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KNIGHT  LETTER 


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The  Lewis  Carroll  Society  of  North  America 


Winter  2010 


Volume  II  Issue  15 


Number  85 


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. 

Editorial  correspondence  should  be  sent  to  the  Editor  in  Chief  at 

mahendra373@hotmail.com. 


SUBMISSIONS 

Submissions  for  The  Rectory  Umbrella  and  Mischmasch 
should  be  sent  to  mahendra373@hotmail.com. 

Submissions  and  suggestions  for  Serendipity  and  Sic  Sic  Sic 
should  be  sent  to  andrewogus@mindspring.com. 

Submissions  and  suggestions  for  From  OurFar-Flung  Correspondents 
should  be  sent  to  FarFlungKnight@gmail.com. 

©  2010  The  Lewis  Carroll  Society  of  North  America 

ISSN  0193-886X 

Sarah  Adams-Kiddy,  Editor  in  Chief 

Mahendra  Singh,  Editor,  The  Rectory  Umbrella 

Sarah  Adams-Kiddy  ^  Ray  Kiddy,  Editors,  Mischmasch 

James  Welsch  6^  Rachel  Eley,  Editors,  From  Our  Far-Rung  Correspondents 

Mark  Burstein,  Production  Editor 

Andrew  H.  Ogus,  Designer 

THE  LEWIS  CARROLL  SOCIETY  OF  NORTH  AMERICA 

President: 
Mark  Burstein,  wrabbit@worldpassage.net 

Vice-President: 

Cindy  Watte r,  hedgehogccw@sbcglobal.net 

Secretary: 

Clare  Imholtz,  imholtz99@adantech.net 

www.LewisCarroll .  org 

Annual  membership  dues  are  U.S.  $35  (regular), 
$50  (international),  and  $100  (sustaining). 

Subscriptions,  correspondence,  and  inquiries  should  be  addressed  to: 

Clare  Imholtz,  LCSNA  Secretary 

11935  Beltsville  Dr. 

Beltsville,  Maryland  20705 

Additional  Contributors  to  This  Issue 

Barbara  Adams,  Ruth  Berman,  Angelica  Carpenter,  Bonnie  Hagerman, 

Alan  Tannenbaum,  Cindy  Watter 


On  the  cover:  Secret  Garden,  digital  collage  by  Adriana  Peliano.  Seepage  21. 


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CONTENTS 


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THe   ReCTORY  UMBRSLLA 


Live  from  Lincoln  Center 

MARK  BURSTEIN 

Meeting  Mr.  Dodgson 

ANDREW  SELLON 

Contemporary  Sylvie  and  Bruno  Reviews: 
A  Further  Concatenation 

CLARE  IMHOLTZ 

Alice  Under  Skies 

CHRIS  MATHESON 

A  Carrollian  in  Brazil:  Adraina  Peliano,  Part  One 

ANDREW  SELLON  &  MAHENDRA  SINGH 

Am  L  Blue? 

MARK  BURSTEIN 


11 


17 


21 


27 


OF   BOOKS  AND  THINGS 

m 

Evermore  Everson  's  Every  type!  45 

MARK  BURSTEIN 

Keith  Shepard's  Wonderland  Revisited, 

and  the  Games  Alice  Played  There  46 

SARAH  ADAMS- KIDDY 

J.  T.  Holden  's  Alice  in  Verse: 
The  Lost  Rhymes  of  Wonderland  46 

HAYLEY  RUSHING 

Mahendra  Singh's  The  Hunting  of  the  Snark  47 

STEPHANIE  LOVETT 

C.  M.  Rubin 's  The  Real  Alice  in  Wonderland  48 

RAY  KIDDY 

Nancy  Wiley 's  Alice's  Adventures  in  Wonderland      48 

RAY  KIDDY 


MISCHMASCH 


«« 


Leaves  from  the  Deanery  Garden — Sic,  Sic,  Sic 

Serendipity  — Ravings  from  the  Writing  Desk  31 

What 's  a  Snark  ?  35 

MARKJARMON 

Lewis  Carroll  Tests  Outfabberwocky  3® 

JENN  THORSON 

CARROLLIAN   NOTGS 

m 


The  Antipathies,  I  Think — 

LESTER  R.  DICKEY 

Alice  Speaks 

DAVID  SCHAEFER 


38 
38 


Guildford:  A  Lewis  Carroll  Society  Study  Weekend  40 

AUGUST  A.  IMHOLTZ,  JR. 

The  Oxford  Experience: 

Edward  Wakeling  at  Christ  Church  43 

ANN  BUKI 


Katherine  Neville's  "En  Passant"  49 

AUGUST  IMHOLTZ,  JR. 

Jan  Susina  's  The  Place  of  Lewis  Carroll 

in  Children's  Literature  49 

CLARE  IMHOLTZ 

Maxim  Mitrofanov  's  Alisa  v  Zazerkale  5 1 

AUGUSTA.  IMHOLTZ, JR. 

Gavin  O  'Keefe  's  Through  the  Looking-Glass  5 1 

ANDREW  OGUS 

11th  Hour  Ensemble 's  Alice  5  * 

JAMES  WELSCH 

FROM  OUR   FAR-FLUNG 
CORReSPONDSNTS 

M 

Art  &  Illustration — Articles  (sf  Academia 
Books — Cyberspace — Events,  Exhibits,  (sf  Places 
Movies  6f  Television — Performing  Arts — Things 


53 


ediTOKial 


•1^:::^ 


»  "*  r\^f^J>^  ^^-^ 


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1 


e 


''his  issue  takes  us  all  over  the  world  .  .  .  from 
Brazil,  where  we  interview  Adriana  Peliano, 
artist  and  president  of  the  Sociedade  Lewis 
Carroll  do  Brasil,  to  England,  where  Ann  Buki  de- 
scribes Edward  Wakeling's  class  and  August  Imholtz, 
Jr.,  reports  on  LCS  (UK)  activities  in  Guildford,  to 
Russia  for  a  review  of  a  new  version  of  Through  the 
Looking-Glass  illustrated  by  Maxim  Mitrofanov  and, 
finally,  Lester  Dickey's  article  takes  us  to  the  Antipa- 
thies! 

Next,  Andrew  Sellon  expands  the  talk  he  gave 
at  the  fall  meeting  to  explain  how  he  grew  up  with 
Lewis  Carroll,  rediscovered  him  in  acting  school,  and 
ultimately  became  the  president  of  the  LCSNA.  This 
is  the  first  in  what  we  hope  will  be  an  ongoing  series 
of  articles  written  by  members  about  how  they  first 
discovered  or  were  introduced  to  the  works  of  Lewis 
Carroll.  Do  you  have  a  story  you'd  like  to  share? 

We  also  have  for  you  "Alice  Under  Skies,"  Chris 
Matheson's  thoughts  on  Looking-Glass,  a  companion 
to  his  article  on  Wonderland,  "Lewis  Carroll:  The  King 
of  Comedy,"  in  our  previous  issue.  Two  short  fiction 
pieces,  "What's  a  Snark?"  and  "Lewis  Carroll  Tests  Out 
'Jabberwocky'"  come  to  us  from  Mark  Jarmon  and 
Jenn  Thorson,  respectively.  Clare  Imholtz  provides 
us  with  further  Sylvie  and  Bruno  reviews,  and  David 
Schaefer  adds  to  our  knowledge  of  Alice  filmography 


with  "Alice  Speaks." 

Perhaps  the  most  interesting  aspect  of  this  is- 
sue is  that  for  the  first  time  we  have  color  pictures! 
New  LCSNA  president  Mark  Burstein's  article  "Am  I 
Blue?"  discusses  the  changing  colors  of  Alice's  dress 
in  various  early  editions  of  Wonderland.  While  we  did 
consider  sending  each  member  a  box  of  crayons  with 
which  to  fill  in  the  colors  (but  only  after  we'd  realized 
that  the  Knight  L^ff^- staff  just  didn't  have  time  to  wa- 
tercolor  every  issue,  sorry!),  we  finally  settled  on  hav- 
ing our  printer  include  a  small  color  section.  Please 
do  let  us  know  if  you  like  it! 

On  a  personal  note,  having  taken  on  the  editor- 
in-chief  position  last  issue,  I  must  temporarily  hand  it 
off  again.  As  some  of  you  already  know,  Ray  and  I  are 
expecting  Tweedles,  I  mean  twins,  in  February.  Fortu- 
nately, the  capable  hands  of  Mahendra  Singh,  editor 
of  the  Rectory  Umbrella  section  and  Snark  illustrator 
extraordinaire,  are  available,  and  our  excellent  staff 
of  Andrew  Ogus,  Mark  Burstein,  James  Welch,  and 
Rachel  Eley,  as  well  as  our  miscellany  of  reviewers  and 
Far-Flung  contributors,  are  there  to  back  him  up.  But 
this  team  can  always  use  a  little  extra  help,  if  you'd 
like  to  volunteer. 

Like  the  Cheshire  Cat,  I  will  return  when  you 
least  expect  it,  but  for  now,  I  disappear,  leaving  only 
a  grin. 

SARAH  ADAMS- KIDDY 


IV 


THe   ReCTORY  UMBRBLLA 


Our  fabulous  Fall  2010  meeting  in  New  York 
City  began  in  the  traditional  manner.  Here 
is  that  story,  in  the  words  of  Mary  Schaefer: 
"The  Maxine  Schaefer  Memorial  Children's 
Reading  was  held  Friday  morning,  November  5,  at 
the  Earth  School  on  Manhattan's  Lower  East  Side. 
Twenty-five  fourth-  and  fifth-grade  students  and  their 
teachers  were  present,  as  were  several  LCSNA  mem- 
bers who  were  not  direcdy  involved  in  the  reading, 
but  whose  presence  and  participation  are  always  a  big 
plus.  Patt  Griffin  did  the  reading  (the  tea  party).  The 
kids  loved  it — and  they  loved  Patt's  rendition!  All  of 
them  were  familiar  with  Alice  in  movie  or  book  form, 
and  a  couple  of  them  brought  along  copies  that  had 
belonged  to  their  grandparents  or  parents.  A  ques- 
tion-and-answer  period  followed  the  reading,  and  the 
questions  were  many  and  varied.  (So  Alice  was  a  real 
person?  That  was  interesting  news!  And  how  about 
Mr.  Dodgson,  who  had  two  names!  When  did  this  take 
place?)  It  was  a  fun  reading  for  all  of  us." 

For  the  main  meeting  on  Saturday,  Dr.  Edward 
Guiliano,  a  former  president  of  our  Society  who  is 
now  the  president  and  CEO  of  the  New  York  Insti- 
tute of  Technology,  kindly  provided  us  with  the  per- 
fect meeting  space,  located  within  their  Lincoln  Cen- 
ter campus.  The  technology,  as  one  might  expect, 
was  first-rate,  with  a  number  of  wall-mounted  video 
flatscreens  in  flawless  synch  with  the  main  one  for  our 
presentations. 


After  being  introduced  by  our  president,  An- 
drew Sellon,  Edward  first  welcomed  the  audience  of 
around  70,  which  included  eight  former  or  current 
LCSNA  presidents,  Morton  Cohen,  and  other  lumi- 
naries. The  NYIT  has  about  15,000  students,  repre- 
senting 106  countries,  with  about  half  grad  and  half 
undergrads.  It  is  a  "global  university,"  with  other  cam- 
puses in  Canada,  China,  and  the  Middle  East. 

Edward's  talk  was  entitled  "Greetings,  and  a  Few 
Wise  Words  about  Martin  Gardner."  Dr.  Guiliano  feels 
that  there  were  three  pivotal  events  that  accounted 
for  our  presence  there — a  certain  boat  ride  on  July  4, 
1862;  the  publication  of  The  Annotated  Alice  in  1960, 
which  garnered  academic  acceptance  of  Carroll  stud- 
ies; and  the  founding  of  the  LCSNA  in  1974.  Martin 
Gardner  was  fully  or  partially  responsible  for  two  of 
the  three. 

Edward  is  a  renowned  expert  on  Victorian  litera- 
ture, and  he  first  regaled  us  with  tales  of  what  was  read 
back  in  those  days,  such  as  the  bestselling,  voluminous 
The  Last  of  the  Mortimers  by  Mrs.  Oliphant  or  Mary  Eliz- 
abeth Braddon's  sensationalistic  Lady  Audley's  Secret. 
Both  are  now  forgotten,  but  they  were  long  consid- 
ered suitable  subjects  for  academic  study,  an  honor 
not  accorded  Mr.  Carroll's  works  until  1964  (!) — and 
only  then  thanks  to  the  work  of  Martin  Gardner.  Ed- 
ward described  meeting  Martin  at  the  first  LCSNA 
gathering  in  1974  and  several  other  meetings  over  the 


next  five  years,  working  with  him  a  bit  on  Lewis  Car- 
roll Observed,  and  working  together  more  substantively 
on  The  Wasp  in  a  Wig.  Guiliano's  tale  of  the  discovery 
of  the  manuscript  and  its  purchase  from  Sotheby's  by 
Norman  Armour  was  fascinating.  Armour  bought  it  as 
an  investment  and  didn't  want  to  see  it  published — as 
he  thought  that  would  diminish  its  value!  Edward's 
account  of  the  negotiations  between  Clark(son)  Pot- 
ter and  the  Dodgson  estate,  in  the  person  of  Philip 
Dodgson  Jaques,  over  copyright  issues,  made  it  clear 
that  only  by  Martin's  intervention  and  support  (and 
his  eventual  Introduction 
to  the  volume)  were  things 
resolved  to  everyone's  satis- 
faction. 

Edward's  talk  will  be  the 
basis  for  his  contribution  to 
^^j^^BPP*'  A  Bouquet  for  the  Gardner,  a 

^^^^  ^x^^^  Festschrift  and  collection  of 

^^^^■ffC^^^^  reminiscences  that  is  slated 

^^^^Hj^^  ^^^^  to  be  published  by  the  LCS- 

^^^HI^flH  J^  NA  and  the  LCS(U.K.)  next 
Edward  Guiliano  ygar.  Its  editor,  the  present 

writer,  then  said  a  few  more 
words  on  that  subject. 

Our  second  speaker  was  the  enormously  talent- 
ed, Toronto-based  artist  Oleg  Lipchenko.  His  spec- 
tacular illustrations  to  Alice's  Adventures  in  Wonderland 
won  the  coveted  Elizabeth  Mrazik-Cleaver  Award  last 
year,  and  he  spoke  about  his  current  project  in  a  talk 
entided  "Butcher  in  the  Ruff:  Rendering  the  Snark  (A 
Work  in  Progress)."  He  said  that  for  hired  illustrators, 
"ignorance  of  the  text"  is  one  of  the  familiar  publish- 
ing customs.  However,  contrary  to  that  philosophy, 
he  actually  first  read  the  Snark  in  the  equivalent  of 
a  plain  text  version,  one  with  illustrations  that  had 
"nothing  to  do  with  the  text."  Lipchenko  feels  that  "a 
dream  is  still  a  dream  even  if  retold  with  a  scientific 
tongue."  The  poem's  meaning  is,  of  course,  obscure, 
with  many  possible  interpre- 
tations, none  particularly 
more  truthful  than  the  oth- 
ers: "the  game  of  Could  Be." 
Oleg  thought  of  the  Bell- 
man as  God,  moving  in  mys- 
terious ways,  his  intentions 
inscrutable  (and  hence  he 
was  given  Dali's  mustache). 
His  Banker  is  a  bewhiskered 

nineteenth-century    capital- 

•  .     .1       T>       •  *       •  J    Olee  Lipchencko 

ist;  the  Barnster  is  gowned       *    ^ 

and   bewigged,   drawn   from 

life;  the  Broker  a  "young  man  in  spats";  Boots  a  mys- 
terious Wild  West  villain.  He  speculated  that  the  po- 
em's line  "the  ominous  words  'It's  a  Boo — '"  could 
also  be  completed  as  "It's  a  Boo  .  .  .  ts"  or  "It's  a  Boo 
.  .  .  tcher."  We  very  much  look  forward  to  seeing  his 


completed  rendition  in  print.  He  has  kindly  given  us 
a  preview;  see  inside  back  cover. 

Adam  Gopnik,  the  famed  New  Kwife^writer  and  es- 
sayist {Paris  to  the  Moon)  last  honored  us  with  his  witty 
presence  in  2006,  when  he  discussed  his  introduc- 
tion to  Martin  Gardner's  new  edition  of  The  Annotated 
Snark.  Here  he  gave  us  "Looking-Glass  and  Broken 
Mirror:  Honoring  the  Spirit  of  Lewis  Carroll."  His  far- 
reaching  mind  took  in  a  spectacularly  wide  variety  of 
topics,  to  say  the  least:  nineteenth-century  polar  expe- 
ditions (the  Snark  of  discovering  the  North  Pole,  the 
Boojum  of  the  Great  White  Winter) ;  his  discovery  as  a 
child  of  S.  W.  Erdnase's  1902  close-up  magic  "bible," 
The  Expert  at  the  Card  Table,  and  the  revelation  in  a  pulp 
magazine  in  1949  of  its  (purported)  true  author  in  an 
article  by  .  .  .  Martin  Gardner;  how  The  Annotated  Alice 
grew  "viral"  and  "infected  other  literature,"  including 
the  Beatles'  "Cry  Baby  Cry"  and  "Lucy  in  the  Sky  with 
Diamonds";  Nabokov's  use  of  a  chess  puzzle  in  Speak, 
Memory.  Calling  Disney's  1951  film  "the  work  of  the 
devil,  which  should  be  quarantined  from  humankind" 
due  to  its  "saccharine  betrayal,"  Gopnik  also  decried 
the  recent  "surrealist/sentimental,  bad  reading"  film 
by  Tim  Burton  with  its  "sublimation  of  sex." 

Carroll,  he  said,  must  be  seen  as  a  comic  writer,  a 
post-Renaissance  poet  of  a  realm  that  Gopnik  calls  "a 
marvelous  that  knows  itself  as  myth,"  the  formal  inves- 
tigation of  a  "rule-bound  imaginary  world"  that  is  cel- 
ebrated in  two  domains:  children's  literature  and  the 
usually  dystopian  science-fiction.  "Comic"  does  not 
mean  just  funny;  it  is  the  "vernacular  of  rationality." 
Gopnik  uses  the  term  "comic"  in  an  academic,  struc- 
tural sense:  initially  one  finds  the  realm  in  order,  it  is 
disrupted  by  an  outside  force  ("common  sense  sent 
dancing"),  and  in  the  end  they  are  reconciled,  a  con- 
struction that  appears  in  everything  from  A  Midsum- 
mer Night's  Dream  to  episodes  of  Seinfeld.  Citing  works 
as  seemingly  diverse  as  Babar,  From  the  Mixed-Up  Files  of 
Mrs.  Basil  E.  Frankweiler,  The  Wind  in  the  Willows,  and 
Mary  Poppins,  he  called  the  Alice  books  their  "tonic 
note,  basis,  genesis,  and  exodus." 

Citing  the  work  of  his  sister,  Alison  Gopnik,  an 
expert  in  cognitive  and  language  development  and 
the  author  of  The  Scientist  in  the  Crib:  What  Early  Learn- 
ing Tells  Us  About  the  Mind  and  "The  Real  Reason  Chil- 
dren Love  Fantasy"  on  Slate.com,  he  noted  that  what 
Alice  tested  in  Wonderland  was  "not  normal  order, 
but  consciousness."  Her  courage  and  common  sense 
were  on  trial,  and  she  ended  up  with  a  new  appre- 
ciation for  her  own  talents.  "We  genuinely  have  more 
consciousness,  curiosity,  and  are  more  aware  as  chil- 
dren than  we  are  ever  again." 

Speaking  of  the  limits  of  pure  reason,  Gopnik 
noted  that  in  the  course  of  Dodgson 's  stay  at  Oxford, 
the  intellectual  life  of  the  university  was  changed 
more  profoundly  than  ever  before  or  since.  Begin- 
ning as  a  finishing  school  for  clergymen,  Oxford 
during  these  years  saw  an  infusion  of  German  philo- 


Adam  Gopnik 


sophical  idealism  and  the 
need  for  pure  research 
that  led  to  an  enormous 
turnabout  in  priorities. 
Alice  poked  fun  at  the 
follies  of  the  "wise,"  meet- 
ing characters  who  were 
"dysfunctional  intellectu- 
als" spouting  chains  of 
abstract  reasoning,  let- 
ting the  mind  go  as  it  will. 
Gopnik  concluded  with  a 
reading  from  his  new  novel. 

The  Steps  Across  the  Water,  in  which  a  young  girl,  Rose, 
finds  herself  in  a  topsy-turvy,  looking-glass  world 
called  U  Nork. 

A  break  and  feeding  frenzy  followed,  with  Alice 
films  showing  on  the  flat  screen  televisions  in  the 
main  hall,  while  just  outside  it  Messrs.  Gopnik  and 
Lipchenko  signed  their  books:  Adam  his  The  Steps 
Across  the  Water  (which  he  kindly  arranged  to  have 
available  for  sale  and  signing  two  weeks  prior  to  the 
book's  release!)  and  Oleg  his  Wonderland ^.nd  his  new 
Humpty  Dumpty  and  Friends.  A  total  of  five  books  by 
four  of  our  speakers  were  available  to  attendees  at  a 
discount,  and  all  book  sales  were  experdy  handled 
by  NYIT's  internal  Barnes  &  Noble  bookseller  Shawn 
Wiggans,  and  his  amiable  staff. 

Next  up  was  Jenny  Woolf,  author  of  Lewis  Car- 
roll in  His  Own  Account:  The  Complete  Bank  Account  of 
the  Reu.  C.  L.  Dodgson  (2005)  and  a  recent  biography, 
The  Mystery  of  Lewis  Carroll:  Discovering  the  Whimsical, 
Thoughtful,  and  Sometimes  Lonely  Man  Who  Created  Al- 
ice in  Wonderland,  who  gave  a  talk  entitled  "Viewing 
Lewis  Carroll  as  a  Real  Person."  She  said  her  main 
ambition  in  writing  it  was  to  give  a  picture  of  Charles 
Dodgson  as  a  person  in  the  context  of  his  time  and,  to 
a  lesser  degree,  to  counter  the  "unsatisfactory  biog- 
raphies in  which  ideas  were  presented  as  fact" — for 
example,  did  Alice  Liddell  really  have  a  "gentle  na- 
ture"? Could  Dodgson  be  thought  of  as  a  foster  fa- 
ther? (she  already  had  a  perfectly  good  one).  Woolf 
believes  that  many  of  these  books  were  "pictures  of 
biographers'  agendas,  but  not  of  Dodgson  the  human 
being";  there  was  no  need  for  them  to  fill  in  gaps  with 
pure  conjecture. 

Ms.  Woolf  gave  a  fine  example  of  cultural  con- 
text: Suppose  a  nineteenth-century  gendeman  were 
to  walk  into  this  very  meeting;  he  would  be  scandal- 
ized! Free  fraternizing  among  men  and  women  who 
had  not  been  properly  introduced,  the  women  wear- 
ing skirts  showing  their  legs,  some  above  the  knees: 
clearly  these  were  prostitutes  gearing  up  for  an  orgy! 
Similarly,  we  can  be  shocked  by  something  they  took 
for  granted,  such  as  the  artistic  depletion  of  naked 
children.  It's  all  relative. 

She  described  Dodgson  as  a  "complex  personage 


with  a  tendency  to  joke  about  difficult  things  and  who 
loved  to  'perform'  for  children  and  intimates."  There 
are  certainly  dark  and  disturbing  moments  in  the  Al- 
tc^  books;  his  genius  was  in  transforming  feelings  such 
as  these  into  entertainment.  She  spoke  of  the  time 
around  the  composition  of  the  Snark,  when  he  was 
nursing  his  nephew  and  godson.Charlie  Wilcox,  who 
was  suffering  from  tuberculosis.  Jenny  speculated 
that  a  "crew  of  eight"  (Dodgson,  his  six  sisters,  and 
his  nephew)  in  search  of  the  ineffable  may  have  been 
the  inspiration  for  the  poem,  pointing  out  that  TB 
creates  agony,  and  comes  in  fits  and  starts,  leaving  its 
victim  to  softiy  and  suddenly  vanish  away. 

