church 

colleague  (and  photographic  subject)  of  Carroll's.  See 

also  Cohen,  Leuiis  Cairoll,  76,  162,  and  390. 
''^   Albert  B.  Lord,  The  Singer  of  Tales  (New  York:  Atheneum, 

1971). 
'"'   For  example,  at  the  beginning  of  the  Iliad,  the  poet 

invokes  the  muse  to  sing:  "Sing,  Goddess,  the  anger  of 

Achilles..." 
'^'   Harry  Levin,  "Wonderland  Revisited,"  in  Phillips,  Aspects 

of  Alice,  179. 
' -^    Lewis  Carroll,  Through  the  Looking-Glass,  and  What  Alice 

FoundThere  (London:  Macmillan,  1871),  223. 
'**    Lewis  Carroll,  Alice's  Adventures  in  Wonderland  (London: 

Macmillan,  1865). 
''■^   Cf.  these  British  variants  of  the  Cinderella,  Substitute 

Bride,  and  Search  for  the  Lost  Spouse  tales:  "Catskin  II," 

"The  Green  Lady:  I,"  and  "Glass  Mountain."  Briggs,  A 

Dictionary  of  British  Folklore,  179,  286-9,  273-4. 
2'*   Carroll,  "Which  Dreamed  It?"  in  Wonderland,  192. 
^'    Barre  Tolken,  The  Dynamics  of  Folklore  (Boston:  Houghton 

Mifflin,  1979),  32. 
'^'^    David  E.  Bynum,  The  Daemon  in  the  Wood  (Cambridge, 

MA:  The  Center  for  the  Study  of  Oral  Literature,  1979), 

97. 
^^   Quoted  in  Roger  Lancelyn  Green,  "Alice,"  in  Phillips, 

Aspects  of  Alice,  14. 
'^'^  Joseph  Campbell,  The  Hero  With  a  Thousand  Faces 

(Princeton:  BoUingen,  1973),  3. 
^^   The  Substituted  Bride  story  is  that  in  which  a  sister  or 

stepsister,  usually  aided  by  her  mother,  takes  a  wife's 

place  without  the  knowledge  of  the  husband  and 

banishes  the  wife. 
26  Genesis,  29:  16-28. 
^'   Stith  Thompson,  The  Folktale  (Berkeley:  University  of 

California,  1977),  127. 
"^^   Ibid.,  49.  Also,  Jan-Ojvind  Swahn,  The  Tale  of  Cupid  and 

Psyche  (Lund:  Gleerup,  1955),  27-36. 
^^   Lewis  Carroll,  "Looking-Glass  House,"  in  Looking-Glass, 

12-3. 
^^   Carroll,  "Down  the  Rabbit-Hole,"  in  Wonderland,  2. 
3'    Swahn,  The  Tak  of  Cupid  and  Psyche,  28,  245. 
^^   CarroW,  "Queen  Mice,"  in  Looking-Glass,  186-7. 
^^   Thompson,  The  Folktale,  125. 

•'''*   Carroll,  "Down  the  Rabbit-Hole,"  in  Wonderland,  1. 
^^   Carroll,  "The  Pool  of  Tears,"  in  Wonderland,  16. 
■*''    Bynum,  The  Daemon  in  the  Wood,  65. 
^'    Robert  W.  Brockaway,  Myth  from  the  Ice  Age  to  Mickey  Mouse 

(Albany:  SUNY Press,  1993),  109.  Originally  published  in 

Dalhousie  Review,  Jdnuary  1983.  ^^--'^ 

^^   Thompson,  The  Folktale,  128.  -  -^ 

•^'J    Homer,  Odyssey,  FV,  11,  417-8. 


12 


^^  

ABOARD  THE  TROJAN  HORSE 


MARK  BURSTEIN 


^he  spring  2006  meeting  of  our  Society  took 
place  over  several  days  in  the  Los  Angeles 
area,  in  conjunction  with  a  two-day  confer- 
ence, "Lewis  Carroll  and  the  Idea  of  Childhood," 
hosted  by  the  University  of  Southern  California  (USC, 
home  of  the  Trojans).  Jim  Kincaid  (below).  Profes- 
sor of  English  at  USC  and  author  of  many  books  in 
Victorian  and  sexuality/childhood  studies,  including 
Child  Loving:  The  Erotic  Child  and  Victorian  Culture  and 
his  send-up  of  criticism.  Annoying  the  Victorians,  ^  was 
the  coordinator  and,  in  many  ways,  the  raison  d'etre 
for  this  conference.  His  warm,  witty  style  and  irrever- 
ent attitude  toward  some  of  the 
pretensions  of  academia  were 
a  welcome  relief  to  those  of  us 
who  had  been  worried  about  the 
likelihood  of  such  a  conference 
being  "the  driest  thing  I  know." 
Kincaid's  selection  of  speakers 
(and  hilarious  introductions  to 
them)  reflected  a  great  sense 
of  humor.  Let  us  also  praise  Tyson  Gaskill,  Director 
of  Programming/Information  Services;  Diane  Wag- 
goner (below);  Andrew  Wulf,  Exhibitions  Manager; 
Melinda  Hayes,  Curator  of  the  USC  Carroll  Collec- 
tion; and  the  great  generosity  of  the  sponsors  of  this 
conference,  Dr.  George  Cassady  and  Linda  Parker. 
There  were  probably  upwards  of  200  people  who 
came  to  one  or  more  of  the  events,  although  no  more 
than  60  at  any  given  time. 

The  festivities  began  with  a  Maxine  Schaefer 
reading  on  March  30.  Herewith,  a  report  from  An- 
drew Sellon: 

"On  Thursday,  an  intrepid  band  of  LCSNA  regu- 
lars visited  the  Norwood  Street  School  in  Los  Angeles 
to  present  the  Maxine  Schaefer  Memorial  Reading. 
We  were  warmly  welcomed  by  principal  Francis  Gold- 
man, who  gave  a  brief  tour  of  the  1940s  Art  Deco 
facility  before  we  settled  into  the  modest  but  charm- 
ing library.  Two  stuffed  pink  flamingos  lurked  in  an 
aisle,  as  if  hoping  to  pardcipate.  A  number  of  us  were 
heartened  when  Ms.  Goodman  noted  that  she  had 
opted  not  to  participate  in  the  "Accelerated  Reader" 
program  {KL  74:10-11),  as  she  did  not  feel  it  would 
encourage  the  children  to  see  the  library  as  a  welcom- 


ing place.  At  the  appointed  time,  about  fifty  extremely 
well-mannered  students  filed  into  the  library. 

"Alan  Tannenbaum  spoke  briefly  about  the  Soci- 
ety, and  David  Schaefer  explained  the  history  of  the 
readings  and  the  memorial  bookplate.  I  then  read  'A 
Mad  Tea  Party'  to  the  very  responsive  audience.  The 
question  and  answer  session  afterward  was,  as  always, 
lively  and  surprising.  The  dormouse  ranked  as  their 
favorite  character  (possibly  resulting  from  the  singu- 
lar sound  effect,  which  had  somehow  emerged  from 
my  mouth,  of  his  being  suddenly  awakened).  The 
students  were  very  much  in  tune  with  Alice's  predica- 
ment of  finding  herself  in  a  world  of  rude  adults  or- 
dering her  about;  one  clever  student  even  surmised 
that  Alice  might  have  met  with  additional  resent- 
ment as  a  result  of  being  the  Dean's  daughter.  As  they 
filed  out,  each  child  was  given  his  or  her  own  copy 
of  the  beautiful  Books  of  Wonder  edition  of  Wonder- 
land, and  their  delight  was  palpable.  Afterward,  the 
LCSNA  members  agreed  that,  going  forward,  one  of 
the  members  will  write  down  the  highlights  of  these 
discussions,  as  some  of  the  comments  are  remarkable 
and  well  worth  sharing  at  meetings  and  on  the  Soci- 
ety's Web  site." 

Friday's  events  took  place  within  the  Edward  L. 
Doheny  Jr.  Memorial  Library  of  USC's  University  Park 
Campus,  a  stately,  Romanesque  building  completed 
in  1932.  It  began  with  a  welcome  from  our  president, 
Alan  Tannenbaum,  andjim  Kincaid, jokingly  proclaim- 
ing this  "the  most  significant  gathering  of  Lewis  Carroll 
notables  in  history,"  declaring  we  "would  not  be  ham- 
strung by  what  others  think  sane,"  and  promising  to 
"lessen  our  dimwittedness." 

First  up  was  Hilary  Schor  (below),  Professor  of 
English,  Comparative  Literature  and  Gender  Studies 
at  the  USC  College  of  Letters,  Arts  &  Sciences,  and 
author  of  several  books  on  Vic- 
torian fiction,  whose  enthu- 
siastic delivery  of  her  paper 
"Realism's  Alice:  Making  the 
Heroine  Curiouser"  made  for 
a  lively  opening  session.  Her 
thesis  was  that  the  Alice  books 
belong  more  to  the  world  of 
realism  than  fantasv,  a  curious 


13 


idea.  In  fact,  she  began  with  a  disquisition  on  the  word 
"curious"  and  how  often,  and  where,  it  occurs  in  the 
text  (for  the  record,  including  "curiosity,"  26  times  in 
Wonderland  alone)  and  the  double  meaning  of  Alice's 
being  called  a  "very  curious  child."  The  nineteenth- 
century  Oxfordian  Matthew  Arnold  was  quoted  from 
his  Culture  and  Anarchy  (1882):  "I  have  before  now 
pointed  out  that  we  English  do  not,  like  the  foreign- 
ers, use  this  word  ["curious"]  in  a  good  sense  as  well 
as  in  a  bad  sense.  With  us  [English]  the  word  is  always 
used  in  a  somewhat  disapproving  sense.  A  liberal  and 
intelligent  eagerness  about  the  things  of  the  mind 
may  be  meant  by  a  foreigner  when  he  speaks  of  cu- 
riosity, but  with  us  the  word  always  conveys  a  certain 
notion  of  frivolous  and  unedifying  activity." 

Defining  the  genre  with  a  recitation  of  first  lines 
from  other  Victorian  novels  with  female  protagonists 
{Emma,  Portrait  of  a  Lady,  Middlemarch,  Jane  Eyre) ,  she 
began  at  the  end  of  Wonderland,  musing  on  the  debunk- 
ing by  the  bank,  which  contradicts  all  that  has  gone 
before:  the  ordinary  world  is  reasserted,  as  is  so  charac- 
teristic of  Gothic  novels.  Wonderland  is  "recognizable 
as  our  world,  just  a  bit  off,"  a  dream  novel  perhaps,  yet 
its  setting  is  everyday  life — tea  parties  and  other  famil- 
iar things,  somehow  dreadfully  out  of  place. 

Schor  stated  that  the  essence  of  this  novel  is  to 
be  found  in  transformations  of  size  (the  chapters 
not  involving  size  changes  were  all  added  after  Under 
Ground,  she  noted),  as  Alice  measures  herself  against 
dreamworld  objects.  Confusion  of  the  meanings  of 
the  phrase  "growing  up"  is  central.  How  does  Alice 
know  it  is  she  who  is  transforming,  and  not  the  objects 
and  characters  in  the  environment?  We  were  shown 
the  opening  scenes  of  the  Hepworth  movie  and  Tom 
Petty 's  Don 't  Come  Around  Here  No  More  video,  as  Schor 
spoke  more  on  "tricks  of  vision  being  the  heart  of  this 
curious  world." 

At  the  end  of  her  presentation,  she  candidly  ad- 
mitted that  not  only  did  she  dislike  the  Alice  books,  but 
that  the  premise  for  her  talk  was  "not  particularly  true, 
but  I  knew  I  could  talk  about  it  for  forty-five  minutes 
anyway."  Her  frank  confession,  wit,  and  great  sense  of 
absurdity  made  for  a  most  entertaining  discourse. 

Ah,  now  what  can  one 
possible  say  about  a  Professor 
of  English  Literature  and  Fem- 
inist Theory  at  the  University 
of  Connecticut  and  advisor  to 
the  Library  of  Congress  who 
is  also  the  author  of  a  multi- 
tude of  humorous  books  such 
as  I'm  with  Stupid,  They  Used  to 
Call  Me  Snow  White. . .  But  I  Drifted,  and  Perfect  Husbands 
(&'  Other  Fairy  Tales)  and  whose  comedic  stylings  and 
improvisations  mock  the  myth  of  the  desiccated  aca- 
deme? In  two  words:  Gina  Barreca  (above). ^ 


Her  talk,  "Alice  and  Dorothy:  Why  These  Two 
Babes  in  Boyland  Don't  Surrender,"  was  a  disquisition 
on  female  independence  and  authority,  emphasizing 
that  these  two  girls  did  not  submit,  surrender,  nor 
sacrifice  themselves.  (Incidentally,  the  line  "Surren- 
der, Dorothy"  comes  from  the  film,  not  the  book.)  In 
speaking  of  the  aggressive  nature  of  these  heroines, 
Gina  read  a  synopsis  of  The  Wizard  of  Oz  movie  from 
the  Marin  Independent  journal:  "A  girl  leaves  home, 
kills  the  first  person  she  sees,  and  teams  up  with  three 
complete  strangers  to  kill  again." 

Characters,  especially  in  a  dream  landscape,  can- 
not be  separated  out  and  must  all  be  seen  as  aspects 
of  the  dreamer's  (Alice's)  character.  The  men  in 
these  books,  such  as  the  White  Knight,  tend  to  be  "pa- 
thetic yet  powerful";  there  are  no  cute  little  boys,  just 
aged  male  figures  or  "hybrids."  These  two  little  girls 
at  the  heart  of  mythopoeic  quest  narratives  rescue 
themselves,  much  as  Frankenstein's  creature  figures 
out  the  world  by  reading  books  and  alienating  people 
("the  academic  life,"  commented  Barreca). 

Barreca  also  discussed  the  differences  in  the 
books:  Alice  woke  up  from  a  dream  while  Dorothy's 
world  has  simply  moved  on  without  her;  Dorothy  is 
humble,  Alice  arrogant;  Oz  is  futuristic  rather  than 
nostalgic;  Alice  falls  down  and  in,  Dorothy  flies  up 
and  out;  Alice  varies  physically,  while  the  only  thing 
Dorothy  changes  is  her  shoes  ("my  kind  of  girl!"  - 
GB);  Dorothy's  motivation  is  not  exploration,  but  re- 
turn. "Alice  and  Dorothy,  more  heroes  than  heroines, 
are  not  passive  creatures  enacting  their  own  survival: 
they  both  go  places  to  make  trouble,  and  refuse  to 
drown  in  lakes  of  their  own  tears." 

Much  of  the  audience  was  dissolving  in  tears — of 
laughter — by  the  end  of  Professor  Barreca's  talk. 

After  a  short  break,  Catherine  Robson  (below), 
University  of  California  at  Davis  Professor  of  Eng- 
lish and  author  of  Men  in  Wonderland:  The  Lost  Girl- 
hood of  the  Victorian  Gentleman  {KL  67:26),  presented 
"Reciting  Alice:  What  Is  the  Use  of  a  Book  Without 
Poems?".  Through  much  of  history,  including  the 
last  few  centuries,  schoolchildren  have  been  charged 
with  memorizing  and  reciting  poems,  often  "uplift- 
ing" ones  filled  with  moral 
pieties,  such  as  those  of  Isaac 
Watts  so  "transgressively  re- 
vised" by  Carroll.  Carroll,  in 
his  deft  mocking  of  Watts,  re- 
tains the  form  but  mangles  the 
contents.  Watts'  Divine  Songs 
for  Children,  the  first  text  for 
memorization,  intended  not 
just  as  a  pedagogical  exercise  but  as  a  means  to  ward 
off  temptations  caused  by  an  idle  mind,  retained  a 
hold  on  middle-  and  upper-class  nursery  life  from 
1715  to  at  least  1850.  Children  were  exposed  to  it  and 
asked  to  recite  poems  even  before  learning  to  read. 


14 


Watts'  poems  were  so  much  a  part  of  the  age  that 
not  only  do  satires  appear  in  Carroll,  but  the  "Busy 
Bee"  poem  is  also  referred  to  in  Dickens'  The  Old 
Curiosity  Shop,  Emily  Dickinson's  poem  "Sic  Transit," 
and  at  least  three  burlesques  in  Punch  (one  starting 
"How  doth  the  dizzy  Disraeli...").  Carroll's  satires,  of 
course,  have  far  outlasted  the  originals. 

Robson  reinvigorated  the  term  prosimetrum,  the 
"fabulous  monster"  that  is  a  work  in  both  prose  and 
verse.  Poetry  has  often  been  part  of  the  novel,  not 
just  in  epigraphs  or  valedictory  verses,  but  employed 
within  a  story's  context  for  a  "dizzying  variety  of  rea- 
sons." These  might  include  interpolated  poems,  versi- 
fied interludes,  riddles,  spells,  prophecy,  original  or 
nonce  compositions  by  characters,  and  so  on.  But 
here  Robson  analyzes  the  formal  recitation  of  a  poem 
by  a  character,  which  occurs  thrice  in  both  Wonder- 
land  and  Looking-Glass  (the  other  poems  arise  under 
various  other  pretexts). 

There  is  an  interweaving  of  the  three  recited 
poems  in  Wonderland:  as  Alice  admits  to  the  Caterpil- 
lar that  she  has  misrecited  "Busy  Bee,"  it  "causes  the 
obdurate  grub  to  demand  she  recite  'You  Are  Old, 
Father  William.'"  In  reporting  her  failure  to  recite 
"Father  William"  to  the  Gryphon,  she  is  made  to  re- 
cite "'Tis  the  voice  of  the  Lobster"  and  mangles  it,  a 
further  confirmation  of  the  failure  of  her  mind  under 
the  circumstances. 

Robson  also  traced  the  history  of  the  prosime- 
trum, particularly  in  nineteenth-century  novels  such 
as  those  by  Sir  Walter  Scott.  Is  it  any  wonder,  she  in- 
quired, that  when  Edison  chose  the  first  sound  in 
history  to  be  recorded,  he  selected  what  was  most 
accessible  to  him,  the  oft-recited  "Mary  Had  a  Little 
Lamb"? 

We  then  had  a  break  to  view  "The  Curious  World 
of  Lewis  Carroll,"  an  exhibit  of  items  from  the  G. 
Edward  and  Margaret  Elizabeth  Cassady  Collection, 
donated  to  USC  in  2000  by  alumnus  George  Cassady 
(their  son)  and  his  companion,  Linda  Parker.  The 
Collection,  begun  in  the  same  year  with  about  a  hun- 
dred books  and  a  few  ephemera,  has  been  added  to 
since  then  by  Dr.  Cassady  and  Ms.  Parker  and  now  con- 
tains more  than  a  thousand  items.  In  the  main  public 
room  were  items  showing  the  continued  worldwide 
fascination  with  Carroll,  in  cases  and  signage  match- 
ing the  dark  red  of  the  first  edition  of  Wonderland. 
Two  large  kiosks  presented  some  of  Carroll's  games 
and  puzzles,  and  another  a  montage  of  scenes  from 
Alice  films.  Most  of  the  articles  on  display  were  aimed 
at  the  general  public,  but  one,  a  set  of  etchings  com- 
missioned by  Ms.  Parker  from  Alp  Ozberker,  was  new 
to  this  writer. 

However,  George  had  kindly  set  aside  for  us  in  an 
upstairs  room  some  of  the  more  esoteric  items,  such 
as  the  storyboard  from  the  Paramount  movie  {KL 
59:4),  signed  by  many  involved  in  the  film,  including 


Dmitri  Tiomkin  and  Gary  Cooper;  Alice's  own  copies 
of  books,  recently  purchased  from  the  Faletta  collec- 
tion (p.  34);  presentation  copies  inscribed  to  Ellen 
Terry  and  Xie  Kitchen;  and  a  book  sculpture  by  Glo- 
ria Helfgott.  Outside  the  library  was  a  case  of  objects 
entered  into  the  USC  Wonderland  Award  student 
contest  last  year  (mixed  media,  CD-ROMs,  books,  and 
so  on — see  KL  75:35;  this  year's  contest  is  under  way). 
This  award,  too,  is  underwritten  by  the  magnanimous 
Linda  Parker. 

Simultaneously,  Jeffrey  Eger  gave  a  short  presen- 
tation about  his  book  Dodgson  at  Auction  1893-1999? 
The  work  traces  the  lives  of  3,000  individual  vol- 
umes— generally  autograph  and  inscribed  material, 
including  the  original  Under  Ground  manuscript — 
through  the  hands  of  dealers  and  collectors,  gleaned 
from  compilations  of  auction  records.  (The  cata- 
logues from  which  this  work  was  constructed  were  all 
purchased  by  Cassady  and  are  now  also  in  the  USC 
Collection.)  Five  separate  indexes  inform  this  newly 
minted  form  of  bibliography.  Jeffrey's  humorous  pre- 
sentation ("Nothing  is  more  driven  than  a  collector 
in  heat")  was  most  edifying. 

Robert  Polhemus  (right).  Professor  of  English 
and  erstwhile  Chair  of  the 
English  Department  at  Stan- 
ford, author  of  Comic  Faith:  The 
Great  Tradition  from  Austen  to 
foyce  (a  chapter  of  which  is  de- 
voted to  Looking-Glass)  among 
many  others,  has  addressed 
our  Society  once  before,  in 
San  Francisco  in  the  spring 
of  1984.  Here,  "Lewis  Carroll  and  the  Idolatry  of  the 
Child"  looked  at  Carroll's  photography  and  ficfion  as 
means  for  "exploring,  expressing,  and  satisfying  the 
longing  for  secular  faith." 

Religious  desire  and  concerns  were  of  para- 
mount importance  to  our  Mr.  Dodgson.  The  idolatr)' 
of  a  girl-child  in  image  and  word  can  be  seen  as  a  holy 
fetish:  the  desire  for  aesthetic  representation  and  its 
prohibition  due  to  heterodoxic  consequences.  The 
monotheistic  godhead  is  forbidden  to  be  portrayed  by 
Abrahamic  religions,  a  protection  against  diffusion  of 
divinity  into  objects.  Contrasting  this  is  the  deification 
of  forms  of  beauty.  Orthodoxy  needs  to  preserve  its 
superiority  by  being  beyond  the  realm  of  the  senses, 
yet  there  is  an  irrepressible  human  need  to  look  upon 
the  sacred,  to  find  evidence  of  eternal  life. 

Polhemus  discoursed  on  the  ineluctable  erotici- 
zation  of  images,  by  their  nature  sensual.  Much  Bibli- 
cal imagery,  from  the  Renaissance  through  the  Pre- 
Raphaelites,  enjoyed  a  certain  erotic  enchantment,  as 
Dodgson 's  glorification  of  holy  innocence  ultimately 
gave  ammunition  to  accusations  of  pedophilic  exploi- 
tafion. 


15 


Polhemus  revealed  the  apotheosis  of  the  conflict, 
the  making  of  the  golden  calf,  Aaron's  attempt  as  an 
artist  to  keep  religion  alive.  The  patriarch's  original 
act,  and  subsequent  depictions  of  it,  are  "sensuous 
valorizations  merging  holy  and  profane  pleasure." 
Idolatry  leads  to  sensuousness,  orgiastic  behavior,  vio- 
lence; the  golden  calf  was  finally  liquefied  and  drunk, 
internalized. 

Aestheticizing  of  children  pioneered  a  new 
form  of  graven  images,  seemingly  of  divine  origin. 
Dodgson's  art  had  a  "messianic  streak  in  how  he  wor- 
shipped fresh,  unspoiled  beauty." 

Another  focal  point  of  Polhemus'  discussion  was 
Bernini's  sculpture  "The  Ecstasy  of  Saint  Theresa" 
with  the  angel  holding  a  flame-tipped  arrow  as  so 
vividly  described  in  her  spiritual  autobiography.  Pol- 
hemus compared  this  image  to  Carroll's  passage  in 
Chapter  19  of  Sylvie  and  Bruno  Concluded,  when  the 
narrator  first  hears  Sylvie 's  voice  in  song  and  speaks  of 
a  piercing  pain  when  beholding  unearthly  beauty. 

Like  Aaron,  Dodgson,  High  Priest  of  the  Victo- 
rian Cult  of  the  Child,  found  his  faithful  religious  self 
being  endangered  by  his  own  images,  such  as  that  of 
Alice  as  "The  Beggar  Maid"  of  Tennyson's  eponymous 
poem.  Polhemus  suggested  that  the  reason  Dodgson 
gave  up  photography  may  have  been  his  realization 
that  these  photographs  were  a  form  of  idolatry. 

That  Professor  Polhemus  was  treading  close  to 
blasphemy  seemed  to  be  confirmed  by  the  uncanny 
timing  of  room  lights  mysteriously  turning  on  and 
off,  and  voices  from  above. 

The  Huntington  of  the  Snark 

Saturday's  venue  was  the  spectacular  Huntington  Li- 
brary, Art  Collection,  and  Botanical  Garden  in  nearby 
San  Marino,  founded  in  1919  by  Henry  E.  Hunting- 
ton on  his  207-acre  estate,  120  of  which  now  encom- 
pass the  breathtaking  gardens.  His  art  collection,  one 
of  the  most  comprehensive  in  this  country  of  eigh- 
teenth- and  nineteenth-century  art,  features  Gains- 
borough's The  Blue  Boy  and  his  eternal  companion. 
Sir  Thomas  Lawrence's  Pinkie.  The  research  library 
holds  six  million  items  of  "Anglo-American  civiliza- 
tion," including  the  Ellesmere  manuscript  of  Canter- 
bury Tales,  a  Gutenberg  Bible  on  vellum,  the  double- 
elephant  folio  of  Birds  of  America,  and  significant  early 
editions  of  Shakespeare. 

To  start  off  our  gathering  on  April  Fools'  Day, 
we  were  treated  to  a  comedy  skit,  "Saint  Peter  inter- 
views C.  L.  Dodgson,"  wherein  Jim  Kincaid  portrayed 
Saint  Peter  as  an  irascible,  whiny,  self-doubting,  foul- 
mouthed  Brooklynese  carny  who  keeps  addressing  a 
bemused  "Mr.  Dodhead"  or  "Mr.  Dodhill"  (imperson- 
ated by  Gina  Barreca) .  A  case  of  mistaken  identity  was 
the  premise  of  the  skit,  wherein  Pocahontas  was  run- 
ning things  in  Heaven  in  His  absence.  A  fine  farce, 
indeed. 


More  soberly,  Diane  Wag- 
goner (left),  Assistant  Curator 
of  the  department  of  photo- 
graphs of  the  National  Gallery 
of  Art  in  Washington,  spoke 
on  "Little  Men:  Lewis  Carroll's 
Photographs  of  Boys."  Begin- 
ning with  an  analysis  of  "Hi- 
awatha's Photographing"  as  "a 
backwards  metamorphosis  of  adult  masculinity,"  she 
discussed  the  "myth  of  Dodgson's  attitude  to  young 
males."  In  fact,  some  20  to  25  percent  of  his  child 
photographs  are  of  boys,  most  often  the  sons  of  adult 
friends  or  brothers  of  female  sitters.  For  example,  he 
photographed  Harry  Liddell  before  getting  his  now  fa- 
mous sisters  to  sit  for  him. 

Much  of  her  fascinating  talk  involved  a  series 
of  photographs  of  schoolboys  Dodgson  took  at  the 
Twyford  School  in  1859  (below),  in  the  company  of 
Reginald  Southey.  Waggoner  first  put  the  pictures  in 
the  context  of  education  at  the  time,  particularly  the 
changing  definitions  of  masculinity  exemplified  in 
Dr.  Thomas  Arnold's  reforms  at  Rugby,  which  Dodg- 
son also  had  attended,  a  world  preserved  forever  in 
Thomas  Hughes'  Tom  Brown's  Schooldays.  Arnold  em- 
phasized the  development  of  manliness,  character- 
ized by  discipline,  self-reliance,  and  moral  strength  of 
character,  in  the  school's  pupils. 

Visits  to  Twyford,  whose  student  body  included 
Harry  Liddell  and  Edwin  Dodgson,  and  whose  head- 
master was  George  Kitchin,  Xie's  father,  began  for 
Dodgson  in  December  1857.  Waggoner  "compared 
and  contrasted"  Dodgson's  photographs  of  groups  of 
girls  and  groups  of  boys.''  The  boys'  postures  and  fa- 
cial expressions  reflected  institutional  relationships, 
not  familial  poses.  Her  ability  to  "read"  photographs 
was  remarkable,  revealing  for  us  the  representation 
of  student-master  relationships  and  the  consciously 
"manly"  and  public  postures  of  the  schoolboys  as  they 
posed  for  Dodgson's  camera.  Dodgson's  photographs 
of  girls  reveal  a  world  more  private  and  personal,  rev- 
eling in  childhood;  boys  were  on  their  way  to  man- 


16 


hood.  This  talk  was  part  of  a  longer  chapter  of  a  book 
currently  in  progress  for  publication. 

Robin  Lakoff  (below),  Professor  of  Linguistics  at 
the  University  of  California  at  Berkeley,  spoke  next, 
to  "Who  Wrote  Sylvie  and 
Bruno  (and  Why  Did  He  Write 
It?)."  Her  initial  response 
to  the  books  she  described 
as  "visceral,  and  very  nega- 
tive." Beginning  with  some 
statistics  from  Amazon.com 
("from  whence  all  scholar- 
ship emerges  these  days")  in 
an  attempt  to  quantify  her  re- 
sponse, she  compared  complexity  and  readability  in- 
dices to  those  of  the  Alice  books,  reinforcing  how  dif- 
ferent they  are  in  style  as  well  as  content.  Her  thesis 
was  that  these  heavy-handed  books  involving  death, 
religion,  romance,  and  politics  are  "not  entirely  suit- 
able for  children"  and  therefore  that  the  authorship 
attributed  to  "Lewis  Carroll"  was  a  marketing  ploy, 
and  the  true,  "aleithonymic"  author  was  C.  L.  Dodg- 
son,  "boring  Oxford  don." 

Lakoff  looked  deeper  at  the  differences:  Alice 
was  impolitic,  unkind  to  animals;  a  normal,  feisty 
seven-year-old  "bad  girl,"  the  "old"  Martha  Stewart. 
Sylvie  was  saccharinely  sweet,  nice,  cheerful,  the 
"new"  Martha  Stewart.  Alice  is  growing  up;  Sylvie  is 
getting  younger  throughout.  We  see  adult  figures 
through  Alice's  eyes;  Sylvie  is  seen  from  an  adult  per- 
spective. Alice  is  deeply  subversive  to  the  monarchy, 
justice  system,  etiquette,  and  language;  Sylvie  unques- 
tioning and  accepting  of  values  of  religion,  morality, 
and  logic. 

Professor  Lakoff  confessed  to  being  "scared"  by 
Sylvie  and  Bruno,  calling  it  "Christian  kitsch"  like  that 
produced  by  the  Nazis.  Wonderland  she  actually  liked: 
obviously  written  by  one  who  knew  children,  the  book 
was  first  vetted  by  them,  and  has  a  protofeminist  post- 
modern heroine. 

Mr.  Dodgson  was  known  to  be  ambivalent  about 
education  for  girls,  was  politically  conservative  and  a 
monarchist,  and  hence  the  most  likely  author  of  this 
"antiplagiarism."  In  the  twenty-year  hiatus  between 
the  books,  his  world-view  had  changed;  he  was  older 
and  sadder — "Lewis  Carroll"  had  ceased  to  exist. 

After  lunch,  we  were  given  a  view  of  some  of  the 
Huntington  Library's  Carroll  collection,  which  in- 
cluded what  Selwyn  Goodacre  calls  "the  most  perfect 
of  the  red-cloth  1865  Alices,"  a  copy  once  belonging 
to  the  brothers  Dalziel,  which  contains  a  letter  from 
Tenniel  complaining  of  the  quality  of  the  printing; 
an  1897  letter  to  E.  Gertrude  Thompson  with  a  lovely 
trompe  I'oeil  drawing  (reproduced  in  XL  59:4);  and 
Dodgson 's  own  annotations  to  Symbolic  Logic. 

Next  Carol  Mavor  (above  right),  professor  of  art 
history  at  the  University  of  North  Carolina  at  Chapel 


Hill  and  author  of  Pleasures 
Taken:  Performances  of  Sexual- 
ity and  Loss  in  Victorian  Photo- 
graphs and  other  texts,  gave  a 
lively  address,  "For-getting  to 
Eat:  Alice's  Mouthing  Meton- 
ymy.""' Mavor's  areas  of  inter- 
^t  est  include  photography,  and 
theories  of  sexuality,  boyhood, 
girlhood,  and  adolescence. 

After  another  showing  of  the  Hepworth  scene  in 
which  Alice  and  the  carrot-associated  Rabbit  move 
through  a  vaginal  tunnel  (the  filmmaker's  wife  por- 
trays the  White  Rabbit,  she  noted),  Mavor  began  her 
talk  with  a  discourse  on  Dodgson 's  sparse,  self-deny- 
ing eating  habits.  The  appetites  of  children  filled  him 
with  alarm,  and  she  quoted  several  letters  to  that  ef- 
fect. The  title  of  her  talk  came  from  the  well-known 
"lessons  in  forgetting"  letter  to  Agnes  Hull,*'  and  her 
theme  involved  the  "hedonistic  emphasis  on  food  and 
the  sensuality  in  forgetting,  that  is,  not  devouring  it." 
Mavor  spoke  to  the  many  examples  in  the  books 
of  "anorectic  hedonism,"  going  through  the  motions 
of  eating,  yet  never  consuming  food:  from  Alice  pre- 
tending to  be  a  hungry  hyena  (a  bone  "feeds  hun- 
ger of  a  different  order,"  in  that  one  only  nibbles  and 
bites  it)  through  the  empty  jar  of  marmalade,  nonex- 
istent wine,  inedible  treacle,  "jam  yesterday,"  the  con- 
sequences of  being  introduced  to  your  dinner,  the 
bite  out  of  the  teacup  ("a  metonymic  surface  of  de- 
sire and  displacement"),  and  the  unconsumed  tarts 
at  the  trial.  Her  talk  was  well  illustrated  with  photo- 
graphs, often  by  Dodgson,  but  including  such  objects 
as  Meret  Oppenheim's  fur-covered  cup,  saucer,  and 
spoon.  Is  the  chiasmus  of  "I  see  what  I  eat"  here  liter- 
ally the  same  as  "I  eat  what  I  see"? 

Cats,  she  declared,  are  a  metonymy  for  remem- 
brance, and  the  "anorectic  hedonism"  also  applies  to 
forgetting,  a  hole  in  memory.  Death  is  not  a  loss  of 
the  future  so  much  as  a  loss  of  the  past;  photography 
is  a  form  of  immortality. 

Mavor  also  talked  to  Carroll's  many  letters  about 
licking  and  kissing  (again,  activities  of  the  mouth  that 
involve  no  nourishment)  and  the  innate  classism  of 
the  luxury  of  being  able  not  to  eat.  Her  talk  left  us,  er, 
hungry  for  more. 

Speaking  from  in  front  of  an  Audubon  flamingo, 
the  redoubtable  Selwyn  Goodacre  (below)  delivered 
"Towards  an  Analytical  Commentary  on  Alice's  Ad- 
ventures" in  his  inimitably  and 
inevitably  jocund  manner.  He 
first  came  to  Alice's  defense,  as 
several  of  the  previous  speak- 
ers had  called  her  "rude" — 
he  prefers  the  term  "feisty." 
Goodacre  spoke  to  Wonder- 
land as  a  pioneering  work  of 


17 


children's  literature  for  a  dozen  different  reasons  [KL 
58:7,  also  quoted  in  All  Things  Alice] ,  spoke  of  Carroll's 
merchandizing  genius,  and  referred  somehow  to 
something  called  Worzel  Gummidge. 

Goodacre  said  that  although  a  number  of  fine 
annotations  are  available  (Martin  Gardner's,  James 
Kincaid's,  Richard  Kelly's,  Peter  Heath's,  and  the 
"schoolbook"  ones)  to  tell  us  what  cucumber  frames 
are,  what  he  proposes  is  an  almost  word-by-word  tex- 
tual exegesis.  To  demonstrate,  he  spent  a  good  deal 
of  time  on  just  the  first  sentence,  mentioning  the 
"country  gentleman's  garb"  of  the  White  Rabbit,  the 
narrator's  immediate  empathy  with  the  heroine,  the 
poetry  of  the  phrase  "sleepy  and  stupid,"  the  fact  that 
only  at  age  seven  does  one  have  the  proper  thickness 
of  fingernail  to  make  a  daisy  chain,  and  the  like.  To 
get  through  the  rest  of  the  book  in  his  alloted  time, 
he  reluctantly  picked  up  the  pace  a  bit. 

Goodacre  spoke  much  of  a  muchness,  includ- 
ing Alice's  slow  fall,  with  familiar  items  comforting 
to  school-age  readers;  the  overheard  conversation 
involving  Bill  on  the  roof  as  "an  apotheosis  of  punc- 
tuation skills";  the  caterpillar  as  university  lecturer  in- 
terrogating a  student;  the  accuracy  of  a  dialogue  be- 
tween a  middle-class  Victorian  child  and  a  gardener; 
and  the  three  characters  at  the  tea  party  sitting  at 
the  head  like  Oxford  dons  at  table.  He  noted  how 
the  Duchess's  reappearance  reassures  child  readers; 
that  the  impact  of  a  mythical  monster  such  as  a  Gry- 
phon is  softened  by  having  him  asleep;  and  how  the 
last  chapter  can  be  viewed  as  attending  a  theatrical 
presentation.  And  how,  he  inquired,  did  the  Gryphon 
manage  to  go  to  school  (the  same  one,  we  are  told,  as 
the  Mock  Turtle)  under  ihe^  sea? 

The  eight  speakers  then  sat  at  a  large  table  and 
became  a  panel. 

The  first  question,  "Would  Lewis  Carroll  like 
you?"  was  answered  by  Gina  with  an  image  of  him 
screaming  and  running  away  from  "loud-mouthed 
women."  The  second  question  was  "What  does  it  tell 
us  about  twenty-first-century  academia  that  five  of  the 
eight  speakers  quoted  Alice's  remark  about  Mabel's 
'poky  little  house'?",  initiating  a  discussion  of  classism 
and  how  concerns  for  our  current  "political  correct- 
ness" override  legitimate  nineteenth-century  atti- 
tudes. Other  discussion  revolved  around  unanswered 
questions,  whether  Sylvie  and  Bruno  was  Dodgson's 
attempt  to  recompense  society  and  convention  for 
the  damage  done  them  with  the  Alice  books,  what 
the  similarly  subversive  media  of  today  might  be,  and, 
inevitably,  a  long,  heated  discussion  of  the  issue  of 
Dodgson's  sexuality,  climaxing  with  a  comment  on 
the  relation  between  our  interest  in  the  work  of  an 
artist  and  his  life:  "It's  like  enjoying  pate  and  insisting 
on  being  introduced  to  the  duck." 

We  then  climbed  aboard  various  vehicles  to  find 
our  way  to  an  exhibition  at  the  Caracola  Gallery,  by 


Cuban  artist  Victor  Huerta,  of  Alice  paintings  "contex- 
tualized  within  the  demise  of  the  Cuban  revolution." 
The  paintings  (below),  replete  with  nudity  and  politi- 
cal suggestiveness,  were  skillful  if  unorthodox  render- 
ings.' We  thanked  gallery  owner  Dermot  Bagley  for 
his  hospitality  and  walked  up  the  alley  to  Barbara's  at 
the  Brewery  for  a  festive  valedictory  dinner. 


•    Child  Loving:  The  Erotic  Child  and  Victorian  Culture 
(Routledge,  1992);  Annoying  the  Victorians  (Routledge, 
1995) 

^    ginabarreca.com 

^   Dodgson  at  Auction  1893-1999,  compiled  by  David 
Carlson  and  Jeffrey  Eger,  forewords  by  Charlie  Lovett 
and  Jay  Dillon.  Obtainable  from  the  publisher,  D  &  D 
Galleries,  Box  8413,  Somerville,  NJ  08876;  dndgalleries. 
com;  908.874-3162;  908.874-5195;  carlson@dndgalleries. 
com  orjeffrey  Eger,  42  Blackberry  Lane,  Morristown, 
NY  07960;  (973)  455-1843;  thepen@jeffreyeger.com. 
Hardcover  octavo  volume  bound  in  red  cloth,  $75. 
Deluxe  limited  numbered  edition  bound  in  blue  cloth 
with  a  matching  slipcase  and  including  an  original  leaf 
from  the  first  edition  of  the  1865  Wonderland  (obtained 
by  deconstructing  an  1866  Appleton  edition),  $225.  If 
the  leaf  includes  an  illustration,  $275.  Postage  within  the 
U.S.  is  $9. 

^    Many  of  these  can  be  seen  in  the  Princeton  collection  at 
libweb2.princeton.edu/rbsc2/portfolio/lcl/index.html. 

^    Metonymy  is  a  rhetorical  term,  a  figure  of  speech 

consisting  of  the  use  of  the  name  of  one  thing  for  that 
of  another  of  which  it  is  an  attribute,  or  with  which  it  is 
associated,  e.g.,  "The  pen  is  mightier  than  the  sword," 
or  "The  White  House"  when  referring  to  the  president 
and  his  advisors.  It  is  distinctly  different  from  the  term 
metaphor. 

6    December  10,  1877 

'     Most  of  the  paintings  can  be  seen  at  www.caracolagallery. 
com/images/VictorHuerta/VictorHuertaGallery/index. 
htm. 


18 


^^  

EVOLUTION  OF  A  DREAM-CHILD 

IMAGES  OF  ALICE  &  CHANGING  CONCEPTIONS  OF  CHILDHOOD 

VICTORIA  SEARS 


■^^ 


PARTS  I  &  II 


I.  Introduction 

In  1865,  Lewis  Carroll's  Alice's  Adventures  in  Wonder- 
land wa.s  published  with  the  illustrations  of  Sir  John 
Tenniel.  Icons  of  both  illustration  and  children's 
literature,  Tenniel's  illustrations  are  classics  and  are 
the  standard  against  which  all  subsequent  attempts  at 
illustrating  the  Alice  books  are  held.  But  if  they  are 
so  revered,  why  then  have  scores  of  artists  since  tried 
their  hand  at  illustrating  the  stories?  What  is  it  about 
Carroll's  vision  that  has  such  allure?  Perhaps  it  has 
something  to  do  with  our  culture's  practice  of  defin- 
ing itself  by  redefining  itself  over  time,  based  upon 
cultural  icons  including  fictional  characters  such  as 
Alice. 