Woolf  then  discussed  the  time  around  the  com- 
position of  Looking-Glass.  It  was  written  in  a  colder, 
more  isolated  time,  when  a  warm  audience  of  chil- 
dren existed  only  in  his  imagination.  It  was  a  sad  time 
for  Carroll:  he  had  lost  contact  with  the  Liddells,  and 
his  beloved  father  had  died  in  1868.  The  family  had 
to  leave  Croft-on-Tees,  and  Dodgson  was  now  respon- 
sible for  his  ten  siblings. 

She  discussed  other  aspects  of  his  personality: 
For  instance,  was  he  a  control  freak  or  laid-back?  She 
said  there  was  an  "element  of  caricature  in  his  fussi- 
ness,"  and  called  him  "a  bit  of  a  blonde."  From  her 
breakthrough  studies  of  his  bank  accounts,  she  noted 
both  carelessness  and  meticulousness,  with  lots  of  red 
ink.  He  was  uninsured,  not  the  "reliable  old  codger" 
we  sometimes  assume  him  to  be  but  a  "careless,  emo- 
tional man  who  kept  himself  in  order  by  rules  and 
regulations."  Jenny  then  read  excerpts  from  his  let- 
ter to  Mrs.  Liddell  on 
the  occasion  of  the 
dean's  retirement, 
suggesting  that  it  had 
a  "tongue-in-cheek 
quality"  that  is  often 
overlooked. 

She       reminded    E^^^^^^^H  ^^i 

us  that  Dodgson  was 
"realistic,  raised  on  a 
farm,  had  a  practical 
medical  library,  and  y^„„^  Woolf 
never  shrank  away 
from  the  physical."  As  a  child,  he  was  "clever  to  the 
point  of  being  devious,"  but  was  offered  moral  guid- 
ance by  his  family.  His  sense  of  personal  identity  was 
very  much  tied  in  to  his  family,  especially  his  father's 
deUght  in  his  children  (unusual  for  the  time).  In  con- 
clusion, Woolf  felt  Dodgson  was  "complex,  individual- 
istic, with  a  need  to  entertain,  to  be  involved.  He  was 
lucky  in  life,  free  of  tribulation,  a  happy  and  success- 
ful human  being;  boxing  him  into  his  conventional, 
dreary  role  is  a  disservice." 

Next,  "The  Real  Alice  Liddell:  A  Conversation 
with  Pictures"  took  the  form  of  an  interview,  with  An- 
drew Sellon  taking  the  moderator's  stance  and  the 


delightful  Cathy  Rubin,  author  of  The  Real  Alice  in 
Wonderland:  A  Role  Model  far  the  Ages,  as  the  subject. 
Describing  herself  as  a  "distant  relative,"  she  first 
talked  about  her  youthful  tea  parties  with  her  great- 
aunt  Phil,  a  child  of  Lionel,  Alice  Liddell's  brother,  as 
well  as  with  Mary-Jean  St.  Clair  (Alice's  granddaugh- 
ter) and  Mary-Jean's  daughter,  Vanessa  St.  Clair,  all  of 
whom  were  "part  of  the  fabric  of  her  [Cathy's]  life." 
Inspired  in  part  by  the  2001  Sotheby's  auction  {KL 
66:16),  she  and  her  daughter  Gabriella  traveled  to 
Oxford,  where  they  were  given  a  personal  tour  by  the 
Dean  of  Christ  Church.  Cathy  treated  us  to  a  slide 
show  of  these  events,  and  of  July  4th  "Alice  Day"s  in 
both  Oxford  and  Lyndhurst. 

Mrs.  Rubin 

e  -^^^■^■i     noted  that,  contrary 

to     popular     myth, 
.§  ^^^^H^^        *     Mrs.  Hargreaves  cel- 

ebrated having  been 
the  original  Alice. 
She  owned  a  total 
of  370  copies  of  the 
book,  half  of  which 
were  sent  to  her  by 
Dodgson,  and  many 
Cathy  Rubin  of  which  she  signed 

"Alice  in  Wonder- 
land." Alice  Hargreaves  was  a  humanitarian,  a  muse, 
and,  primarily,  an  artist,  a  visual  thinker:  hence  Cathy 
and  Gabriella's  highly  illustrated  book,  which  Cathy 
called  "documentary  storytelling,"  incorporating  the 
taste  and  look  of  Victorian  England.  Her  many  stories 
about  its  composition — including  how  Annie  Leibo- 
vitz  was  inspired  by  Dodgson 's  being  a  photographer, 
how  she  and  Gabriella  found  a  period  designer  to  re- 
create the  dress  Alice  wore  to  her  wedding  at  West- 
minster Abbey,  and  the  curse  of  the  Cuffnells  fire- 
place— ^were  all  warmly  and  generously  spliced  with 
anecdotes  about  the  artists,  auctioneers,  and  collec- 
tors she  met  along  the  way. 

Our  second  feeding  frenzy  featured  book  signings 
by  Mmes.  Rubin  and  Woolf,  as  well  as  by  Mahendra 


Singh,  signing  his  delightful,  just  published  Snark  {see 
review  on  page  47) . 

The  chairman  of  the  nominating  committee, 
August  A.  Imholtz,  Jr.,  next  ascended  the  podium  to 
present  the  slate  for  officers  for  the  next  two  years 
(incumbents  are  asterisked): 

President:  Mark  Burstein 
Vice-President:  Cindy  Watter* 
Secretary:  Clare  Imholtz* 
Treasurer:  Fran  Abeles* 

Elected  Directors:  Matt  Demakos,*  Ellie  Schaefer- 
Salins,*  Germaine  Weaver,  James  Welsch 

(Anyone  curious  about  the  difference  between 
the  governing  board,  the  advisory  board,  and  the  di- 
rectors is  referred  to  our  Constitution,  which  is  under 
"About  Us"  on  our  website  and  was  most  recentiy  pub- 
lished in  XL  52:6.) 

The  slate  was  elected  by  acclamation.  The  new 
president  took  the  stand  to  say  a  few  words,  thank- 
ing Andrew  for  his  outstanding  service,  and  manag- 
ing to  slip  in  a  reference  to  his  beloved  San  Francisco 
Giants,  who  had  just  won  the  World  Series  earlier  in 
the  week.  He  reintroduced  August,  who  presented 
Andrew  with  a  lovely  fountain  pen  and  a  botde  of  ink 
(purple,  of  course)  as  tokens  of  our  gratitude. 

"Meeting  Mr.  Dodgson:  One  CarroUian's  Jour- 
ney," which  followed,  was  Andrew  Sellon's  warm,  very 
witty,  and  occasionally  poignant  account  of  his  life  as 
an  actor  and  how  he  came  to  be  a  Carrollian.  Fortu- 
nately for  us,  his  talk  immediately  follows  this  article, 
so  is  not  recapped  here. 

A  fine  dinner  at  the  nearby  Josephina  restaurant 
was  followed  by  a  convivial  after-party  at  Janet  Jurist's. 
The  next  day  many  of  us  found  ourselves  on  strange, 
convoluted  journeys  trying  to  reach  airports  despite 
the  New  York  City  Marathon,  which  effectively  shut 
down  the  East  Side  of  Manhattan — as  if  New  York  (or 
were  we  actually  in  U  Nork?)  needed  any  further  cha- 
os. Happily,  we  had  new  books  and  heads  full  of  new 
ideas  to  pass  the  time. 


Rhymes  With  Orange  Hilary  B.  Price 


r               n 

!^:C^.-::^^X\ 

r^:^ 

-^ 

BEWARE 

0^ 

IN  A  FATefKL 
Ml<;9TGP  THROUGH 

LOOKING  GLA9;, 
OUR  HeRolNE 

gecAHe...  Auce 

IN  V^0NI>t(^9eAD. 

0- WIV«P*«»M('                                                •* 

V-         4 

■^ 


jWeetms  JMt.  Bobss^on 


ANDREW  SELLON 


-^(r 


^- 


"W  'While  I've  been  a  member  of  this  Society 

\  #%  #  for  many  years  now,  it  occurs  to  me  that 
Ji^C  Jfc^very  few  of  you  know  much  of  anything 
about  me.  In  this  age  of  social  networking  and  business 
transparency,  I  feel  it  my  duty  to  point  out  that,  for  all 
you  know,  for  the  last  four  years  you 
left  the  Society  in  the  hands  of  a  smil- 
ing avatar  that  masks  a  raving  lunatic. 
While  you  were  all  cheerfully  read- 
ing your  issues  of  the  Knight  Letter, 
I  might  have  been  quietly  draining 
the  coffers  and  taking  private  jets  to 
clandestine  tea  parties  at  the  Binsey 
Well.  Well  in,  indeed!  Now,  many  of 
you  do  know  that  I'm  a  professional 
actor.  You  all  have  some  idea  of  the 
romance  of  being  an  actor,  I  suppose. 
It's  very  exciting.  Just  a  few  days  be- 
fore our  fall  meeting,  I  was  one  of 
many  middle-aged  actors  called  in  to 
audition  for  the  role  of  a  nerdy  ac- 
countant whose  life  is  transformed  by 
drinking  a  certain  brand  of  orange 
juice.  Each  of  us  auditioning  was  told 
to  show  up  in  mismatched  clothing, 
and  when  we  arrived,  we  were  cov- 
ered with  plastic  kisses  and  asked  to 
make  faces  shamelessly  for  the  cam- 
era. I'm  so  glad  I  invested  in  an  MFA. 
Anyway,  with  true  looking-glass  logic, 
it  occurs  to  me  that  now  that  my  pres- 
idency is  over,  it's  time  we  met  prop- 
erly. There  are  too  many  of  you  out 
there  for  me  to  travel  around  the  globe  to  say  "How 
d'ye  do,"  and  shake  hands  in  person,  but  we'll  con- 
sider that  done.  And  please  do  keep  in  mind:  Once 
we've  been  formally  introduced,  you  can't  eat  me. 

So  first  of  all,  what  ^af^I  been  doing  the  past  four 
years?  I've  done  a  lot  of  the  Maxine  Schaefer  read- 
ings. I've  done  Q&A  talkbacks  after  performances  of 
Carroll-themed  plays,  and  I  recently  gave  the  keynote 
lecture  for  a  CarroUian  symposium  at  Saint  Peter's 
College  English  Club.  I've  negotiated  and  rewritten 
hotel  contracts,  lobbied  for  meeting  spaces  (aided  by 
Janet  Jurist  and  the  gang),  charmed  potential  speak- 


Andrew  Sellon  as  Lewis  Carroll  in  Through 
the  Looking-Glass  Darkly 


ers  with  smiles  and  soap,  and  haggled  with  restau- 
rants about  what  we  want  to  eat,  what  we  don't  want 
to  eat,  and  what  we're  willing  to  pay.  I've  arranged 
for  book  signings,  and  membership  and  meeting  me- 
mentos, and  other  things  that  begin  with  an  "m."  I've 

answered  lots  of  questions 
on  a  mind-boggling  array 
of  Carroll-related  topics, 
some  of  them   really  out 
there.  I'm  still  puzzling 
over  the  request  for  us 
to  file  an  amicus  brief  on 
behalf  of  an  artist  in  Cali- 
fornia who  makes  art  in- 
stallations out  of  junked 
cars,  because,  according 
to  the  requestor,  "Lewis 
Carroll  also  wasn't  appre- 
ciated until  much  later." 
Thanks  for  writing,  and 
good    luck    with    those 
wrecks.  I  mean  artworks. 
I  also  provided  an  expert 
answer  on  the  origin  of 
the  word  "snark"  (guess 
who)   to  the  good  folks 
at  Who  Wants  to  Be  a  Mil- 
lionaire, but  I  don't  know 
if  they  ever  stumped  any- 
one with  the  answer.  And 
of  course,  I've  done  count- 
less   interviews    over    the 
past  four  years,  including 
a  bumper  crop  leading  up  to  the  Tim  Burton  film. 
I've  been  quoted,  paraphrased,  and  in  that  greatjour- 
nalistic  tradition,  misquoted. 

One  question  has  come  up  time  after  time  (aside 
from  the  relentless  bleat  of  the  great  unread:  "Was 
Lewis  Carroll  really  a  drug-addled  pedophile?").  Sim- 
ply put:  How  did  I  get  here?  How  did  I  fall  down  the  figu- 
rative rabbit-hole  and  end  up  a  Lewis  Carroll  fan,  and 
president  of  this  organization?  Reporters  evidently 
felt  my  personal  experience  would  be  a  "way  in"  for 
their  readers.  Or  perhaps  they  were  hoping  I'd  pro- 
duce a  scandalous  back  story  that  would  blow  their 


readers  away  and  make  them  overnight  rock  stars.  No 
such  luck.  But  it  occurs  to  me  that  sharing  my  story 
may  prompt  you  all  to  look  back  on,  and  perhaps  in 
future  share,  your  own  stories,  possibly  for  the  Knight 
Letter  and  our  website  (more  on  this  soon).  I  urge  you 
to  share  your  story,  most  especially  with  the  genera- 
tions that  follow  us,  since  they're  the  ones  who  will 
need  to  carry  the  banner  for  Mr.  Dodgson  and  for 
literacy  after  we've  all  softly  and  suddenly  vanished 
away.  So  yes,  I'm  freely  confessing  an  ulterior  motive 
here.  As  you'll  learn,  my  association  with  the  Carroll 
Society  has  been  fraught  with  ulterior  motives,  a  mas- 
sive conspiracy,  and  a  truly  insidious  cover-up.  Now, 
at  long  last,  I  will  unmask  the 
people  behind  it  all. 

"Begin  at  the  beginning 
.  .  ."  Hmmm.  Do  you  remem-  I 
ber  your  first  exposure  to  the 
Alice  books?  I  have  no  idea.  I 
remember  having  the  litde  Dis- 
ney Golden  Books  in  hardcover, 
well-thumbed  by  my  three  older  i 
siblings.  I  also  recall  having  an 
old  vinyl  LP  of  performers  read- 
ing segments  of  Wonderland  to 
classical  music  themes.  I  did 
a  quick  search  on  our  global 
cultural  archive  (also  known  as 
eBay) ,  and  of  course  pulled  up 
a  copy  of  the  Talespinners  LP, 
which  I  promptly  bought  in  a  fit 
of  sheer  nostalgia.  I  remember 
thinking  as  a  child  that  the  cov- 
er was  very  adult  and  trippy.  I 
would  listen  to  that  LP  over  and 
over  with  the  volume  turned 
up,  mouthing  the  words,  and  feel- 
ing as  though  I  a;a5  Alice.  Gender  has  never  really  been 
a  bother  for  me.  I  was  unquestionably  m  Wonderland, 
because  the  sound  of  it  was  all  around  me.  So  my  first 
sense  of  being  in  Wonderland  actually  may  have  been 
an  auditory  one.  But  as  to  when  I  first  sat  down  and 
read  (or  had  read  to  me)  the  two  original  books,  I  draw 
a  perfect  and  absolute  blank. 

That  part  of  my  background  hardly  qualified  me 
for  the  presidency  of  the  LCSNA.  I'm  just  another 
one  of  the  millions  for  whom  the  Alice  books  and 
characters  seem  to  have  always  been  present,  as  if  we 
were  all  born  with  a  deluxe  two-volume  slipcased  edi- 
tion beside  our  bassinets.  As  a  side  note:  I  also  don't 
remember  when  I  first  encountered  The  Hunting  of  the 
Snark,  I  just  remember  it  was  love  at  first  reading.  To 
this  day  I  remain  puzzled  as  to  it  isn't  as  widely  known 
and  loved  as  the  Alices.  Must  be  that  less-than-happy 
ending.  I  imagine  that  if  Disney  and/or  Tim  Bur- 
ton made  a  film  of  it,  the  landscape  would  change. 
In  this  existentially  inclined  age,  perhaps  the  Snark 's 


Andrew  Sellon  as  Humpty-Dumpty  in  Looking-Glass 


hour  has  come  'round  at  last,  and  even  as  I  speak, 
it's  slouching  toward  Hollywood,  a  star  waiting  to  be 
born.  Oleg  Lipchenko  and  Mahendra  Singh  are  cer- 
tainly doing  their  part  to  promote  it. 

So,  what  was  it  about  the  man  himself?  Why  did 
I  go  looking  for  him,  and  how  did  that  lead  to  my 
becoming  president?  My  parents  were  good  about 
teaching  me  the  importance  of  reeling  and  writhing, 
and  respect  for  authors,  so  I  was  aware  early  on  that 
some  magician  named  Lewis  Carroll  wrote  my  favorite 
books.  (I  was  also  aware  that  the  Disney  studio  couldn't 
spell  very  well.)  Anyway,  I  knew  that  Lewis  Carroll  had 
been  at  Oxford,  and  that  it  was  a  pen  name,  and  all 

the  other  basic 
information  and/ 
or  misinformation 
and  myth  that  we 
all  first  absorb 
about  Mr.  Dodg- 
son without  even 
trying. 

But  maybe  it's 
appropriate  that 
acting  is  what  led 
me  to  meet  the 
man  himself  and 
to  be  writing  this 
now.  I've  been  on 
stage  regularly 
since  the  age  of 
fourteen,  when  I 
played  the  role  of 
Malvolio  in  our 
high  school's  pro- 
duction of  Twelfth 
Night.  I'm  not 
counting  my  actu- 
al stage  debut:  a  single  performance  of  an  original  play 
in  my  sister's  friend's  basement  when  I  was  about  9;  I 
appeared  for  one  scene  as  a  litde  girl  suspected  of  her 
father's  murder.  My  sister  and  her  friend  couldn't  find 
anyone  to  play  the  role,  and  I  campaigned  mightily  for 
it,  saying  I  didn't  care  about  wearing  the  dress,  I  just 
wanted  to  be  onstage.  I  haven't  changed.  Over  30-plus 
years,  I've  been  onstage  in  and  out  of  some  very  bizarre 
costumes,  including  that  of  a  three-headed  mouse 
prince,  a  unicorn,  and  a  certain  irritable  egg — both 
of  the  latter  in  member  Rick  Lake's  musical  Looking- 
Glass!  2Lt  Harvard  (with  music  by  Michael  Levine).  But 
at  some  point  in  my  career,  after  I'd  graduated  from 
Harvard  and  had  been  landing  some  non-union  act- 
ing work  around  the  country,  I  realized  I  needed  some 
formal  training.  So  at  the  rather  late  age  of  30, 1  audi- 
tioned for  graduate  acting  programs,  never  suspecting 
that  I  was,  in  fact,  actually  going  down  the  rabbit-hole. 
At  most  of  the  grad  school  auditions  I  attended, 
I  was  viewed  as  something  of  an  anomaly,  or  to  be 


more  blunt,  a  fossil;  I  remember  waiting  at  Juilliard 
beside  another  hopeful,  a  fresh-faced  17-year-old  who 
had  come  directly  from  her  cheerleading  practice. 
I  landed  in  a  demanding  three-year  master's  degree 
program  down  at  the  University  of  North  Carolina  at 
Chapel  Hill,  a  place  where  they  thought  being  out  in 
the  world  a  few  years  was  actually  a  good  credential  for 
graduate  studies.  Imagine.  At  the  end  of  my  second 
year,  just  before  summer  break,  we  were  assigned  our 
"senior  project"  for  the  coming  year.  We  had  to  write, 
direct,  design,  and  perform  a  one-person  show  on 
our  choice  of  topic.  A  couple  of  my  classmates  went 
into  complete  panic  mode.  I  was  actually  excited;  I 
had  written  a  number  of  plays  and  musicals  over  the 
years,  including  a  Hasty  Pudding  show  at  Harvard. 
And  although  I  hadn't  read  the  Alice  books  in  some 
time,  I  knew  immediately  that  I  wanted  to  spend  my 
summer  vacation  with  the  man  behind  the  name 
"Lewis  Carroll." 

I  discovered  that  the  UNC  libraries  had  a  frab- 
jous selection  of  scholarly  Carroll  books.  I  walked 
into  my  favorite  used  bookstore  on  Chapel  Hill's 
Franklin  Street,  and  found  a  copy  of  Morton  Co- 
hen's two-volume  Letters  of  Lewis  Carroll,  a  copy  of 
Stuart  Dodgson  Collingwood's  biography  (I  mean, 
what  were  the  chances?),  and  the  Dover  paperback 
of  Helmut  Gernsheim's  Lewis  Carroll,  Photographer. 
Photography  is  my  hobby,  too,  so  I  was  blown  away 
to  discover  this  additional  connection  between  myself 
and  Mr.  Dodgson.  It  just  seemed  like  fate.  I  contacted 
the  Ackland  Art  Museum  on  campus  and  learned 
that  they  had  coincidentally  just  acquired  their  first 
Dodgson  photograph,  an  image  titled  "Xie  Kitchen 
Seated  in  a  Turner's  Chair."  To  my  astonishment,  the 
kind  curator  invited  me  over  to  see  the  photograph, 
even  though  it  was  not  yet  officially  on  display.  When 
I  arrived  for  my  appointment,  she  conducted  me  to  a 
conference  room.  She  noted  that  I  shouldn't  touch 
the  image,  but  invited  me  to  take  as  long  as  I  wanted 
viewing  it,  and  said  she  thought  I  might  want  to  have 
time  with  it  alone.  I  walked  into  the  old  room  with 
its  elegant  moldings  and  endless  white  bookshelves. 
At  the  other  end  of  a  long,  polished  mahogany  ta- 
ble was  a  single  photograph  placed  on  a  small  easel. 
It  wasn't  under  glass  or  anything.  It  was  just  sitting 
there.  And  I  was  alone  with  it.  If  the  windows  in  that 
room  had  been  the  kind  you  could  open,  this  might 
have  been  a  crime  story.  As  it  was,  I  contented  my- 
self with  viewing  the  image.  It  was  remarkable:  crisp, 
specific,  intriguing — and  smelly.  To  my  astonishment, 
as  I  leaned  in  for  a  closer  look,  I  recognized  the  un- 
mistakable aroma  of  darkroom  chemicals!  If  you've 
ever  printed  photographs  by  hand,  you  know  that 
smell.  I  think  I  stopped  breathing  for  a  moment.  It 
was  as  if  the  image  had  just  come  from  the  darkroom, 
as  if  the  photographer  himself  might  be  just  on  the 
other  side  of  the  door  working  on  another  print  and 


might  come  through,  shirtsleeves  rolled  up  to  the  el- 
bows, brandishing  another  still-damp  print  with  a  pair 
of  wooden  tongs.  I  don't  remember  how  long  I  was 
there;  I  know  I  was  immensely  grateful,  reluctant  to 
leave,  and  somehow  converted  in  some  way.  I  felt  that 
I  had  come  very  close  to  meeting  the  man  himself 

That  summer,  the  more  I  read  about  Mr.  Dodg- 
son, the  more  fascinated  I  became.  Especially  by  the 
contradictions!  Those  were  theatrical  gold.  A  complex 
portrait  of  a  man  was  beginning  to  appear  before  me, 
a  man  about  whom  it  seemed  many  nonsensical  things 
had  been  said  and  written,  at  least  given  the  facts  avail- 
able. Then  one  day  I  was  in  the  hallway  between  grad 
school  classes,  and  a  big,  black  crow  flew  overhead:  A 
couple  of  the  students  a  year  behind  me  asked  whom 
I'd  chosen  as  the  subject  of  my  play.  I  told  them  that 
I  was  having  a  wonderful  time  exploring  the  life  of 
Lewis  Carroll.  One  of  them,  whom  I  will  call  Barbara 
(because  that's  her  name),  was  an  outspoken  feminist 
with  a  hair-trigger  sense  of  moral  outrage.  She  imme- 
diately said,  "How  could  you  write  a  play  about  him? 
You  know  what  he  was,  what  he  did?  How  could  you 
write  a  play  about  that  pervert??"  I  said  to  her:  "I'm 
writing  this  play  in  part  because  I  think  he  deserves  a 
fair  hearing.  How  much  do  you  know  about  his  life, 
really?"  She  admitted  she  knew  nothing.  "Then  how 
can  you  be  so  sure  of  what  he  did  or  didn't  do?"  She's 
a  very  bright  woman;  I  had  her  there.  I  said:  "Wait  and 
see  my  play.  Then  you  can  decide." 