After  the  publication  of  Carroll's  book,  Alice 
immediately  became  the  iconic  child.  There  is  some- 
thing about  the  emblematic  figure  of  Alice  to  which 
we  are  continuously  attracted.  Just  as  childhood  is 
central  to  Western  culture,  so  Alice  is  to  childhood. 
Why  has  Alice  become  especially  privileged  and  pow- 
erful among  fictional  characters?  I  suggest  that  the 
character  of  Alice  is  reimagined  generation  after  gen- 
eration so  as  to  ensure  that  our  culture  always  has  a 
fictional  character  around  which  to  define  itself:  a 
child  through  whom  we  can  live  vicariously,  and  into 
whom  we  can  channel  our  fears,  dreams,  and  desires. 
In  the  following  paper,  I  explore  the  relationship  be- 
tween the  evolution,  from  1858  to  2000,  of  visualiza- 
tions of  Alice  and  changing  conceptions  of  childhood 
in  Western  culture.  The  visual  adaptations  I  have 
chosen  to  examine  meet  two  criteria:  they  are  both 
stylistically  and  historically  innovative.  The  fact  that 
these  criteria  yielded  so  many  cases  indicates  that  the 
theme  of  Alice  has  been  a  key  vehicle  through  which 
to  rethink  childhood  for  almost  150  years. 

This  continuing  fascination  with  Alice  is  also 
echoed  in  changing  scholarly  and  critical  reinterpre- 
tations  of  the  character.  In  the  last  few  decades  of  the 
twentieth  century,  much  ink  was  spilled  on  the  sub- 
ject her  "true"  nature.  Citing  Nina  Auerbach,  James 


Victoria  Sears,  now  at  Princeton  in  the  second  year  of  a  PhD  program  in 
art  history,  wrote  this  as  her  undergraduate  senior  thesis  from  Barnard 
in  2003.  We  will  publish  this  in  its  entirety  over  the  next  few  issues  of  the 
Knight  Letter,  this  article  being  the  first  two  of  six  sections. 


Kincaid,  author  of  the  provocative  Child-Loving:  The 
Erotic  Child  &'  Victorian  Culture,  explains  that  Alice's 
sexuality  lies  in  her  resistance  to  growing  up.'  She  is 
desirable  because  "she  vacates  the  position  of  the  true 
child.  ...  and  becomes  the  false  child,  the  child  who 
betrays  growing  up.'"'  She  lingers  in  this  liminal  state 
because  Carroll  refuses  to  allow  her  to  mature,  just  as 
Dodgson  refuses  to  acknowledge  the  maturation  of 
Alice  Liddell.  Dodgson's  reluctance  to  let  go  of  his 
child  friend  is  textually  and  visually  conveyed  in  Al- 
ice's resistance  to  her  physical  growth  in  Wonderland, 
and  in  her  ultimate  loss  of  control  over  it.^  Perhaps 
this  state  of  uncertainty  and  oscillation  is  illustrative 
of  the  difficulty  in  assigning  Alice  unequivocally  to  a 
particular  category.  Nina  Auerbach,  author  of  "Fall- 
ing Alice,  Fallen  Women,  and  Victorian  Dream  Chil- 
dren," questions  whether  it  is  even  possible  to  create 
a  unified  vision  of  Alice.  She  suggests  that  Alice  is  an 
"amalgam  of  purity  and  subversive  power...  a  nurs- 
ery avatar  of  a  grand  Pre-Raphaelite  icon:  the  fallen 
woman,  scandalous  and  blessed."  These  girls  possess 
"power  and  erotic  energy  within  a  dream  of  purity."  ^ 
I  suggest  that  it  was  the  very  conception  of  the  ideal 
child  that  both  created  and  was  created  by  an  atmo- 
sphere saturated  with  simultaneously  sentimental  and 
sexualized  images  of  young  girls. 

The  1963  publication  of  Philippe  Aiies'  seminal 
work  Centuries  of  Childhood  ma.rked  the  beginnings 
of  historians'  quest  to  discover  and  trace  the  devel- 
opment and  changing  nature  of  childhood  and  the 
ways  in  which  people  perceived  it.  His  main  objective 
was  to  outline  the  emergence  in  the  nineteenth  cen- 
tury of  a  sentiment  de  Venfance,  "an  ambiguous  phrase 
which  conveyed  both  an  awareness  of  childhood  and 
a  feeling  for  it."""  But  although  childhood  changes 
over  time  and  emerged  as  a  discernible  concept  only 
as  recently  as  the  nineteenth  century,  to  what  extent 
does  childhood  actually  reveal  something  about  the 
time  and  place  in  which  it  exists?  Is  "childhood"  a 
universal,  timeless  phase  of  life  characterized  by  cer- 
tain constant  truths?  Or  is  it  a  highly  malleable  social 
construct?  To  what  extent  are  artistic  representations 
of  children  shaped  by  contemporaneous  conceptions 
of  childhood? 


19 


II.  The  Victorian  Era 

Toward  the  end  of  the  eighteenth  century,  a  new  no- 
tion of  childhood  emerged  that  suggested  children 
were  not  merely  undeveloped  adults,  but  in  fact,  had 
value  in  their  own  right.''  In  the  early  nineteenth  cen- 
tury, a  variety  of  social  changes  and  ideological  shifts 
led  to  the  occupation  by  children  of  a  childlike  place 
in  society.  However,  it  was  not  until  the  Evangelical 
movement,  Romanticism,  and  widespread  industrial- 
ization swept  Europe  that  children  began  to  acquire 
a  collective  identity. 

Julia  Briggs  attributes  the  proliferation  of  chil- 
dren's literature  in  part  to  the  Evangelicalism.  As  the 
movement  attempted  to  reach  children  of  the  lowest 
classes  and  children's  books  preaching  morality,  good 
values,  and  altruism  were  published,  a  "sentimental 
conviction  of  the  child's  innate  virtue  gradually  came 
to  replace  the  earlier  emphasis  on  original  sin."' 
While  the  Evangelical  movement  is  most  often  cited 
as  contributing  to  the  development  of  children's  lit- 
erature, I  propose  that  this  increased  output  of  age- 
specific  literature  also  helped  mold  childhood  into  a 
socially  and  culturally  distinct  category. 

Another  factor  in  the  development  of  childhood 
was  an  increasing  interest  in  "ideas  more  overtly  com- 
patible with  Romanticism's  idealization"  of  child- 
hood.*^ Romantics  such  as  Wordsworth  and  Coleridge 
viewed  childhood  as  innocent,  pure,  and  character- 
ized by  a  "vitality  of  the  imagination  as  it  instinctively 
recognized  its  affinities  with  the  natural  world. "^ 
Children  were  seen  as  having  a  more  profound  rela- 
tionship with  the  natural  world,  as  possessing  percep- 
tual and  imaginative  capabilities  that  were  lost  upon 
reaching  adulthood.  Citing  literary  historian  David 
Grylls,  Heywood  describes  the  Romantic  child  as  hav- 
ing "deeper  wisdom,  finer  aesthetic  sensitivity,  and  [a 
deeper]  awareness  of  enduring  moral  truths."'"  This 
formulation  of  childhood  as  a  lost  realm  essential  to 
the  formation  of,  but  separate  from  adulthood  con- 
tributed to  the  singularity  of  the  child's  identity. 

While  Romanticism  disseminated  the  idea  of 
childhood  as  pure  and  intrinsically  connected  to  na- 
ture, the  industrialization  of  the  countryside  further 
contributed  to  the  ideal  of  the  innocent,  moral  child. 
Romanticism  was  predicated  upon  a  recovery  of  Eng- 
land's rural,  idyllic  past,  a  past  industrialization  was 
swiftly  destroying.  Accompanying  the  rise  of  industry 
was  the  reality  of  the  abused,  working-class  female 
child:  "The  abused  girl  constituted  . . .  the  central  hor- 
ror ...  largely  because  she  is  depicted  as  the  absolute 
inverse  of  the  ideal  little  girl.""  She  stood  in  striking 
contrast  to  her  innocent,  romanticized  counterpart. 
The  wretched,  laboring  girl  simultaneously  created 
and  revealed  the  Victorian  imperative  to  rescue  their 
children  and,  with  Romanticism  and  Evangelicalism 
as  their  models,  to  construct  an  ideal  child. 


Thus,  ideal  childhood  did  not  suddenly  appear  in 
the  Victorian  era:  it  resulted  from  the  circumstances 
outlined  above,  as  well  as  from  Victorian  ideologies 
that  both  contributed  to  and  were  consequences  of 
the  new  conception  of  ideal  childhood,  at  the  heart 
of  which  was  the  girl-child.  Perhaps  no  other  era 
has  been  so  often  analyzed,  interpreted,  and  rein- 
terpreted in  terms  of  its  love  affair  with  the  female 
child — a  singularly  Victorian  construct  known  as 
the  Cult  of  the  Child.  I  wish  to  divide  this  extremely 
complex  and  often  paradoxical  construction  into  two 
major  components:  the  girl,  as  ideal  and  treasured  by 
society  as  a  whole,  and  the  so-called  "lost  girlhood  of 
Victorian  gentlemen." 

The  Victorians  possessed  a  cultish  love  for  young 
girls,  viewing  children  as  innocent,  sexually  pure, 
moral,  and  spiritual.  However,  beneath  her  immacu- 
late fagade,  the  Victorian  girl  was  in  fact  quite  com- 
plex and  problematic.  Innocence  and  an  appear- 
ance of  purity  simultaneously  sustained  the  ideal  of 
the  pre-sexual  child  and  rendered  the  female  child 
highly,  albeit  implicitly,  sexualized;  her  latent  sexu- 
ality and  appearance  of  purity  made  her  desirable. 
The  sexual  nature  of  the  child  was  "the  epitome  of 
innocent  beauty  which  awakens  longing  without  it- 
self demanding  sexual  satisfaction."'^  Because  ex- 
plicit childhood  sexuality  was  taboo,  forbidden  adult 
male  sexual  desires  were  "subconsciously  redirected 
towards  children,  because  in  the  context  of  a  pre- 
sexual  child  they  [seemed]  safe,  unchallenging,  and 
hardly  sexual  at  all."''^  On  the  surface,  the  Child  as 
a  Victorian  symbol  carried  with  it  all  sorts  of  power- 
ful meanings:  beauty,  purity,  morality,  and  sensuality, 
eroticism,  sexuality.  In  the  female  child,  these  seem- 
ingly contradictory  qualities  come  together  in  a  syn- 
thesis of  all  that  was  desirable  and  desired  during  the 
Victorian  era. 

Also  contributing  to  the  shape  of  Victorian  child- 
hood was  the  attraction  felt  by  men  toward  young 
girls,  an  attraction  which  Catherine  Robson  attributes 
to  the  "male  myth  of  feminized  origin."'''  As  a  symbol 
of  an  idyllic  and  happy  childhood,  the  young  girl  be- 
came a  provider  of  male  security,  yet  with  an  implicit 
eroticism.  The  girl's  age  and  gender,  contrasting  with 
those  of  her  male  admirer,  focused  this  complex  re- 
lationship on  the  body,  thus  implicitly  eroticizing 
the  child.  U.  C.  Knoepflmacher  attributes  the  attrac- 
tion to  little  girls  by  Victorian  men  such  as  Dodgson 
to  the  male's  sense  of  a  missed  childhood — a  result 
of  the  removal  of  boys  from  the  home  to  school  at  a 
very  young  age.'''  Emotional,  creative,  and  sentimen- 
tal Victorian  gentlemen  desired  to  recover  their  lost 
childhood  by  appropriating  the  body  of  the  young 
girl  and  all  it  implied.  Thus,  Victorian  childhood  was 
coded  as  explicitly  feminine  and  highly  desirable. 

The  Cult  of  the  Child  and  the  "male  myth  of 
feminized  origin"  relate  directly  to  Dodgson  and  his 


20 


photographs  of  Ahce  Liddell,  the  first  visuahzations 
of  Alice.  While  it  is  important  to  note  that  he  was  by 
no  means  alone  in  his  attraction  to  young  girls — in 
fact,  it  was  rather  common  and  not  at  all  suspect — 
his  photographs  do  underscore  the  powerful  allure 
young  girls  held  for  him.  Kincaid  suggests  that  Carroll 
wished  to  capture  in  his  photographs  the  child  before 
she  vanished,  before  she  grew  up"^ — a  theme  that  res- 
onates quite  explicidy  in  the  illustrations  of  Wonder- 
land. This  desire  to  encapsulate  childhood  in  visual 
form  also  implies  that  Dodgson  felt  nostalgia  for  the 
conditions  of  feminine  childhood  in  which  he  never 
participated.  Robson  proposes  that  photography  was 
the  perfect  outlet  for  his  desires.  His  method  was  the 
license  offered  by  "self-effacement,"  his  absence  from 
the  photograph  itself.  This  invisibility  allowed  him  to 
capture  his  erotically  suggestive  relationship  with  his 
young  child  friends  without  complicating  it  with  his 
presence."  But  because  of  the  nature  of  the  medium, 
he  was  inherently  present:  the  very  act  of  framing  was 
part  and  parcel  of  his  "sensual  exploration  of  child- 
hood and  emergent  sexuality,"  which,  while  suspect 
today,  was  normative  and  intrinsic  to  the  Victorian 
male  artist.'^ 

Dodgson 's  photographs  of  Alice  Liddell  in  proper, 
girlish  dress  indeed  convey  a  sense  of  youthful  inno- 
cence. For  example,  in  a  photograph  from  1859,  Alice 
wears  a  fussy,  complicated,  and  constricting  dress  typi- 
cal of  affluent  Victorian  girls.  The  flowered  garland 
in  her  hair  and  her  demure  smile  give  her  a  delicate, 
doll-like  quality,  while  the  circular  framing  of  the  pho- 
tograph renders  both  the  subject  and  the  content 
sentimental  and  ornamental.  In  another  photograph 

from  that  year,  Alice 
poses  coyly  in  an 
ivy-draped  corner) . 
Again,  she  wears  a 
ruffled  white  dress 
and  frilly  white 
socks,  both  of  which 
suggest  innocence 
and  purity.  The 
photograph 's  staged 
quality  is  obvious, 
and  reinforces  the 


idea  of  the  Victorian  girl  as  constructed  object  of  sen- 
timent and  desire.  Dodgson  took  another  photograph 
of  Alice  in  that  same  corner,  yet  in  this  one  she  wears 
the  costume  of  a  beggar  girl,  a  costume  that  removes 
her  from  the  realm  of  proper  Victorian  childhood 
and  into  that  of  fantasy  and  role-playing. 

Photographs  such  as  these  that  construct  AHce 
as  the  Other  reveal  the  ambiguity  and  multivalence 
of  the  Victorian  child.  Her  face  and  body  are  child- 
like, but  her  torn  clothing,  confrontational  gaze,  and 
provocative  gesture  are  suggestive  of  the  latent  sexu- 
ality that  characterized  Victorian  perceptions  of  child- 
hood.''^ Dodgson's  photographs  juxtapose  the  ethe- 
real, natural  beauty  of  children  with  proper  Victorian 
childhood  and  the  formal  constraints  of  the  medium. 
The  photographs  are  structured  around  this  tension 
between  the  physical  reality  of  the  children  portrayed 
and  the  styled  artifice  of  the  image  itself.  Oppositions 
between  the  natural  and  the  artificial,  the  erotic  and 
the  repressed,  and  interiorized  and  staged  theatricality 
are  all  invoked.  Thus,  he  weaves  form  and  content  into 
a  seamless  whole  that  is  implicitly  erotic  and  visually 
haunting.  The  power  of  Carroll's  creations  lay  in  his 
management,  through  photography,  of  the  Victorian 
girl's  paradoxical  nature,  and  in  his  brilliant  synthesis 
of  the  innocently  nostalgic  and  the  implicitly  erotic. 

Jackie  Wullschlager  discusses  these  seemingly 
paradoxical  components  of  the  Victorian  ideal:  the 
innocent.  Romantic  child  who  was  connected  to  na- 
ture, and  the  sexual  child  toward  whom  the  desires  of 
Victorian  men  were  directed.  While  I  suggested  that 
Dodgson  both  revealed  and  concealed  his  desires 
through  photographs  of  girls,  I  also  believe  that  it  was 
through  the  writing  of  children's  fantasy  novels  that 
such  desires  could  be  unleashed  yet  channeled  in  a 
socially  acceptable  manner.'^"  One  result,  and  perhaps 
cause  as  well,  of  the  emergence  of  a  conception  of  a 
distinct  childhood  was  the  emergence  of  illustrated 
children's  books  as  a  legitimate  form  of  literature. 
Illustration  during  this  period  was  of  especially  high 
quality,  and  Sir  John  Tenniel's  illustrations  for  Car- 
roll's books  are  the  best  known. '^' 

The  first  illustrations  for  the  Alice  books,  how- 
ever, were  drawn  by  Carroll  himself.  Before  the  first 
book  was  published,  he  prepared  a  hand-lettered  and 
illustrated  manuscript  of  the  stories  for  Alice  Liddell. 
Carroll's  drawings  were  until  recently  (and  by  Car- 
roll himself)  typically  viewed  as  flawed  and  childish. 
While  I  acknowledge  that  they  do  not  reach  the  level 
of  Tenniel's  technical  and  artistic  competency,  I  pro- 
pose that  we  view  them  as  interesting  and  imagina- 
tive drawings  that  both  influenced  Tenniel  and  have 
merit  in  their  own  right.  His  Alice  is  not  so  much  an 
explicitly  Victorian  idealized  child  as  she  is  an  allu- 
sion to  a  slightly  earlier  period  of  romanticism  and 
raw  passion.  As  Rodney  Engen  explains,  Carroll's 
Alice  evokes  an  ideal  Pre-Raphaelite  girl-child  with 


21 


tp0  jPPB^^H 

i^'a^^^ 

^'jnl 

her  "long,  frizzy  tresses  and  haunting  eyes"  (cf. 
Juliet,]ohn  William  Waterhouse,  1898,  detail,  above 
right). 22  Yet  unlike  so  many  images  of  Pre-Raphaelite 
and  Victorian  females,  this  Alice  is  not  sexualized,  but 
rather  predominantly  childlike  and  innocent. 

Carroll  thought  his  drawings  childish  and  felt 
he  was  not  competent  enough  to  illustrate  the 
published  Alice.  Twenty  years  later,  Kate  Greenaway 
became  famous  for  her  stylistically  childlike  drawings 
of  an  idyllic,  nostalgic  childhood.  The  very  qualities 
that  made  Carroll  see  his  drawings  as  inadequate, 
Greenaway  sought  intentionally  and  with  great 
success.  They  became  the  hallmark  of  her  well-known 
and  recognizable  style.  Greenaway's  drawings  are 
like  vivid  memories:  they  evoke  and  long  for  a  lost 
childhood  of  the  past.  When  Dodgson  chose  an  artist 
to  illustrate  the  published  edition  in  1865,  he  chose  Sir 
John  Tenniel,  who  drew  as  he  would  draw  for  an  adult 
audience:  illustrations  with  none  of  the  endearing 
childlike  qualities  of  Greenaway  or  Carroll. 

Carroll  provided  almost  no  description  of  Alice's 
physical  characteristics,  and  thus  Tenniel's  visualization 
of  Alice  was  left  to  his  imagination  and  to  anything 
he  could  gather  from  Carroll's  illustrations.  Carroll 
implies  only  that  Alice  "had  long,  straight  hair,  shiny 
shoes,  a  skirt,  small  hands,  and  bright  eyes,"  and  given 
such  details,  she  "becomes  a  nondescript  Everygirl."-'^ 

It  is  in  Tenniel's  illustrations  that  Alice  becomes 
an  embodiment  of  the  Victorian  child,  simultaneously 
innocent  and  mature.  While  Carroll's  drawings  did 
influence  those  of  Tenniel,  mostly  in  terms  of  poses 
and  gestures,  Tenniel's  Alice  is  a  completely  different 
girl.  Tenniel's  Alice,  with  her  "china-doll  features,"  is 
stiffer,  more  enigmatic,  and  unlike  Carroll's  childlike 
girl,  embodies  the  child-adult  split  that  characterized 
the  Victorian  ideal  of  childhood.  According  to  Engen, 
the  appearance  and  expressions  of  Tenniel's  Alice  are 


"well-suited  to  her  fits 

of  very  adult  petulance 

and  outraged  anger  as 

well  as  the  expressions 

of  childish  innocence 

which  dominate  the 

story. "24  His  Alice  is 

often   wooden    and 

stoic;  she  lacks  vitality 

and  seems  detached 

from  the  characters 

around  her.   She   is 

"unsentimental  and  minute,  with  some  of  the  effect 

of  a  photograph  taken  for  factual  record. "2-"'  Thus  it 

is  not  surprising  that,  like  wealthy  girls  in  Victorian 

photographs,  Alice  exemplifies  the  conventions  of 

proper  girlhood.  The  Alice  of  Through  the  Looking- 

Glass,  with  her  long  blonde  hair,  black  boots,  and 

black  hat  with  feather,  resembles,  for  instance,  the 

eldest  daughter  in  a  photograph  of  the  daughters  of 

the  Fourth  Marquess  of  Bath  (above). 

Another  influence  on  Tenniel's  Alice  was  Sir 
John  Everett  Millais'  paintings  of  children.  Tenniel's 
illustration  of  Alice  seated  on  the  train  is  an  obvious 
descendant  of  Millais'  My  First  Sermon  (opposite, 
left) .  They  share  the  same  hat,  boots,  fur  muff,  and 
striped  stockings.  Both  girls  have  a  sullen,  childlike 
countenance.  Tenniel's  Alice  also  embodies  the  dual 
nature  of  the  Victorian  girl-child,  lost  in  a  strange,  adult 
world,  "caught  in  the  liminal  moment  between  herself 
as  a  physical  body  and  the  adult's  requirement  that  she 
conform  herself  to  the  ideological  identity  given  to 
her."2*'  Carroll's  girl-child  is  forever  curious  about  her 
surroundings,  and  wavers  between  remaining  a  child 
and  progressing  to  adulthood.  These  visualizations 
of  Alice,  in  terms  of  both  themselves  and  their 
relationship  with  contemporary  images  of  children, 


22 


embody  the  paradoxical  nature  and  multidimension- 
ality  of  the  Victorian  conception  of  the  ideal  child. 

'    James  Kincaid,  Child-Loving  .The Erotic  Child  &  Victorian 

Culture  (New  York:  Routledge,  1992),  290. 
^     Kincaid,  Child-Loving,  289. 
^    Jacqueline  Labbe,  '"Still  She  Haunts  Me,  Phantomwise': 

Gendering  Alice,"  The  Carrollian  3  (Spring  1999):  28. 
"*    Nina  Auerbach,  "Falling  Alice,  Fallen  Women,  and 

Victorian  Dream  Children,"  in  Soaring  with  the  Dodo, 

edited  by  Edward  Guiliano  (Richmond:  University  of 

Virginia  Press,  1982):  47. 
^    Colin  Heywood,  A  History  of  Childhood  (Cambridge:  Polity 

Press,  2001),  19. 
^    Heywood,  History  of  Childhood,  24. 
'    Julia  Briggs,  "The  Emergence  of  Form:  1850-1890,"  in 

Children's  Literature:  An  Illustrated  History,  edited  by  Peter 

Hunt  (Oxford:  Oxford  University  Press,  1995),  130. 
^   Catherine  Robson,  Men  in  Wonderland:  The  Lost  Girlhood 

of  Victorian  Gentlemen,  (Princeton:  Princeton  University 

Press,  2001),  7. 
^    Briggs,  "The  Emergence  of  Form,"  136. 
^^    Heywood,  History  of  Childhood,  24. 
''    Robson,  Men  in  Wonderland,  51. 
'^  Jackie  Wullschlager,  Inventing  Wonderland  (New  York:  The 

Free  Press,  1995),  23. 
1-^   Ibid.,  23-24. 


^^   Robson,  Men  in  Wonderland,  3. 

^^    U.C.  Knoepflmacher,  Ventures  into  Childland:  Victorians, 

Fairy  Tales,  and  Femininity  (Chicago:  University  of  Chicago 

Press,  1998),  11. 
^^   Kincaid,  Child-Loving,  227. 
^^    Robson,  Men  in  Wonderland,  144. 
^^    Karoline  Leach,  In  the  Shadow  of  the  Dreamchild  (London: 

Peter  Owen  Publishers,  1999),  67. 
^^  Anne  Higonnet,  Pictures  of  Innocence:  The  History  and  Crisis 

of  Ideal  Childhood  (London:  Thames  and  Hudson,  1998), 

123-4. 
20  Wullschlager,  Inventing  Wonderland,  27. 
^'    Briggs,  "The  Emergence  of  Form,"  163. 
^^    Rodney  Engen,  Sir  John  Tenniel:  Alice's  White  Knight 

(Aldershot,  Hants,  England:  Scolar  Press,  1991),  76. 
"^^   Richard  Kelly,  "'If  you  don't  know  what  a  Gryphon  is': 

Text  and  Illustration  in  Alice's  Adventures  in  Wonderland," 

in  Leiuis  Carroll,  a  Celebration,  edited  by  Edward  Guiliano 

(New  York:  C.  N.  Potter,  1982),  65. 
^^    Engen,  Sir  John  Tenniel,  77. 
^^    Mikiko  Chimori,  "Shigeru  Hatsuyama's  Unpublished 

Alice  Illustrations:  A  Comparative  Study  of  Japanese  and 

Western  Art,"  The  Carrollian  4  (Autumn  1999):  46. 
^^  J.  Zornado,  Inventing  Childhood:  Culture,  Ideology,  and  the 

Story  of  Childhood  (New  York:  Gariand  Publishing,  2001), 

112. 


23 


-S^ 
^?*^ 


The  Deaneny  Ganden 


^i^ 
^?^ 


I  do  congratulate  you  on  the  new 
format  for  Knight  Letter,  it  is  now 
much  clearer,  and  makes  the 
whole  journal  easier  to  read  and 
enjoy. 

I  particularly  value  having  the 
bonus  of  a  page  of  "Contents," 
and  the  way  the  reviews  at  the  end 
have  been  unscrambled — so  that 
one  can  now  identify  so  much 
more  easily  books  (that  we  may 
need  to  order)  from  magazine 
articles,  cyberspace,  collectibles, 
etc.  (which  are  of  interest,  but  it's 
not  vital  to  buy  every  item!).  I  am 
much  impressed  at  how  you  man- 
age not  only  to  find  all  this  mate- 
rial, but  also  then  to  assemble  it  in 
such  a  palatable  form  for  publica- 
tion. It  is  a  wonderful  service  to 
members,  and  a  totally  invaluable 
source  of  information.  The  Societ- 
ies owe  you  a  big  debt. 

I  admire  the  way  you  are  happy 
to  include  ongoing  controversies 
between  certain  arguing  fac- 
tions— Docherty  and  Leach;  the 
"revisionists"  and  Cohen;  and  even 
Tufail  and  Wakeling.  We  can  all  sit 
at  ringside  and  enjoy. 


The  increased  strength  in  the 
"Leaves  from  the  Deanery  Gar- 
den" is  a  splendid  development. 
This  makes  for  great  reading — and 
your  extended  letters  of  correc- 
tion of  errors,  and  explanation  of 
contentious  issues  can  do  nothing 
but  good. 

A  few  points,  if  I  may: 

In  "What  the  Archbishop 
Found"  (KI.  70:26),  Mark  Burstein 
discusses  the  source  of  "the  driest 
thing  I  know,"  identified  by  Roger 
Lancelyn  Green  as  A  Short  Course 
of  History,  by  H.  Le  M.  Chepmell. 
He  rightly  says  the  first  edition  was 
published  in  1848,  and  the  seventh 
in  1859.  My  own  copy  is  the  third 
edition,  1850.  It  is  not  a  com- 
mon book.  To  be  really  pedantic, 
one  might  add  that  Lewis  Carroll 
slighdy  misquotes  the  original — in 
Chepmell,  the  sentence  starting 
"William's  conduct..."  is  a  new 
paragraph;  in  Alice,  there  is  no  new 
paragraph  (I  am  also  pedantic! — in 
the  Moser  edition  oi  Alice,  I  rein- 
stated the  new  paragraph.) 

August  Imholtz  Jr.,  in  his  defini- 
tive account  of  Latin  and  Greek 


versions  of  "Jabberwocky"  {KL 
70:5-1 1 ) ,  discusses  Vansittart's  Latin 
version  as  having  been  composed 
"in  a  room  at  Trinity,"  and  says  that 
Classics  teachers  "often  had  copies 
privately  printed  and  distributed 
to  their  students  as  translation 
models."  He  does  not  mention  that 
Vansittart  did  indeed  do  this  with 
his  Latin  version.  I  discussed  this 
version  m  Jabberwocky,  Spring  1975, 
a  paper  that  August  omits  from 
his  bibliography.  In  this  article  I 
discussed  the  variations  between 
this  1872  version  and  the  Oxford 
University  Press  1881  version.  Most 
are  minor,  but  there  is  one  word 
change:  "resolvens"  is  changed  to 
"revolvens."  I  commented  then  that 
both  words  make  perfect  sense.  Au- 
gust lists  the  Latin  translation  by 
H.  D.  Watson  as  appearing  in  More 
English  Rhymes  ivith  Latin  Renderings 
(Oxford,  1937).  In  fact,  that  part 
of  the  title  is  in  brackets,  the  pri- 
mary title  is,  rather  appropriately, 
Jabberwocky,  Etc. 

I  much  enjoyed  the  extended 
discussion  by  Matthew  Demakos 
on  "The  Authentic  Wasp"  {KL 
72:15-25),  and  his  detailed  com- 


24 


merits  on  our  Wasp  symposium  in 
April  1978.  He  gives  the  impres- 
sion that  this  was  a  formal  "nine- 
member  panel  discussion."  This 
was  not  quite  the  case.  The  talks 
by  Denis  Crutch,  Brian  Sibley,  Ra- 
phael Shaberman,  and  myself  were 
all  prepared  beforehand,  but  the 
discussion  was  free-ranging,  and 
all  those  who  attended  were  in- 
vited to  comment  "from  the  floor" 
as  it  were.  I  recorded  the  entire 
proceedings,  and  then  transcribed 
it  from  the  tapes,  which  I  recall  as 
an  immensely  laborious  process.  I 
am  relieved  that  Matthew,  after  his 
extensive  further  researches,  still 
comes  to  much  the  same  conclu- 
sions as  our  symposium  did. 

There  are  a  few  errors  in  Mark 
Burstein's  summary  of  the  Stead- 
man/Carroll  connection  in  his 
article  "Read,  Aim,  Firefly!"  {KL 
72:37-38).  The  series  of  etchings 
limited  to  65  sets  (1973)  were 
all  from  Looking-Glass,  none  of 
them  from  Wonderland.  The  150 
copies  of  the  Snark  (1975)  had  a 
numbered  and  signed  etching  of 
"The  Beaver  and  Butcher"  loosely 
inserted.  The  set  of  six  etchings 
from  the  book  are  in  black  and 
white,  not  "sepia  and  black,"  and 
were  published  by  Cliff  White  of 
Wliite  Ink  Limited,  not  Bernard 
Stone  (though  he  may  well  have 
distributed  them).  There  is  some- 
thing of  a  puzzle  over  Steadman's 
pictures  for  the  American  trade 
editions  of  The  Wasp.  The  dust 
wrapper  on  the  first  edition  says 
"Frontispiece  after  Tenniel  with 
two  additional  black-and-white 
illustrations  by  Ralph  Steadman," 
but  no  such  illustrations  are  to  be 
found.  The  dust  wrapper  on  the 
second  printing,  1978,  also  says 
"Frontispiece  after  Tenniel  with  two 
additional  black-and-white  illustra- 
tions by  Ralph  Steadman,"  but  only 
the  frontispiece  (with  the  picture  in 
reverse,  as  Mark  points  out)  and  one 
extra  illustration  are  to  be  found. 
The  dust  wrapper  on  the  third 
printing  says  it  has  "Frontispiece 
(after  Tenniel)  and  an  additional 
illustration  by  Ralph  Steadman," 


but  none  are  to  be  found.  Possibly 
my  copies  are  faulty,  but  there  is 
no  sign  of  tampering.  Mark  righdy 
includes  My  Afier-Dinner  Speech,  but 
no  mention  of  the  booklet  pre- 
pared on  the  occasion  of  the  Cente- 
nary Dinner:  Ralph  Steadman  and  the 
Lewis  Carroll  Connection,  by  Selwyn 
Goodacre. 

Selwyn  Goodacre 
South  Derbyshire,  UK 

Thank  you  very  much  for  your  kind 
words  and  vast  erudition,  Selwyn.  If 
you  really  want  to  get  pedantic  about 
the  Chepmell  quotation,  I  am  forced  to 
point  out  that  in  the  original,  "Pope" 
was  capitalized;  "the English"  is  fol- 
loiued  by  a  semicolon,  not  a  comma; 
and  many  of  the  proper  nouns  were 
italicized.  But  since  it  was  an  oral 
recitation,  rather  than  a  written  tran- 
scription, I  think  we  can  let  it  be. 


The  new  Knight  Letter  (75)  just 
arrived  and  is  smashing;  Martin 
Gardner's  comments  and  notes 
alone  are  above  the  price  of  rubies. 

It  is  so  rarely  that  my  memory 
can  be  trusted,  please  let  me  vindi- 
cate it  in  one  small  matter 

On  p.  22  appears  my  note:  "I 
have  a  recollection  of  reading 
in  a  KL — perhaps  in  KL  42 — of  a 
member's  once  asking  Douglas 
Adams  on  the  fly  if  his  using  42  as 
'the  answer'  in  A  Hitchhiker's  Guide 
to  the  Galaxy  was  inspired  by  Lewis 
Carroll's  interest  in  the  number. 
As  I  recall,  the  member  received 
a  brusque,  even  disgusted,  denial 
from  the  irritated  author" 

You  seemed  to  think  it  wasn't  in 
the  Knight  Letter,  so  I  went  back  in 
my  time  machine  to  check. 

In  Knight  Letter  42,  under  "Car- 
rollian  Notes,"  beneath  the  head 
"Life,  the  Universe,  &:  42,"  Michael 
D.  Welch  writes:  "I  asked  Adams 
when  I  met  him  last  year  if  there 
was  any  connection  between  his 
use  of  the  number  42  in  his  book 
and  Carroll's  use  of  it.  He  denied 
it  out  of  hand,  glaring  at  me  testily 
as  if  he  was  about  to  shake 


like  a  wet  rat.  Yes,  he  had  read 
Carroll  when  he  was  but  a  child, 
but  it  had  no  influence  on  his  own 
writing  above  any  other  books  he 
devoured." 

As  disturbing  as  I  find  the  dis- 
tortions of  my  memory's  lens,  I'm 
relieved  that  the  incident  wasn't 
"my  own  invention." 

Thanks  for  all  your  good  work. 
Gary  Brockman 


ISi 

Is  Walt  Kelly's  transvestite  Pogo 
(unless  it's  actually  his  sister,  fly- 
ing blind  without  her  glasses,  or  a 
grownup  niece)  playing  Alice  in 
"Who  Stole  the  Tarts?"  ( The  Pogo 
Stepmother  Goose,  Simon  &  Schuster, 
1954)  the  only  example  we  have  of 
a  "humanoid"  or  animal  Alice?  Is 
she  always  illustrated  as  a  human 
child?  I  suppose  that  makes  sense, 
for  the  contrast  between  her  and 
the  other  creatures.  Do  any  read- 
ers know  of  other  non-human 
instances? 

Andrew  Ogus 


The  following  email  was  received  by 
u)ebcontact@lewiscarroll.org: 

Hi!  my  name  is  gill  and  im  a  huge 
charles  lutwidge  dodgson  fan.  i  do 
not  mean  to  be  finicky  but  there  is 
only  one  "r"  and  one  "1"  in  carol. 

just  thought  i'd  point  it  out but 

i  would  like  to  congratulate  you  on 
the  marvelous  site !!!!!!! 


25 


Ravings  pnom  rhe  Wmring  Desk 


OF  ALAN  TANNENBAUM 


■^^ 


One  of  the  tasks  I  have  is  to  organize  and  arrange  the  ven- 
ues and  speakers  for  our  semi-annual  meetings.  As  long 
as  I  have  been  attending  LCSNA  gatherings  (20  years), 
we  have  always  had  good  meetings,  and  I  don't  think 
the  previous  seven,  during  my  tenure  as  President  have 
been  exceptions.  We've  had  some  outstanding 
speakers,  exhibitions,  receptions,  and  side- 
trips.  Back  in  2000  when  I  hosted  the  Austin 
meeting  of  the  LCSNA,  and  before  I  became 
President,  I  had  a  little  taste  of  the  logistical 
work  needed,  but  I  was  the  local.  Then,  at  the 
end  of  2002,  when  the  helm  transferred  to  me 
from  the  capable  hands  of  Stephanie  Lovett,  I 
began  to  appreciate  the  amount  of  work  these 
meetings  entail  and  had  a  new  respect  for  the 
work  of  my  predecessors.  Fortunately,  with 
the  help  of  local  members  and  the  staffs  at 
the  respective  institutions,  we  always  succeed 
at  having  an  enjoyable  meeting  for  the  many 
people  who  come  to  share  in  our  common  in- 
terest. 

Since  this  special  issue  of  the  Knight  Let- 
ter comes  to  you  with  a  summary  of  the  past 
two  meetings,  I  have  the  pleasure  of  thanking 
a  number  of  speakers  and  staff  in  helping  to 
make  these  meetings  a  success. 

I  won't  rehash  those  events,  but  I  will  go 
out  of  my  way  to  thank  Heather  King  and  the 
staff  of  the  Iowa  State  Historical  Society  for 
helping  us  arrange  the  meeting  and  exhibition  of  Lewis 
Carroll  items  in  their  collection.  And  to  Mary  Kline-Misol 
who  invited  us  to  Des  Moines  and  not  only  gave  us  per- 
sonal tour  through  her  wonderful  retrospective,  but  along 
with  her  husband  truly  went  above  and  beyond  in  arrang- 
ing the  evening  reception  and  gala  dinner  at  the  Salisbury 
House.  They  presented  the  Society  with  a  specially  en- 
graved white  stone  to  mark  the  event.  Special  thanks  also 
go  to  our  speakers:  Frankie  Morris,  the  foremost  authority 
on  Sir  John  Tenniel;  Genevieve  Smith  for  her  insights  into 
the  artistic  side  of  Carroll;  David  Schaefer  for  the  mini  film 
festival  (and  the  untold  hours  of  mastering  digital  video 
editing  to  reproduce  some  effects  not  seen  in  100  years). 


and  the  panel  of  collectors:  Joel  Birenbaum,  Mark  Burst- 
ein,  and  August  Imholtz.  To  those  members  who  sent  in 
pictures  of  items  from  their  collections,  thank  you  very 
much. 

The  academic  conference  just  concluded  in  Los  An- 
geles, in  conjunction  with 
our  Spring  meeting,  was  only 
possible  due  of  the  work  of 
Tyson  Gaskill  and  his  capable 
staff  at  use.  The  two  days  of 
talks  and  exhibitions  at  the 
Doheny  and  Huntington  Li- 
braries was  top-notch.  And 
special  thanks  to  Dr.  George 
Cassady  who  has  been  qui- 
etly compiling  an  outstand- 
ing collection  of  popular  and 
rare  Carrolliana  that  is  now 
in  the  collection  of  USC.  As 
Dr.  Cassady  explained  to  me, 
he  feels  strongly  that  Carroll 
enthusiasts  should  be  able  to 
get  close  to  these  rare  items, 
and  his  special  private  exhi- 
bition for  attendees  put  even 
more  of  these  items  into  our 
careful  hands.  The  host  and 
moderator  of  the  conference. 
Professor  James  Kincaid,  did 
a  fabulous  job  of  introductions  and  commentary  for  the 
prestigious  cadre  of  speakers  you've  read  about  earlier  in 
this  issue,  and  well  deserves  a  round  of  applause  from  the 
Society. 

Looking  back  on  the  successful  meetings  I've  had 
the  pleasure  of  helping  to  arrange  makes  me  temporarily 
forget  the  many  hurdles  it  took  to  get  there.  Which  brings 
me  to  the  next  meeting  and  thoughts  for  the  future:  the 
Board  of  Directors  has  a  standing  intention  to  meet  in 
the  New  York  City  area  each  year.  Sometimes  that  does 
not  mean  every  other  meeting,  but  rather  once  per  calen- 
dar year.  To  that  end,  we  will  be  meeting  in  NYC  in  the 
fall.  We  intended  to  meet  in  October  at  the  newly  reno- 
vated Pierpont  Morgan  Library  in  Manhattan,  which  let 
us  know  (before  the  meeting  at  USC)  that  they  would  be 


26 


very  happy  to  host  us.  However,  at  the  time  we  went  to 
press,  the  Morgan  staff  is  very  involved  with  their  grand 
re-opening  and  have  begged  us  to  wait  a  few  weeks  before 
dates  and  logistics  can  be  arranged.  So,  the  best  I  can  say 
at  this  moment  is  as  soon  as  the  venue  and  date  is  chosen, 
we  will  send  out  a  mailing  and  update  the  LewisCarroll. 
org  Web  site. 

The  NYC  meeting  also  will  be  an  election  meeting. 
My  second  term  is  coming  to  an  end  and  I  want  to  take 
this  time  to  thank  the  members  for  all  the  support  they 
give  the  Society.  I  especially  want  to  thank  Mark  Burstein 
once  again  for  his  efforts  not  only  as  vice  president  but  for 
the  outstanding  job  as  editor-in-chief  of  the  Knight  Letter, 
Dr.  Fran  Abeles,  our  long-time  Treasurer,  for  keeping  the 
Society's  books  straight  and  for  taking  over  as  Publica- 
tions Chair;  and  Cindy  Walter,  the  Society's  secretary,  for 
all  of  the  myriad  operational  roles  she  performs,  not  the 
least  of  which  is  owning  the  Society's  postal  address.  The 
other  members  of  the  Board  of  Directors  and  the  Board 
of  Advisors  of  course  have  my  thanks  for  their  guidance. 
Details  of  the  elections  will  be  available  on  the  Web  site  as 
we  get  closer  to  the  fall  meeting.  If  any  of  you  would  like 
to  serve  on  the  Society's  Executive  Committee  or  Board 
of  Directors,  I  encourage  you  to  write  directly  to  me. 

You  may  have  noticed  that  you  can  join  or  renew  your 
membership,  contribute  to  the  worthy  Funds  of  the  Soci- 
ety, or  register  for  meetings  via  our  Web  site  and  PayPal 
accounts.  You  will  find  soon  that  the  Web  site  is  undergo- 
ing a  bit  of  transformation,  and  we  are  constantly  looking 
at  ways  to  communicate  to  the  membership  in  a  more  ef- 
ficient manner.  To  that  end,  I  encourage  all  members  to 
submit  their  email  addresses  to  the  Society's  secretary  for 
our  mailing  list  the  next  time  you  renew  your  membership 
or  have  an  occasion  to  write  to  Cindy  or  me.  We  will  not 
publish  this  information  or  use  these  addresses  for  pur- 
poses outside  the  business  of  the  Society. 