In  the  course  of  my  questing,  I  came  across  an 
organization  called  the  Lewis  Carroll  Society  of  North 
America.  This  was  back  in  1992,  so  somehow  I  found 
out  about  the  group  without  the  aid  of  the  now-ubiq- 
uitous Internet.  It  must  have  involved  pieces  of  paper 
and  stamps,  or  telephones,  or  something  else  terribly 
antiquated.  I  also  learned  that  the  Society's  then-pres- 
ident, Charlie  Lovett,  lived  in  nearby  Winston-Salem. 
Again,  it  seemed  like  fate.  But  one  of  the  incongruities 
of  my  being  an  actor  is  that  I  had  a  very  traditional, 
Harold  Pinter-esque  New  England  upbringing,  and 
I'm  actually  a  very  private  person.  I  have  simply  never 
been  good  about  getting  out  there  and  networking. 
But  I  was  sure  that  this  Charlie  Lovett  person  must 
have  some  crucial  guidance  to  offer,  must  know  it  all. 
So,  I  summoned  up  all  my  nerve  and  wrote  a  letter  to 
explain  my  project  and  ask  what  resources  I  should  be 
consulting.  I  received  a  charming,  chatty,  handwritten 
note  back  from  Stephanie  Lovett,  decorated  with  Car- 
rollian  rubber  stamp  images.  I  collect  rubber  stamps. 
Again,  fate  was  whispering  in  my  ear.  It  seemed  that 
they  actually  had  a  massive  world-class  collection  in 
their  hom£.  Stephanie  said  I  should  just  plan  to  come 
and  have  a  look.  In  fact,  she  added,  there  was  so  much 
to  look  at  that  I'd  probably  better  plan  to  come  visit 
them  on  a  weekend  and  spend  the  night. 

I'm  from  Boston;  I  simply  wasn't  prepared  for 
this.  My  first  thought  was:  How  do  they  know  I'm  not 


an  axe  murderer?  My  second  thought  was:  Maybe 
they're  axe  murderers.  I  mean,  maybe  this  "society" 
of  theirs  was  a  cover  for  some  kind  of  poetry-spouting 
sacrificial  cult  or  something!  My  mind  really  does 
work  that  way — ask  my  long-suffering  partner,  Tim 
Sheahan.  But  in  her  reply,  Stephanie  had  mentioned 
having  herbal  tea  together.  I  collect  rubber  stamps. 
I  drink  herbal  tea.  I  decided  to  risk  it,  even  if  their 
cups  might  say  "Drink  Me."  I  descended  on  Winston- 
Salem.  I  have  no  idea  what  they  must  have  thought  of 
me,  and  I  hope  they  won't  tell  me  or  anyone  else  now! 
But  to  say  that  I  was  bowled  over  by  their  generosity 
and  kindness  would  be  to  grossly  understate  the  mat- 
ter. Charlie  showed  me  so  many  books,  so  many  won- 
derful objects,  including  a  camera  just  like  the  one 
Mr.  Dodgson  used.  I  had  herbal  tea  with  Stephanie, 
and  we  compared  rubber  stamp  collections.  I  was  in 
some  new  kind  of  Wonderland,  with  adults  every  bit 
as  odd  as  me,  eager  to  discuss  and  delight  in  the  world 
of  Lewis  Carroll  over  a  cup  of  chamomile  tea.  These 
people  were  fans,  like  me.  I  left  there  feeling  as  if  I'd 
just  had  a  crash  course  in  Charles  Dodgson,  and  that 
I'd  made  two  new  friends.  And  not  for  a  minute  did  I 
suspect  their  ulterior  motive,  their  utterly  subversive 
agenda.  Or  that  they  were  not  working  alone. 

Back  at  school,  I  wrote  and  rewrote  my  little  one- 
act  play,  piecing  together  Mr.  Dodgson 's  own  words 
from  all  the  various  sources  to  tell  the  story  of  the 
extraordinary  relationship  between  a  young  Oxford 
don  and  his  even  younger  muse,  and  of  the  social  con- 
straints that  shaped  it.  That  winter,  when  the  five  of  us 
in  my  graduate  class  presented  our  solo  shows  at  the 
old  PlayMakers  theatre,  Charlie  and  Stephanie  were 
in  the  audience.  The  play  was  very  well  received,  and 
Charlie  and  Stephanie  couldn't  have  been  more  sup- 
portive and  encouraging.  That  meant  a  lot,  because 
I  figured  they  knew.  My  fellow  grad  student  Barbara 
was  there,  too,  of  course.  She  came  up  to  me  after  the 
performance  and  said  simply:  'You  were  right.  I'm 
sorry;  I  didn't  know  anything."  I  felt  as  if  somehow 
Mr.  Dodgson  and  I  had  both  been  vindicated  in  the 
face  of  a  young,  latter-day  Mrs.  Grundy.  I  also  felt  that 
maybe  my  play  had  a  positive  impact  on  the  people 
who  saw  it. 

After  grad  school,  I  moved  back  to  New  York  City, 
and  stayed  in  touch  with  Charlie  and  Stephanie.  I  was 
invited  to  attend  LCSNA  meetings,  and  I  did  so  when 
they  were  held  in  Manhattan.  Again,  I  never  for  a  mo- 
ment heard  the  secret  cogs  and  wheels  churning  un- 
der the  surface  the  whole  time,  never  felt  the  invisible 
net  that  was  slowly  and  inexorably  tightening  around 
me.  Naive  fellow  that  I  was,  I  was  content  to  meet  cool 
people  like  Morton  Cohen,  Hugues  Lebailly,  Nina 
Demurova,  Linda  Sunshine,  and  Robert  Sabuda,  and 
just  enjoy  the  ride.  In  1995, 1  performed  a  slightly  al- 
tered version  of  my  play  for  the  Society  in  a  school- 
room at  Columbia  University.  To  this  day,  I  regret  that 


I  was  not  able  to  stay  and  talk  about  it  with  members 
afterward.  I  really  wanted  to  hear  feedback  from  the 
experts,  but  fate  in  that  case  was  not  kind.  My  child- 
hood best  friend,  Walter  Hughes,  had  just  died  of 
AIDS  at  the  age  of  34,  and  I  had  to  take  a  cab  from 
that  performance  direcdy  down  to  his  memorial  ser- 
vice in  midtown.  I  had  so  looked  forward  to  giving 
that  play  for  a  room  full  of  Carrollians,  but  when  the 
day  came,  I  had  a  very  hard  time  getting  through  the 
performance.  In  2003,  with  help  from  Tim  and  my 
friend  Elizabeth  London,  and  with  your  collective  in- 
dulgence, I  presented  a  full-length,  three-actor  script 
on  the  same  theme,  but  with  a  lot  more  content  than 
the  original  one-act,  trying  to  give  equal  weight  to  the 
after-Alice  years.  But  while  we're  all  glad  Dodgson  had 
a  nice  time  at  the  beach,  it  seems  it's  the  Alice  years 
and  the  Alice  connection  that  still  hold  the  magic  for 
audiences.  That's  where  the  drama  is.  I'm  still  tinker- 
ing in  my  head,  and  after  doing  a  production  of  the 
play  I  Am  My  Own  Wife,  in  which  I  played  35  different 
characters  of  both  sexes  from  all  over  the  world  in 
two  hours,  I've  decided  to  go  back  and  write  a  full- 
length  solo  version  of  my  Carroll  play,  maybe  in  time 
for  2012  or  2015. 

In  1998, 1  went  to  the  Carroll  Centenary  week  at 
Oxford,  and  found  myself  meeting  amazing  people 
like  Edward  Wakeling,  Selwyn  Goodacre,  Mark  and 
Catherine  Richards,  Anne  Clarke  Amor,  Alan  White, 
artist  Adriana  Peliano,  and,  well,  the  list  is  almost  end- 
less. That  week-long  conference  was  incredible.  We 
all  learned  a  lot.  We  stayed  in  Oxford  rooms.  We  ate 
in  the  Great  Hall  every  day,  long  before  Harry  Potter 
did.  I  also  made  a  visit  out  to  the  nearby  town  of  Bla- 
don  to  visit  artist  Graham  Piggott  and  his  wife  Corri. 
I  had  loved  the  bust  of  Mr.  Dodgson  that  the  Soci- 
ety commissioned  Graham  to  make  for  presentation 
to  Morton  Cohen  (trivia  fans  may  remember  that  I 
appeared  as  Lewis  Carroll  to  honor  Morton  at  that 
meeting) .  I  had  written  ahead  and  asked  Graham  to 
make  one  for  me.  Of  course,  despite  the  fragility  of  his 
porcelain  works,  I  ended  up  going  home  with  more 
than  one  sculpture.  And  on  a  later  trip,  I  went  back 
for  more.  So  before  I  knew  it,  I  was  not  only  a  scholar 
in  training,  I  was  becoming  a  collector  as  well.  Like  a 
cheerful  Mephistopheles,  Charlie  Lovett  reappeared 
around  that  time,  and  sold  me  a  first  edition  Looking- 
Glass  and  Snark.  The  net  was  tightening  again,  and 
I  was  now  officially  ensnared — or  is  that  ensnarked? 

I  went  to  more  Society  meetings  and  found  the 
members  to  be  helpful,  clear-eyed,  opinionated,  and 
fun.  August  and  Clare  Imholtz  were  always  there,  ready 
with  good  ideas.  Janet  Jurist  always  had  a  few  wise  and 
supportive  words  for  me — and  still  does.  Patt  Griffin 
Miller  always  got  me  smiling,  and  between  us  we've 
ended  up  doing  most  of  the  readings  for  the  Max- 
ine  Schaefer  Memorial  Outreach  program.  I  can't  say 
enough  about  that  program.  If  you  haven't  yet  come 


8 


with  us  to  one  of  the  classrooms,  seen  and  heard  Car- 
roll's words  work  their  magic  all  over  again  for  a  new 
generation,  and  listened  to  the  children's  remarkable 
questions  and  comments  afterward,  then  you  owe  it 
to  yourself  to  go  to  the  next  one  you  possibly  can.  It 
will  do  your  heart  good.  Not  to  put  too  fine  a  point 
on  it,  the  pundits  who  say,  "The  Alice  books  weren't 
really  written  for  children"  have  their  heads  up  their 
well-read  posteriors.  My  favorite  child  question  so  far 
came  from  our  Aurora,  IL  visit,  when  an  eight-year- 
old  boy  wondered  aloud:  "But  if  the  Cheshire  Cat 
can  make  himself  invisible,  how  do  we  know  he's  not 
watching  Alice  the  whole  time?"  Doctoral  students, 
start  your  engines. 

Somewhere  along 
the  way,  I  was  invited 
to  join  the  Society's 
Board.  I  guess  in  those 
days  I  was  still  consid- 
ered "young  blood." 
I  had  never  been  on 
a  board  of  anything; 
I  imagined  people 
in  dark  suits  at  a  very 
long  table  with  a  well- 
sharpened  pencil  and 
small  white  Dixie  cup 
in  front  of  each  seat — 
sort  of  a  corporate 
mad  tea  party.  But  I 
agreed,  and  dutifully 
went  to  the  board 
meetings.  I've  said  I'm 
a  private  person,  but  if 
you  ask  me  to  give  my 
opinion    it's  like  invit-     Andrew  Sellon  as  the  Unicom  in  Lookin 

ing  a  vampire  into  your 

home.  For  better  or  worse,  I  will  always  say  exactly  what 
I  think.  So  I  spoke  up  if  I  had  ideas,  agreed  or  dis- 
agreed, and  no  one  laughed  at  me  or  booted  me  off 
the  Board.  Again,  I  thought:  Maybe  I'm  being  help- 
ful; I'll  keep  doing  this  for  a  bit. 

And  then  it  happened.  A  day  came  that  seemed 
like  any  other  day  until  I  received  a  phone  call  that 
evening  from  August.  He  told  me  that  he  and  Janet 
were  the  nominating  committee  for  officers,  and  that 
they  both  felt  I  would  make  a  good  candidate  to  put 
forth  for  president  at  the  upcoming  meeting.  Char- 
lie and  Stephanie's  wildly  ingenious  and  utterly  dia- 
bolical plan  suddenly  unfurled  itself  in  all  its  wicked 
splendor.  Or  . . .  wait.  Perhaps,  I  realized  too  late,  they 
were  merely  the  agents,  and  it  was  really  August  and 
Clare  all  along.  Charlie  and  Stephanie  had  delivered 
me  right  into  their  waiting  hands.  I  know,  it  really  is  al- 
ways the  innocent-looking  ones.  Anyway,  I  sure  hadn't 
seen  it  coming.  But  then  I  realized  that  most  of  the 
people  on  the  Board  had  already  been  president.  So 


I  began  to  feel  that  it  was  perhaps  my  responsibility  to 
take  a  tour  of  duty  for  two  years. 

Almost  immediately  after  the  election,  Mark 
Burstein,  who  had  partnered  with  the  talented  An- 
drew Ogus  to  turn  our  newsletter  into  a  beautiful 
magazine,  alerted  me  that,  due  to  the  recent  birth 
of  his  son,  he  needed  to  step  down  from  his  post  as 
editor  in  chief  of  the  Knight  Letter  immediately.  We 
simply  couldn't  find  anyone  who  both  had  the  proper 
credentials  and  was  willing  to  shoulder  the  consid- 
erable workload,  so  I  ended  up  taking  on  that  post, 
too,  and  did  that  for  three  years.  Now,  Charlie  Lovett 
might  say,  "Oh,  that's  nothing,  I  did  both  when  /was 

president!"  But  he  would 
do  it  with  tongue  in  cheek, 
because  he  knows  that  the 
Knight  Letter  is  no  longer  a 
few  pages  cut-and-pasted 
together.  It's  now  a  50-plus- 
page,  soul-consuming  le- 
viathan. Twice  a  year,  like 
clockwork,  Tim  would 
begin  circling  around  my 
computer  asking,  "Is  that 
thing  done  yet?" 

As  we  were  approach- 
ing the  end  of  my  two-year 
term,  I  told  August  I  hoped 
he  was  lining  up  a  suitable 
replacement.  He  looked  at 
me  with  that  quiet,  genteel 
horror  of  his,  and  said,  "But 
traditionally,  our  presidents 
always  serve  two  terms!" 
They  hadn't  mentioned 
that.  But  my  respect  for  Au- 
gust and  Clare  is  so  great,  and 
my  Bostonian  desire  to  be  polite  so  strong,  that  I  al- 
lowed myself  to  be  put  forth  again.  I  thought  Tim  was 
going  to  kill  me.  But  his  love  of  Henry  Irving  and  El- 
len Terry,  and  me,  and  the  fact  that  his  father  used 
to  quote  Lewis  Carroll  regularly,  all  helped  him  sur- 
vive my  second  term  with  his  customary  good  humor. 
Thank  you  for  four  years  of  patience,  Tim! 

Last  fall,  it  became  clear  that  we  could  no  lon- 
ger put  off  overhauling  our  wonderful  old  website, 
created  and  maintained  faithfully  for  many  years  by 
Joel  Birenbaum.  Many  members  had  wanted  h  to  hap- 
pen, but  it  hadn't.  So,  I  stepped  down  as  editor  of 
the  Knight  Letter  and  became  leader  of  the  website 
project.  I  ended  up  becoming  the  main  developer  as 
well.  Volunteering  can  be  difficult  and  time-consum- 
ing, as  many  of  you  know.  Ask  Mark  Richards  over  in 
England.  And  of  course,  volunteering  isn't ]ust  about 
doing  the  bits  you  like,  it's  about  doing  what  you're 
asked  to  do,  and  what  needs  to  be  done,  when  it  needs 
to  be  done.  Happily,  the  vast  majority  of  our  volun- 


g-Glass! 


teers  came  through  in  a  big  way.  Sometimes  it  was 
people  I've  never  met,  and  may  never  meet.  That's 
what  I  love  about  this  Society.  I  was  so  impressed  by 
the  generosity  of  effort,  and  I  was  grateful,  too.  The 
new  website,  complete  with  our  updated  blog,  is  truly 
a  collaborative  project,  just  as  it  should  be.  I'm  proud 
that  in  addition  to  classic  illustrations,  our  new  site 
displays  beautiful  Alice-themed  artworks  by  our  own 
members.  Their  art  is  so  gorgeous  that  I  wish  I  could 
afford  to  buy  it  all  and  create  a  gallery  in  my  house! 
But  in  a  way,  our  site  is  that  gallery,  and  this  way  we're 
sharing  it  with  the  world,  and  I'm  not  broke. 

So  in  closing,  here's  the  crucial  thing  you  need  to 
understand  about  the  effect  Mr.  Dodgson  has  had  on 
my  life:  I'm  not  by  nature  a  selfless  person.  I'm  also 
no  one  special;  I'm  just  someone  who  used  to  sit  in 
the  very  seats  you  sit  in  when  you  come  to  one  of  our 
meetings.  Yet  for  the  last  four  years,  I  have  had  before 
me  a  larger  goal:  to  do  right  by  all  of  you,  and  most 
importantly  to  do  right  by  Mr.  Dodgson.  I  genuinely 
appreciate  all  the  opportunities  for  learning  that  I've 
had  over  the  last  four  years.  Looking  back,  I  could 
point  to  the  frustrations  and  challenges,  but  I  would 
prefer  to  point  to  the  triumphs,  and  most  of  all  to  the 
fact  that,  as  a  group,  we  made  it  past  many  challenges 
to  arrive  at  where  we  are  today.  I  feel  that  by  working 
together  over  the  past  four  years,  we've  all  come  a  few 
steps  closer  to  meeting  Mr.  Dodgson.  And  in  a  mor- 
dant way,  he  would  no  doubt  agree!  But  then,  I  also 
don't  kid  myself;  one  way  or  another,  most  of  it  would 
probably  have  happened  without  me,  because  you're 
a  good  bunch.  So  I  will  just  say  that  while  I've  been 
president,  we've  gotten  somewhere.  As  the  Cheshire 
Cat  says,  "you're  sure  to  do  that,  if  you  only  walk  long 
enough." 


I  can  also  share  something  with  you  now  that  I 
could  not  share  with  all  the  good  folks  who  were  able 
to  attend  our  fall  meeting.  In  the  weeks  leading  up 
to  the  meeting,  my  beloved  88-year-old  father  was  in 
failing  health.  By  the  day  of  the  meeting,  I  was  await- 
ing news  from  my  sister  that  would  simply  go  one  way 
or  the  other.  He  passed  away  peacefully  in  his  sleep 
two  days  after  the  meeting.  But  I  realized  that  his  last 
illness  may  have  been  one  of  the  reasons  I  chose  to 
share  my  story  with  you  all,  just  as  Charlie  Wilcox's  ill- 
ness so  affected  Mr.  Dodgson  that  he  had  to  put  pen 
to  paper  and  acknowledge  the  possible  existence  of 
Boojums.  My  father  was  the  man  who  gave  me  that 
Talespinners  LP.  He  was  the  man  who  used  to  quote 
Lewis  Carroll  freely  to  us  children  with  a  twinkle  in 
his  eye.  Who  was  always  putting  a  good  book  in  my 
path,  under  the  correct  assumption  that  I  would  de- 
vour it.  Who  loved  a  good  story  as  much  as  anyone 
I've  ever  known.  What  message  did  he  leave  behind? 
Don't  just  sit  in  the  chair.  Participate,  volunteer,  share 
your  own  stories,  and  mentor  the  next  generation  in 
the  love  of  great  writing.  Don't  assume  that  someone 
else  will.  Do  it  today. 

The  King  of  Hearts  gave  even  more  helpful  ad- 
vice than  the  Cheshire  Cat,  of  course:  "go  on  till  you 
come  to  the  end:  then  stop."  For,  whatever  this  four- 
year  dream  has  meant,  I've  walked  long  enough,  and 
it's  my  time  to  stop.  Mr.  Dodgson  once  wrote  that 
"There  is  a  sadness  at  coming  to  the  end  of  anything 
in  life."  I  would  add  that  there  is  also  peace.  And  grati- 
tude. Thank  you  all.  I  wouldn't  have  missed  it  for  all 
the  tea  in  Wonderland. 


Rhymes  With  Orange  Hilary  B.  Price 


wm\m 


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Contemporary  Sylvie  and  Bruno  Reviews: 

A  FURTHER  CONCATENATION 
CLARE  IMHOLTZ 


^^■^V, 
^^^ 


■^^^ 


^ 


Continuing  a  series  begun  in  KL  62,  present- 
ed here  are  nine  contemporary  reviews  of 
Sylvie  and  Bruno  (SB),  ten  of  SB  Concluded, 
two  of  both  books,  two  of  the  People's  edition  (1898), 
and  five  of  The  Story  of  Sylvie  and  Bruno  (1904),  an 
abridged  version  prepared  by  Carroll's  brother  Wil- 
fred. The  reviews  are  lively,  for  the  most  part,  and  the 
writers'  comments  show  a  vast  divide,  from  ecstatic  to 
withering.  It  is  interesting  that  the  characters  of  Sylvie 
and  Bruno,  particularly  Bruno,  are  appreciated,  even 
when  the  books  as  a  whole  are  not. 

publishers'  circular  (U.K.)  DECEMBER  31,  1889, 

p.  58 

SB  is  listed  under  New  Works,  with  a  sort  of  mini-re- 
view: Odd  ideas  and  fragments  of  dialogue  made  into 
a  kind  of  story,  the  scene  oscillating  between  fairy- 
land and  this  world  of  ours,  upon  the  many  weak- 
nesses and  conceits  of  which  the  author  is  somewhat 
severe.  [What  a  fascinating  little  review  this  is:  it  focuses 
on  oddity  and  morals  and  doesn't  even  attempt  to  describe 
the  book's  narrative  ("a  kind  of  story"),  characters,  intended 
audience,  poems,  humor,  etc.] 

JOURNAL  OF  EDUCATION  (U.K.)  JANUARY  1,  189O, 
P.  30 

"I  do  not  know  if  'Alice  in  Wonderland'  was  an  original 
story — I  was,  at  least,  no  conscious  imitator  in  writing 
it — but  I  do  know  that,  since  it  came  out,  something 
like  a  dozen  storybooks  have  appeared  on  identically 
the  same  pattern.  The  path  I  timidly  explored — be- 
lieving myself  to  be  'the  first  that  ever  burst  into  that 
silent  sea' — is  now  a  beaten  high-road:  all  the  wayside 
flowers  have  long  ago  been  trampled  into  the  dust: 
and  it  would  be  courting  disaster  for  me  to  attempt 
that  style  again." 

"Stokes  hints  blue,  straight  he  turde  eats: 
"Nokes  prints  blue,  champagne  crowns  his  feasts" 
"Flower  in  the  crannied  wall." 

Tennyson,  Browning,  Lewis  Carroll,*  one  queru- 
lously high,  one  deeply,  sadly  low,  all  echo  the  same 
complaint.  It  is  a  world  of  imitators,  copyists,  plagia- 
rists. But  if  we  may  borrow  a  CarroUian  turn,  because 
another  has  borrowed  your  skin,  it  is  none  the  easier 
for  that  to  leap  out  of  your  own  skin.  Our  author  has 


tried  to  doff  the  sock  and  don  the  buskin;  but  except 
in  the  Preface,  which  seems  modelled  on  A.K.H.B.,** 
and  treats,  among  other  things,  of  expurgated  edi- 
tions of  Shakespeare,  the  morality  of  field  sports,  in- 
spiration and  dreams,  and  the  ancient  ideas  of  the 
afterworld,  he  has  fortunately  failed,  and  Sylvie  and 
Bruno  move  in  the  same  mad  world,  the  world  of  top- 
sy-turvydom  governed  by  the  logic  of  Dreamland,  as 
"Alice."  Who  but  the  author  of  "Alice,"  or  a  plagiarist, 
would  have  written?  — 

"He  thought  he  saw  an  elephant. 

That  practiced  on  a  fife  ; 
He  looked  again  and  found  it  was 

A  letter  from  his  wife  ; 
At  length  I  realize,  he  said. 

The  bitterness  of  life." 