Finally,  the  Society  intends  to  restart  the  practice  of 
issuing  books  and  other  publications  to  members  as  a  ben- 
efit of  Society  membership.  This  will  begin  during  2006. 
You  will  also  be  receiving  a  newly  updated  list  of  the 
books  in  our  inventory,  and  these  will  become  available  to 
Society  members  at  very  special  prices. 


You  dream  so  much,  Alice 
A  folly  which  you  prayse. 
To.  Still.  The  mouths  of  malice 
Quick  rabbit  watch  spring  days. 

Dressed  so  gracefully 
In  your  frock  of  Sunday  metaphors, 
You  cast  tightly  mirrored  looks 
At  images  of  extinct  shadows. 

"  'ere's  to  the  looking  lass. 
The  lovely,  lavish  liar: 
Oh!  It 's  lovely  jam! 
Saint  Mathematics  choir. " 

"That  Lady!  Are  you  mad  at  her? 
That  cheeky  quince  of  'arts! 
The  cherished  cat  o  'ninepillars 
That  mocks  the  turtle's  tarts!" 

Your  daze  of  fierce  abandon 
Are  numbered,  deep,  and  dirty 
A  liddel  song  a  played  upon 
a  carrolless  hurdy-gurdy. 

Dean  Matter 

Through  a  Glass  Darkly  (Futura  Novelty,  200^) 
with  permission 


27 


"I  was  reading  very  early.  I  taught 
myself  when  I  was  about  three  and 
a  half,  and  readjust  everything. 
I  read  Alice  and  Dracula  the  same 
month,  I  guess,  at  between  five 
and  seven." 

'You  look  at  the  original  drawings 
for  Alice  in  Wonderland  that  Tenniel 
did,  which  are  just  wash  drawings, 
rather  than  engravings.  So  that  the 
Dalziel  brothers,  or  however  you 
pronounce  them,  are  really  re- 
sponsible, in  a  sense,  for  the  qual- 
ity of  the  Tenniel  drawings.  For 
instance,  those  funny  square-toed 
feet  that  turn  up  in  the  Alice  are 
not  Tenniel — they're  the  Dalziel 
brothers.  Because  in  every  single 
thing  that  they  ever  engraved,  no 
matter  by  whom,  those  square  feet 
turn  up." 

"There's  a  book  by  Elizabeth 
Sewell,  which  was  the  best  book 
on  nonsense  I've  ever  read.  It  was 
mostly  about  Lewis  Carroll  and  Ed- 
ward Lear.  Alice  and  Lear's  limer- 
icks and  everything  are  nonsense, 
but  they  have  a  connection  with 
sense.  WTiereas  fantasy  seems  to 
be  totally  arbitrary  at  its  worst.  You 
know,  you  just  think  up  something 
odd.  Or  you  can  start  with  the  end- 
less numbers  of  children's  books 
which  are  stuck  together  with  the 
first  rhyme  that  comes  into  some- 
body's head  for  an  animal's  name 
or  something.  Well,  I  don't  wish  to 
denigrate  Dr.  Seuss,  but  I  mean, 
you  know,  'the  cat  in  the  hat.'" 

"I  plan  to  do  Alice's  Adventures  in 
Wonderland  and  Through  the  Look- 
ing-Glass  for  Putnam,  eventually, 
a  project  I  anticipate  with  a  great 
deal  of  alarm." 

Edward  Gorey,  in  various 
interviews  collected  in 
Ascending  Peculiarity 
(Harcourt,  2001) 


We  [Maurice  Sendak  and  the 
author]  walked  back  up  to  the 
house  with  Herman  [Sendak's 
German  shepherd],  and  made 
some  tea  in  the  kitchen.  On  the 
wall  of  the  studio  is  a  photograph 
by  Lewis  Carroll,  of  Alice  Liddell 
as  a  young  woman.  Sendak  said, 
"I  like  to  think  that  he  was  angry 
at  her  for  growing  up:  to  get  even, 
he  took  the  picture  when  she  was 
slumped." 

Cynthia  Zarin,  "Not  Nice: 
Maurice  Sendak  and  the  Perils 
of  Childhood"  in  The  New 
Yorker,  A/^n7  77,  2006. 


Hopes  for  profits  at  Macmillan  &:  Co. 

Very  often  would  tro. 

Concerns  that  they  had 
That  an  author  was  mad 

Or  just  cracked,  like  Ho.  Do. 


She  [Celia Johnson]  landed  this, 
her  first  major  film  role  [In  Which 
We  Serve],  by  uncharacteristic 
means.  Usually  shy,  she  saw  [Noel] 
Coward  at  a  party  late  in  1941  and, 
knowing  that  he  was  casting  the 
film,  asked  for  the  part.  He  invited 
her  for  a  screen  test,  where  they 
"talked  for  hours  .  .  .  until  we'd 
exhausted  every  topic  of  conversa- 
tion. Then  suddenly  Noel  began  to 
spout  bits  of  'The  Walrus  and  the 
Carpenter'  at  me.  What  was  the 
sun  doing?  he  said.  Shining  on  the 
sea,  I  told  him  exuberantly,  shining 
with  all  its  might.  If  seven  maids 
with  seven  mops  swept  it  for  half  a 
year,  he  said,  considering  the  situ- 
ation gravely,  do  you  suppose  (and 
he  dropped  his  voice  because  he 
wanted  a  very  sad  bit  for  the  cam- 
era) that  they  could  get  it  clear?  I 
doubt  it,  I  told  him  with  an  abso- 
lutely miserable  face,  and  shed  a 
bitter  tear  ...  It  looked  quite  crazy 
in  the  rushes.  But  Noel  seemed  to 
like  it  and  I  got  the  part." 
Philip  Hoare, 

Noel  Coward:  A  Biography 
(Simon  &'  Schuster,  199^) 


H^«/^tee«^ 


28 


^^ 


Another  Contemporary  Sylvie  and  Bruno  Review 


CLARE  IMHOLTZ 


■^^^^^^  nother  Sylvie  and  Bruno  review  has  been  dis- 
^^^A    interred  from  dim  library  periodical  stor- 
M.  ^age  stacks  and  is  presented  for  your  reading 

pleasure.  This  one  is  interesting  on  two  counts:  it  was 
written  by  a  woman,  and  it  appeared  in  a  magazine 
written  for  children,  not  adults.  The  author  was  L.  T 
Meade,  a  prolific  and  quite  popular  writer  of  girls' 
school  stories  and  other  novels,  and  editor  of  A^a- 
lanta,  a  magazine  for  girls,  from  1887-1893.  Meade's 
real  name  was  Elizabeth  (Lillie)  Thomasina  Meade 
Smith.  She  was  the  eldest  daughter  of  a  clergyman, 
and  her  evangelical  concerns  are  obvious  in  her  gen- 
erally positive  review.  [  Other  contemporary  reviews  of  the 
S&B  books  are  found  in  ¥%Ls  62,  63,  67,  71,  72,  and  74.] 

ATALANTA,  MARCH,   1  89O 

There  are  few  sweeter  children  to  be  found,  either 
in  or  out  of  Fairyland,  than  Sylvie  and  Bruno;  at  the 
same  time,  the  book  is  disappointing.  It  is  meant  to 
inform,  to  instruct,  to  enlighten;  but  its  information 
is  given  in  the  form  of  a  medley,  its  instructions  are 
somewhat  irritating,  and  its  flashes  of  light  are  per- 
haps too  brilliant  for  our  weak  vision.  Grown  people 
cannot  help  being  disappointed  in  the  book,  prin- 
cipally because  they  expect  so  much  from  Mr.  Car- 
roll. There  are  some  children,  however,  who,  seeing 
with  a  clearer  vision,  will  skip  the  homilies  and  the 
love-story,  and  revel  in  the  fairy  tale  which  runs  like  a 
bright  chain  of  the  purest  gold  through  the  volume. 
Sylvie  and  Bruno  appear  to  perfection  here,  and  Mr. 
Carroll  is  once  more  the  Magician  who  conjured  up 
scenes  at  the  back  of  the  Looking-Glass,  and  caused 
Alice  to  be  almost  drowned  in  her  own  tears.  Once 
more  he  is  the  old  friend  who  imparts  truths  to  make 
a  boy  or  girl  better  for  a  lifetime  with  the  delicate  tip 
of  his  fairy  wand.  It  seems  a  pity  he  should  leave  a 
country  to  which  he  alone  of  all  men  possesses  the 
key.  For  there  will  never  be  another  Alice,  nor  per- 
haps in  her  way,  although  she  does  not  quite  come  up 
to  Alice,  another  Sylvie.  Mr.  Carroll  complains  that 
copyists  have  trenched  on  her  domain,  but  surely  the 
copies  have  been  of  the  feeblest  and  most  shadowy 
order,  as  one  cannot  recall  their  existence.  Sylvie's 
and  Bruno's  adventures  in  their  fairy  world  can  only 
be  described  in  their  creator's  words.  These  children 
are  Mr.  Carroll's  own,  the  babies  of  his  brain,  impos- 


sible to  imitate,  and  yet  like,  so  like,  every  baby  in  all 
the  nurseries  in  the  world. 

Mr.  Carroll's  preface  to  the  volume  is  full  of  in- 
terest. In  it,  he  explains  some  of  the  motives  which 
prompted  him  to  tell  the  present  story.  It  is  written, 
"not  for  money  and  not  for  fame,  but  in  the  hope  of 
supplying  for  the  children  whom  I  love,  some  thoughts 
that  may  suit  those  hours  of  innocent  merriment  which 
are  the  very  life  of  childhood;  and  also  in  the  hope  of 
suggesting  to  them  and  to  others  some  thoughts  that 
would  prove,  I  would  fain  hope,  not  wholly  out  of  har- 
mony with  the  graver  cadences  of  life." 

His  preface  has  some  valuable  suggestions  with 
regard  to  books  desirable  to  be  written.  Amongst  oth- 
ers, he  proposes  that  a  Child's  Bible  should  appear, 
with  carefully  selected  passages,  and  full  of  pictures. 
The  principles  of  selection  would  be  that  religion 
should  be  put  before  a  child  as  a  revelation  of  love. 

He  does  not  think  it  is  necessary  to  apologize  for 
the  graver  thoughts  introduced  into  his  books,  and 
one  of  his  sentences  comes  with  the  solemnity  of  an 
undying  truth.  It  is  this — 

"It  seems  quite  possible  to  lead,  for  years  to- 
gether, a  life  of  unmixed  gaiety...  A  man  may 
fix  his  own  times  for  admitting  serious  thought, 
for  attending  public  worship,  for  prayer,  for 
reading  the  Bible:  all  such  matters  he  can 
defer  to  that  'convenient  season',  which  is  so 
apt  never  to  occur  at  all;  but  he  cannot  defer, 
for  one  single  moment,  the  necessity  of  at- 
tending to  a  message,  which  may  come  before 
he  has  finished  reading  this  page — '  This  night 
shall  thy  soul  be  required  of  thee.'" 

The  songs  in  the  present  volume  are  not  so  many 
as  in  Mr.  Carroll's  earlier  works.  Those  introduced, 
however,  are  quite  up  to  his  own  standard.  Only  Mr. 
Gilbert  can  compete  with  Lewis  Carroll  in  this  pe- 
culiar form  of  genius.  The  'Musical  Gardener'  has 
been  quoted  in  almost  every  re\dew;  perhaps  also  the 
'Three  Badgers,'  but  with  Harry  Furniss's  inimitable 
illustrations  I  cannot  help  reproducing  the  latter 
verses  here.  [The  reviexv  ends  with  five  verses  from  said 
poem,  along  luith  two  ofFurniss  '5  badger  drawings.] 


29 


An  ArfihiUri  if  Sransf  ariaaUiA 


JENIFER  RANSOM 


In  numerology,  the  number  five  represents  the 
energy  of  adventure,  freedom,  and  change,  and 
the  fifth  chapter  of  Alice's  Adventures  in  Wonderland 
is  rich  in  the  symbohsm  of  far-reaching  transforma- 
tion. It  is  said  that  God  must  be  a  mathematician;  he 
may  also  be  a  numerologist,  and  just  may  be  symbol- 
ized by  the  Caterpillar,  cozily  ensconced  on  a  mush- 
room, smoking  his  hookah  and  lording  it  over  those 
who,  like  Alice,  are  seeking  answers.  He,  too,  seeks 
one:  'You!  Who  are  you?''  In  this,  he  may  represent 
consciousness  itself,  which  is  continually  asking  us  to 
define  our  identity.  A  change  in  consciousness  may 
require  a  period  of  land-locked,  fuzzy  caterpillar- 
creeping,  followed  by  seques- 
tering in  a  chrysalis,  before 
taking  flight  as  the  "butter- 
fly" of  a  new  and  glorious 
manifestation.  The  Caterpil- 
lar takes  a  cavalier  attitude 
toward  Alice's  perception 
that  such  a  transformation  is 
"strange,"  implying  that  he's 
accustomed  to  it. 

Of  course,  normal  cater- 
pillars go  through  this  only 
once. 

Marc  Edmund  Jones,  in 
his  Studies  in  Alice  at  the  Sa- 
bian  Assembly  Web  site,  www. 
sabian.org/alice.htm,  sees 

the  Caterpillar  as  symbolizing  the  inner  self:  "The 
real  or  inner  self  is  symbolized  by  the  worm.  ...  Ob- 
serve the  development  of  the  primal  streak  or  worm- 
like beginning  of  differentiation  in  the  embryo.  ... 
The  convenient  symbolism  of  the  inner  self  is  further 
borne  out  in  the  fact  that  the  true  butterfly  does  not 
eat,  but  exists  through  the  whole  span  of  its  existence, 
aerially  or  spiritually  or  in  beauty,  on  the  vitality  it  has 
stored  up  in  the  worm  state."  This  also  applies  to  the 
metaphor  of  the  butterfly  as  the  fulfillment  of  an  idea 
that  has  undergone  incubation  and  is  then  realized 
in  form,  living  on  the  power  that  has  built  up  around 
its  "inner  self  in  the  womb  of  thought,  through  the 
time  of  gestation.  (Many  butterflies  do,  in  fact,  eat, 


"TBEN  UU  M 

DISAPPEARING  TBRGUGK 

THE  mmi  RINGS 

@F  m  ^IND" 

BOB  DYLAN 

"Mr.  Tambourine  Man 


living  primarily  on  nectar  from  flowers,  but  some  do 
not,  and  the  metaphor  is  a  good  one.) 

The  Caterpillar's  mushroom  seat  and  hookah- 
smoking  have  often  been  taken  to  be  one  of  the  in- 
dications that  the  Alice  books  were  inspired  by  some 
kind  of  hallucinogenic  drug,  or,  at  least,  that  Carroll 
was  familiar  with  them.  Although  it  is  highly  unlikely 
that  he  ever  used  these  substances,  Carroll  was  an  in- 
veterate reader  and  explorer  of  many  areas  of  life,  es- 
pecially of  the  occult  (he  owned  a  copy  of  Stimulants 
And  Narcotics  (1864)  by  the  English  toxicologist  Fran- 
cis Anstie),  and  it  is  possible  that  he  had  some  knowl- 
edge of  them.  Even  if  so,  it  is  doubtful  the  subject 
held  much  personal  interest 
for  him,  since  he  was  quite 
conservative,  even  ascetic,  in 
his  habits,  although  progres- 
sive in  his  thought.  Migraines 
and  temporal  lobe  epilepsy 
have  been  suggested  as 
contributing  to  his  unusual 
imagination,  but  here,  too, 
the  facts  are  inconclusive.  In 
any  case,  he  demonstrated  a 
superb,  wide-ranging  imagi- 
nation throughout  his  life, 
as  well  as  a  highly  developed 
spiritual  awareness  that  went 
far  beyond  the  dogma  of  his 
church. 
Although  psychedelic  experiences  are  often  fa- 
cilitated by  psychoactive  drugs,  they  are  not  required. 
The  word  "psychedelic"  means  "mind-manifesting," 
and  the  psychedelic  experience,  as  noted  in  Wikipe- 
dia,  "is  characterized  by  the  perception  of  aspects  of 
one's  mind  previously  unknown,  or  by  the  creative 
exuberance  of  the  mind  liberated  from  its  ordinary 
fetters."  In  this  broader  sense,  the  two  books  can  be 
seen  as  psychedelic  literature,  and  Tenniel's  tableau 
of  the  Caterpillar  sitting  on  the  mushroom  smoking 
a  hookah,  with  Alice  peeking  up  at  him  just  behind 
the  mushroom,  is  a  powerful  archetype  of  transfor- 
mation. 

The  hookah  may  be  the  most  arresting  aspect 
of  that  tableau  (what  was  that  Caterpillar  smoking?). 


30 


F^" 


A  CATERP/66LEi 


Continues  Jones:  "The  hookah,  an  arrangement 
to  pass  smoke  through  water,  is  an  added  touch  of 
unwitting  genius,  for  the  endocrines  alone  make 
possible  the  entrance  of  spirit  or  smoke  into  sensation 
or  water."  Natives  of  aboriginal  cultures,  including 
American  Indians,  have  long  used  tobacco  to  connect 
to  the  divine  realm  and  to  the  Great  Spirit. 

Swiss  anthropologist  Jeremy  Narby  set  out  to 
discover  how,  out  of  the  many  thousands  of  plants 
growing  in  the  Amazon  rainforest,  the  natives  had 
learned  which  of  them  had  medicinal  properties  and 
how  best  to  combine  them.  He  was  told  the  information 
came  from  the  shamans  when  in  altered  states  of 
consciousness.  In  The  Cosmic  Serpent:  DNA  and  the 
Origins  of  Knowledge,  Narby  explores  the  shamans'  use 
of  high-nicotine  native  tobacco  and  other,  ingestible 
plant  substances  such  as  ayahuasca  and  psychoactive 
mushrooms.  In  altered  states  of  consciousness,  they 
can  "take  their  consciousness  down  to  the  molecular 
level  and  gain  access  to  information  related  to  DNA, 
which  they  call  'animate  essences'  or  'spirits.'  This  is 
where  they  see  double  helixes, 
twisted  ladders,  and  chromosome 
shapes.  This  is  how  shamanic 
cultures  have  known  for 
millennia  that  the  vital  principle 
is  the  same  for  all  living  beings 
and  is  shaped  like  two  entwined 
serpents  (or  vines,  ropes, 
ladders).  DNA  is  the  source  of 
their  astonishing  botanical  and 
medicinal  knowledge,  which  can 
be  attained  only  in  defocalized 
and  'nonrational'  states  of 
consciousness,  though  its  results 
are  empirically  verifiable." 

Narby  hypothesized  that 
properties  of  nicotine  or  the 
psychoactive  plants  used  by 
shamans  "activate  their  respective 
receptors,  which  sets  off  a  cascade 
of  electrochemical  reactions 
inside  the  neurons,  leading  to 
the  stimulation  of  DNA  and, 
more  particularly,  to  its  emission  of  visible  waves, 
which  shamans  perceive  as  'hallucinations.'  ...  There, 
I  thought,  is  the  source  of  knowledge:  DNA,  living  in 
water  and  emitting  photons,  like  an  aquatic  dragon 
spitting  fire."  He  theorizes  that  photons  are  visible  as 
light  signals  that  communicate  information  from  the 
DNA  cell  to  cell.  Scientists  do  not  know  the  function 
of  98  percent  of  our  DNA,  which  they  term  "junk 
DNA";  Narby  suggests  we  call  it  "mystery  DNA,"  and 
theorizes  that  our  collective  DNA  is  interconnected 
and  in  constant  communication. 

The  information  the  Amazonian  shamans 
received  was  not  confined  to  botanical  knowledge,  but 


incorporated  into  the  learning  of  necessary  skills 
such  as  weaving  and  woodworking.  In  fact,  anything 
the  natives  wanted  to  know  was  accessible  through 
the  shamans.  Narby  hypothesized  that  the  symbol- 
ism of  the  snake,  a  constant  in  the  wisdom  traditions 
throughout  history  (often  accompanied  by  the  Tree 
of  Life  or  a  Caduceus),  is  connected  to  the  double 
helix  of  DNA  in  almost  all  living  beings — this,  despite 
the  fact  that  conventional  science  did  not  discover 
the  existence  and  structure  of  DNA  until  1953.  He 
cites  various  Cosmic  Serpent  creation  myths,  such  as 
that  of  the  plumed  serpent  Quetzalcoatl,  and  refers 
to  our  DNA  as  a  master  of  transformation:  "The  cell- 
based  life  DNA  informs  made  the  air  we  breathe,  the 
landscape  we  see,  and  the  mind-boggling  diversity  of 
living  beings  of  which  we  are  a  part."  After  Alice  in- 
gests some  of  the  mushroom  and  finds  that  she  is  able 
to  bend  her  neck  around  like  a  snake,  she  encounters 
an  angry  pigeon  who  shrieks  that  Alice  must  be  "a 
kind  of  serpent." 