Even  in  "Alice"  there  was  an  undertone  of  mel- 
ancholy, and  "Sylvie  and  Bruno"  is  composed  almost 
wholly  in  the  minor  key;  but  there  are  flashes  of  the 
same  delightful  humour — "'Remember,'  says  Sylvie, 
'it's  the  early  bird  that  picks  up  the  worm.'  'It  may,  if  it 
likes!'  Bruno  said,  with  a  slight  yawn;  'I  don't  like  eat- 
ing worms  one  bit.  I  always  stop  in  bed  until  the  early 
bird  has  picked  them  up!'"  Mr.  Tenniel's  mantle  has 
fallen  on  Mr.  Furniss,  and  the  illustrations  are  not  the 
least  charming  part  of  the  book. 
*    The  quotations  are  from  (1)  Carroll,  Preface  to  SB;  (2) 
Browning,  "Popularity"  (except  that  the  last  half  of  the  last 
line  should  read  "claret  crowns  his  cup");  (3)  Tennyson, 
from  his  poem  tlius  titled. 
**    A  reference  to  Arthur  Kennedy  Hutchison  Boyd,  a  Scottish 
cleric  and  author  oi  Recreations  of  a  Country  Parson  (1862),  a 
book  filled  with  serious  and  moralistic  reflections,  which 
he  contributed  serially  to  Eraser's  Magazine  •m\h  his  initials 
attached. 

PUNCH  (U.K.)  JANUARY  4,  189O,  VOL.  98,  P.  lO 

Once  upon  a  time  Mr.  Lewis  Carroll  wrote  a  mar- 
velously  grotesque,  fantastic,  and  humorous  book 
called  Alice  in  Wonderland,  and  on  another  occasion 
he  wrote  Through  the  Looking-Glass,  in  which  Alice  reap- 
peared, and  then  the  spring  of  Mr.  Lewis  Carroll's 
fanciful  humour  apparendy  dried  up,  for  he  has 
done  nothing  since  worth  mentioning  in  the  same 
breath  with  his  first  two  works;  and  if  his  writings 


11 


have  been  by  comparison  watery;  unlike  water,  they 
have  never  risen  by  inherent  quality  to  their  original 
level.  Of  his  latest  book,  called  Sylvie  and  Bruno,  I  can 
make  neither  head  nor  tale.  It  seems  a  muddle  of  all 
sorts,  including  a  little  bit  of  Bible  thrown  in.  It  will  be 
bought,  because  Lewis  Carroll's  name  is  to  it,  and 
it  will  be  enjoyed  for  the  sake  of  Mr.  Furniss's  excel- 
lent illustrations,  but  for  no  other  reason  that  I  can 
see.  I  feel  inclined  to  carol  to  Carroll,  "O  don't  you 
remember  sweet  Alice?"  and,  if  so,  please  be  good 
enough  to  wake  her  up  again,  if  you  can. 

THE  INDEPENDENT  (U.S.)  FEBRUARY  20,  189O, 
VOL.  42,  NO.  2151,  P.  21 

Whether  or  not  this  book  will  delight  children  is  de- 
pendent on  the  fashion  with  children  when  it  comes 
to  their  hands;  for  we  all  know  how  amusement  runs 
in  epidemics  among  the  bright  little  ones;  but  it 
seems  to  us  that  there  must  be  a  sort  of  perennial  and 
universal  fascination  in  pages  so  filled  with  admiring 
oddities,  mirth-provoking  incidents  and  engaging 
drollery.  Lewis  Carroll  is  a  name  beloved  of  children, 
and  grown-up  folks  as  well,  and  this  hotch-potch  en- 
tided  Sylvie  and  Bruno  is  not  the  least  amusing  of  his 
works.  Nor  is  it  merely  amusing;  the  receptive  young 
mind  will  take  many  valuable  impressions  from  its  pag- 
es and  catch  vivid  glimpses  of  things  worth  knowing, 
along  with  kaleidoscopic  combinations  of  the  most 
brilliant  absurdities  of  humor.  The  book  is  beautifully 
printed,  attractively  bound,  and  contains  forty-six  il- 
lustrations by  Harry  Furniss;  but  no  beauty  of  print 
or  of  binding  or  of  pictures  can  leave  so  deliciously 
pure  and  lasting  an  impression  as  comes  with  reading 
such  a  sketch  as  that  where  Sylvie  chooses  between 
the  jewel  hearts  offered  her  by  the  old  King. 

THE  BOOK  BUYER  (U.S.)  MARCH  189O,  VOL.  7,  NO.  2, 

P.  65.  [Includes  illustration,  "The  Professor's  Explanation" 
(from  p.  24)] . 

Lewis  Carroll,  the  author  of  the  famous  "Alice  in  Won- 
derland," gives  us  in  Sylvie  and  Bruno  another  book 
that  will  delight  the  young  folks.  Mr.  Carroll  has  made 
a  new  departure  in  his  story  writing,  feeling  that  so 
many  books  have  appeared  on  the  same  pattern  as 
"Alice  in  Wonderland,"  that  it  would  be  courting  disas- 
ter to  attempt  that  style  again.  There  are  some  droll 
characters  in  the  book,  a  musical  gardener  among 
them,  who  supplies  funny  verses.  The  little  girl  and 
boy,  Sylvie  and  Bruno,  have  some  strange  adventures 
while  on  their  way  to  Fairyland.  They  met  the  King  of 
Dogland — an  enormous  New-Foundland — surround- 
ed by  his  entire  court.  What  a  grand  dog-show  that 
must  be!  The  book  will  never  have  it  so.  The  illustra- 
tions by  Harry  Furniss  are  humorous  and  entertain- 
ing. (Macmillan,  12mo,  $L50). 


MONTHLY  PACKET  (U.K.)  MARCH  1,  189O,  NO.  Ill, 
P.  266 

Spider  Isn't  it  delightful?  Here's  another  of  the  Lewis 
Caroll  [sic]  books,  Sylvie  and  Bruno. 

Arachne.  Is  it  as  quaintly  droll  as  the  rest?  I  suppose  we 
have  yet  to  prove  whether  there  are  comicalities 
that  stick  in  one's  memory  like  'The  Mock  Turtle,' 
or  the  Jabberwock  on  the  Conventional  signs  in 
the  Map. 

S.  There  is  a  gardener  given  to  singing  rhymes  that 
give  one  a  vehement  inclination  to  parody,  as  for 
instance — [The  reviewer  quotes  the  "He  thought  he 
saw  a  banker's  clerk "  stanza.] 

And  the  picture,  by  Harry  Furniss,  is  such  a 
delightful  mixture  of  banker's  clerk  and  hippo — 
The  story  is  an  odd  mixture,  the  wild,  droll,  fairy 
part  coming  as  a  dream  before  a  more  matter- 
of-fact  set  of  scenes  with  a  young  doctor,  who  is 
hopelessly  in  love  with  a  Lady  Muriel,  bringing  in 
some  graver  thoughts.  There  is  a  preface  in  which 
some  other  thoughts  and  wishes  are  brought  in, 
one  for  a  Children's  Shakespeare,  which  is  all 
very  well,  but  another  for  a  Children's  Bible,  leav- 
ing out  all  the  Judgments,  such  as  the  Flood.  You 
don't  think  that's  right,  do  you? 

A.  Certainly  not!  A  child  will  not  love  God  the  more 
truly  or  nobly  for  not  knowing  the  fear  of  Him. 
It  is  not  the  parent  who  never  punishes  who  is 
most  respected  or  loved,  and  even  for  a  child  the 
outlook  is  very  imperfect  that  does  not  include 
the  doom  and  guilt  of  sin.  Indeed,  without  that, 
where  would  be  the  need  of  any  redemption.  I 
am  sorry  that  should  be  in  the  book  which  is  sure 
to  be  everywhere  read  and  loved. 

MILWAUKEE  SENTINEL  (U.S.)  MARCH  lO,  189O,  P.  4 

"Here's  richness,"  indeed,  for  the  little  folk,  and  big 
folk  too,  for  that  matter  Sylvie  and  Bruno  are  the  most 
delightful  child-fairies  or  fairy  children  that  ever  were 
seen  and  are  bound  to  be  loved  as,  perhaps,  never 
were  fairies  loved  before.  As  in  "Alice  in  Wonderland," 
Mr  Carroll  strikes  a  new  vein  in  this  story,  which  is  a 
trifle  puzzling  at  the  first  plunge  into  its  absurdities, 
but  the  author's  fancy  once  caught,  the  charm  of  the 
idea  increases  with  every  page,  till  one  is  ready  to  wish 
that  the  droll  conceits  and  flights  of  pure  unadulter- 
ated nonsense  might,  like  Tennyson's  brook,  "go  on 
forever."  That  there  is  much  more  of  the  same  sort  in 
that  fertile  brain  of  Lewis  Carroll,  we  cannot  doubt, 
and  we  hope  that  he  will  not  long  keep  us  out  of  the 
enjoyment  of  it.  It  is  hard  work  to  write  books,  we  are 
told,  but  we  find  it  difficult  to  believe  this  of  anything 
that  flows  as  easily,  as  gracefully,  and  so  infectiously  as 
these  felicitous  phantasies  seem  to  flow  from  Mr.  Car- 
roll's pen,  and  we  may  consequently  be  excused  for 
teasing  for  "more"  as  soon  as  we  have  fairly  devoured 
the  one  before  us.  A  true  child  always  loves  fairies. 


12 


and  these  particular  fairies  are,  as  we  have  said,  such 
unique  specimens,  so  perfectly  adorable,  that  every 
child  will  be  moved  to  sympathize  with  them  and  to 
desire  to  emulate  them  in  their  little  experiences  and 
Sylvie's  sweet  example  will  no  doubt  give  courage  to 
many  a  wayward  heart. 

THE  BOOKMAN  (U.K.)  FEBRUARY  1893,  VOL.  3,  NO.  17, 
PP.  151-153 

"Recollections  of  Lewis  Carroll."  [An  overview  ofDodg- 
son  (there  is  no  attempt  to  shield  his  identify)  apparently 
written  by  someone  personally  familiar  with  him  and  even 
more  so  with  the  Liddells;  it  includes  thoughts  on  the  Alices, 
Snark,  and  SB;  and  on  Dodgson  's  relationships  with  chil- 
dren. Here  are  the  comments  on  SB.] 

'Sylvie  and  Bruno'  has  been  illustrated  with  Harry 
Furniss's  usual  grace  and  charm.  In  this  last  work, 
which  has  proceeded  within  recent  years  from  Mr. 
Dodgson's  pen,  the  humour  of  his  earUer  writings  is 
rather  wanting.  A  certain  amount  of  refreshing  non- 
sense is  still  to  be  found,  but  distinctly  inferior  to  what 
he  has  given  us  before 

"He  thought  he  saw  a  Buffalo 
Upon  the  chimney-piece  ; 
He  looked  again,  and  saw  it  was 

His  sister's  husband's  niece,"  etc., 

with  the  variations  upon  the  same  refrain  which 
run  through  the  story,  are  scarcely  to  be  compared  to 
any  four  lines  out  of  the  'Snark,'  or  to  any  of  the  dit- 
ties in  either  of  the  books  of  'Alice.' 

From  a  literary  point  of  view,  moreover,  it  is  to  be 
questioned  whether  a  story  which  combines  a  fairy 
tale  with  a  quite  grown-up  romance  as  well  as  more 
serious  matter  can  ever  be  a  complete  success,  since  it 
must  always  remain  doubtful  whether  it  was  intended 
for  little  ones  or  their  elders.  The  fairy-land  portion 
of  'Sylvie  and  Bruno,'  woven  in  in  the  form  of  dreams, 
is  as  charming  as  anything  that  the  author  has  yet  writ- 
ten, but  none  the  less  this  latest  story  is  never  likely  to 
be  as  popular  with  the  children,  at  any  rate,  as  'Alice.' 
At  the  same  time,  it  must  be  remembered  that  'Sylvie 
and  Bruno'  is  a  more  serious  undertaking,  and  writ- 
ten with  a  deeper  purpose  than  anything  which  Mr. 
Dodgson  has  before  attempted.  The  real  interest  of 
the  book,  indeed,  lies  in  the  fact  that  it  is  the  work 
of  his  later  years,  and  gives  us  some  idea  of  the  man 
of  whom  so  litde  is  now  known.  In  the  long  preface, 
he  gives  us  his  views  upon  many  things  in  life,  and 
upon  the  possible  nearness  of  death,  and  the  story  is 
throughout  largely  influenced  by  the  deep  religious 
feeling  which  has  always  been  one  of  Mr.  Dodgson's 
strongest  characteristics.  .  . 

NEW  YORK  TRIBUNE  (U.S.)  OCTOBER  9,  1893,  P.  8 

[prepublication  notice] 

The  author  of  "Alice's  Adventures"  has  written  a  new 

book,  but  we  can  hardly  hope  for  a  repetition  of  his 


early  success.  The  forthcoming  volume  is  a  sequel  or 
second  part  to  "Sylvie  and  Bruno" — a  story  which  had 
its  merits,  but  which  was  not  to  be  compared  in  any 
way  with  that  of  the  charming  Alice. 

LUDGATE  ILLUSTRATED  MAGAZINE  (U.K.) 
NOVEMBER  1893,  NO.  6,  P.  554 

Fortunately,  a  few  books  stand  out  from  the  flood  of 
commonplace.  Lewis  Carroll,  for  example,  has  given 
us  "Sylvie  and  Bruno,  Concluded,"  a  delightful  med- 
ley of  nonsense  and  wisdom.  The  first  is  perhaps  less 
conspicuous  than  in  former  books  from  the  same 
pen,  and  the  last  rather  more.  There  is  nothing  in 
the  new  volume  quite  equal  in  ridiculousness  to  "The 
Walrus  and  the  Carpenter,"  but  it  contains  much  that 
will  make  people  of  all  ages  laugh;  and  a  hearty  laugh 
in  this  age  of  grim  seriousness  is  a  thing  for  which  all 
sane  folks  will  be  genuinely  grateful. — John  A.  Steuart 

NEW  YORK  TRIBUNE  (u.S.)  DECEMBER  17,  1893,  P.  I9 

Another  new  story  by  Lewis  Carroll,  being  part  sec- 
ond of  "Sylvie  and  Bruno,"  has  been  published  by 
Macmillan  &  Co.  It  is  a  charming  book,  with  many 
illustrations.  It  is  a  work  intended  for  children,  but  it 
can  be  read  with  equal  pleasure  by  older  people. 

LITERARY  ERA  ( U.S.)  JANUARY  1894,  VOL.  1,  NO.  1, 
P-49 

[  This  review  is  reprinted  from  the  Literary  World  (Lon- 
don). A  review  from  the  Literary  World  (Boston)  was  re- 
published in  KL  78.] 

It  is  difficult  to  decide  whether  most  to  be  delighted 
that  Lewis  Carroll — as  the  author  of  "Alice  in  Won- 
derland" chooses  to  be  called —  has  given  us  another 
book,  or  to  regret  that  he  has  loaded  it  with  so  much 
that  harmonizes  not  at  all  with  clever  nonsense  and 
the  pretty  story  of  the  two  little  fairies.  There  was  a 
story  about  Lewis  Carroll,  some  time  ago,  which  may 
or  may  not  be  entirely  apocryphal,  that  when  com- 
manded by  the  Queen  to  send  a  copy  of  his  next 
book,  as  "Alice  in  Wonderland"  was  so  delightful,  he 
complied,  and  sent  a  mathematical  treatise!  That  is 
what  he  does  to  us  throughout  the  Sylvie  and  Bruno 
volumes.  Those  who  remember  the  first  volume  will 
know  what  to  expect.  All  the  old  characters  re-appear 
with  their  charming  oddities,  the  Professor,  the  Other 
Professor,  the  disagreeable  Uggug,  and  all  the  others. 
The  gardener  gives  us  only  one  more  of  his  "second 
sights."  [The  reviewer  quotes  the  "Argument"  stanza  of 
"The  Gardener's  Song. "] 

But  the  Other  Professor  recites  a  most  amusing 
"Pig-tale" — a  ballad  of  the  death  of  a  pig  who  imitates 
the  jump  of  a  frog,  and  the  "Introductory  Verses," 
which  come  at  the  end,  have  something  like  the  clev- 
er touch  which  has  made  the  Snark  so  famous.  [  The 
reviewer  quotes  three  stanzas  of  "Pig-Tale.  "\ 

But  we  miss  the  former  brilliance  of  these  jingles, 
the  longest  piece  in  the  book  is  distinctly  a  failure, 


13 


and  it  is  a  pity  that  Lewis  Carroll  should  have  taken 
the  old  timeworn  mother-in-law  joke  for  his  subject. 
The  Professor's  lecture  is  very  amusing,  though  we 
doubt  if  children  will  quite  appreciate  all  the  humor, 
which  is  often,  as  in  the  theory  of  ever-running  trains, 
somewhat  mathematical  and  scholastic.  But  our  fault 
with  the  book  is  that  it  is  compounded  of  so  many 
elements. 

publishers'  circular  (U.K.)  JANUARY  I3,  1894, 

pp.  54—55  [Includes  illustration  "Her  Imperial  Highness 
is  Surprised,  "p.  326.] 

Those  readers  who  were  children  when  'Alice  in  Won- 
derland' and  'Through  the  Looking-Glass'  first  came 
out  look  with  peculiar  interest  for  later  work  from  the 
pen  of  Mr.  Lewis  Carroll.  They  have  recollections  of 
such  hours  of  unalloyed  delight  that  even  the  chance 
of  renewed  pleasure  of  the  same  sort  stirs  up  eager 
anticipations. 

It  is  therefore  with  lively  anticipations  that  the 
handsome  volume  which  has  just  been  issued  by 
Messrs.  Macmillan  under  the  title  of  'Sylvie  and  Bru- 
no Concluded,'  will  be  taken  up.  Before  commencing 
to  read  it  we  turn  over  the  leaves  wondering  if  we  shall 
light  upon  any  verses  half  as  good  as  'The  Walrus  and 
the  Carpenter.'  Almost  at  once  we  open  at  page  14, 
where  there  is  a  delicious  song  in  Mr.  Carroll's  best 
vein — 'a  very  peculiar  song:  seeing  the  chorus  to  each 
verse  comes  in  the  middle,  instead  of  at  the  end.' 

It  tells  how 

'King  Fisher  courted  Lady  Bird — 

Sing  Beans,  sing  Bones,  sing  Butterflies,' 

and  how  he  draws  attention  to  his  'noble  head,' 
his  'beard  as  white  as  curd,'  his  'expressive  eyes.'  She 
then  replies  in  three  verses  that  have  perhaps  a  wee 
bit  too  much  point  in  them.  Let  us  quote  one  verse: — 

'"Oysters  have  beards,"  said  Lady  Bird — 
Sing  Flies,  sing  Frogs,  sing  Fiddle-strings! 

"I  love  them,  for  I  know 
They  never  chatter  so: 

They  would  not  say  one  single  word — 
Not  if  you  crowned  them  kings!"' 

Further  on  in  the  book  we  find  a  'Pig-Tale'  in 
rhyme  with,  characteristically  enough,  'introductory 
verses'  at  the  beginning,  in  the  middle,  and  at  the  end. 

Having  thus  tasted  casually,  as  it  were,  we  settle 
down  to  the  quiet  enjoyment  of  the  book.  And  let  us 
say  at  once  that  on  the  whole  the  reading  of  it  has  de- 
lighted us,  though  in  a  fairy  story  we  could  dispense 
with  discussions  on  ethics,  on  charity,  on  'fate,  free- 
will, foreknowledge  absolute,'  and  similar  topics. 

Mr.  Carroll's  earlier  books,  it  is  probable,  owe 
their  very  great  success  to  the  fact  that  they  are  real 
children's  books.  In  his  later  work  he  is  perhaps  a 
trifle  too  deep  and  satirical  for  childish  understand- 
ings; yet  the  didactic  and  ironical  parts  are  so  mixed 


14 


up  with  bits  of  pure  fun  that  when  we  would  protest 
we  find  ourselves  unexpectedly  in  a  burst  of  laugh- 
ter. The  present  volume  resumes  the  story  of  'Sylvie 
and  Bruno,'  where  the  first  volume,  published  four 
or  five  years'  ago,  left  it  off.  The  author,  wandering  in 
Kensington  Gardens,  passes  into  the  'eerie'  state  and 
meets  with  Sylvie  and  Bruno,  and  the  first  chapter  is 
devoted  to  talks  with  them.  Bruno  with  his  comical, 
yet  sharp  and  shrewd  remarks,  is  a  fascinating  litde 
fellow.  His  'lessons'  may  be  quoted  as  serving  to  show 
what  he  is  like. 

'There's  only  three  lessons  to  do,'  said  Syl- 
vie, 'Spelling  and  Geography,  and  Singing.' 

'Not  Arithmetic?'  I  said. 

'No,  he  hasn't  a  head  for  Arithmetic ' 

'Course  I  haven't,'  said  Bruno.  'Mine 
head's  for  hair  I  haven't  got  a  lot  of  heads!' 

' and  he  can't  learn  his  Multiplication- 
table — "I  like  History  ever  so  much  better,' 
Bruno  remarked. 

'Oo  has  to  repeat  the  Muddlecome  table — ' 
'Well,  and  you  have  to  repeat ' 

'No,  00  hasn't!'  Bruno  interrupted.  'His- 
tory repeats  itself,  the  Professor  said  so!' 

Sylvie  was  arranging  some  letters  on  a 
board — E-V-I-L.  'Now,  Bruno,'  she  said,  'what 
does  that  speW}' 

Bruno  looked  at  it,  in  solemn  silence,  for 
a  minute.  'I  knows  what  it  doosn't  spell!'  he 
said  at  last. 

'That's  no  good,'  said  Sylvie.  'What  does  it 
spell?' 

Bruno  took  another  look  at  the  mysteri- 
ous letters.  'Why,  it's  "LIVE"  backwards!'  he 
exclaimed.  (I  thought  it  was,  indeed.) 

'How  didyou  manage  to  see  thaL^'  said  Sylvie. 

'I  just  twiddled  my  eyes,'  said  Bruno,  'and 
then  I  saw  directly.  Now  may  I  sing  "The  King- 
Fisher's  Song"?' 

'Geography  next,'  said  Sylvie,  'Don't  you 
know  the  Rules?' 

'I  thinks  that  there  oughtn't  to  be  such  a 
lot  of  Rules,  Sylvie.  I  thinks ' 

Then  comes  the  song  which  we  quoted  at  the 
beginning  of  this  notice,  and  the  chapter  ends  with 
the  statement  that  'human  life  seems  on  the  whole  to 
contain  more  of  sorrow  than  of  joy.'  This  reflection 
might  on  the  whole  have  been  omitted.  Proceeding, 
we  follow  for  a  time  the  fortunes  of  the  Lady  Muri- 
el and  her  lover,  the  argumentative  doctor.  Most  of 
the  chapters  are,  however,  lightened  and  made  truly 
enjoyable  by  the  introduction  of  the  fairy  children, 
Sylvie  and  Bruno.  'Mein  Herr,'  too,  is  an  extremely 
pleasant  old  fellow  despite  the  satirical  observations 
on  men  and  things  which  Mr.  Carroll  has  put  into  his 
mouth.  'Bruno's  Picnic'  is  an  extremely  taking  piece 
of  writing;  the  tale  of  the  three  foxes  that  eat  one  an- 


other  until  there  is  only  a  mouth  left,  out  of  which 
Bruno  draws  the  three  foxes  again,  is  told  in  Mr.  Car- 
roll's pleasantest  fashion — that  is  to  say,  in  the  true 
vein  of  'faery.'  The  cat  that  disappeared  in  one  of  the 
earlier  stories  until  nothing  was  left  but  its  grin  has  a 
parallel  in  this  book,  where  a  dog  is  made  invisible  all 
but  his  tail.  That  in  itself  is  sufficient  to  indicate  the 
charm  of  'Sylvie  and  Bruno  Concluded.'  Sequels  are 
notoriously  wr^successful,  but  perhaps  that  is  as  much 
the  fault  of  the  readers  as  of  the  writers.  If  the  reader 
be  inclined  to  resent  the  long  discussions  on  human 
conduct  in  the  present  volume,  it  is  only  because  he 
or  she  is  anxious  to  hear  more  from  Mr.  Carroll  about 
fairyland,  more  about  Sylvie  and  Bruno,  to  have  more 
of  those  nonsense  verses  like  'The  Kingfisher's  Song' 
and  the  'Pig-Tale.'  With  one  stanza  from  the  latter  we 
must  close.  [The  reviewer  quotes  the  stanza  "Little  birds 
are  feeding  /  Justices  with  jam.  "\ 

Mr.  Harry  Furniss's  illustrations  are  truly  delight- 
ful, those  around  the  'Pig-Tale'  being  indeed,  as  the 
author  calls  them,  'Triumphs  of  artistic  ingenuity." 

BOSTON  DAILY  ADVERTISER  (u.S.)  FEBRUARY  1,  1894, 

We  happen  to  know  quite  a  company  of  little  folk  and 
they  are  only  representative  of  a  great  many  larger 
companies  who  will  not  welcome  the  last  word  of  the 
above  caption  [i.e.,  "Concluded"].  Sylvie  and  Bruno 
have  become  household  words,  veritable  realities 
in  thousands  of  homes.  The  little  people  have  been 
waiting  eagerly  for  what  wzis  coming,  and  they  have 
in  the  present  volume  by  Lewis  Carroll  a  rare  treat, 
but  it  is  a  treat  coupled  with  a  disappointment  which 
is  expressed  in  this  one  word  "concluded."  Mr.  Car- 
roll, we  take  it,  has  by  no  means  written  himself  out, 
but  Mr.  Carroll  is  an  artist,  and  he  has  now  finished 
the  picture  which  was  in  his  mind  when,  20  years  ago, 
he  published,  under  the  title,  "Bruno's  Revenge,"  a 
little  story  for  "Aunt  Judy's  Magazine."  The  picture, 
with  the  delightful  volume  now  brought  out  by  the 
Macmillans,  is  complete,  and  we  can  give  it  no  high- 
er praise,  than  to  say  it  is,  in  every  sense,  a  finished 


one.  Perhaps  some  philosopher  can  tell  us  why  chil- 
dren love  fairy  stories.  The  single  word  imagination 
does  not  quite  answer  the  question.  Are  we  indeed  of 
— "Such  stuff  as  dreams  are  made  of?" 

RICHMOND  DISPATCH  (U.S.)  FEBRUARY  l8,  1894, 

P.  1 1  [Some  of  the  quotations  are  not  quite  right;  strangest 
is:  "the  human  mind  is  a  sausage,  and  all  we  ask  is,  how 
much  indigestible  stuff  can  be  crammed  into  death!"  This 
should  read  "crammed  into  it!"] 

Lewis  Carroll  is  an  artist  in  appreciation  and  an  art- 
ist in  style,  a  student  of  nature,  a  student  of  char- 
acter, and  an  incisive  critic.  The  fairies  Sylvie  and 
Bruno,  and  Mein  Herr,  and  the  Professor  serve  the 
author  in  giving  play  to  the  most  whimsical  fancies 
and  grotesque  suggestions,  which,  however,  always 
point  a  moral,  and  are  the  framework  of  some  gem 
of  thought,  and  are  frequently  brought  into  contrast 
with  pathos  and  sharp  realism.  We  fall  in  love  imme- 
diately with  Sylvie  and  Bruno.  They  are  real  children 
to  us.  The  one  fascinates  by  her  sweetness  and  the 
other  captivates  by  his  child  wisdom  and  philosophy. 
Mr.  Carroll  says  that  some  of  the  phrases  he  has  put 
into  the  mouths  of  Sylvie  and  Bruno  were  caught 
from  children,  and  we  can  well  believe  him. 

The  manner  in  which  Sylvie  and  Bruno,  unseen, 
save  by  the  author,  bring  Muriel  and  Arthur  together 
is  a  most  happy  conceit,  and  nothing  could  be  more 
touching  than  their  reformation  of  Willie.  Mein  Herr 
says  for  us  things  we  have  often  thought  and  felt  but 
could  not  put  into  words,  and  satirizes  in  an  inimita- 
ble way  some  of  the  "fads,"  foibles,  and  humbuggery 
of  the  age. 

The  theory  on  which  the  story  is  constructed  is 
very  interesting,  and,  as  given  in  the  preface,  is  an 
index  to  the  range  of  fancy  indulged.  Mr.  Carroll  says, 
"the  story  is  an  attempt  to  show  what  might  possibly 
happen,  supposing  that  fairies  really  existed  and  that 
they  were  sometimes  visible  to  us  and  we  to  them, 
and  that  they  were  sometimes  able  to  assume  human 
form,  and  supposing  also  that  human  beings  some- 
times become  conscious  of  what  goes  on  in  the  fairy 


15 


world — by  actual  transference  of  their  immaterial  es- 
sence such  as  we  meet  with  in  Esoteric  Buddhism. 

"I  have  supposed  a  human  being  capable  of 
various  psychical  states,  with  varying  degrees  of  con- 
sciousness, as  follows:  (a)  the  ordinary  state,  with 
no  consciousness  of  the  presence  of  fairies;  (b)  the 
"eerie"  state,  in  which,  while  conscious  of  actual  sur- 
roundings, he  is  also  conscious  of  the  presence  of  fair- 
ies; (c)  a  form  of  trance,  in  which,  while  unconscious 
of  actual  surroundings,  and  apparently  asleep,  his 
immaterial  essence  migrates  to  other  scenes,  in  the 
actual  world,  or  in  fairyland,  and  is  conscious  of  the 
presence  of  fairies. 

"I  have  also  supposed  a  fairy  to  be  capable  of  mi- 
grating from  fairyland  into  the  actual  world,  and  of 
assuming,  at  pleasure,  a  human  form;  and  also  to  be 
capable  of  various  psychical  states — viz:  (a)  the  ordi- 
nary state,  with  no  consciousness  of  the  presence  of 
Human  beings;  (b)  a  sort  of  "eerie"  state,  in  which  he 
is  conscious,  if  in  the  actual  world,  of  the  presence  of 
actual  human  beings;  if  in  fairyland,  of  the  presence 
of  the  immaterial  essences  of  human  beings. 

"I  believe  that  there  is  life  everywhere — not  mate- 
rial only,  not  merely  what  is  palpable  to  our  senses — 
but  immaterial  and  invisible  as  well.  We  believe  in 
our  own  immaterial  essence — call  it  soul,  or  spirit,  or 
what  you  will.  Why  should  not  other  similar  essences 
exist  around  us,  not  linked  on  to  a  visible  and  mate- 
rial body?  Did  not  God  make  this  swarm  of  happy  in- 
sects, to  dance  in  this  sunbeam  for  one  hour  of  bliss, 
for  no  other  object,  that  we  can  imagine,  than  to  swell 
the  sum  of  conscious  happiness?  And  where  shall  we 
dare  to  draw  the  line,  and  say  'He  has  made  all  these 
and  no  more?'" 

The  difference  between  perfect  mechanical  cor- 
rectness in  a  musical  rendition  and  the  soul  of  music 
is  brought  out  to  its  fullest  in  the  chapter  in  which  the 
performance  of  the  brilliant  society  player  is  followed 
by  that  of  Sylvie. 

Here  is  a  characteristic  outburst  from  Mein  Herr: 
"Mein  Herr  threw  up  his  hands  wildly.  'What,  again?' 
he  cried.  'I  thought  it  was  dead,  fifty  years  ago!  Oh 
this  Upas  tree  of  Competitive  Examinations!  Beneath 
whose  deadly  shade  all  the  original  genius,  all  the  ex- 
haustive research,  all  the  untiring  life-long  diligence 
by  which  our  fore-fathers  have  so  advanced  human 
knowledge,  must  slowly  but  surely  wither  away,  and 
give  place  to  a  system  of  cookery,  in  which  the  human 
mind  is  a  sausage,  and  all  we  ask  is,  how  much  indi- 
gestible stuff  can  be  crammed  into  death!'" 

This  and  much  more  Mein  Herr  says  about  "cram- 
ming" and  kindred  evils  connected  with  the  conduct 
of  institutions  of  learning  might  be  studied  to  advan- 
tage by  college  authorities. 

Bits  of  the  book  here  and  there  may  be  read  to 
children  with  the  assurance  that  they  will  give  the  lit- 


de  ones  the  greatest  delight,  and  at  the  same  time  the 
reader,  assuming  he  is  one  of  mature  years,  will  find 
food  for  reflection  in  every  phrase.  The  illustrations 
are  as  fantastic,  but  as  suggestive  as  the  text,  and  with- 
al as  artistic  as  is  Mr.  Carroll's  literary  workmanship. 

BOOK  NEWS  (U.S.)  MARCH  1894,  NO.  I39,  P.  288 

"Apres  I'Agesilas,  Helas!  Mais  apres  I'Attila,  Hola!"* 
This  epigram  befits  the  "Sylvie  and  Bruno"  and,  now, 
the  "Sylvie  and  Bruno  Concluded"  of  Lewis  Carroll, 
madder  and  madder  of  the  productions  of  the  author 
of  "Alice  in  Wonderland."  The  decline  in  humor  is 
positively  melancholy,  and  to  read  either  of  these  vol- 
umes is  nothing  short  of  a  penance.  They  are  really 
sermons,  or  speculations  about  life  and  conduct  and 
the  hereafter,  aimed  at  grown  folks,  and  are  most  un- 
fit reading  for  children.  The  nonsense  verse  in  the 
concluding  part  is,  with  scarcely  an  exception,  in- 
capable of  exciting  a  smile.  Mr.  Furniss,  though  his 
task  as  an  illustrator  was  harder,  has  fallen  far  short 
of  Tenniel  in  the  immortal  Alices.  In  this  final  volume 
of  "Sylvie  and  Bruno"  many  questions  of  the  day  are 
discussed,  and  those  who  are  curious  to  know  what 
views  Mr.  Carroll  takes  of  them  may  consult  it  for 
themselves.  They  will  probably  agree  that  in  his  hands 
the  thing  does  not  become  a  trumpet. 

In  quoting  Boileau's  epigram  upon  Corneille's  late  plays, 
the  reviewer  suggests  that  Carroll's  powers  are  failing  as 
Corneille's  supposedly  had. 

SYDNEY  MORNING  HERALD  (AUSTRALIA)  MARCH  3, 
1894 

It  is  for  many  young  people  and  some  children  of 
older  growth  a  happy  day  which  brings  forth  a  new 
book  by  Lewis  Carroll.  Sylvie  and  Bruno  Concluded  is 
the  second  part  of  a  work  projected  by  Mr.  Carroll 
in  1873,  and  the  first  installment  published  in  1889, 
the  concluding  part  being  that  now  to  hand.  It  is 
a  charmingly-presented  volume  of  more  than  400 
pages,  illustrated  out  of  Mr.  Harry  Furniss 's  wealth  of 
quaint  laughter-making  draughtsmanship.  But  still 
it  is  not  the  Carroll  that  we  knew,  not  the  creator  of 
Alice.  There  are  things  in  the  book  delightful,  and 
some  of  the  nonsense  verses  are  as  good  as  of  old — 
"The  Pig  and  the  Pump,"  "What  Tottles  Meant,"  "The 
Little  Man  that  had  a  Little  Gun,"  a  capital  parody  of 
Swinburne,  and  a  final  verse  of  the  gardener's  song. 
But  Mr.  Lewis  Carroll  has  now  taken  himself  very 
seriously  indeed.  He  is  convinced  that  Mr.  Ruskin's 
mantle  is  on  the  point  of  falling  upon  him,  so  that 
Sylvie  and  Bruno  become  priggish  and  the  voice  of 
the  preacher  is  heard,  as  much  apropos  as  it  would 
be  in  an  interlude  of  Punch  and  Judy.  The  preface  is 
amazing  and  amusing,  both  unintended. 


16 


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CHRIS  MATHESON 


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hrough  the  Looking-Glass  begins  with  pain. 
There  is  an  aching  quality  to  Lewis  Carroll's 
prologue: 

Though  time  be  fleet,  and  I  and  thou 

Are  half  a  life  asunder, 
Thy  loving  smile  will  surely  hail 

The  love-gift  of  a  fairy  tale. 

I  have  not  seen  thy  sunny  face, 

Nor  heard  thy  silver  laughter. 
No  thought  of  me  shall  find  a  place 

In  thy  young  life's  hereafter — 

Carroll  misses  Alice  desperately.  He  knew  that 
this  would  happen.  But  still  ...  it  hurts.  And  so  he 
does  the  only  thing  he  can  do;  he  returns  to  the  "Tale 
begun  in  other  days, /When  summer  suns  were  glow- 
ing— "  But  this  second  book  will  be  steeped  in  melan- 
choly and  profound  loneliness. 

The  story  begins  with  Alice's  cat,  Dinah,  who  has 
had  kittens  now.  Clearly  time  has  passed,  yet  Alice 
herself  does  not  seem  to  have  aged.  Alice  rambles  on 
to  Dinah  and  her  kittens  for  a  while,  but  the  impa- 
tient, sharp-tongued  litde  girl  we  knew  so  well  in  Won- 
derland is  gone,  replaced  by  a  tender,  chatty  little  dear. 
It's  evident  that  Carroll  does  not  actually  know  Alice 
anymore;  he  is  writing  a  gauzy,  sentimental  memory 
of  her. 

It's  not  a  promising  start.  You  find  yourself  won- 
dering: Is  this  even  a  good  idea? 

Then  Alice  enters  Looking-Glass  world,  climb- 
ing right  through  the  mirror,  and  the  book  suddenly 
erupts  to  life  as  she  reads  "Jabberwocky."  The  poem 
is  violent,  playful,  ridiculous.  In  a  split  second,  we  are 
back  in  the  joyful  presence  of  Lewis  Carroll.  It's  un- 
canny, thrilling,  deeply  moving — even  the  language 
itself  is  transformed.  What  had  been  cautious  and  tep- 
id instandy  becomes  wild,  mad,  and  beautiful.  Alice 
starts  to  talk  to  the  flowers,  who  are  extremely  rude. 
"I  wish  you  could  talk,"  Alice  says.  "We  can  talk,"  says  a 
Tiger-lily,  "when  there's  anybody  worth  talking  to." 

It's  starding — it  happens  so  fast.  (I  wonder 
whether  it  startied  Carroll  himself.)  Even  Alice  is  sur- 

Chris  Matheson  is  a  film  writer  and  director  whose  credits 
include  the  Bill  ijf  Ted  movies.  This  is  a  companion  to  his  article 
in  KL  84. 


prised:  "It  quite  seemed  to  take  her  breath  away."  But 
it  doesn't  take  long;  a  few  more  completely  gratuitous 
insults  from  the  flowers,  and  Alice's  back  starts  to  go 
up.  All  of  the  sticky  sweetness  she's  been  coated  with 
up  to  this  point  suddenly  burns  off,  and  she's  right 
back  to  being  that  steely,  unsentimental  little  girl  we 
loved  so  much  in  the  first  book.  Within  seconds,  Alice 
is  threatening  to  kill  the  flowers.  The  insults  fly  for  a 
while  more  and  it's  hugely  funny,  a  little  girl  and  a 
bunch  of  flowers  insulting  each  other.  In  truth,  Alice 
is  more  polite  to  these  flowers  than  they  deserve. 

Alice  then  notices  that  Looking-Glass  world  is  es- 
sentially a  giant  chessboard  interspersed  with  trees, 
hedges,  and  brooks,  a  perfect  blend  of  the  mathemat- 
ical and  the  organic — of  Dodgson  and  Carroll,  you 
might  say.  The  rest  of  the  book  will  revolve  around 
the  chess  match  that  is  occurring  and  Alice's  some- 
what surprising  announcement  that  she  wishes  to  be 
a  Queen. 

The  announcement  feels  odd  at  first,  but  then 
you  think,  well,  of  course  that's  what  Alice  wants. 
Haven't  all  her  experiences  in  both  books  on  some 
level  been  leading  to  this?  Hasn't  this  desire  to  be  a 
Queen  been  implicit  from  the  very  start  of  Wonder- 
land^ Why  did  Alice  go  down  the  rabbit-hole,  if  not  to 
discover  something  about  herself?  Why  did  she  enter 
Looking-Glass  world  if  not  to  keep  searching?  Hasn't 
this  wish  been  the  subtext  of  everything  we've  read  so 
far?  From  this  point  on,  the  drama  of  the  book  will  be 
clear:  Alice  wants  to  grow  up,  and  the  book  essentially 
tries  to  talk  her  out  of  it.  Don't  do  it,  one  character 
after  another  will  say  to  her.  But  it  won't  work;  Alice 
will  not  be  deterred. 

At  certain  moments,  Looking-Glass  is  far  more 
surreal  than  Wonderland.  Here,  for  instance,  with  no 
explanation — and  I  mean  none — the  Red  Queen  is 
suddenly  gone  and  Alice  is  on  a  train.  A  little  voice 
starts  speaking  in  Alice's  ear,  and  now,  suddenly,  we 
are  under  a  tree,  speaking  to  the  Gnat.  Carroll  writes 
these  startling  transitions  with  a  loose,  easy  certainty. 
The  tentative  quality  of  the  first  25  pages  is  long  gone. 
Carroll  is  rolling  now,  a  virtuoso  of  dark,  absurd  po- 
etry; the  great  explorer  is  back  in  the  land  that  he 
discovered,  seeking  out  new  regions. 


17 


The  Gnat  is  generally  friendly  but,  like  almost  ev- 
eryone else  in  Carroll-land,  is  also  prickly,  defensive, 
and  borderline  rude.  It  works  every  time:  cute,  whim- 
sical characters  who  don't  act  cute  or  whimsical  at  all, 
who  act,  in  fact,  like  vaguely  unpleasant  relatives  or 
coworkers.  Almost  every  single  conversation  Alice 
has  in  the  two  books  is  essentially  a  failure.  People 
talk  past  each  other,  exchange  insults,  threaten  each 
other,  and  it's  comedy  gold  every  damn  time. 

In  Tenniel's  drawing,  Tweedledee  and  Tweedle- 
dum look  surly,  suspicious,  worried,  like  two  odd  little 
boys — ^which  is  what  they  are,  I  think.  Alice  has  pro- 
claimed a  desire  to  grow  up;  now  it's  time  that  she 
meets,  essentially,  a  couple  of  "boys  her  own  age." 
All  the  male  characters  she's  met  so  far  have  been 
"adults":  the  Hatter,  the  Caterpillar,  the  Cheshire 
Cat,  even  the  White  Rabbit.  Dum  and  Dee  hug,  then 
shake  Alice's  hands,  and,  in  a  second,  they  are  all 
dancing  around  in  a  circle.  Suddenly  there's  music 
being  played  by  a  nearby  tree,  and  they're  all  singing, 
"Here  we  go  round  the  mulberry  bush." 

It's  a  glorious,  intoxicating  moment,  Alice  and 
these  two  fat  boys  spinning  in  a  circle  together,  sing- 
ing. The  carefree  joys  of  childhood  are  apparently 
still  available  to  Alice.  Dum  and  Dee  get  out  of  breath 
and,  as  quickly  as  they  started  dancing,  they  stop  and 
just  stand  there  looking  at  each  other.  This  is  another 
of  Carroll's  signature  comedic  moves:  focus  on  the 
weird,  stilted  pauses  that  occur  when  none  of  the 
characters  knows  what  to  say. 

Having  danced  together,  the  three  children  have 
warmed  up  to  each  other  and  decide  next  to  recite 
poetry.  This  is  another  classic  Carroll  move:  stop  the 
story  and  have  the  characters  recite  a  poem  or  sing  a 
song.  The  poem  the  boys  recite,  "The  Walrus  and  the 
Carpenter,"  is  one  of  Carroll's  greatest.  It  seems,  at 
first,  to  be  inspired  nonsense:  "The  sun  was  shining 
on  the  sea  .  .  .  And  this  was  odd,  because  it  was/The 
middle  of  the  night."  But  like  all  the  greatest  non- 
sense (and  there  isn't  much,  by  the  way:  Un  Chien  An- 
dalou,  Duck  Soup,  etc.),  it's  not,  of  course,  nonsense 
at  all. 

The  Walrus  and  the  Carpenter  pretend  to  be 
kindly  and  sympathetic  figures  but  are,  in  truth,  insa- 
tiable gluttons  who  kill  and  eat  children.  To  call  this 
poem  the  strongest  warning  to  Alice  so  far — beware  of 
adult  men,  go  back! — would  be  an  understatement. 

"The  Walrus  and  the  Carpenter"  is  startling — dark 
and  brutal  and  utterly  unsentimental.  Alice's  reaction 
to  it  is  equally  fascinating.  She  seems  not  to  have  got- 
ten the  point.  If  she  did,  then  she  is  an  unusual  girl, 
because  her  sympathies,  amazingly,  lie  not  with  the 
poor  little  oyster  children,  but  rather  with  the  Walrus 
and  Carpenter.  "I  like  the  Walrus  best,"  is  her  immedi- 
ate response,  followed  shortly  by  "I  like  the  Carpenter 
best."  (Never  "I  like  the  oysters  best.") 


As  the  monstrous  crow  frightens  off  the  Tweedles, 
the  White  Queen  arrives,  chasing  her  shawl.  A  mov- 
ing moment  occurs  when  Alice,  feeling  lonely,  starts 
to  cry,  and  the  Queen  is  genuinely  concerned.  "Oh, 
don't  go  on  like  that!  .  .  .  Consider  what  a  great  girl 
you  are.  Consider  what  a  long  way  you've  come  to- 
day." Clearly,  Carroll  would  love  for  Alice  not  to  grow 
up,  to  stay  a  child,  his  Alice.  But  he  knows  that's  not 
possible.  He  knows  that  this  child  must,  like  all  chil- 
dren, grow  up.  Isn't  this  what  the  White  Queen  is  tell- 
ing Alice?  You  can't  go  back,  it  doesn't  work.  You're 
a  wonderful  girl,  you're  doing  great,  keep  going.  It 
must  have  been  hard  for  Carroll  to  write  this;  that  he 
did  so  speaks  to  the  genuine  love  he  felt  for  Alice  and 
the  true  inner  grace  he  possessed. 

The  surreal  transformations  in  Looking-Glass 
continue,  even  more  effortless  and  poetic  than  the 
ones  in  Wonderland.  Maybe  the  difference  is  this:  Won- 
derland, for  all  its  astounding  beauty  and  laugh-out- 
loud  humor,  did  not  have  the  same  thematic  drive 
that  Looking-Glass  has.  Looking-Glass,  from  the  start,  is 
built  around  the  struggle  between  two  competing  im- 
pulses: "don't  grow  up,  stay  as  you  are"  versus  "I  know 
you  have  to  grow  up,  and  you  will  do  so  beautifully, 
my  dear."  It's  this  thematic  grounding,  this  absolute 
clarity  of  purpose,  that  allows  Carroll  to  make  creative 
leaps  the  likes  of  which  no  one  had  ever  made  be- 
fore— or  has  made  since,  when  you  think  of  it.  Only 
a  great  genius  could  make  these  strange  bounds  for- 
ward without  any  trace  of  the  arbitrary  or  random, 
but  rather  with  a  sort  of  mysterious  inexorability. 

Humpty  Dumpty  is  yet  another  dazzling  come- 
dic creation.  He  is  pompous,  rude,  smug,  suspicious, 
foolish.  Carroll  has  the  recipe  down  now;  mix  bom- 
bastic ego  with  pathetic  weakness,  and  you  get  come- 
dy. You'd  think  these  blustery  buffoons  would  get  old, 
but  they  never  do. 

Right  off  the  bat,  Dumpty  brisdes  at  being  called 
an  egg.  He  finds  it  "very  provoking"  (which  is  much 
funnier  to  me  than  "provocative,"  though  I  can't  hon- 
estly say  why) .  Alice  tries  to  be  nice  to  him,  but  Dumpty 
is  dismissive.  We  get  another  one  of  those  wonderfully 
awkward  pauses  and  then,  as  happens  periodically,  Al- 
ice's acid  tongue  returns  (she  is  a  tad  bit  nicer  than 
she  was  in  Wonderland,  but  not  much).  She  whispers 
to  herself  the  famous  poem,  "Humpty  Dumpty  sat  on 
a  wall:/Humpty  Dumpty  had  a  great  fall." 

This  gets  Dumpty's  attention.  He  demands  to 
know  Alice's  name,  then  tells  her  it's  a  "stupid  name." 
He  then  brags  about  his  own  name  and  "handsome 
shape."  This  is  wonderful.  Here  we  have  a  fat,  obnox- 
ious egg-man  sitting  fecklessly  on  a  high  wall  (that  he 
will  soon  fall  off!)  and,  for  no  apparent  reason,  insult- 
ing Alice.  This,  I  find  myself  thinking,  is  what's  actu- 
ally, truly,  deeply  funny. 