The  transformational  features  of  the  mushroom 
also  have  a  historical  meaning, 
though  not  one  that  you'll  find 
in  many  history  books.  Ethnobot- 
anist  and  "psychonaut"  Terence 
McKenna  put  forth,  in  his  book 
Food  For  The  Gods,  the  theory  that 
psychoactive  mushrooms  were  a 
crucial  catalyst  in  our  rapid  evo- 
lution. The  human  brain  size 
tripled  over  several  million  years; 
the  hallucinogenic  compound 
DMT  (di-methyl-tryptamine), 
found  in  the  the  mushrooms  and 
other  plants  used  by  shamans,  is 
one  of  the  chemical  factors  that 
McKenna  theorizes  played  a  role: 
"We  literally  may  have  eaten  our 
way  to  higher  consciousness." 
DMT  is  also  naturally  produced 
in  small  amounts  in  the  pineal 
gland,  notably  in  deep  dream 
states  and  at  birth  and  death. 
Few  books  convey  deep  dream 
states  as  well  as  the  Alice  hook?,;  those  who  insist  that 
Carroll's  works  are  the  products  of  drug  experiences 
may  be  sensing  this  dream  chemical  wafting  through 
their  pages. 

Throughout  her  dream-adventures,  Alice  strug- 
gles with  the  epistemological  question  of  whether 
her  experiences  are  real.  Are  our  dreams  and  other 
altered-state  experiences  any  less  "real"  than  our  wak- 
ing life?  Writes  Rick  Strassman  in  his  book  DMT,  The 
Spirit  Molecrile.  "The  other  planes  of  existence  are  al- 
ways there  ...  but  we  cannot  perceive  them  because 
we  are  not  designed  to  do  so;  our  hard-wiring  keeps 
us  tuned  in  to  Channel  Normal."  Rather  than  seeing 


31 


these  other  planes  as  pure  hallucination,  Strassman 
accepts  them  as  realities  that  we  tune  in  to  when  in 
these  altered  states. 

Psychedelic  mushrooms  are  also  called  ethneo- 
gens,  2L  term  meaning  "creating  or  becoming  divine 
within."  The  yogic  headstand  is  perhaps  another  such 
tool.  Alice's  rendering  of  "You  Are  Old,  Father  Wil- 
liam" is  the  first  instance  of  a  character  "incessantly" 
standing  on  his  head;  this  is  also  a  favored,  though 
less  deliberate,  posture  of  the  White  Knight  in  Look- 
ing-Glass,  who  assures  Alice:  "The  more  head-down- 
wards I  am,  the  more  I  keep  inventing  new  things." 

Most  babies  face  head  downwards  in  their  final 
weeks  in  the  womb;  "inventing  new  things"  can  be 
taken  as  a  metaphor  for  any  kind  of  birth  or  new 
beginning.  We  naturally  transform  our  world  when 
standing  on  our  head,  both  perceptively  and  on  inner 
levels,  through  action  on  the  glands,  particularly  the 
pineal.  The  Hanged  Man,  hanging  serenely  upside 
down  from  a  tree  in  the  twelfth  card  of  the  Tarot,  is 
an  archetype  of  this  transitional  and  transformational 
process,  and  the  Caterpillar  itself,  like  all  headed  for 
butterflyhood,  will  hang  head  downwards  as  it  trans- 
forms within  its  chrysalis. 


According  to  the  insect  biologist  Carroll  Williams, 
in  an  article  titled  "When  Insects  Change  Form" {Life, 
February  11,  1952),  a  caterpillar's  transformation  is 
triggered  by  a  hormone  in  the  brain  which,  in  turn, 
stimulates  the  thoracic  hormone  in  the  region  of  the 
heart,  which  "forces  the  body  cells  to  produce  a  sub- 
stance called  cytochrome,  which  hastens  growth  and 
change.  ...  This  same  cytochrome  exists  in  the  cells 
of  the  human  body,  but  its  role  as  a  growth  factor  has 
never  been  known."  Along  with  the  98  percent  of  our 
DNA  that  seemingly  has  no  function,  it  could  be  that 
this  cytochrome  substance  is  far  more  crucial  than  we 
know. 

Is  it  possible  that  the  Absolute  has  been  co- 
cooned  in  us,  waiting  for  the  right  time  to  awaken 
fully  in  our  hearts?  Is  this  what  we  will  experience  in 
the  future — or  now,  if  we  can  but  invoke  it — and  will 
the  Caterpillar  of  our  collective  self  flutter  free  of  its 
cocoon,  utterly  transformed? 


,^^f!^ 


"A//  of  Alice's  subsequent  distortions,  softened  by  the  loving  irony 
of  Lewis  CarrolVs  imagination,  retain  the  flavor  of  mushroomic 
hallucinations.  Is  there  not  something  uncanny  about  the  injection  of 
this  mushroom  into  Alice's  story?  What  led  the  quiet  Oxford  don  to  hit 
on  a  device  so  felicitous,  but  at  the  same  time  sinister  for  the  initiated 
readers,  when  he  launched  his  maiden  on  her  way?  Did  he 
dredge  up  this  curious  specimen  of  wondrous  and  even 
fearsome  lore  from  some  deep  well  of  half-conscious 
folk-knowledge  ?  " 

R.  Gordon  Wasson  and 
Valentina  Pavlovna  Wasson, 
Mushrooms,  Russia  and  History 
(Pantheon  Books,  1957) 


32 


Carrollian  Notes 


SIC,  SIC,  SIC 

"140  Years  Ago:  Curiouser  and  Cu- 
riouser":  Mathematician  Charles 
Dodgson,  33 — a.k.a.  Lewis  Car- 
roll— publishes  Alice's  Adventures 
Under  Ground  m  November  1865. 
-  Alison  McLean  in  "This  Month 
in  History,"  Smithsonian,  Nov.  2005. 

Tsk.  There  xvas  no  mention  o/Won- 
derland  in  the  rest  of  the  article,  and 
no  correction  of  the  title  in  subsequent 
issues.  My  offer  of  help  to  Ms.  McLean 
before  the  article  came  to  be  luas  ig- 
nored. Off  with  their  heads. 

A  designer  of  paper  dolls  as  well 
as  a  collector  of  vintage  ones,  her 
collection  included  some,  ob- 
tained 20-30  years  ago,  that  were 
reproductions  of  paper  dolls  made 
by  Robert  Teneal,  the  original  art- 
ist of  Lewis  Carroll's  Alice  in  Won- 
derland. -  The  Benton  [Arkansas] 
Courier,  October  24,  2005. 

Editor  [San  Francisco  Chronicle, 
October  7,  2005]:  As  consumers 
of  Cheshire  cheese,  admirers  of 
Lewis  Carroll's  Cheshire  cat  in 
"Alice  in  Wonderland,"  and  own- 
ers of  Cheshire  Cat  Clinic  in  Oak- 
land, my  husband  and  I  wondered 
what  happened  to  the  second  "H" 
in  "Chesire-Cat  smiles"  (Letters, 
Oct.  5).  For  your  penance,  we 
suggest  the  first  stanza  of  Carroll's 
poem,  "Jaberwocky": 

"Twas  brillig,  and  the  slithy  toves 
Did  gyre  and  gimble  in  the  wabe 

All  mimsy  were  the  borogroves. 
And  the  mome  raths  outgrabe." 

Rebecca  Sodikoff 
Oakland 


Dear  Mrs.  Sodikoff:  What  happened 
to  it  ?  Presumably  the  same  thing  that 
happened  to  the  second  "B "  in  "Jab- 
berwocky  "  in  your  letter.  Possibly  also 
related  to  the  extraneous  "R  "  of  your 
misspelled  "borogoves  "! 


^ 

THE  RATH  OF  GRAPES 

A  BBC  news  story  on  January  12 
(by  the  suitably  yclept  Chris  Hogg) 
was  headlined  "Taiwan  Breeds 
Green-Glowing  Pigs."  National 
Taiwan  University's  Department 
of  Animal  Science  and  Technol- 
ogy combined  DNA  from  jellyfish 
with  pig  embryos  to  produce 
"transgenic"  pigs  that  glow  grape- 
green  in  the  dark.  They  claim  that 
while  other  researchers  have  bred 
partly  fluorescent  pigs,  theirs  are 
the  only  pigs  in  the  world  which 
are  green  through  and  through. 
See  news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia- 
pacific/4605202.stm.  Why  of  such 
interest  to  Carrollians?  Surely  you 
remember  what  Humpty  told  Alice 
a  "rath"  was. 


DODO  DADA 

Online  magazine  Slate  (Slate.com) 
has  been  going  mad  for  dodos  of 
late.  First  was  "Quagga  Quest"  by 
Jon  Lackman,  on  January  3:  "In 
what  would  be  an  unprecedented 
feat,  a  South  African  amateur 
scientist  says  he  is  going  to  bring 
an  animal  back  from  extinction: 
the  quagga.  A  large  mammal  that 
descended  from  the  zebra,  the 
quagga  filled  South  Africa's  plains 
for  millennia.  But  it  fell  to  gun- 
toting  European  colonists  and  was 
last  seen  alive  in  1883.  ... 


Perhaps,  then,  as  a  symbol  of  rac- 
ist and  sexist  fear-mongering,  the 
quagga  is  best  forgotten.  If  only 
someone  would  bring  back,  say, 
the  dodo  instead!"  (www.slate. 
com/id/2132747/).  And  lo!  Some- 
one did! 

Finnish  artist  Harri  Kallio  was 
named  Slates  Artist  of  the  Month 
in  February.  "There's  something 
appealingly  odd  about  Harri 
Kallio's  color  photographs  of 
dodos  in  their  lush  natural  habitat, 
beginning  with  the  fact  that  they 
depict  a  species  that  went  extinct 
about  150  years  before  photog- 
raphy was  invented.  Kallio  first 
started  thinking  about  the  dodo 
when  he  reread  Lewis  Carroll's 
Alice  in  Wonderland  and  noticed 
John  Tenniel's  famous  drawings  of 
the  brawny  bird  with  its  tiny  wings 
and  enormous  hooked  beak.  T 
couldn't  help  but  laugh,'  Kallio 
recalls  in  the  introduction  to  his 
own  book.  The  Dodo  and  Mauritius 
Island:  Imaginary  Encounters  [Dewi 
Lewis,  2005].  'Somehow  it  was 
hard  to  believe  that  once  upon  a 
time  there  really  had  been  some- 
thing like  the  Dodo  out  there  in 
the  world.' 

"The  dodo  was  a  large,  flight- 
less bird  driven  to  extinction  after 
the  Dutch  settled  its  native  Mau- 
ritius, a  previously  uninhabited 
island  in  the  middle  of  the  Indian 
Ocean,  in  1598.  With  no  natural 
predators,  the  dodo  was  not  only 
flightless  but  fearless,  and  this 
made  it  easy  prey  for  hunters,  who 
unfairly  mocked  the  bird's  obtuse- 
ness.  (The  word  dodo  comes  from 
the  Portuguese  doudo,  meaning 
stupid.  Nowadays,  we  would  call  it 
'ecologically  naive.') 


33 


'"My  idea,'  he  writes,  'was  not 
so  much  to  carry  out  a  scientific 
reconstruction,  but  rather  to 
place  back  into  the  landscape  of 
Mauritius  the  Dodo  of  Alice  in 
Wonderland — a  character  faithful 
to  its  appearances  in  art  history, 
a  character  that  is  part  myth  and 
part  real.'  Kallio  constructed  two 
life-sized  sculptural  models  of  the 
dodo — a  male  and  a  female — with 
adjustable  aluminum  skeletons, 
silicon  rubber  heads,  and  bod- 
ies covered  in  swan  and  goose 
feathers.  With  the  two  models 
stuffed  into  a  large  backpack,  he 
traveled  around  Mauritius  and 
photographed  the  birds  in  various 
remote  locations  where  the  land- 
scape still  looks  more  or  less  the 
way  it  did  in  the  17th  century." 
Kallio's  photographs  will  be 
on  view  at  Bonni  Benrubi  Cal- 
ler)' in  New  York  from  February 
through  April  1.  www.slate.com/ 
id/2136049/.  Many  of  the  pictures 
can  be  seen  at  www.harrikallio, 
com/dodoexhibit.html. 


OF  SEX  AND  QUEENS 

According  to  evolutionary  bi- 
ologist Olivia  Judson,  one  of  the 
three  chief  theories  of  why  sexual 
reproduction  evolved — ^which 
was  suggested  by  J.  B.  S.  Haldane 
(1949),  H.J.  Bremermann  (1980), 
W.  D.  Hamilton  (1980)  and  J. 
Tooby  (1982) — was  nicknamed  the 
Red  Queen  by  Graham  Bell  ( The 
Masterpiece  of  Nature:  The  Evolution 
and  Genetics  of  Sexuality,  1982).  Dr. 
Judson  explains:  "Susceptibility 
to  infectious  diseases — or  more 
generally,  to  parasites,  whether 
viruses,  bacteria,  fungi,  or  other 
nasties — typically  has  a  genetic 
component.  Since  asexuals  keep 
the  same  genes  (give  or  take  a 
mutation  or  two)  from  one  gen- 
eration to  the  next,  parasites  can 
easily  evolve  to  infiltrate  their 
defenses,  annihilating  clones.  In 
contrast,  sex,  by  mixing  up  genes, 
prevents  parasites  from  becoming 
too  well  adapted  to  their  hosts.  Sex 
is  an  advantage  because  it  breaks 


34 


up  gene  combinations:  it  creates 
the  genetic  version  of  a  moving 
target.  With  each  act  of  sex,  the 
parasites  have  to  start  again  from 
square  one.  The  name  of  the  the- 
ory, the  Red  Queen,  comes  from 
Through  the  Looking-Glass.  Remem- 
ber? The  Red  Queen  says  to  Alice, 
'Now,  here,  you  see,  it  takes  all  the 
running  you  can  do,  to  keep  in  the 
same  place.'  In  other  words,  you 
have  to  change  to  stay  where  you 
are."  -  Dr.  Tatiana  's  Sex  Advice  to 
All  Creation  (Metropolitan  Books, 
2002) 


SERENDIPITY  DO 

Andrew  Sellon 

I  have  not  had  the  opportunity 
before  now  to  tell  you  of  an  odd 
Carrollian  experience  that  Tim 
and  1  had  this  past  May.  We  live 
in  Park  Slope  in  Brooklyn,  but 
one  evening  we  went  back  to  our 
old  neighborhood,  Carroll  Car- 
dens  (our  subway  stop  used  to  be 
Carroll  St.  and  we  lived  opposite 
Carroll  Park,  but  it  was  a  different 
Carroll)  to  have  dinner  and  do  a 
little  shopping. 

After  dinner,  as  we  were  stroll- 
ing along  Court  Street  (the  main 
shopping  venue),  we  passed  by  an 
old  building  1  hadn't  paid  much 
attention  to  in  the  nine  years  we 
had  lived  in  the  neighborhood,  be- 
cause it  was  always  closed  up  and 
the  place  looked  unused.  It  caught 
my  attention  because  on  this 
particular  evening,  the  large  old 
wooden  door  was  ajar  and  strains 
of  piano  playing  and  an  operatic 
voice  singing  "Speak  roughly  to 
your  little  boy"  were  wafting  out 
into  the  warm  evening  air. 

Needless  to  say,  we  stopped  and 
(in  the  nervy  style  of  true  New 
Yorkers)  poked  our  heads  inside 
to  see  just  what  exactly  was  going 
on.  We  discovered  that  it  was  some 
sort  of  small,  converted  storefront 
performing  space.  There  was  a 
simple  platform  with  lighting  set 
up,  and  two  performers  rehearsing 
in  street  clothes:  a  young  woman 
singing  Alice,  and  a  large  man 
singing  the  role  of  the  Duch- 


ess. As  they  were  in  mid-rehearsal, 
and  we  had  no  official  business 
being  there  and  had  other  errands 
to  run,  we  did  not  linger.  But  I  did 
pick  up  a  card  from  the  door. 

The  company  was  called  the 
"Vertical  Player  Repertory,"  and 
the  card  advertised  "Opera  for 
Kids:  Fully  staged  excerpts  (the 
fun  parts  only!)  from  Mozart's  The 
Magic  Flute,  Humperdinck's  Hansel 
and  Gretel,  Yoav  Cal's  The  Dwarf 
Ben  Yarmolinsky's  Alice  (in  Wonder- 
land)." I  wonder  if  anyone  else  in 
the  Society  knows  of  this  version?  I 
googled  it,  and  found  a  plain  text 
page  listing  the  composer's  works. 
It  says  simply  "Children's  musical 
on  texts  by  Lewis  Carroll,  1981." 
Another  site  lists  its  American 
premiere  as  April  15-16,  2005  in 
New  York.  Another  mentions  that 
it  is  based  on  both  Alice  books. 
It  might  be  interesting  to  learn 
more,  and  some  excerpts  might  be 
appropriate  for  an  upcoming  NYC 
meeting. 


DELIVA  FALLETTA 

"The  Nicholas  Falletta  Collec- 
tion of  Lewis  Carroll  Books  and 
Manuscripts"  at  Christie's,  London 
(South  Kensington),  November 
30,  2005,  had  many  exceptionally 
desirable  items,  including:  rare 
mathematical  pamphlets,  some 
unrecorded  in  The  Handbook; 
the  only  known  copy  of  Notes  on 
the  First  Part  of  Algebra  ( 1 861 ) ;  cy- 
clostyle publications;  a  bifolium 
of  Vansittart's  hsitin  Jabberwocky 
(1881);  a  charming  1893  letter  to 
Princess  Alice,  with  a  trompe  I'oeil 
spider  drawn  on  it;  the  original 
copperplate  for  the  final  version  of 
"The  Mouse's  Tale";  Carroll's  own 
marked-up  copy,  in  the  original 
cloth,  of  Looking-Glass  (1893)  in- 
dicating all  the  printing  problems 
that  led  to  its  suppression;  Alice 
Liddell's  own  copies  often  differ- 
ent editions  of  the  Alice  books,  and 
Carroll's  own  copy,  the  only  one 
known,  of  the  rare  private  printing 
of  The  Lost  Plum  Cake  and  a  presen- 
tation copy  of  the  first  trade  edi- 
tion. Christies.com  has  records  of 


the  pieces,  the  auction  results,  and 
the  catalog  for  sale.  Sale  #  is  5056. 


DODGSON  ON  HOLIDAY 

Clare  Imholtz 

Of  the  three  Lewis  Carroll  Soci- 
ety (UK)  weekends  I  have  been 
fortunate  to  attend,  last  summer's 
trip  to  Eastbourne  was  far  and 
away  the  best  in  terms  of  gain- 
ing insight  into  Charles  Dodgson 
and  his  ever  fascinating  life.  From 
1877  through  '97,  Dodgson  spent 
a  substantial  part  of  his  life  in 
Eastbourne,  spending  long  sum- 
mer holidays  there  every  year.  In 
Eastbourne,  Dodgson  wrote  the 
bulk  of  Sylvie  and  Bruno  (though 
one  would  never  know  it  from  the 
books,  nor  are  there  any  signs  of 
tiny  fairies  in  the  local  woods) , 
enjoyed  frequent  visits  from  rela- 
tions and  child  friends,  went  for 
long,  mostly  solitary  walks,  and 
attended  innumerable  plays  and 
church  services. 

August  and  I  traveled  to  Lon- 
don first,  and  were  relieved  to  find 
the  city  in  a  normal  mode  follow- 
ing the  terrorist  bombings  some 
three  weeks  before.  We  took  the 
train  to  Eastbourne — a  journey  of 
only  VA  hours — then  struck  out 
on  foot  for  the  Lansdowne  Hotel 
on  King  Edward's  Parade,  tugging 
our  suitcases  behind  us,  and  find- 
ing our  way  after  only  the  usual  bit 
of  misdirection.  Eastbourne  is  a 
classic  sedate  English  resort  town 
with  a  terraced  approach  to  the 
sea.  King  Edward's  Parade,  where 
the  choicest  hotels  are  located, 
most  of  them  in  converted  private 
homes  that  date  back  to  Dodgson 's 
time  and  before,  is  the  uppermost 
terrace.  The  next  level  is  covered 
with  plantings;  then  comes  a  path 
along  which  Dodgson  would  have 
strolled  when  he  went  out  in 
hopes  of  meeting  young  friends  or 
making  new  ones.  More  plantings, 
and  then  several  feet  below  is  the 
beach,  actually  comprising  mud 
flats,  seaweed,  and  shingle,  none 
too  inviting. 


The  long  Study  Weekend 
opened  on  Thursday,  August 
18th,  with  a  very  informative  talk 
by  Alan  White,  focusing  on  the 
prodigious  amount  of  writing  and 
reading  Dodgson  accomplished 
at  his  summer  digs  in  Eastbourne 
(although  never  as  much  as  he 
hoped  to).  We  then  struck  out  for 
the  Eastbourne  Historical  Society, 
stopping  on  the  way  to  pay  hom- 
age at  7  Lushington  Road — ^where 
Dodgson  stayed  for  about  eigh- 
teen years  of  visits  to  Eastbourne, 
initially  in  a  third-floor  room,  and 
later  renting  a  first-floor  sitting 
room  and  bedroom.  Unfortu- 
nately, we  were  unable  to  enter  the 
building  (or  should  I  say,  fortu- 
nately— it  is  now  a  dental  surgery) . 
Mark  Richards  read  a  brief  ac- 
count of  the  Dyer  family,  who  lived 
in  the  house,  and  Dodgson 's  loyal 
relationship  with  them. 

At  the  Historical  Society,  we 
were  greeted  graciously  with 
sherry  and  shown  an  excellent 
exhibit  of  the  Oilman  collection  of 
Dodgson  photographs.  Art  histo- 
rian Michael  Kaye  gave  a  superb 
talk.  Kaye  believes  that  Dodgson 's 
photographs  of  children  are  his 
best,  due  to  their  stunning  tex- 
tures and  the  obvious  magical 
connection  between  sitter  and 
photographer,  but  that  his  nude 
photographs  lack  artistry,  perhaps 
because  Dodgson,  with  tinting  and 
fictive  settings,  was  trying  to  di- 
vorce them  from  reality.  Kaye  also 
emphasized  his  view  that  many  of 
the  photographs  are  posed  so  as 
to  imitate  attitudes  seen  in  famous 
paintings.  In  general,  although 
Kaye  thinks  that  Dodgson 's  photo- 
graphs outshine  many  of  his  con- 
temporaries', he  does  not  believe 
that  they  are  up  to  the  standard 
of  his  writing — a  statement  that 
sparked  a  lively  discussion  among 
LCS  members  who  had  up  till 
then  listened  politely  to  his  talk. 