Alice  is  concerned  for  Dumpty,  sitting  up  there 
on  that  narrow  wall.  Is  the  subtext  here  that  Alice 


is  starting  to  act  like  a  mother  with  this  belligerent, 
bragging  little  boy,  just  as  she  did  with  Dum  and  Dee? 
Dumpty,  always  full  of  himself,  ignores  her  anxious, 
"Don't  you  think  you'd  be  safer  on  the  ground?"  "Of 
course  I  don't  think  so!  Why,  if  ever  I  did  fall  off — 
which  there's  no  chance  of — but  ifl  did — "  he  brags, 
the  King  has  promised  to  help  him. 

There  have  been  many  wonderful/ terrible  con- 
versations in  the  two  books,  but  this  is  perhaps  the 
greatest,  most  ridiculously  bad  of  them  all. 

Humpty  Dumpty  launches  into  a  poem  that  he 
tells  Alice  was  "written  entirely  for  your  amusement." 
Alice  tries  to  get  away,  but  Dumpty  is  insistent.  His 
poem  is  strange,  enigmatic,  but  with  a  clearly  ominous 
undertone.  It  is,  I  think,  yet  another  warning  to  Alice. 

I  sent  a  message  to  the  fish: 

I  told  them  "This  is  what  I  wish." 

Who  exactly  is  the  "I"  here?  Remember,  Dumpty 
said  only  that  the  poem  was  written  for  Alice's  amuse- 
ment, not  that  he  had  written  it.  Beyond  that,  what  is 
it  that  this  "I"  wishes  for  from  the  little  fish  that  can- 
not even  be  spoken  of?  It's  quite  obvious  that  Carroll 
was  in  love  with  Alice — both  books  revolve  around 
that  fact — but  this  poem  clearly  suggests  that  that 
love  had  an  "unspeakable"  aspect  to  it  as  well. 

I  sent  to  them  again  to  say 
"It  will  be  better  to  obey." 

But  the  fish  "would  not  listen  to  advice." 

I  took  a  kettle  large  and  new, 
Fit  for  the  deed  I  had  to  do. 

We  are  back  with  the  Walrus  and  the  Carpenter, 
but  this  time,  the  homicidal  impulses  are  more  na- 
ked; they  are  not  whimsical  in  the  least. 

My  heart  went  hop,  my  heart  went  thump: 
I  filled  the  kettle  at  the  pump. 

Then  some  one  came  to  me  and  said 
"The  little  fishes  are  in  bed." 

Can  there  be  any  doubt  what  "I"  is  thinking  of?  Is 
he  going  to  kill  the  little  sleeping  fishes  and  eat  them? 
Or  does  he  have  something  else  in  mind? 

For  a  moment,  the  poem's  "narrator"  seems  to 
reconsider.  "Wake  the  fishes  up!"  the  poem  shouts. 
Humpty  Dumpty  literally  screams  this  line  at  Alice. 
He  obviously  wants  her  to  hear  this.  But  she  doesn't. 
As  usual,  Alice  misses  the  warning — or  chooses  to 
miss  the  warning — completely. 

I  took  a  corkscrew  from  the  shelf: 
I  went  to  wake  them  up  myself. 

And  when  I  found  the  door  was  locked, 

I  pulled  and  pushed  and  kicked  and  knocked. 

And  when  I  found  the  door  was  shut, 
I  tried  to  turn  the  handle,  but — 


Here's  another  comment  on  how  these  books, 
specifically  the  comedy  within  them,  have  been  read. 
A  great  deal  of  energy  has  gone  into  discussing  the 
logic  and  wordplay  and  historical  references  the 
books  are  so  full  of.  And  certainly,  this  is  one  perfectly 
legitimate  way  to  read  the  Alice  books.  The  problem 
is  that  focusing  so  much  on  these  cerebral  aspects  ig- 
nores almost  completely  the  overpowering  emotional 
intensity  of  the  books.  It's  true,  Humpty  Dumpty 's 
song  is  not  funny  or  playful  or  clever;  it  is,  however, 
stunningly  dramatic.  The  veil  drops  for  a  moment, 
and  we  get  a  glimpse — opaque  for  sure,  but  discern- 
ible— of  the  true  stakes  of  the  story.  Dumpty's  poem 
is  disturbing,  yet  also  quite  moving.  Carroll  is  not,  in 
any  way,  trying  to  "seduce"  Alice  here.  He  is,  rather, 
telling  her  to  stay  away  from  him. 

Carroll  has  made  various  veiled  appearances  in 
the  two  books:  As  the  White  Rabbit,  the  unnamed 
letter  writer  at  the  Knave's  trial,  the  unnamed  older 
sister,  the  gentleman  dressed  in  white  paper,  the  un- 
named "I"  in  Humpty  Dumpty's  poem.  But  some  of 
those  were  perhaps  unintentional.  Carroll  knew  he 
was  writing  himself  as  the  White  Knight.  It's  his  self- 
portrait.  The  scene,  therefore,  is  highly  significant: 
Alice  and  her  creator  together  on  the  page  at  last. 

But  it's  a  strange  scene.  It  feels  like  something 
the  book  has  been  building  up  to  for  a  long  time,  but 
now  that  it's  happening — nothing  really  happens.  Al- 
ice and  the  White  Knight  walk  along,  chatting  about 
his  inventions,  with  him  falling  off  his  horse,  and  her 
helping  him  back  on,  and  this  goes  on  for  several  pag- 
es, until  they  are  just  about  to  part.  "And  here  I  must 
leave  you,"  the  White  Knight  says. 

And  you  think:  Why  did  Carroll  even  bother? 

But  then,  just  before  they  part,  the  White  Knight 
decides  to  sing  Alice  a  song  because  "you  are  sad."  Al- 
ice doesn't  really  want  to  hear  it.  (She  almost  never 
does;  it's  another  one  of  the  great  jokes  of  the  books — 
characters  are  constantly  reciting  poems  or  singing 
songs  to  Alice  that  she  doesn't  even  want  to  hear.) 

The  song  is  "very,  very  beautiful,"  according  to 
the  White  Knight.  It's  called — among  other  things — 
"The  Aged  Aged  Man,"  and  when  the  White  Knight 
begins  to  sing,  Alice  is  struck  by  it.  In  fact,  Carroll 
tells  us,  this  scene  is  the  most  memorable  thing  Al- 
ice experiences  on  her  entire  journey,  the  thing  that 
she  will  never  forget.  She  stands  there,  "Ustening,  in  a 
half-dream,  to  the  melancholy  music." 

The  White  Knight  sings  about  meeting  an  old 
man,  much  older  than  himself,  and  asking  him,  "How 
is  it  you  live?"  The  old  man's  answer: 

"...  I  look  for  butterflies 

That  sleep  among  the  wheat: 
I  make  them  into  mutton-pies, 
And  sell  them  in  the  street." 


19 


The  White  Knight  is  not  satisfied.  "Come,  tell  me 
how  you  live!"  he  says  and  thumps  the  old  man  on  the 
head.  The  old  man  tries  to  explain  once  again: 

".  .  .  when  I  find  a  mountain-rill, 
I  set  it  in  a  blaze;" 

The  White  Knight  shakes  the  old  man  until  his 
face  is  blue. 

"Come,  tell  me  how  you  live,"  I  cried, 
"And  what  it  is  you  do!" 

The  old  man's  response: 

He  said  "I  hunt  for  haddock's  eyes 

Among  the  heather  bright, 
And  work  them  into  waistcoat-buttons 

In  the  silent  night." 

And  suddenly  the  White  Knight  understands 
what's  being  said  to  him.  The  old  man,  of  course,  is 
the  White  Knight  himself.  In  Tenniel's  drawing,  he  is 
faceless,  slumped  over,  but  look  at  the  hair.  Carroll 
has  been  talking  to  himself: 

How  will  I  live? 

You  will  make  nonsense. 

No,  but  how  will  I  live? 

You  will  present  that  nonsense  to  the  world. 

In  the  end,  the  White  Knight  is  doing  absurd,  vio- 
lent things  to  himself.  The  old  man,  he  now  under- 
stands, was  in  agony,  rocking  his  body  back  and  forth 
in  misery.  Carroll  has  seen  his  own  future,  and  it  is 
lonely  and  full  of  anguish. 

The  story  is  effectively  over;  the  book  could  end 
at  this  moment  and  be  completely  satisfying.  There 
are  a  few  intriguing  moments  remaining,  however. 
First,  there's  the  odd  revelation  of  Humpty  Dumpty 
appearing  "with  a  corkscrew  in  his  hand."  Does  this 
suggest  that  the  "I"  in  Dumpty's  song  was  himself?  ("I 
took  a  corkscrew  from  the  shelf:/I  went  to  wake  them 
up  myself")  Alice  seems  to  think  so.  "I  know  what 
he  came  for,"  she  says;  "he  wanted  to  punish  the  fish 
because — " 

It  would  be  fascinating  if  Carroll  had  allowed  her 
to  finish  her  sentence.  What  would  she  have  said?  For 
not  giving  him  what  he  wanted?  For  not  obeying?  For 
locking  him  out? 

Not  long  after  that,  Alice  tells  the  banquet  table 
that  she  finds  it  very  strange  that  all  the  poems  she's 


heard  today  have  "been  about  fishes  in  some  way."  In 
truth,  the  only  one  that  was  about  fish  was  Humpty 
Dumpty's,  so  we  may  infer  that  Alice  is  still  thinking 
about  that  one — especially  given  her  recent  remark. 

I  think  Alice  is  on  to  Carroll  now;  I  think  she's  fig- 
ured out  what's  going  on.  Suddenly  the  banquet  starts 
to  descend  into  chaos.  There  is  drinking,  screaming; 
dishes  and  bottles  are  knocked  over.  Alice  needs  to 
take  charge.  The  White  Queen  grabs  Alice's  hair. 
"Something's  going  to  happen!"  she  screams. 

Phallic  imagery  abounds.  The  candles  suddenly 
grow  hugely  tall,  the  bottles  turn  into  birds — and 
strangest  of  all,  the  White  Queen's  place  is  taken  by  a 
piece  of  meat  that  hoarsely  laughs  at  Alice. 

"I  can't  stand  this  any  longer!"  Alice  cries.  She 
grabs  the  now  doll-sized  Red  Queen  and  shakes  her 
violently  back  and  forth  "with  all  her  might."  She  is 
clearly  enraged  at  this  woman — but  why?  Has  Alice, 
in  growing  up,  become  a  woman  like  the  Duchess, 
shaking  her  baby  until  it  became  a  pig? 

It's  a  strange  and  disturbing  exit  from  Looking- 
Glass  world — ^violent,  angry,  and  seemingly  irrational. 
Alice  has  grown  up  and  become  a  queen,  but  what 
she  has  become  in  order  to  do  so  is  unsettling. 

As  Alice  wakes  up,  she  is  shaking  a  kitten.  (What 
if  she  didn't  wake  up?  Would  she  shake  the  kitten  to 
death?) 

The  fascinating  thing  about  the  final  moments  of 
the  book:  Alice,  acting  as  a  sort  of  "mother  cat"  to  the 
two  kittens,  clearly  identifies  with  them,  and  not  with 
the  fishes  she  heard  so  much  poetry  about.  Tomor- 
row, she  tells  the  kittens,  she'll  recite  "The  Walrus  and 
the  Carpenter"  to  them  while  they  eat — and  they  can 
pretend  they're  eating  oysters. 

In  the  end,  then,  it  wasn't  Alice  who  was  an  oys- 
ter being  led  to  its  demise.  It  was  Carroll  himself. 
The  book  ends  in  agony.  Carroll  can't  stop  thinking 
of  Alice. 

Still  she  haunts  me,  phantomwise, 
Alice  moving  under  skies 

The  greatest  comedy  book  ever  written  ends  in 
heartbreak  and  anguish  (which  is  perhaps  as  good  a 
lesson  in  true  comedy  as  there  is).  No  one  has  come 
close  to  topping  Carroll's  achievement  in  nearly  a 
century  and  a  half  since.  His  uncanny  mixture  of  bril- 
liant, imaginative  play,  deep  silliness,  and  profound 
longing  and  pain  has  never  been  equaled. 


20 


■^ 


^ 


A  CARROLLIAN   IN   BRAZIL:   ADRIANA  PGLIANO 


ANDREW  SELLON  6=  MAHENDRA  SINGH 


^£1. 


^fS 


^J?',,^^ 


Part  I 


^ 


'he  last  decade  has  seen  a  growing  Brazilian 
influence  in  academia,  business,  geopolitics, 
and  now  it  seems,  the  world  of  Lewis  Car- 
roll. Brazil's  heterogeneous  and  youthful  culture  may 
prove  a  positive  influence  upon  CarroUian  studies 
and  art  globally — and  one  young  Brazilian  in  partic- 
ular, Adriana  Peliano,  seems  to  be  the  driving  force 
behind  this.  Not  only  has  she  produced  a  staggering 
abundance  of  wonderful  CarroUian  art,  she  has  also 
founded  the  Sociedade  Lewis  Carroll  do  Brasil  (Lewis 
Carroll  Society  of  Brazil),  a  critical  step  for  Brazil  and 
South  America  in  general. 

We  have  already  published  some  of  Adriana 's 
writings  and  artwork  {KL  83,  "Alice's  Ad- 
ventures on  the  Woodpecker  Ranch"), 
and  recently  Andrew  Sellon,  president  of 
the  LCSNA,  and  Mahendra  Singh,  editor 
of  the  Rectory  Umbrella,  conducted  the 
following  two-part  interview  with  her,  to 
be  concluded  in  the  next  issue. 

kl:  Could  you  give  us  a  brief  account  of  your 
background,  your  stay  in  the  U.K.,  and 
your  current  professional  activities  ? 

ap:  I  was  born  in  Brasilia  in  1974.  I  stud- 
ied architecture  and  graduated  in 
communication  with  postgraduate 
studies  in  design  and  the  visual  arts. 
I  first  went  to  England  in  1998  for 
the  centenary  year  of  Lewis  Carroll's 
death  in  Oxford.  After  that  I  studied 
design  in  London  for  a  month  and 
lived  in  Kent  for  a  year  while  I  did  an 
MA  in  new  media  arts. 

I'm  a  designer,  illustrator,  visual 
artist,  and  art  teacher.  I  mainly  work 


kl:  What  first  interested  you  in  Lewis  Carroll? 
ap:  My  interest  in  Carroll  began  when  I  was  a  little 
child  and  watched  Hanna-Barbera's  animated 
version  of  Alice  hundreds  of  times.  When  I  was 
nine,  I  received  Wonderland  as  a  gift,  with  beau- 
tiful illustrations  that  had  a  big  impact  on  my 
imagination.  This  Alice  of  Nicolas  Gilbert  was 
similar  to  a  real,  brunette  girl,  while  the  other 
characters  were  more  like  cartoons.  It  made  me 
feel  closer  to  Alice  and  her  adventures.  When 
I  was  12,  I  went  to  Disney  World  and  bought  a 
Cheshire  Cat,  still  my  mascot  and  my  first  Alice 
collectible.  At  the  age  of  14,  I  received  a  trans- 
lated adult  edition  with  a  seri- 
ous preface  that  opened  my 
mind  to  the  huge  possibilities 
of  understanding  the  book  in 
unsuspected  ways.  After  that, 
Alice  grew  inside  me;  I  began 
to  read  more  and  more  about 
CarroUian  topics  and  other 
works  of  Carroll  such  as  Sylvie 
and  Bruno  and  the  Snark,  and 
I  collected  memorabilia  and 
different  Alice  editions  and 
movies.  I  must  not  forget  to 
mention  my  love  for  Carroll's 
photographs  of  little  girls; 
Alice  Liddell  and  Xie  Kitchin 
are  my  favorites. 

kl:  You  have  done  so  many 
Carroll-related  things,  several  ver- 
sions of  the  Alice  books,  the  music 
An  unnamed  image  from  Adriana 's  first  col-       with  your  husband,  the  exhibition 
lage  series,  entitled  Metamorphosis.  She  was  collage  art — could  you  give  us  a 

brief  resume? 


promoting  dialogues  between  arts  such  15  at  the  time  and  had  just  read  an  "adult" 
as  literature,  the  visual  arts,  music,  and  edition  of  Alice  that  provided  som^phihsophi- 
theater,  creating  covers,  posters,  books,  cat  and  psychoanalytical  analyses  of  Carroll's 
and  other  graphic  stuff.  I  work  as  a 


work,  ideas  which  interacted  powerfully  with 

,.    .     ,  .      ,     .  her  simultaneous  discovery  of  the  works  of 

freelancer,  usmg  digital  manipulation, 

photography,  collage,  and  assemblage, 

mixing  different  techniques  to  create  hybrid 

characters,  puzzles,  visual  games,  and  labyrinths 


ap:  In  my  graduate  course  I  did 
my  first  photographic  study  rep- 
resenting Alice  in  her  search 
for  identity  and  her  attendant 
inner  crisis.  I  manipulated 
the  images  in  the  laboratory — this  was  before 
learning  Photoshop!  Then  I  began  an  enor- 


of  dreams  such  as  my  Alice  illustrations. 


mous  research  process,  both  theoretical  and 
iconographic,  to  produce  my  own  illustrations. 


21 


I  created  the  characters  as  assemblages,  with  a 
plethora  of  symbolic  objects,  and  then  digitally 
manipulated  these  illustrations. 

During  that  time  I  also  made  an  Alician 
sound  collage  with  my  husband,  the  composer 
and  sound  designer  Paulo  Beto  (it  was  around 
1996, 1  think).  I  illustrated  a  book  based  on 
Carroll's  life  and  the  Alicehooks  in  2010,  and 
I  have  just  finished  another  project  I  began 
ten  years  ago,  to  translate  the  original  Alice's 
Adventures  under  Ground  manuscript  and  then  rec- 
reate it  in  Portuguese,  using  Carroll's  digitized 
handwriting,  drawings,  and  even  the  same  page 
design.  It  will  be  published  at  the 
end  of  this  year  by  Scipione. 

I  have  also  written  three  tales 
inspired  by  Alice,  in  which  I 
mixed  her  into  the  literary  uni- 
verse of  different  authors,  such 
as  the  Dadaist  Kurt  Schwitters 
(the  tale  "Dreamchild"),  and  the 
amazing  Brazilian  writer  Clarice 
Lispector  (the  tale  "ClaHce"). 
One  of  these  tales  became  a 
multimedia  performance  with 
reading,  music,  and  projections. 
I  wouldn't  call  these  stories 
parodies  but  literary  montages, 
intertextual  sewing.  They  are  not 
published  yet. 

I  also  presented  an  art  installa- 
tion in  a  recent  collective  exhibi- 
tion inspired  by  Alice,  Alicidades 
(a  portmanteau  corresponding 
in  English  to  Alicities) ,  where  I 
created  a  large  montage  titled 
Butterfly  Tears  in  which  Alice  is 
inside  an  anatomical  illustration 
of  a  human  head  (a  hollow  skull 
representing  the  rabbit  hole), 
crying  butterflies  which  drift 
through  space  to  land  upon  a 
blue  cocoon.  I  imagined  it  as  a 
process  about  inner  transformations. 

Recently  I  finished  a  series  of  collages  using  a 
rare  vintage  Alice  from  the  1930s  illustrated  by 
the  first  Brazilian  y4/2V^  illustrator,  John  Fahrion. 
Some  of  these  collages  were  sent  to  the  interna- 
tional members  of  our  Society. 

I  maintain  two  Carrollian  blogs  and  also 
conduct  workshops  where  people  can  create 
subjective  metamorphic  and  kaleidoscopic  Alices 
through  collages,  and  surrealist  games  like 
the  Exquisite  Corpse — all  of  this  to  answer  the 
question:  Who  is  Alice  for  you?  You  can  see  the 
results  online. 


(jTapituIo  1 


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vrrria.  nd  l/tfra.  Ja  rio^  sfm, 
ttr  TuuU.  pro.  feXVr:  a:mst  ou. 
JuaS  vuex  tinitL  n/iuu^  o 
tiVfo  jut.  Sujt  irynS.  eitara 
Iwio,  mas  tie  rzoe  imAa.  ^au- 
ras t  n^m  t«nvtria£,  moJ&  yfrro.  ou£.  *«T-vt   tt-nx  livye,  />«».sptt. 
A  iictf  sern.  ji^uraa  t  ^^rn.  cofiytrtas  t  £/a  inti.0  cotn^^u 
a.  fyttitar  coisiyo  (t(ojeito  jiu  poJi,jti  jut  o  color  t^amuie 
dia  J-^^'  tUa.  St.  Sfntir  f>rtgiufosa.  t  mtto  Irtl/'J  «e.  o  fm2.tr 
tit.    ttctr  lorut  jtUrlantla  it.  ■m.^r^orUae  vaJl-ria  o  esj-orft 
Jit.  it.  U<iantt.r  t  col/itr  as  flares,  (faimdo  elt  rtfiente.   wn 
coelhe  tT-ance  it  olkei  rosaJos  pa^soa,  corrtnaU  fitrtinJio  tltta.. 

Nia  ka>i,a  tuJm.  d.1.  rruuta  t,%tra.ortUnaTti)  ncita,  nt.m 
■mjt&mo  Aliit  CamSif^trea.  iaa  fara  da  nartnat  ^^nde 
au.yiu.  o  coelha  ^a/a-tu^o  sax^nAo  * Ac,ai.,ai.  f  (jOTna  tstbu. 
atretHaJo '    fpt-nsAndo  Tto  case  mauk   lra.rtLt,  A  lit*.  ptr~ 
ctln.lL.   jai.    tUvtriA    ttr  St  tspaLtitaxU,  $o'  auJL  naujajtit 
marr\Vitb    tajla  iht  paxictu.  iruuto    JUtturalj^ma^  gujLn' 
da  o  caeuia  iriraa.  am.  rtZaaca  do   Iralso  ale  toUtt,,  odtaaL  a.% 
karat  t.  sa-ia.  ttt  nova  tm.  iisp*rat(a,  ALta  se  itu.  conht. 


The  first  chapter  ofAdriana  's  Portuguese 
version  of  the  Under  Ground  manuscript. 
Carroll's  handwriting  had  been  recreated  in  a  digi 
tal  typeface.  Adriana  began  this  project  in  1998 
and  it  should  be  finished  and  available 
to  the  public  shortly. 


That's  the  most  important.  Wow,  it's  too  much, 
isn't  it?  Right  now  I'm  planning  a  big  exhibition 
connecting  Carroll  and  Edward  Lear.  It  will  be  a 
cabinet  of  wonders! 

kl:  In  your  earlier  article  for  the  Knight  Letter,  you 
explained  the  works  ofMonteiro  Lobato  and  how 
he  introduced  Lewis  Carroll  to  Brazil.  How  popular 
is  Lewis  Carroll  and  his  style  of  nonsense  in  Brazil 
today  ? 
ap:  Monteiro  Lobato  was  the  first  translator  of  Alice 
into  Brazilian  Portuguese.  He  noted  in  his  intro- 
duction that  it  was  very  hard  to  translate  this 
book,  since  it  had  been  written  for  the  English 
mind.  Lobato  created  an  impor- 
tant literary  adventure  series 
for  Brazilian  children,  17  books 
where  the  children  had  adven- 
tures with  many  characters  of 
the  cinema,  mythology,  folklore, 
and  literature.  So  he  translated 
Carroll's  book  and  also  invited 
Alice  to  visit  Brazil  in  his  own 
books. 

Some  translators  have  recre- 
ated Carroll's  puns,  parodies, 
and  word  games  into  Portuguese. 
They  didn't  try  to  make  literal 
translations  but  used,  for  exam- 
ple, popular  Brazilian  children's 
songs.  They  thought  it  would  be 
closer  to  Carroll's  playfulness 
if  people  could  understand  the 
game.  I  think  these  translations 
bring  the  spirit  of  the  book 
closer  to  children,  but  of  course 
adults  usually  prefer  more  fidel- 
ity, which  sometimes  loses  the 
humor  and  the  complexity  of 
the  text.  For  example,  last  week, 
while  observing  Maggie  Taylor's 
illustration  of  the  three  sisters 
who  lived  in  the  well,  I  found 
the  drawings  on  the  wall  rather 
strange.  Then  I  realized  that  the  word  "draw" 
had  a  double  meaning,  but  in  Portuguese  that 
disappears. 

But  we  have  some  important  Brazilian  Alice 
translators,  and  their  works  are  very  significant. 
"Jabberwocky"  has  had  some  creative  and  auda- 
cious translations  that  are  very  exciting.  Since 
the  seventies  we  have  had  some  more  sophis- 
ticated translations,  and  some  years  ago  the 
Annotated  Alice  vr2LS  published  here.  We  also  have 
some  free  adaptations  that  adapt  Alice's  refer- 
ences to  our  popular  culture,  as  I  noted  before. 
Alice  is  the  biggest  Carrollian  reference  here; 
his  photographs  are  also  famous.  We  had  one 


22 


good  Sylvie  and  Bruno  translation  and  one  of  the 
Snark,  which  is  rare  and  almost  impossible  to 
find.  At  our  blog  people  can  find  more  Brazilian 
editions  of  Carroll. 

The  Brazilian  public  reception  is  a  complex 
answer.  I  will  base  it  upon  my  own  experiences 
talking  to  people  and  giving  workshops  about 
the  subject.  For  many  people  Alice  is  still  a  crazy, 
sometimes  scary,  sometimes  funny  Disney  movie. 
Many  went  recently  to  see  the  Tim  Burton 
movie;  some  went  more  for  Tim  Burton  than  for 
Alice.  Others  just  ask  me  if  Carroll  used  drugs 
and  are  suspicious  of  his  love  for  girls.  But  some 
publishers  have  presented 
gorgeous  and  serious  editions 
that  help  people  to  love  the 
book  in  a  less  superficial  way. 
I  receive  many  e-mails  from 
students  preparing  scholarly 
works  inspired  by  Alice,  look- 
ing for  a  deeper  understand- 
ing. Tim  Burton  stimulated 
this  market  and  the  interest  in 
the  book.  We  don't  know  yet 
to  what  extent  it  is  a  transitory 
fever  or  if  it  vnW  last.  Alice  is 
also  a  cult  among  people  with 
an  open  mind  and  literary 
background,  but  unfortunately 
Brazilian  people  are  not  very 
literate  in  general. 

At  the  same  time  I  have  no 
doubt  that  the  interest  in  the 
subject  here  is  very  different 
from  England.  Alice  is  mostly  a 
general  notion  of  a  nonsensical 
and  psychedelic  universe  that 
stimulates  the  imagination,  the 
humor,  and  the  surreal.  The 
Annotated  Alice  made  a  good 
impression;  people  now  usually 
mention  aspects  of  that.  But  I 
still  know  very  few  people  who 
are  interested  in  discussing  spe- 
cific passages  of  the  texts  or  different  analytical 
approaches. 

kl:  How  do  Brazilians  react  to  your  Carrollian  art,  espe- 
cially the  surrealist  element?  Do  they  prefer  a  more 
literal  approach  (like  North  American  visual  culture 
and  mass  media),  or  is  your  culture  more  open  to  such 
intuitive  visual/linguistic  thinking? 

ap:  My  Alice  illustrations  for  both  books  were  never 
published.  When  I  did  them  12  years  ago  the 
publishers  told  me  they  were  amazing  but  they 
weren't  commercial.  Now  the  situation  has 
changed.  We  have  more  experimental  illustra- 
tions published  here,  thanks  in  great  extent  to 


Salvador Dalis  mouth  serves  as  a  surrealist's  hookah,  demanding 
Alice's  identity  and  asking  us  to  explain  its  own  nature.  An  im- 
age from  the  5m^5  Alicinations,  1996-1998.  More  images  from 
this  series  are  available  on-line  in  Adriana's  Alicinations  blog. 


one  publishing  house  in  special,  Cosac  &  Naify, 
that  has  recently  published  a  very  artistic  and 
metalinguistic  Alice  illustrated  by  Luiz  Zerbini. 
I  have  done  some  exhibitions  with  my  work 
in  galleries,  museums,  and  the  Internet.  Many 
people  who  saw  the  photographs  of  my  char- 
acters created  by  assemblages  (I  didn't  exhibit 
the  illustrations)  find  them  very  intriguing  and 
exciting  but  don't  know  enough  of  the  book  to 
understand  the  linguistic  aspects  and  the  refer- 
ences to  the  text;  they  have  just  my  explanations 
as  a  guide.  The  people  who  know  Alice  better 
or  who  are  more  intimately  familiar  with  art 

usually  love  them, 
since  they  propose 
games  of  language 
and  labyrinths  of 
possibilities  and  do 
not  permit  a  passive 
understanding. 

kl:  You  have  several 
strong  motifs  in  your 
Carrollian  work;  we'll 
start  with  the  feminine 
motif.  It's  common 
amongst  Carrollian 
artists  to  use  Alice  as 
a  symbol  of  feminine 
independence  and 
growth,  but  when  you 
use  this  motif  you 
ofien  incorporate  cer- 
tain sexual  tensions 
within  it,  although 
with  great  taste 
and  skill.  Is  this  a 
Brazilian  reaction  or 
an  Adriana  reaction? 
ap:  I  think  it  is 
more  an  Adriana 
reaction.  Alice's  sexu- 
ality is  rarely  explored 
here,  since  it's  con- 
sidered more  a  book 
for  children.  I  need  to  mention  one  important 
artist  that  explores  the  sexuality  in  Alice,  Arlindo 
Daibert,  but  his  work  is  very  radical,  and  is  still 
almost  unknovm. 

In  my  case  I  was  always  intrigued  by  the 
corporal  feelings  of  Alice,  her  metamorphic 
identity,  her  bodily  transformations.  If  we  think 
of  a  growing  girl  becoming  a  woman,  her  grow- 
ing consciousness  of  her  own  body  is  significant. 
I  imagine  that  at  some  level  it  has  to  do  with 
Carroll's  anxieties  about  women's  bodies  and  his 
own  body.  I  didn't  study  any  deeply  sexual  analy- 
ses of  the  book;  I  followed  my  intuition.  Since 


23 


Alice  moves  me  in  her  sensuous  way  of  dealing 
with  foods  and  drink,  doors  and  keys.  I'm  deeply 
interested  in  her  metamorphic  body  and  iden- 
tity. I  think  Alice's  identity  cannot  be  fixed;  is  a 
constant  becoming,  she  flows  in  her  own  tears, 
mixes  with  mushrooms  and  animals,  is  mistaken 
for  flowers  and  snakes,  faces  vertigo,  and  is  then 
threatened  with  decapitation.  Despite  all  the  dif- 
ficulties, she  conquers  with  her  inner  strength; 
she  is  my  heroine. 

It  is  not  just  an  intellectual 
connection,  it  involves  the  whole 
being.  Maybe  her  sexuality  is 
close  to  children's  sexuality, 
inhabiting  her  whole  body,  and 
like  a  child,  she  fears  and  cannot 
understand  it.  I  love  the  Alice 
of  Jan  Svankmajer  since  it  deals 
with  Alice's  "basements"  and 
"attics,"  her  unconscious,  facing 
fear,  sexuality,  and  rites  of  pas- 
sage. 

There  are  many  symbols  in 
the  books  that  point  to  sexual 
suggestions.  I'm  attracted  to 
the  unreachable  garden;  it's  an 
image  of  desire  and  its  dissatis- 
faction. In  Freudian  terms,  it  also 
suggests  a  conflict  between  the 
principles  of  reality  and  pleasure. 
Alice  is  close  to  a  phallic  symbol, 
in  a  flux  between  potency  and 
impotency. 

For  me  Alice's  sexuality  has 
more  to  do  with  a  jump  into 
the  inner  caves  of  the  body, 
beyond  fixed  identities,  than 
with  specific  psychoanalytic  argu- 
ments. I  avoid  making  the  image 
an  example  of  the  theory  that 
may  be  schematic.  I  want  to  be 
psychologically  touched  by  the 
symbols  more  than  by  intellectual 
ideas;  I'm  an  artist  more  than  a  theorist.  But  of 
course  I'm  familiar  with  psychology  and  psycho- 
analysis. I've  read  more  Jung  than  Freud,  mainly 
in  connection  with  art  and  fairy  tales. 

KL:  Is  such  an  open  feminism  important  to  your  vision 
of  Alice?  Is  the  sexual  aspect  important?  What  do  you 
think  of  other  popular  Alices,  such  as  the  Disney  film, 
which  avoid  such  issues  or  make  them  trivial?  Does  it 
matter? 

ap:  I'm  interested  in  feminist  and  sexual  explora- 
tions when  they  are  not  obvious  or  those  of  a 
pamphleteer.  I've  recently  read  a  beautiful  and 
sensitive  feminist  andjungian  analysis  of  Tim 
Burton's  Alice.  The  arguments  were  gorgeous  but 


I  didn't  connect  it  to  the  movie.  Many  critics  try 
to  fit  art  in  their  schemas;  I  have  an  open  dia- 
logue with  theories  to  avoid  that. 

Disney's  Alice  is  herself  too  conservative  and 
superficial,  to  my  taste;  I  like  the  movie  more  for 
the  other  characters,  and  also  some  of  the  visual 
solutions  like  the  Cheshire  Cat  disappearing,  the 
caterpillar  smoking,  and  the  hybrid  and  nonsen- 
sical characters  that  live  in  the  woods,  like  the 
bread  and  butterfly  which  I  love.  But  the  movie 

is  more  Disney 
than  Carroll;  we 
shouldn't  compare 
them  too  much 
or  ask  for  fidelity. 
The  worst  aspect  of 
Disney's  Alice  is  that 
people  confuse  it 
with  the  book.  In 
fact  I  like  every- 
thing connected 
to  Alice,  including 
what  I  don't  like 
(laughs). 

I  believe  the 
sexual  aspects  are 
important  because 
they  go  deeper  into 
Alice's  corporal 
conflicts  and  her 
frustrated  desires. 
Her  body  is  in  con- 
tinuous metamor- 
phoses and  fluxes 
that  sometimes  fit, 
sometimes  don't, 
which  is  sexual  in 
a  broader  way.  I 
identify  with  these 
aspects  in  particu- 
lar. 

The  idea  of  the 
rite  of  passage  is 
also  very  intriguing  in  a  more  feminist  approach. 
In  a  way  Alice  faces  her  identity  and  the  obsta- 
cles of  society  to  become  closer  to  her  inner 
strength.  This  point  of  view  interests  me,  of 
course.  Alice  stimulates  us  to  defy  power,  to  defy 
the  nonsense  of  social  constraints.  She  opens 
new  possibilities  for  children  and  woman  as  well. 
In  this  way  it  is  a  political  book,  showing  that  lit- 
erature is  not  made  to  domesticate  with  morals, 
but  to  stimulate  the  independence  of  thought. 

KL:  /  would  also  say  that  a  certain  Freudian  language  of 
images  is  in  your  work,  similar  to  Hans  Bellmer.  Is 
this  deliberate? 

ap:  I  love  Hans  Bellmer.  I  believe  he  had  a  deep 


From  the  2010  series,  Clalice,  collages  for  a  tale  Adriana  is  writing 
in  which  she  mixes  Alice  with  the  texts  of  the  wonderful  Brazilian 
writer  Clarice  Lispector.  The  collages  include  pictures  based  on  Car- 
roll's photographs,  fulia  Margaret  Cameron 's  photographs  and  Rene 
Bour's  drawings  for  a  vintage  French  Alice  edition. 


24 


impact  on  my  work,  as  did  other  artists  and 
many  surrealists  and  also  Dadaists  like  Raoul 
Hausmann  and  Hannah  Hoch.  I'm  also 
very  influenced  by  contemporary  artists  like 
Svankmajer  and  the  Brothers  Quay.  As  I  told  you 
I'm  open  to  psychoanalytic  analyses,  but  I  don't 
go  further  into  Freudian  theories.  I  just  read 
Freud's  own  texts  after  my  Alice  project  and 
became  engaged  in  particular  with  the  idea  of 
the  uncanny,  which  also  connects  me  to  Bellmer. 
I  have  affinities  with  his  dismembered  dolls  and 
reassembled  bodies  that 
point  to  an  anguish 
related  to  the  crisis  of 
the  body  image  and  the 
identity  as  an  integrated 
whole.  I  also  identify 
with  his  conception  of 
the  body  as  an  anagram 
that  can  be  rewritten. 
Psychoanalytic  con- 
cepts were  not  the  main 
point  during  my  creative 
process,  but  I'm  sure 
that  what  I  read  influ- 
enced me,  as  did  my 
analytical  personal  pro- 
cess, which  drew  upon 
the  influence  of  my  own 
unconscious  mind.  I  was 
also  influenced  by  psy- 
choanalysis through  the 
surrealist  movement. 

kl:  Surrealist  and  even  proto- 
surrealist  influences  seem  so 
important  in  your  work,  but 
is  this  fair  to  Lewis  Carroll? 
We  know  that  he  and  his 
contemporaries  visualized 
his  work  in  a  very  literal, 
charming  manner.  The 
surrealist  philosophy  would 
probably  have  horrified  him. 
Can  we  excuse  ourselves 

from  this  "translator's  betrayal"?  Do  you  think  that 
surrealism  is  within  Lewis  Carroll  or  have  we  imposed 
it,  looking  back  from  the  twenty-first  and  twentieth 
centuries  ? 

ap:  These  are  all  big  questions.  I'm  interested  in 
what  Carroll  inspired  after  him  as  much  as  in 
what  he  proposed  in  his  own  time.  I  don't  think 
he  really  was  a  surrealist  but  surrealism  had  an 
open  mind  to  all  manifestations  that  broke  with 
a  strict  rational  mind,  opening  it  to  other  states 
of  consciousness  and  a  broader  understanding 
of  reality  and  language.  I  think  Carroll's  works 
fits  in  this  universe.  So  he  is  in  fact  a  very  fertile 
surrealist  inspiration. 


Humpty  Dumpty  says  Bosch  to  all  that.  One  ofAdriana  's  illustra- 
tions/or the  book:  Lewis  Carroll  era  victoriana  by  Kdtia  Canton 
(2010).  The  book  explores  the  Mice  books  along  with  Carroll's  life 
and  the  historical  context  of  the  Victorian  age.  These  are  digital 
collages  mixing  Tenniel's  illustrations  with  various  famoiis  paint- 
ings of  art  history,  in  this  instance,  Hieronymus  Bosch's  Garden  of 
Earthly  Delights. 


I  give  lectures  about  the  Alice  transformations 
in  the  story  of  visual  arts,  the  evolution  of  her 
visual  representations  in  art  and  illustration.  I 
love  how  she  can  change  and  become  incorpo- 
rated in  the  transformations  of  culture  and  the 
imaginary.  I  like  to  emphasize  her  plasticity,  the 
way  she  grows,  twists  and  turns,  and  is  always 
becoming,  from  surrealism,  psychedelic,  gothic, 
steampunk,  etc.  I  don't  think  it  is  a  betrayal;  it 
shows  how  deep  her  presence  is  in  our  culture 
and  collective  unconscious.  In  this  way,  I  think 
that  her  doubts  about  her- 
self after  several  transfor- 
mations continue  during 
history.  I  don't  know  any 
literary  character  that  has 
been  represented  in  so 
many  radically  different 
ways. 

As  a  collage  artist,  in- 
spired by  surrealism  but  not 
a  surrealist,  what  interests 
me  is  the  possibility  to  cre- 
ate new  connections,  pro- 
pose displacements,  freely 
appropriate.  I  intend  to 
open  new  ways  to  see  Car- 
roll's works  instead  of  be- 
coming fixed  in  Victorian 
references.  Whoever  works 
with  collage  is  always  look- 
ing for  new  possibilities  to 
play  with  the  same  images; 
it  is  like  a  semiotic  game, 
a  machine  to  re-signify.  I 
learned  to  admire  Tenniel's 
Alice,  but  I've  spent  a  long 
time  being  disappointed 
by  how  many  illustrators 
were  fixated  on  his  example 
instead  of  liberating  the 
imagination.  Alice  liberates 
my  imagination,  that's  why  I 
still  follow  the  white  rabbit. 
I  love  to  subvert  Tenniel,  and  I  will  dare  to  recon- 
figure him  as  much  as  I  can. 

Carroll  knew  that  his  works  had  a  broader 
meaning,  bigger  than  his  own  understanding.  I 
think  his  illustrations  are  more  intriguing  than 
he  himself  understood.  I'm  publishing  his  manu- 
script of  Alice's  Adventures  under  Ground  and  have 
written  a  text  about  his  illustrations.  I  believe 
that  in  a  way  they  are  opposite  to  Tenniel's.  I 
think  Tenniel's  were  adequate  to  the  common 
Victorian  taste,  more  conventional,  formal, 
and  rigid;  Carroll's  drawings  are  an  invitation 
to  strangeness,  the  unknown,  and  the  under- 


25 


ground.  That's  why  I  feel  they  have  connections 
with  Hieronymus  Bosch  and  the  surrealist  besti- 
aries, creating  monstrous,  hybrid  creatures  like 
the  gryphon  and  the  mock  turtle.  Their  illustra- 
tions are  my  favorites  among  all. 

kl:  You  seem  interested  in  various  literary/philosophical 
theories  and  systems.  How  is  theory  useful  for  a  work- 
ing artist  such  as  you,  when  so  many  other  artists 
(and  readers)  happily  ignore 
it? 

ap:  I  look  for  ideas  that  pro- 
pose new  understandings 
of  language,  culture,  and 
art.  When  I'm  engaged  in 
a  work  of  illustration  or 
art,  I  can  read  all  kinds 
of  texts  that  stimulate  me 
to  present  the  literary 
text  in  a  more  disturbing, 
provocative,  and  unusual 
way.  I'm  interested  in 
everything  that  opens 
news  doors  in  my  imagina- 
tion and  way  of  thinking. 
What  I  read  influences 
me  a  lot,  but  many  times 
when  I  create  I  forget  the 
theory,  although  it  may 
still  be  working  in  the 
background. 

For  my  Wonderland  and 
Looking-Glass  illustrations 
I  read  many  articles  and 
theories,  then  I  chose  two 
main  references.  One 
was  the  approach  of  the 
Annotated  Alice  (which 
wasn't  known  in  Brazil  at 
that  time)  to  show  that 
the  book  was  not  a  silly 


Messrs.  Carroll  and  Dodgson  subsumed  by  the  Brothers  Dum! 
Another  illustration  Jrom  Kdtia  Canton's  book,  in  this  case  utili 
zing  Giuseppe  Arcimboldo's painting.  The  Librarian. 


party,  as  Disney  suggested.  I  wanted  to  demon- 
strate how  it  was  grounded  in  the  reality  of  its 
time,  the  author's  life,  mathematics,  logic,  and 
scientific  references,  etc.  It  gave  multiple  levels 
to  my  work  since  I  was  always  mixing  my  char- 
acters and  the  linguistic  inventions  with  photo- 
graphs of  Carroll,  Alice,  and  other  references. 
It  presented  a  possibility  to  operate  inside  and 
outside  the  story,  to  sew  in 
references,  play  with  real- 
ity and  imagination,  etc. 

I  also  became  fascinated 
by  Gilles  Deleuze  and  his 
The  Logic  of  Sense.  This  is 
a  very  complex  work  but 
also  very  powerful,  decon- 
structing the  whole  system 
of  occidental  logic  and 
recreating  our  understand- 
ing of  language,  sense,  and 
reality.  When  I  did  the 
Wonderland  characters  and 
illustrations  I  was  thinking 
of  Deleuze 's  concepts  of 
the  division  of  bodies  and 
"surface  events,"  of  the  bod- 
ies in  their  deep,  logical 
attributes  and  the  surface 
events  that  flow  on  the  sur- 
face of  the  sense.  It's  diffi- 
cult to  explain  even  in  my 
own  language,  so  I  won't 
go  further  in  English,  to 
avoid  misunderstandings. 
The  point  is  that  Carroll, 
for  Deleuze,  proposes  a 
series  of  paradoxes  ques- 
tioning both  good  sense 
and  common  sense.  I  also 
followed  this  path. 


^OCJElDcyfi:iE 


The  logo  of  the  Lewis  Carroll  Society  of  Brazil,  a  key  that  opens  doors 
into  other  dimensions,  designed  by  Adriana  Peliano.  (2009) 


26 


i^fL 


T*^ 


-^0^ 


^ 


Am  I  Blue? 


MARK  BURSTEIN 


^i^gl 


:»^ 


-^ 


Msk  anyone  what  color  Alice's  dress  is  and 
they'll  undoubtedly  reply,  "Why,  blue,  of 
course."  Unless  you  happen  to  be  talking  to 
a  CarroUian  who  knows  that  the  only  authorized  color 
edition,  The  Nursery  Alice  in  1890,  which  was  colored 
by  Tenniel  and  featured  a  cover  by  E.  Gertrude  Thom- 


son, depicts  her  wearing  a  corn  yellow  frock  through- 
out, though  the  apron  is  trimmed  with  blue  and  sports 
a  large  blue  bow.  The  equally  authorized  Wonderland 
Postage-stamp  Case  (1889)  and  De  La  Rue  card  game 
(1894)  also  show  her  in  a  yellow  dress.  End  of  story. 


^  Find  the  *Rabbit  runnina  away* 

and 

The' Fan'. 


Postage-Stamp    Case 


.ICE  TELESCOPING. 


Above,  left:  The  Nursery  Alice, 
1890 

Above,  right:  De  La  Rue  card  game, 
1894 

Left:  The  Wonderland  Postage- 
Stamp  Case,  1889 


27 


Top  left:  McKay,  1912 

Tap  right:  Crowell,  1893  (Wonderland) 

Below  right:  Crowell,  1893  (Looking-Glass) 


\  '^' 


MWi'k' 


Not  quite.  American  publisher  Thomas  Crowell 
published  a  fine  edition  in  1893  with  one  color  fron- 
tispiece, depicting  her  in  a  blue  frock,  in  each  of  the 
two  books.  Randomly  looking  through  editions,  au- 
thorized or  un-,  that  appeared  around  that  time  and 
feature  at  least  one  color  plate,  I  notice,  for  example, 
a  McLoughlin  Brothers  edition  of  Wonderland  from 
1903  in  which  her  dress  is  red  on  the  cover  yet  char- 
treuse in  the  frontispiece.  Many  other  pictorial  covers 
from  that  period  have  her  in  red,  and  frontispieces 
or  interior  illustrations  dress  her  in  either  red,  dark 
orange,  or  yellow  (I  am  just  looking  at  the  Tenniels 
and  Tenniel  knock-offs,  not  those  by  other  artists  such 
as  Rackham). 


28 


Above,  left:  Macmillan  Little  Folks,  1903 
Above,  right:  Macmillan  Little  Folks,  1907 
Left:  Hurst,  1904 
Below:  Donohue,  c.  1901 


In  1903,  Macmillan  issued  "The  Little  Folks'  Edi- 
tion" of  Wonderland  and  Looking-Glass  "adapted  for 
very  little  folks  from  the  original  story,"  in  which  the 
32  Tenniel  illustrations  in  them  had  been  simplified, 
redrawn,  and  then  colored.  Alice  wears  a  blue  dress 
throughout,  which  is  likely  to  have  been  the  origin 
of  this  particular  canard.  However,  fascinatingly,  in 
the  second  Litde  Folks'  Edition  (1907),  her  dress  is 
consistently  red!  The  illustrations  had  reverted  to  the 
original  Tenniels,  but  now  were  colored.  Was  it  a  mar- 
keter's decision?  A  printer's?  Mrs.  Hargreaves's? 


29 


Then,  in  1911,  Macmillan  released  a  combined 
Wonderland/Looking-Glass  "with  sixteen  new  colour 
plates"  (Harry  Theaker  did  the  honors) — and  there 
her  dress  is,  once  again,  blue.  Despite  an  American 
release  of  the  "Little  Folks"  red-dress  edition  as  "Wee 
Books  for  Wee  Folks"  by  Altemus  in  1926,  blue  was 
pretty  much  ingrained.  Certainly  the  1946  Random 
House  boxed  set  with  the  Fritz  Kredel  coloring  and  a 
few  years  later,  Mary  Blair's  characteristic  hue  for  her 
dress  in  Disney's  1951  film  sealed  the  deal,  at  least  as 
far  as  popular  culture  goes. 
Curiouser  and  curiouser. 