That  evening  we  heard  a  lec- 
ture by  Society  member  Roger 
Scowen  who,  with  his  wife  Pat,  has 
made  a  special  study  of  Dodgson 's 
perambulations.  Walking  for  plea- 
sure was  not  a  widespread 


phenomenon  in  the  nineteenth 
century,  but  Dodgson  often 
walked  more  than  twenty  miles  a 
day,  following  roads  and  clear-cuts 
rather  than  cutting  across  fields; 
he  wore  no  special  walking  clothes 
or  boots,  and  as  far  as  we  know 
carried  no  refreshment  or  equip>- 
ment.  During  1888-92,  his  walks 
were  temporarily  cut  back  due 
to  knee  problems,  and  he  sorely 
(no  pun  intended)  missed  them. 
The  cliffs  of  Beachy  Head  (about 
three  miles  round-trip)  were  a 
favorite  early-morning  destination, 
sometimes  accompanied  by  one 
or  another  child  friend  who  would 
then  stay  to  breakfast.  Roger's 
appropriately  "rambling"  talk  also 
covered  Dodgson 's  other  destina- 
tions, such  as  Hastings,  reached  by 
a  five-hour  hike,  to  visit  friends  (at 
least  he  would  return  by  train). 

Dr.  Selwyn  Goodacre  was  next 
up,  enlightening  us  in  his  usual 
entertaining  style  as  to  Dodgson 's 
health  while  at  Eastbourne — piles, 
agues,  arthritic  knees,  migrainal 
auras — nothing  was  omitted.  Sel- 
wyn described  Dodgson 's  concerns 
about  sanitation  at  his  boarding 
house  (he  was  somewhat  ahead  of 
the  times  in  this  concern;  he  even 
wanted  an  expert  to  come  from 
Oxford  to  certify  that  the  drains 
were  safe)  and  his  desire  for  an  as- 
bestos fire  in  his  bedroom.  (Con- 
trary to  what  is  often  believed,  the 
asbestos  used  in  fires  is  not  hazard- 
ous.) 

Friday  morning  we  were  treated 
to  two  additional  talks.  Anne 
Amor,  in  her  customary  scholarly 
manner,  discussed  the  friends 
Dodgson  had  made  in  Eastbourne 
and  those  whom  he  invited  down 
to  stay  with  him:  Dolly  Blakemore, 
Phoebe  Carlo,  Edith  Rix,  Isa 
Bowman  (whom  he  made  go  to 
the  dentist) ,  and  several  others, 
including  at  least  one  boy,  Francis 
"Pitty"  Patmore,  whom  he  taught 
to  fold  paper  pistols.  Dodgson 
invited  numerous  guests  to  East- 
bourne in  part  because  he  wished 
them  to  have  the  opportunity  to 
share  his  healthy  seaside  surround- 


35 


ings.  Bible  reading  was  a  popular 
activity  with  his  young  friends  as 
were  walks  and  backgammon. 
After  Anne,  guest  speaker  Edward 
Thomas  talked  about  Dodgson's 
theatre-going  during  his  summer 
holidays,  and  we  set  out  to  visit  two 
local  theatres  that  Dodgson  had  at- 
tended, the  Devonshire  Park  and, 
a  cut  below,  the  Hippodrome,  a 
variety  house  that  in  Dodgson's 
time  was  known  as  the  Theatre 
Royale  or  the  Opera  House,  and 
that  featured  such  entertainments 
as  "Miss  Ella  and  her  Educated 
Lions,"  which  I  think  we  would 
all  have  enjoyed.  Dodgson  would 
sit  in  the  first  balcony  because, 
strangely  enough,  the  seats  up 
in  front,  the  ones  we  would  pay 
dearly  for  today,  were  strictly  for 
the  hoi  polloi  back  then,  at  least 
in  Eastbourne.  We  received  the 
full  tours  of  the  two  theatres,  and 
were  even  able  to  walk  around 
backstage. 

In  the  afternoon  we  took  a 
coach  to  the  Towner  Art  Gallery 
where,  mirable  dictu,  we  found 
an  impressive  exhibit  of  Car- 
rollian  art,  including  paintings, 
lithographs,  drawings,  and  pho- 
tographs, by  seven  LCS  members: 
Marion  Hiller,  Brian  Partridge, 
Pilar  Correia,  Norman  Roberts, 
Michael  Taylor,  Jean  Stockdale, 
and  Frances  Broomfield.  The 
coach  then  took  us  up  to  Beachy 
Head,  a  promontory  high  above 
the  sea,  from  which  eight  slightly 
deranged  thrill-seekers  walked 
down  into  town  in  torrential  rain, 
following  as  best  we  might  the 
path  Dodgson  would  probably 
have  taken.  After  dinner,  another 
fine  talk,  as  Edward  Wakeling 
described  in  detail  the  grief  that 
Harry  Furniss  gave  Dodgson  over 
the  Sylvie  and  Bruno  illustrations. 

Saturday  we  went  by  coach  for 
historic  Hastings,  about  sixteen 
miles  away.  En  route,  we  viewed 
both  eleventh-  and  nineteenth- 
century  coastal  fortifications, 
meant  to  repel  Normans  and  Na- 
poleon, respectively.  At  the  Hast- 
ings Museum  and  Gallery,  in 


36 


a  beautiful  oak-paneled  room  with 
stained-glass  windows  (the  room 
had  been  brought  from  India 
entire  by  world  travelers  Lord 
and  Lady  Brassey) ,  we  heard  local 
historian,  pastor,  and  raconteur 
par  excellence  Edward  Preston 
tell  us  absolutely  everything  that 
is  to  be  known  about  Hastings 
from  the  Normans  on,  but  with 
emphasis  on  the  many  literary 
figures  who  have  dwelt  there,  in- 
cluding George  MacDonald,  Harry 
Furniss,  and  Beatrix  Potter.  Here, 
too,  Mark  Richards  spoke  about 
the  relationship  between  Dodg- 
son and  MacDonald,  and  Selwyn 
Goodacre  stepped  to  the  podium 
again,  this  time  to  discuss  Sidney 
Herbert  Williams,  Dodgson's  first 
bibliographer,  whom  Selwyn  finds 
something  of  an  enigmatic  char- 
acter. We  walked  around  Hastings, 
viewed  MacDonald's  house  as 
well  as  that  of  Dodgson's  psellis- 
mologist,  Dr.  Hunt,  with  whom 
he  stayed  on  occasion  for  speech 
correction.  On  the  way  home,  we 
stopped  briefly  in  St.  Leonard's, 
where  Williams  lived.  That  evening 
we  donned  posh  garb  and  enjoyed 
a  gala  dinner.  August  offered  a 
Latin  toast  to  Dodgson,  derived 
from  a  medieval  drinking  song  but 
suitably  modified  for  the  occasion. 

Dodgson  was  also  a  frequent 
visitor  to  Brighton,  which  we  vis- 
ited on  the  final  day  of  the  week- 
end, where  he  often  stayed  with 
his  old  Oxford  friend,  the  Rever- 
end Henry  Barclay,  at  11  Sussex 
Square.  It  is  a  popular  myth  locally 
that  the  tunnel  in  the  beautiful 
Sussex  Square  Gardens  leading  to 
the  seafront  provided  inspiration 
for  Dodgson's  White  Rabbit  disap- 
pearing down  the  rabbit  hole,  but 
as  it  appears  Dodgson  first  visited 
Brighton  on  27  August  1872  this  is 
clearly  not  very  likely.  In  1885,  his 
sister  Henrietta  moved  to  Brighton 
on  her  own,  for  reasons  unknown; 
he  also  visited  her  regularly.  In 
1887,  he  watched  a  performance 
of  Alice  at  Brighton's  Theatre 
Royal,  probably  not,  however,  ac- 
companied by  Henrietta,  who 


opposed  theatrical  entertainment. 
The  Brighton  seaside  is  chintzy, 
but  the  town  itself  boasts  two  fine 
museums.  I  highly  recommend  a 
visit  to  the  Royal  Pavilion,  which 
has  no  Dodgson  connection,  but  is 
an  outstanding  historical  building, 
originally  the  home  of  George  IV, 
one  of  England's  less  illustrious 
but  more  interesting  monarchs. 
In  the  very  fine  Brighton  Museum 
we  saw  a  charming  painting  by 
George  Dunlop  Leslie  (1835- 
1921)  of  a  mother  reading  to  her 
daughter  {Alice  in  Wonderland, 
c.  1879,  below). 


August  and  I  recommend  the 
LCS  Study  Weekends  to  all  Carrol- 
lians.  Led  by  Mark  and  Catherine 
Richards,  Alan  White,  and  Myra 
Campbell  (but  with  help  from  a 
large  and  merry  band  of  members, 
many  of  whom  gave  informative 
talks  while  we  visited  this  or  that 
site  and  even  during  coach  rides), 
the  British  Society  puts  a  tremen- 
dous amount  of  work  into  these 
outings,  and  it  shows.  The  food 
and  lodgings  are  always  superb, 
and  we  have  never  failed  to  have 
an  outstanding  experience. 


TAKE  THE  KIDS 

An  updated  calendar  for  the 
"Alice's  Wonderland"  exhibition, 
originating  at  the  Children's  Dis- 
covery Museum  in  San  Jose,  Cali- 
fornia (AZ  70:2-4)  is  as  follows: 
March  2006:  closing  at  the  Chil- 
dren's Museum  of  Manhattan 
May-September:  The  Chil- 
dren's Museum  of  Houston 
September-January  2007:  Chi- 
cago Children's  Museum 
January-May:  (at  CDM  San  Jose 
for  refurbishment) 
May-September:  Creative  Dis- 
covery Museum,  Chattanooga 


ALICE  AND  THE  DEAN 

Through  a  Glass  Darkly:  Shattered 
Reflections  of  Wonderland 

Dean  Motter  (Futura  Novelty, 
2005) 

Award-winning  author/ designer/ 
illustrator  Dean  Motter  has  be- 
come well  known  for  his  work  in 
book-  and  album-cover  designs, 
along  with  many  noteworthy 
graphic  novels  and  comics.  His 
1977  portfolio  of  offset  lithogra- 
phy {Alice.  Alice..  Alice...  :  Won- 
derland in  Ten  Regions)  is  a  highly 
sought  collectors'  item,  portraying 
a  dark,  delerious,  haunting  vision 
("a  visual  allegory  for  madness"), 
replete  with  literary  allusions. 
Fortunately,  Dean  has  seen  fit  to 
reissue  the  drawings  (digitally  re- 
stored, revised  and  newly  colored) 
in  book  format,  and  has  included 
four  new  plates,  poetry  (see  p.  27), 
and  an  afterword.  $13  from  www. 
lulupress.com.  48  pages.  Motter's 
work  may  be  seen  at  home. earth- 
link. net/~dean. motter/. 


af73 


m 

LEAVE  THIS  STONE  UNTURNED 

Andreio  Ogus 

White  Stone  Day: 
A  Victorian  Thriller 

John  MacLlachlan  Gray 
(St.  Martin's  Minotaur,  2006) 

(spoiler  alert:  the  following 
reveals  the  novel's  plot.) 
WTiat  can  one  say  about  a  novel 
that  thanks  Carroll  for  its  inspira- 
tion, and  then  places  his  doppel- 
ganger,  Rev.  William  Leffington 
Boltbyn,  within  a  circle  of  vile 
hacks? 

That  Boltbyn  is  either  so 
incredibly  naive  or  so  astoundingly 
stupid  that  he  is  unable  to 
distinguish  between  a  sleeping 
child  and  a  dead  one? 

That  literally  marking  one's 
diaries  by  pasting  white  stones 
into  the  pages  would  make  them 
difficult  to  read  and  impossible  to 
close? 

That  Boltbyn's  stor)'  telling  is 
interesting,  suggesting  how  an 


author  might  turn  the  dross  of  life 
into  the  gold  of  literature? 

That  Edmund  Whitty,  the  hap- 
less journalist  hero,  frequently 
chloroformed  out  of  conscious- 
ness, is  absurdly  influenced  by  an 
engrained  sense  of  station? 

That  at  least  one  red  herring, 
depends  on  the  unbelievable  idea 
that  WTiitty's  dead  brother,  an 
amateur  photographer,  used  him- 
self as  a  nude  model? 

That  even  the  stock  wicked 
aristocrat,  bent  on  restoring  his 
uneven  fortunes  with  child  por- 
nography, could  not  be  so  stupid 
as  to  glass  his  conservatory  with 
the  photo  plates  that  disclose  his 
crimes? 

That  a  clairvoyant  who  "wit- 
nessed"  the  Duke's  unspeakable 
acts  is  apparently  supposed  to  be 
taken  seriously? 

That  the  Victorian  gangster 
with  a  tender  heart  is  an  all  too 
familiar  character? 

That  the  psychopaths  who 
do  much  of  the  dirty  work  are 
reminiscent  of  characters  in  a  Neil 
Gaiman  novel? 

That  Emma  Pleasance  [sic] 
Lambert's  turning  from  Boltbyn 
may  reflect  the  pathetic  truth  of 
the  pedophilic  experience,  but  his 
sudden  interest  in  her  younger 
sister  Lydia  is  distasteful? 

That  Emma's  sudden  maturity 
is  that  of  a  sophisticated  modern 
woman,  not  a  twelve-year-old  Vic- 
torian girl? 

That  gambling  on  rat-killing 
dogs  appears  to  much  more  con- 
\incing  effect  in  Claire  Clark's  The 
Great  Stink  ? 

That  Emma  and  Lydia  reveal 
the  duke's  deeds  to  their  confused 


mother,  and  then  enlist  her  help 
to  "borrow"  the  ether  from  the 
photographer's  supplies  to  drown 
her  aristocratic  lover  in  his  bath? 

That  if  there  are  parallels  to  be 
drawn  between  the  real  or  imag- 
ined world  of  Carroll,  I  prefer  not 
to  make  them? 

That  there  were  no  suffragettes 
as  such  in  1858? 

That  in  that  year  Swinburne 
had  not  yet  published  under  his 
own  name? 

That  I  seriously  doubt  that 
Punch  would  even  consider  pub- 
lishing a  poem  that  included  the 
word  "pudendum"? 

That  if  one  does  suspend  one's 
disbelief,  the  readable  style,  rapid 
pacing,  and  suitably  "Victorian" 
tone  and  complex  plot  make  for 
an  acceptable  thriller? 

That  I  admit  I  resented  the 
book  from  the  moment  I  read  the 
blurb  on  the  dust  jacket? 

That  I  forced  myself  to  finish 
the  book  only  because  Ld  agreed 
to  write  this  review  for  the  Knight 
Letter? 


-^ 


MYSTERY  SOLVED 

Why  a  Raven  Is  Like  a  Writing  Desk: 
An  Alice  in  Wonderland  Mystery 

Robert  Doucette  (Xlibris,  2005) 

Reading  this  short,  humorous 
and  enchanting  fable,  we  become 
involved  in  the  adventures  of 
Louis  Croissant  as  he  travels  to 
Oxford  to  find  Gladiola  Badcock, 
grand-niece  of  Mary  Hilton 


37 


Badcock,  and  the  true  location  of 
Wonderland.  Decorated  with  Dou- 
cette's  own  charming  illustrations 
(and  the  crossword  puzzle  that 
started  M.  Croissant  on  his  cross- 
channel  journey),  the  book  is  a 
most  amusing  and  enjoyable /o/iV. 
Available  through  Xlibris.com, 
or  Amazon.com.  Highly  recom- 
mended! Paper  $18,  $28  he. 


REDUXIO  AD  ABSURDUM 

Sarah  Adams 

Alice  Redux 

Richard  Peabody,  ed.  (Paycock 

Press,  2006) 

If  every  woman  is  secretly  Alice, 
does  that  mean  every  man  is 
secretly  the  fallacious  (or  phalla- 
cious)  Dodgson,  lusting  after  little 
girls?  Or  is  every  man  even  more 
secretly  Alice  also,  albeit  in  drag? 
What  should  one  think  of  a  cover 
image  of  Alice  with  a  smoking 
pistol  standing  over  a  dead  White 
Rabbit?  Alice  Redux  inspires  plenty 
of  thoughts  in  this  vein.  A  book  of 
Alice-inspired  short  stories  edited 
by  Richard  Peabody,  with  photo- 
graphs by  Nancy  Taylor,  these  31 
tales  and  novel-excerpts  range 
wildly  in  tone  and  theme. 

From  present-day  America  to 
seventeenth-century  Prague  to 
Victorian  India  to  timeless  Won- 
derland, Alice  is  sexually  abused, 
battling  menopause,  forever 
falling  down  the  rabbit  hole,  in 
therapy,  married  to  Huck  Finn, 
sitting  on  Humpty-Dumpty's  wall, 
and/or  worshiped  as  "Our  Lady  of 
the  Mirror."  Other  stories  provide 
commentary  by  Alice  Liddell,  her 
mother,  her  sisters  Edith  and  Lo- 
rina,  the  dreaming  Red  King,  and, 
of  course,  Lewis  Carroll  himself. 
The  multiplicity  of  viewpoints  and 
ideas  is  intriguing  but,  eventually, 
overwhelming. 

Unfortunately,  for  all  of  their 
zaniness,  not  all  of  the  stories  in 
Alice  Redux  are  successful  at  cap- 
turing the  spirit  and  curiosity  of 
Alice.  Those  that  are,  in  fact,  seem 
to  be  those  stories  that  find  the 


strange  and  wonderous  within  the 
everyday.  Whatever  one's  response 
to  Alice  Redux,  it  is  nice  to  know 
that  Carroll's  Alice  remains  un- 
touched, pristine  in  her  mystery, 
yet  continuing  to  be  accessible  and 
inspiring. 

Order  ($16)  from  Richard  Pea- 
body at  3819  North  13th  Street, 
Arlington,  VA  22201  or  www.gar- 
goylemagazine. com/books/pay- 
cock/ alice.html  orAmazon.com. 


TEN  FOR  TEN(NIEL) 

Sarah  Adams 

Artist  of  Wonderland: 

The  Life,  Political  Cartoons, 

and  Illustrations  of  Tenniel 

Frankie  Morris  (University 
of  Virginia  Press,  2005) 

As  complex  as  was  the  life  of  Lewis 
Carroll,  so,  too,  was  that  of  his 
friend  Sir  John  Tenniel,  the  artist 
most  famously  connected  with  Car- 
roll. Frankie  Morris's  new  book. 
Artist  of  Wonderland,  shines  a  light 
on  the  many  facets  of  Tenniel's 
complex  character  and  creations. 
Of  course,  the  chapters  on  their 
working  relationship  will  be  most 
interesting  to  CarroUian  read- 
ers. (Particularly  intriguing  is  the 
chapter  on  Christmas  pantomimes, 
likely  unfamiliar  to  non-British 
readers.)  Yet  the  details  of  Tenn- 
iel's early  years  as  an  artist,  his  fifty 
years  of  work  on  Punch,  and  his 
conservative  politics  are  equally  fas- 
cinating, describing  the  era  almost 
as  much  as  they  do  the  man. 

The  wonder  isn't  that  Dr.  Mor- 
ris wrote  this  book;  it  is  that  she 
even  attempted  it.  A  book  that 
includes  a  detailed  biography  of 
an  artist,  an  examination  of  his  art- 
work and  influences,  and  a  discus- 
sion of  the  political  climate  and 
how  the  artwork  affected  and  was 
affected  by  it  would  be  daunting 
under  any  circumstances.  But  as 
we  know  from  Dr.  Morris'  article 
discussing  her  experiences  in  writ- 
ing the  book  [KL  75:15-19],  most 
previously  written  documentation 
on  Tenniel's  life  either  conflicted 


in  major  details  or  was  missing  al- 
together. By  working  almost  exclu- 
sively with  primary  sources,  how- 
ever, she  has  written  an  appealing 
and  readable  book  that  paints  a 
cohesive  picture.  Not  only  does 
the  reader  feel  as  if  a  full  360-de- 
gree  portrait  has  been  presented, 
but  that  Tenniel  was  someone  the 
reader  might  like  to  know. 

"m 


ALICE,  WHERE  ART  THOU? 

Clare  Imholtz 

That  Jorge  Luis  Borges  and  Lewis 
Carroll  were  soulmates,  at  least 
on  some  level,  is  a  speculation 
that  has  not  escaped  notice  of  the 
Knight  Letter,  nor  numerous  crit- 
ics and  artists.'  Add  now  to  that 
perspicacious  list  M.  L.  Van  Nice, 
the  artist  who  created  The  Library 
at  Wadi  ben  Dagh,  a  brilliant  and 
idiosyncratic  installation  of  book 
sculptures  which  could  be  seen  at 
the  National  Museum  of  Women 
in  the  Arts  in  Washington,  D.C., 
from  April  1 1  to  November  6, 
2005.  According  to  Van  Nice,  the 
installation  represents  the  very 
personal,  thoughtfully  chosen 
library  of  Woman  Doe,  who,  al- 
though she  no  longer  lives  in  Wadi 
ben  Dagh,  left  her  collection — the 
map  of  her  mind  and  soul — to  the 
people  there.  Among  her  book 
sculptures  are  Alice's  Adventures  in 
Wonderland,  Joyce's  Ulysses,  Baude- 
laire's Flowers  of  Evil,  Borges'  story 
"Borges  and  I,"  and  Shakespeare's 
tragedies.  The  nameless  Woman 
Doe  has  transformed  books  writ- 
ten mostly  by  males,  many  of 
whom,  it  seems,  wrote  memorably 
of  girls  and  women. 

Accompanying  Van  Nice's  in- 
stallation was  a  small  pamphlet 
subtitled  "An  Invitation  to  Won- 
derland," describing  how  Van  Nice 
created  a  rabbit  hole  as  the  central 
feature  of  the  Alice  book  sculpture 
by  cutting  openings  in  the  shape 
of  hearts,  spades,  clubs,  and  dia- 
monds for  visitors  to  peer  into  and 
visit  Wonderland.  At  the  very  bot- 
tom of  the  hole  is  a  red  chess 


38 


piece,  representing  the  Queen  of 
Hearts. 

The  whole  installation  had  a  defi- 
nite Borgesian  feel  to  it,  perhaps 
because  of  its  almost  totally  mono- 
chromatic white  purity,  or  perhaps 
due  to  its  Arabic  title,  or  was  it 
Woman  Doe's  brilliant  choice  and 
arrangement  of  books,  her  mani- 
fest respect  for,  and  yet  gentle 
mocking  of,  minute  scholarship? 
As  August  and  I  wandered  from 
piece  to  piece,  we  felt  like  charac- 
ters in  a  Borges  story,  the  Aleph 
just  out  of  our  grasp. 
And  wander  we  did,  though  in 
search  of  Alice  not  Aleph.  Un- 
wisely, we  had  not  arrived  until 
November  5th,  the  eleventh  hour. 
Supplies  of  the  exhibit  pamphlet 
were  totally  depleted.  And  worse. 
We  walked  around  and  around  the 
small  room  where  the  Library  was 
installed,  inspecting  each  piece 
with  the  utmost  care,  enthralled, 
yet  continually  searching:  Where  is 


the  Alice?  Which  could  it  be?  The 
sample  exhibit  pamphlet  clearly 
included  a  detail  ("The  Hole  of 
Understanding")  from  the  Alice 
sculpture.  Shouldn't  we  of  all 
people  recognize  an  Alice  when 
we  see  it?  Alas!  Finally  we  asked, 
and  to  our  great  disappointment 
were  told  that  an  overenthusiastic 
visitor  had  leaned  too  far  into  the 
hole,  and  broken  the  piece.  What 
became  of  that  visitor  we  do  not 
know.  Even  more  tragic,  perhaps, 
was  a  note  announcing  that  when 
the  exhibit  closes,  the  Library, 
"will  be  dismantled,  and  [like 


Woman  Doe]  perhaps  never  seen 
again." 

'    "Lewis  Carroll"  by  Jorge  Luis  Borges, 
AX  55:4-5;  "Borges  and  Carroll: 
On  a  Scale  of  One  to  One"  by  the 
present  author,  KL  71:28;  "Lewis 
Carroll  and  Jorge  Luis  Borges:  Mock 
Epic  As  Autobiography,"  in  Textual 
Confrontations:  Comparative  Readings 
in  Latin  American  Literature  by  Alfred 
MacAdam  (University  of  Chicago, 
1987);  etc. 


j^^^n-'  « 


Robert  Doucette,  Frontispiece, 

Why  a  Raven  Is  Like  a  Writing  Desk  (p.  37) 


39 


BOOKS 

A  special  collaborative 
Alice  issue  of  Belio,  an  "ex- 
perimental art-design  maga- 
zine" from  Spain,  contains 
a  wealth  of  stories  (English 
translations  at  the  back) 
with  pictures,  and  fabulous 
illustrations  from  all  over 
the  globe.  146  color  pages; 
$18  in  US;  €10  in  UK.  Belio, 
CalleArgente  14,28053 
Madrid,  Spain. 
info@beliomagazine.com; 
www.beliomagazine.com. 

A  compendium  called  fotolog.  book: 
A  Global  Snapshot  for  the  Digital  Age 
by  Nick  Currie  and  Andrew  Long 
(Thames  &  Hudson,  2006)  con- 
tains 1,000  of  the  best  images  se- 
lected from  online  photo  journals 
in  the /oio/og- digital  community, 
including  six  full  pages  of  Alician 
digital  images  by  Helenbar.  See 
item  in  Cyberspace,  below. 

The  German  Alice:  An  Annotated 
Bibliography  (including  "nearly 
all"  German  editions  of  the  Alice 
books,  parodies,  comics,  videos, 
CDs,  etc.),  compiled  by  Udo 
Pasterny  and  Alise  G.  Wagner, 
privately  printed  in  100  numbered 
copies,  30  including  postage 
for  U.S.  residents.  Udo  Pasterny, 
Hohenzollernstr.  15,  44135  Dort- 
mund, Germany; 
udo.pasterny@web.de. 

Tatiana  lanovskaia's  illustrated  The 
Mad  Gardener's  Song  with  prefatory 
essays  by  August  A.  Imholtz,Jr.  and 
Clare  Imholtz  (Tania  Press,  2006). 
US$12.  bianovski@sympatico.ca; 
25  Black  Hawkway,  North  York, 
Ontario,  Canada,  M2R  3L5;  (416) 
650-1871.  She  has  some  copies  of 
her  Wonderland  still  available  for 
US$15  as  well.  Postage  to  U.S.  is 
US$2,  elsewhere  us  $3.50. 

Lisa  Randall's  Warped  Passages,  Un- 
raveling the  Mysteries  of  the  Universe's 
Hidden  Dimensions  (Ecco,  2005) 


posits  that  we  live  in  a  "kind 
of  Oreo  cookie  multiverse,  4- 
d(imensional)  (mem)branes, 
thinly  separated  by  a  5-d  space 
poetically  called  the  bulk."  Refer- 
ences to  Wonderland  abound, 
including  the  author's  belief  that 
the  title  is  a  pun  on  "1-d  land." 
"When  they  solved  the  equations 
for  this  setup,  they  discovered 
that  the  space  between  the  branes 
would  be  warped." 

Slithy  Toves:  Illuistrated  Classic 
Herpetological  Books  at  the  University 
of  Kansas  in  Pictures  and  Conversa- 
tions by  Sally  Haines  (University  of 
Kansas,  2000).  Just  the  title. 

Alice  in  Corporate  Wonderland: 
Down  the  Long  Halhvay  by  R.  T. 
Talasek,  Ph.D.  (PublishAmerica, 
2005).  "Alice  is  all  grown  up  and 
a  freshly  minted  Ivy  League  MBA 
thrust  into  the  world  of  corporate 
America." 

Michael  Buckley's  The  Sisters 
Grimm,  Book  One:  The  Fairy-Tale 
Detectives  (Abrams,  2005;  ages 
9-12;  Peter  Ferguson,  illustrator) 
is  a  fantasy  mystery  in  which 
our  White  Rabbit  is  one  of 
the  characters. 

Adam  Gopnik's  convoluted  chil- 
dren's novel  The  King  in  the  Win- 
dow (Miramax/Hyperion,  2005) 
combines  science,  French  history, 
and  fantasy.  An  ancient  Alice  and 
her  pale,  wide-eyed  lost  children 
appear  as  a  plot  device. 


Peter  Ackroyd's  Albion: 
The  Origins  of  the  English 
Imagination.  (Chatto  and 
Windus,  2002)  contains 
a  handful  of  references 
to  the  books. 

Lewis  Carroll  and  the  Vic- 
torian Theatre:  Theatricals 
in  a  Quiet  Life  (Ashgate, 
2005)  by  Richard  Foul- 
kes.  To  be  reviewed  in 
our  next  issue. 

The  Kingfisher  Book  of 
Great  Girl  Stories,  chosen 
by  Rosemary  Sandberg, 
includes  an  excerpted  "Mad  Tea 
Party,"  from  Wonderland  (King- 
fisher, 1999). 

Erica  Spindler's  Killer  Takes  All 
(Mira  Books,  2005)  is  a  mystery/ 
thriller  that  involves  a  role-playing 
game  called  White  Rabbit,  with  peo- 
ple taking  on  characters  from  the 
book,  and  someone  whose  name 
is  Alice.  "It  looks  pretty  violent  and 
unpleasant."  Hardcover,  $20. 

Creature  Carnival,  featuring  whim- 
sical illustrations  by  Gris  Grimly 
and  associated  poems  by  Marilyn 
Singer  (Hyperion,  2004),  has  a 
Cheshire  Cat. 

Film  producer  (There's  Something 
About  Mary)  and  first-time  novelist 
Frank  Beddor's  gritty  re-imagining 
called  The  Looking  Glass  Wars 
Trilogy  [KL  74:42)  will  be  pub- 
lished in  the  U.S.  by  the  Penguin 
Young  Readers  Group  (ages  ten 
and  up).  The  eponymous  first 
book  is  in  print;  he  is  currently 
working  on  the  second,  to  be 
called  Seeing  Redd.  Three  of  the 
four  issues  of  its  adaptation  into 
a  mini-series  graphic  novel  called 
Hatter  M  have  been  published.  A 
musical  and  a  card  game  along  the 
lines  of  Magic:  The  Gathering  are 
said  to  be  in  the  works. 
www.lookingglasswars.com. 


40 


^ 

ARTICLES 

UoKOJieHue  XXI  (Generation  XXI) 
#2,  2005,  a  student  magazine 
from  the  Russian  Academy  of 
Education  contains  an  interview 
with  Carroll  translator/scholar 
Nina  Demurova. 

T:  The  Sunday  New  York  Times 
Women 's  Fashion  Magazine,  August 
28,  2005,  contained  "Curiouser 
and  Curiouser:  Fall  Down  the 
Rabbit  Hole  in  Prints  Fit  for  a  Mad 
Tea  Party,"  a  photo  spread  of 
hatterly  outfits. 

The  Sea  Fairy  41  (Jan/Feb  2006) 
mentions  Carroll  several  times  and 
includes  a  feature  called  "A  Look 
at  the  Different  Alices,"  discuss- 
ing 14  illustrators  from  Carroll  to 
Mervyn  Peake. 

"Hat-itude  Adjustment,"  in  AARP: 
The  Magazine,  March/April  2002, 
discussed  actor  Andy  Garcia's  hat 
collection,  with  an  illustration  of 
him  as,  of  course,  our  Hatter. 


CYBERSPACE 


Edward  Wakeling  has  a  new  Web 
site,  which  contains  two  papers, 
"Lewis  Carroll  as  Photographer" 
and  "The  Real  Lewis  Carroll";  a 
listing  of  all  known  Dodgson  pho- 
tographs; and  is  a  place  where  he 
sells  duplicates  from  his  superb 
collection,  www.lewiscarroll-site. 
com. 

The  superb  digital  images  of 
Wonderland  by  Helena  De  Barros 
("Helenbar"),  one  of  which  was 
featured  on  the  cover  of  KL  73 
(article:  KI.  73:39)  can  be  seen  as  a 
slide  show  by  going  to  www.helen- 
bar.com/art/wond_01.htm  and 
clicking  the  forward  arrows  (»). 

"Alice  no  Pais  das  Maravilhas,"  an 
abbreviated  version  used  to  teach 
Portuguese  on  the  Isle  of  Jersey 
(U.K.)  at  www.projectodejersey. 
com/Alicenopaisdasmaravilhasl. 
htm. 

An  amazing  array  of /I //f^  images 
at  www.eatpoo.com/phpBB2/view- 
topic.php?t=39960. 


Adam  Cline's  Adventures  ofAmish 
Alice  onWnc  comic  book  at  adam- 
cline.com/theadventuresof 
amishalice/adventuresofamish 
alice.htm. 

Peggy  Guest's  marvelous  take  on 
the  Snark  at  www.peggyguest.com/ 
illustration.html. 

"Alice  in  Underland"  is  the  title  of: 
a  series  of  sketches  by  Raymond 
Korshi  at  www.lairofthetwisted 
kitten.co.uk/gallery/alicel.htm; 
Rigoberto  Rodriguez's  series  of 
erotic  photographs  at  www.enter- 
art.com/rigoberto/english/works. 
htm;  a  poem  by  Lisa  Shao  at  lisa. 
shao.org/archives/poetry/alice_ 
in_underland.html;  Wolfgang 
Zuckermann's  book  (Olive  Press, 
2000),  described  as  "a  curious  mix- 
ture of  nonsense,  social  satire  and 
surrealist  fairytale,  which  takes  the 
classical  Alice  through  the  dreary 
landscape  of  suburban  America"; 
a  performance  piece  from  Norway 
(www.katma.net/performances/ 
aliceinunderland.php);  an  online 
comic  by  The  Brothers  Grinn 
(Brian  and  Stuart  Burke)  at  www. 
supermegatopia.com/comics/ 
alice.php;  etc. 


M 

CONFERENCES  AND  LECTURES 

Children's  author  John  Scieszka 
( The  Stinky  Cheese  Man,  etc.)  deliv- 
ered the  annual  Zena  Sutherland 
Lecture  at  the  University  of  Chi- 
cago on  May  6,  2005,  which  ended 
with  his  accolade  to  Carroll  and 
a  "tribute"  poem  called  "Gobble- 
gooky."  The  talk  was  adapted  into 
an  article  published  in  The  Horn 
Book  Magazine  (November/Decem- 
ber 2005). 

In  a  special  session  on  the  history 
of  mathematics  at  the  American 
Mathematical  Society's  eastern 
regional  meeting  on  October  8, 
2005,  at  Bard  College  in  Annan- 
dale-on-Hudson,  New  York,  Dr. 
Francine  F.  Abeles  gave  a  paper 
entitled  "Lewis  Carroll's  Diagram- 
matic Logic  System  for  Syllogisms." 


m 

EXHIBITIONS 

The  2005  "Hand  Bookbinders 
of  California  Annual  Members' 
Exhibition,"  at  the  Universit)'  of 
California  at  San  Francisco's  Kal- 
manovitz  Library  (September-De- 
cember '05),  featured  Eleanor 
Ramsey's  stunning  binding  of  the 
Brabant/Walker  Cheshire  Cat 
Press  Wonderland.  Her  companion 
Looking-Glass  will  be  on  loan  to 
the  "100th  Anniversary  Exhibi- 
tion of  The  Guild  of  Book  Work- 
ers" from  October  2006  through 
September  2007.  Venues  include 
the  Grolier  Club  in  New  York  City, 
Newberry  Library  in  Chicago, 
University  of  Utah  in  Salt  Lake 
City,  Portland  State  University, 
Bridwell  Library  in  Dallas,  and  the 
Boston  Athenaeum.  Further  de- 
tails will  be  posted  to  palimpsest. 
stanford.edu/byorg/gbw/exhibit/ 
2006exhibit.shtml. 

The  Spencer,  a  small,  newly  reno- 
vated boutique  hotel  located  on 
the  grounds  of  the  illustrious 
Chautauqua  Institution,  a  not-for- 
profit,  750-acre  educational  center 
located  on  Chautauqua  Lake  in 
southwestern  New  York  State,  is 
celebrating  its  centennial  in  2006. 
The  Spencer  operates  as  a  small, 
independent  hotel  property  with 
a  distinctive  literary  theme  that 
celebrates  the  life  and  works  of 
history's  most  revered  authors; 
naturally,  it  has  a  Lewis  Carroll 
room,  www.thespencer.com; 
800.398-1306. 

% 

AUCTIONS 

One  of  John  Lennon's  school 
notebooks  sold  for  126,500 
pounds  ($226,000)  on  April  19 
by  rock-memorabilia  auctioneer 
Cooper  Owen  in  Egham,  Surrey, 
England.  Lennon  was  only  12 
when  he  made  the  10-page  book 
of  drawings  in  pen,  pencil  and 
watercolors  alongside  handwritten 
verses  from  classic  English  poems 
in  1952.  The  collection,  called  "My 
Anthology,"  included  an  illustrated 


41 


"The  Walrus  and  the  Carpenter." 
www.cooperowen.com/news_len 
non.asp. 


MEDIA 

Marilyn  Manson  seems  to  be  going 
ahead  with  his  Phantasmagoria 
movie  project  {KL  75:30)  and  has 
cast  porcelain-faced,  red-haired 
British  fashion  model  Lily  Cole, 
18,  as  Alice.  Keep  up  with  the 
madness  at  www.mansonusa.com. 

"The  Compulsive  Line:  Etching 
1900  to  Now"  at  the  Museum  of 
Modern  Art  in  New  York  City  in 
April,  included  "Pool  of  Tears 
2  (After  Lewis  Carroll)"  by  Kiki 
Smith,  an  etching  with  watercolor 
additions  based  on  a  sketch  from 
Under  Ground,  and  a  portfolio  of 
Surrealist  etchings  from  the  game 
"Exquisite  Corpse,"  wherein  an 
elongated,  nude  Alice  appears. 

Mononymous  pop  star  Jewel's  latest 
CD  is  titled  Goodbye  Alice  in  Won- 
derland. 


PERFORMANCES 


Playwright,  Pulitzer-nominated 
journalist,  novelist  ( Wildcatting) 
and  very  successful  radio  talk 
show  host  Shann  Nix's  play  Alice 
Underground  opened  at  the 


Sonoma  (CA)  Community  Center 
in  April.  With  an  original  score 
byjef  Labes  (Van  Morrison's 
pianist),  the  "dark  musical  about 
the  82-year-old  Alice  approaching 
the  end  of  her  life"  blends  her 
nursing-home  existence  with  hal- 
lucinations-come-to-life from  her 
fictional  adventures. 


-M- 


THINGS 

Frank  Brunner's  erotic  art  port- 
folios of  Wonderland  (1977)  and 
Looking-Glass  (1979)  have  been 
long-sought  collectors'  items. 
They — along  with  some  other  Alice 
pieces,  comic  book  stories,  and 
other  fantasy  illustrations — have 
now  been  reprinted  in  magazine 
format  as  Brunner's  Carnal  Delights 
($10)  by  Carnal  Comics,  PO. 
Box  2068,  Scottsdale,  AZ  85282; 
https://demicomix.com/oscom- 
merce/.  Be  sure  to  get  the  "Alice" 
and  not  the  "regular"  cover. 

Nana  Banana's  "Classic  Coloring 
Books"  includes  an  abridged  Won- 
derland illustrated  by  Edel  Rodri- 
guez. www.nanabanana.com.  $16. 

Pierre  Silber,  purveyor  of  erotic 
wear,  has  some  items  of  interest: 
"Alice's  Wonderful  Apron  Dress," 
"Alice's  Dress,"  "Tea  Party  Cos- 
tume" (the  Hatter!?),  "Sexy  Fairy- 


HERE,  HOUB  TMB  MAT  W«)16T  X 
!C)?AWPAD6  MlOm'OH  MY  Bi^^^^^- 
L£ASTM^£  you  AIN'T  A  SkWi- 
WOCICER  HKE  THAT^ed^S/r— 
'UB  MU6T  OF  VVA6  BO^HBP  OM 
,1^B  TOPFLOOe  OF  kPMOHO" 


tail  Dress,"  and  "Alice's  Queen." 
All  for  around  $40-$60.  Be  fore- 
warned. www.pierresilber.com. 

Disney  Rarities:  Celebrated  Shorts 
1920S-1960&  collects  the  "Alice" 
shorts  of  the  1920s  onto  DVD.  Fea- 
turettes  include  an  interview  with 
Virginia  Davis,  who  played  Alice. 

Collectors  of  hentai  (Japanese 
erotic  manga  [comic  books] ) 
should  note  two  series  from  Eros 
Comics:  Mashumarojyuubaori's 
Alice  in  Sexland  a.nd  Alice  Extreme. 
Of  the  first  series,  #s  2  and  5-8 
are  available,  of  the  second,  the 
full  set  of  seven  at  $3.50-$4  each. 
www.eroscomix.com;  7563  Lake 
City  Way  NE,  Seattle,  WA  981 15; 
800.657-1 100.  You  can  find  scans 
of  the  complete  books  in  many 
places  on  the  Web.  Not  for  the 
faint  of  heart. 

Rob  Espinosa  's  New  Alice  in  Wonder- 
land comic  book  mini-series  from 
Antarctic  Press  has  released  Issues 
#1,  2,  and  3.  $4.50  each.  www. 
antarctic-press.com/html/version_ 
01 /store. php?id=Alice. 

Whittard  of  Chelsea  has  many  tea- 
related  Alice  items.  See  www. whit- 
tard.co.uk:  check  out  "Alice"  under 
"Easter,"  or  use  the  search  box. 

Just  released:  a  DVD  of  the  Sev- 
enth World  Symposium  on  Choral 
Music  in  Kyoto,  Japan,  with  the 
first  three  movements  of  Eight 
Scenes  from  Alice  by  Patrick  van 
Deurzen;  www.brain-music.com/ 
asia/205dvd/ 05choral_dvd.html. 

Pop-up  cards  from  Sabuda's  Alice 
are  now  available  from  robert- 
sabuda.com. 

The  Breaches,  Westerham,  Kent, 
an  "enchanting  period  house," 
went  on  sale  in  October  for 
£1,100,000.  Alice  Hargreaves  win- 
tered there  in  later  life,  and  this  is 
where  she  died,  on  a  cold  Novem- 
ber day  in  1934. 


42 


(                                                                                      '«:'tlr                              u      .     i                      i     ■'•Till      ■"      ^wlrir 

T/jf-  Breaches,  Westerham,  Kent