Disney,  1951 


I  am  indebted  to  Selwyn  Goodacre,  Frankie  Morris, 
Brian  Sibley,  Gary  Sternick,  and  Edward  Wake- 
ling  for  assistance.  Goodacre's  article  "So  What 
Should  Alice  Wear?"  (Dodo  News  No.  12,  August 
1992,  from  the  Daresbury  Dodo  Glubfor  children) 
informs  this  as  well. 


Random  House,  1 946 


-^ 


Zits  by  Jerry  Scott  and  Jim  Borgman 


30 


^ 


^ 


^ 


^ 


leaves  fKoo) 
The  Deaneny  Ganden 


What  is  the  current  copyright  state 
of  Lewis  Carroll's  Alice  in  Wonder- 
land, Through  the  Looking-Glass,  and 
The  Hunting  of  the  Snark  books? 
More-or-less  trustworthy  sources 
on  the  Internet  (Project  Guten- 
berg and  Wikipedia),  indicate 
that  these  books  are  in  the  public 
domain.  I'm  asking  this  because  I 
am  trying  to  create  a  comic  where 
Alice  is  a  character  and  Won- 
derland and  the  Looking-Glass 
world  are  part  of  the  settings.  I 
have  been  told  that  as  long  as  my 
sources  are  the  books,  I  can  quote 
Carroll's  work  with  no  fear.  How- 
ever, I  have  also  been  told  that 
Disney  is  apparendy  the  current 
"owner"  of  Alice  in  Wonderland  in 
North  America.  I  find  that  hard  to 
believe,  especially  since  ABC  just 
released  a  mini-series  about  Alice 
as  well. 

So,  are  the  books  truly  in  the 
public  domain?  Are  there  adapta- 
tion rights  that  belong  to  some- 
one? Or  does  Disney  only  have 
rights  on  their  "version"  of  the 


story?  My  project  only  references 
the  original  books.  Should  there 
be  problems? 

Thank  you  so  much  for  shed- 
ding light  on  this  litde  shadow  in 
my  mind. 

Isabelle  Melangon 

LCSNA  President  Andrew  Sellon  re- 
sponds: 

You  are  correct  that  all  three  of 
Charles Dodgson's  (Lewis  Carroll's) 
greatest  literary  works  are  now  in  the 
public  domain.  In  fact,  they  have  been 
for  many  years  now.  You  are  also  cor- 
rect that  Disney  can  only  copyright 
their  own  original  content.  By  the  way, 
a  few  years  ago  Disney  actually  part- 
nered with  Slave  Labor  Graphics  to 
produce  a  Tommy  Kovac/Sonny  Liew 
comic  series  called  Wonderland  (origi- 
nally in  six  issues,  now  in  a  single 
hardcover  volume  as  well),  which  in 
part  pokes  fun  at  the  visual  style  of 
their  animated  Alice  from  1 93  L  You 
might  want  to  have  a  look  at  that;  it 's 
quite  good.  You  might  also  want  to 
browse  our  website  a  bit  more,  as  it  has 
a  lot  of  information  that  might  provide 


you  with  additional  ideas  for  your  own 
project. 

While  the  works  are  in  public  do- 
main, it  would  of  course  be  only  ap- 
propriate for  you  to  cite  that  your  own 
work  is  "inspired  by  the  works  of  Lewis 
Carroll,  "  or  something  like  that,  to  give 
Lewis  Carroll  his  fair  due.  Send  us  the 
link  when  you  post  your  work,  and  we 
can  note  it  on  our  blog,  in  our  Face- 
book  group,  etc.,  to  help  generate  some 
more  interest  in  your  work.  Good  luck 
with  your  project! 


A  follow-up  to  letters  in  KL  84: 
Mr.  Sellon, 

Thank  you  so  much  for  your  time. 
I  like  your  idea  about  reliable 
sources  and  research. 

I  have  just  shared  your  letter 
with  my  11th  grade  students.  They 
listened  intentiy.  What  happened 
next  was  that  one  student  said, 
"We  should  read  the  book,"  and 
another  said,  "Why  don't  we  have 
a  party  and  wear  costumes?"  so 
we  decided  that  we  will  be  having 


31 


an  end-of-the-year  "Wonderland 
Costume  Party."  I'm  thinking  that 
they  can  recite  some  of  their  own 
poems  and  some  of  Carroll's.  "Bril- 
lig"  idea! 

Of  course,  all  the  computers  in 
the  classroom  will  be  showing  your 
website. 

Monie  Rude-Scrivner 
Stockton,  CA 


LCSNA's  website  is  dynamic 
and  friendly  and  conveys  unrelent- 
ing enthusiasm  for  all  things 
CarroUian. 

Liz  Ainley  ofStorypods  Audio- 
books 
Oxford,  England 

m 


I  have  a  simple  question  .  .  .  well, 
one  that  would  seem  simple  but 
has  exhausted  me  the  past  few 
days  trying  to  answer.  I  remember 
a  line  from  the  1951  Disney's  Alice 
in  Wonderland.  The  line  is  Alice 
saying,  "If  I  had  a  world  of  my 
own,  everything  would  be  non- 
sense. Nothing  would  be  what  it 
is  because  everything  would  be 
what  it  isn't.  And  contrary-wise; 
what  it  is  it  wouldn't  be,  and 
what  it  wouldn't  be,  it  would.  You 
see?"  However,  I  have  recently 


purchased  a  new  version  of  Al- 
ice's Adventures  in  Wonderland 
with  illustrations  by  Camille  Rose 
Garcia,  and  upon  re-reading  the 
childhood  classic  I  realized  that 
quote  from  Alice  was  nowhere  to 
be  found.  I  took  further  steps  to 
try  to  find  the  quote  in  Carroll's 
literature  but  have  been  unsuc- 
cessful in  every  attempt,  yet  all 
over  the  Internet  it  is  cited  as  a 
Lewis  Carroll  quote.  Am  I  missing 
a  reading,  or  is  this  just  a  Disney- 
added  quote  which  Carroll  is  now 
credited  with?  Thank  you  so  much 
if  you're  able  to  shed  any  light  on 
this  for  me. 

Jarrod  Medlen 

LCSNA  President  Andrew  Sellon  re- 
sponds: 

Trust  your  eyes.  If  it's  not  in  the  books, 
Carroll  didn  't  unite  it.  The  lines  you 
cite  were  created  by  Disney 's  scriptwrit- 
ers. While  occasionally  you  might 
see  a  stage  or  TV/film  adaptation  of 
the  Alice  books  that  tries  to  use  large 
chunks  of  Carroll's  own  words,  it's 
typical  in  adaptations  for  the  produc- 
ers/writers to  attempt  to  go  their  own 
way  with  dialogue.  Some  attempts 


evoke  the  spirit  of  Carroll  more  success- 
fully than  others,  but  frankly  none  of 
the  adaptations  can  hold  a  candle  to 
Carroll's  own  witty  wordplay.  You  may 
have  missed  that  in  the  opening  credits 
of  the  1951  Disney  film,  they  actually 
misspell  "Carroll"!  So  that  gives  you 
some  warning  that  their  focus  in  that 
charming  film  was  not  primarily  on 
accuracy. 

It's  also  not  unusual  to  find  mis- 
information about  Lewis  Carroll  and 
his  works  (and  just  about  any  other 
subject  under  the  sun)  on  the  Internet. 
You  had  the  good  instincts  to  go  to  the 
original  source  material.  That's  always 
the  best  way  to  find  out  the  truth  of  the 
matter.  Our  website  and  that  of  our 
sister  organization  in  the  U.K.  contain 
a  wealth  of  information  and  commen- 
tary on  Carroll's  life  and  works,  so  you 
might  want  to  browse  both  a  bit  more, 
as  well  as  check  out  our  site's  blogfor  a 
more  pop  culture  angle.  If  you  enjoyed 
reading  the  original  book,  I  encourage 
you  to  pick  up  an  unexpurgated  copy 
o/Through  the  Looking-Glass  and 
What  Alice  Found  There,  as  well 
as  the  brilliantThe  Hunting  of  the 
Snark.  The  writing  in  both  books  is 
remarkable,  and  both  offer  some  fasci- 
nating authorial  colors  not  shown  in 
the  first  Mice  book. 


"She  watched  with  curiosity  as  I 
picked  up  a  battered  old  Alice  in 
Wonderland.  With  shaking  hands 
I  groped  for  a  synchronicity  in 
the  pages  and  as  I  greedily  read 
through  the  passage  I  had  chosen, 
she  asked  me  what  it  said.  Sur- 
prised and  embarrassed,  I  read  it 
out  to  her: 

'She  was  getting  a  little  giddy 
with  so  much  floating  in  the  air 
and  was  rather  glad  to  find  herself 
walking  again  in  the  natural  way.'" 
From  The  First  Verse  by 
Barry  McCrea,  Carroll  &'  Graf 
Publishers,  New  York,  2005. 


MK 


"Mr.  Patel .  .  .  concluded  that  Mr. 
Creme  was  'a  sweet,  pleasant  old 
man'  who  ultimately  'was  like  the 
Red  Queen  in  Alice  in  Wonderland 
who  said  she  could  believe 


six  impossible  things  before 

breakfast.'" 

From  "Meeting  the  Man  Who 
Made  Him  the  (Mistaken) 
Messiah"  by  Scott  fames.  New 
York  Times,  August  20,  2010, 
about  the  meeting  between  author 
and  economist  Raj  Patel  and 
mystic  Benjamin  Creme  of  Share 
International,  who  had  identified 
Patel  as  the  messiah. 


32 


"Tess  the  chambermaid  had  been 
left  behind  in  the  bedchamber, 
curled  up  with  Alice  in  Wonderland, 
murmuring  'BHmey!'  each  time  an 
amazing  thing  happened,  which 
was  every  other  paragraph." 
From  The  Birthday  Ball  by  Lois 
Lowry,  Houghton  Mifflin  Harcourt 
Publishing,  New  York,  2010. 


"Somewhere  near  the  top  in  the 
fantasy  section  [of  the  list  of 
recently  published  books  for 
children]  comes  Alice  in  Orchestra 
Land  (cobenden-sanderson, 
3/6) ,  a  partial  parody  which  sets 
out  to  let  small  people  know  about 
odd  things  such  as  tubas  and 
double-bassoons,  and  does  this 
very  entertainingly.  I  say  'partial' 
because  Mr.  ernest  la  prade  has 
borrowed  Carroll's  framework 
without  trying  to  imitate  his  magic 
lunacy  which  mitigates  the  heresy 
of  his  act." 

From  an  anonymous  review, 
Punch,  December  12,  1934. 


While  visiting  Bohemia,  the  author 
comments,  "Bohemia  had  been  a 
Protestant  country  at  the  outset  of 
the  Thirty  Years'  War.  It  was  Catho- 
lic once  more  at  its  close  and  as 
free  of  heresy  as  .  .  .  the  sea-shore 
of  oyster-response  at  the  end  of 
'The  Walrus  and  the  Carpenter.'" 
Later,  while  visiting  Slovakia,  he 
finds  a  cache  of  his  host's  daugh- 
ters' childhood  books.  The  Alice 
books  are  there;  he  begins  to  read 
them,  and  that  launches  a  discus- 


sion  about  his  habit  of  thinking 
backwards — imagining  words  as 
they  would  be  spelled  in  reverse 
order — and  reciting  poetry  to  him- 
self with  all  the  words  backwards. 
From  A  Time  of  Gifts  by  Patrick 
Leigh  Fermor,  John  Murray  Ltd, 
1977;  reprinted  by  New  York  Review 
of  Books  Classics,  2005. 


'He  had  a  pile  of  English  books, 
some  from  the  British  Council 
Library,  some  with  USIS  stickers. 
I  remember  a  thin  one,  Shane, 
about  an  American  village  much 
like  Punjab,  and  Alice  in  Wonder- 
land, which  gave  me  nightmares." 
ircwi Jasmine  by  Bharati  Mukherjee, 
Grove  Weidenfield,  1 989;  reprinted 
by  Fawcett  (pb),  1991. 


"A  fortunate  arrival,  Bea  thought, 
as  Jane  and  Al  hugged  Shimmer 
and  introduced  Coral.  Now  they 
could  talk  of  something  else.  Ships 
or  shoes  or  sealing  wax.  Anything." 
From  In  the  Family  Way  by  Lynne 
Sharon  Schwartz,  William  Morrow 
and  Company,  Inc.,  New  York, 
1999. 


"The  only  solo  child  in  any  such 
adventure  that  ever  showed  up  in 
these  old  books  was  stolid  aproned 
Alice,  who  wandered  through 
Wonderland  more  or  less  alone, 
with  only  her  own  hydroencepha- 
litic  head  to  keep  her  company. 
That  is:  Alice  slowly  going  mad. 
Who  could  blame  her?" 


From  "Puz_le"  by  Gregory  Maguire, 
a  short  story  collected  in  The 
Dragon  Book,  Jack  Dann  and 
Gardner  Dozois,  editors.  Ace  Books, 
New  York,  2009. 


After  encountering  a  young 
woman  crying  a  "rolling  flood  of 
gummy  tears,"  the  main  character 
notes  that,  "Lower  down  the  steps, 
a  mouse  was  swimming  to  safety." 
The  book  also  includes  a  chapter 
titled  "The  Duchess  and  the  Cook." 
From  I  Shall  Wear  Midnight  by 
Terry  Pratchett,  HarperColliins, 
New  York,  2010. 


While  browsing  the  book  sellers  at 
the  Edinburgh  Book  Fair,  restora- 
tion expert  Brooklyn  Wainwright 
"spied  an  illustrated  Alice  In  Wonder- 
land and  rushed  over  to  examine 
it.  It  was  a  1927  edition  in  spring 
green  leather,  mint  condition, 
with  heavy  gilding  around  the 
edges  and  on  the  spine.  Ornate 
dentelles  decorated  the  inside 
front  and  back  covers.  There  was  a 
wonderful  gilt-tooled  White  Rab- 
bit on  the  center  of  the  front  cover, 
checking  his  pocket  watch,  and  a 
scolding  Queen  of  Hearts  on  the 
back.  It  was  delightful.  Expensive, 
but  worth  it."  There  is  only  one 
other  reference  to  the  book  after 
its  purchase — "that  it  isn't  really  a 
children's  story!" 

From  If  Books  Could  Kill:  A 
Bibliophile  Mystery  by  Kate 
Carlisle,  Signet,  2010. 


33 


WRiTinq  Desk 

OF  MARK  BURSTEIN 


'Oh,  how  glad  I  am  to  get  here!  And  what  is  this  on  my  head!'  she  exclaimed  in  a  tone  of  dismay, 
as  she  put  her  hands  up  to  something  very  heavy,  that  fitted  tight  all  round  her  head. " 


I  suppose  I'll  now  just  have  to  get  used  to  the  pri- 
vate jet,  the  luxury  yacht,  the  bodyguards,  and  all 
the  other  perks  that  come  with  being  an  LCSNA 
president.  Oh,  right.  Reality.  In  all  seriousness,  I  am 
pleased  with,  humbled  by,  and  a  bit  terrified  of  as- 
suming the  mantle  of  Society  president.  As  the  first 
(but  undoubtedly  not  the  last)  president  whose  par- 
ent also  served  in  this  vaunted  office  (Sandor  having 
done  so  from  1983-84) — a  dynasty  I'd  rather  asso- 
ciate with  John  and  John  Quincy  than  George  and 
George  W — and  also  as  the  former  Warden  of  Out- 
land,  a  title  bestowed  upon  me  by  Peter  Heath  when 
I  functioned  in  a  similar  capacity  for  the  West  Coast 
Chapter  of  the  LCSNA  (1979-87),  I  hope  that  I  may 
live  up  to  the  amazing  precedents  (pun  unavoidable) 
that  our  eleven  former  presidents  have  set  in  a  leader- 
ship tradition  going  back  to  Stan  Marx. 

I  cannot  say  enough,  nor  ever  fully  express  our 
thanks  to  Andrew  Sellon  for  his  stalwart  and  exempla- 
ry guidance  over  these  last  four  years,  in  which  he  has 
produced  excellent  meetings,  helped  to  design  and 
manifest  a  wonderful  new  incarnation  of  the  website, 
and  even  run  the  Knight  Letter  for  five  issues,  but  let 
me  try:  thank  you  very  much,  Andrew. 

Enormous  thanks  are  also  due  to  Edward  Guilia- 
no,  who  kindly  arranged  for  superb  facilities  for  our 
New  York  meeting,  and  to  him  and  the  other  speakers 
who  made  it  so  memorable. 

Some  big  shout-outs  are  due  to  our  Knight  Let- 
ter staff.  Our  fearless  leader  for  the  past  two  and 
this  present  issue,  Sarah  Adams-Kiddy,  is  expecting 
twins  in  February!  Hence  she  is  resigning  from  most 
editorial  duties  until  her  time  is  once  again,  more  or 
less,  her  own.  The  dashing  Mahendra  Singh,  who  has 
edited  the  Rectory  Umbrella  for  that  same  period,  is 
taking  over  as  editor  in  chief,  beginning  next  issue. 
And  we  also  very  much  want  to  acknowledge  former 
president  Alan  Tannenbaum,  who  has  been  supplying 
our  magazine  with  the  photographs  of  speakers  at 
our  meetings  for  many  a  year. 


34 


Our  next  meeting  will  be  in  Everybody's  Favorite 
City,  San  Francisco,  at  the  headquarters  of  Archive, 
org,  whose  mission  is  to  digitize  the  world.  Their  facili- 
ties include  a  lovely  desanctified  church,  where  we  will 
hold  the  meeting,  and  one  of  their  digitizing  centers 
(worldwide,  they  average  a  thousand  books  a  day,  not 
to  mention  making  an  accessible  backup  of  the  entire 
Internet  every  two  weeks!).  The  next  day  will  feature 
an  open  house  at  my  ranch  in  Petaluma,  a  town  once 
known  for  its  chicken  farms  run  by  Yiddish-speaking 
farmers  (poultry  was  replaced  by  dairy  a  half-century 
ago),  and  famed  as  the  birthplace  of  Snoopy.  It  is  in 
scenic  Sonoma  County,  the  heart  of  California's  wine 
country,  and  a  45-minute  drive  from  San  Francisco. 
The  Burstein  Collection  is  housed  in  a  three-story 
tower,  and  selected  highlights  will  be  on  display.  As 
we  go  to  press,  not  much  else,  even  the  exact  date,  is 
known,  but  I  promise  you  an  unforgettable  inaugural 
meeting. 


What's  a  Snark? 


MARKJARMON 


^ 


^ 


for  Lewis  Carroll 


"What's  a  Snark?"  I  must  ask  you 
Please  answer  me  this  if  you  can. 
Or  should  I  ask  you,  who? 
Is  it  bird,  or  fish,  or  man? 

"What's  a  Snark?"  I  have  asked  it  twice 
That  alone  should  perk  up  your  ears. 

"What's  a  Snark?"  I  have  asked  it  thrice 
This  puzzle  has  had  me  for  years. 

I've  been  planning  a  quest  for  months  now 
On  the  back  of  an  old  railway  stub 
But  I  can't  seem  to  find  any  answers 
And,  aye,  isn't  that  just  the  rub! 

I've  checked  Cook's  maps  from  his  journeys 
I've  read  Cousteau's  logs  from  his  dives 
A  sea  hag  munched  "hurlyburly" 
I  avoided  a  Mariner's  eye. 

I  then  had  the  notion  to  travel  the  ocean 
(for  that's  where  Snarks  live,  you  see) 
But  I  hadn't  a  boat,  nor  nothing  to  float 
So  I  never  did  push  out  to  sea. 

So  back  to  the  books  for  a  couple  of  looks 
To  see  where  this  Snark  may  keep  rest 
But  King  James  and  Webster  and  Britannica  too 
Were  also  dead  ends  in  my  quest. 


You  can  see  of  this  quest  I  was  somewhat  obsessed 
And  the  time  it  had  gotten  away  here 
I  started  at  quarter  to  five  in  October 
And  now  it  was  going  on  New  Year. 

I  needed  some  rest,  (oh  I  needed  some  rest!) 
So  I  rested  my  eyes  for  a  minute 
Then  wouldn't  you  know,  down  a  hole  I  did  go 
With  cupboards  of  marmalade  in  it. 

I  was  falling  so  long,  I  was  falling  so  slow 
But  the  bottom  it  finally  came 
And  there  stood  a  man  with  a  bell  in  his  hand 
And  a  book  of  celestial  names. 

He  said  with  a  grin,  "Hello  Mr.  Jim. 
I  can  show  you  that  thing  which  you  seek." 
So  he  opened  his  book  and  gave  me  a  look 
Saying  "Careful-nowjim-just-one-peek!" 

"A  Snark"  (it  read)  "is  a  creature  that  lives 
In  the  dreams  of  little  ones'  heads, 
But  as  you  grow  older  and  sights  get  much  colder 
The  poor  Snark  goes  belly  up  dead!" 

So  keep  a  young  soul,  whenever  you  go 
For  a  stroll  through  the  midsummer  park 
'Cause  you  never  will  know,  oh  the  places  you'll  go! 
When  you'll  get  to  be,  so  to  speak,  snarked. 


Mr  farmon  is  a  high-school  English  teacher  in  Newfersey. 
His  poem  was  originally  published  in  the  Canadian  chil- 
dren 's  magazine  Crow  Toes  Quarterly,  Vol.  3,  Issue  1, 
No.  9,  fanuary  2009. 


35 


H^^ 


^s 


-^^^ 


urns  Carroll  Tests  Out  ]ahkrwoc\y 


^i^ 


>*v 


JENN  THORSON 


^ 


^ 


'he  woman  was  packed  into  her  black  Victori- 
an dress,  her  hair  piled  high,  bearing  plumes 
that  bobbed  like  an  exotic  bird  looking  to  at- 
tract another  exotic  bird  for  an  afternoon  of  passion 
and  seed. 

As  the  audience  before  her  clapped,  she  an- 
nounced, ".  .  .  And  next,  we  will  have  a  reading  from 
Rev.  Charles  Dodgson,  who  plans 
quite  a  treat  for  us.  He  says  he's  been 
writing  a  bit  in  his  spare  time,  and  to- 
day will  recite  a  poem  of  his  very  own 
creation.  I  haven't  heard  it  yet  myself, 
so  we'll  all  be  surprised  and  delighted 
together.  Welcome,  Rev.  Dodgson.  I 
expect  your  poetry  to  enlighten  and 
inspire  us  all." 

Young  Charles  Lutwidge  Dodg- 
son stepped  to  the  podium,  and  felt 
the  sweat  bead  up  around  his  starched 
collar.  He  hadn't  shared  this  with  any- 
one yet,  and  he  knew  it  was  a  little  risky. 

Normally,  at  these  sorts  of  functions,  he  just  stood 
up  and  read  Tennyson's  Lady  of  Shalott  and  was 
done  with  it.  But  there  had  already  been  three  Lady 
of  Shalotts  today.  The  lady  could  only  die  so  many 
times  in  one  afternoon.  The  moment  begged  variety. 

And  variety  he  would  give  them. 

"Um,  thank . . .  thank  you,"  he  said.  "It's  a  pleasure 
to  be  with  you  all  today.  I  ...  I've  been  working  on 


something  new.  Er,  different,  I  think.  And  I .  .  .  Um, , . 
I'm  not  sure  how . . .  Well,  you  see,  this  piece  was . . .  was 
. .  .  Well,  maybe  it's  just  best  I  begin." 

The  room  grew  quiet.  He  cleared  his  throat. 

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

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

He  paused  for  effect,  but  could 
hear  the  murmurs  in  the  crowd.  "What 
language  is  that?"  whispered  one. 

"Native  Australian.  They've  boro- 
goves in  the  Outback,"  responded  an- 
other, more  informed  gentleman. 

"I  had  slithy  toves  in  my  garden 
once,"  mumbled  someone  near  the 
back.  "Dreadful  pests.  Had  to  use  lime 
on  them." 

"What  part  of  the  Bible  is  this?" 
murmured  a  lady  in  gray  flannel,  flip- 
ping unsettled  through  her  pocket  Bible.  "Book  of 
Isaiah?" 

The  Bird  of  Paradise  at  the  front  of  the  room 
flushed,  looking  like  the  pressure  building  up  might 
shoot  her  clear  from  corset  and  all.  "Shhh,  everyone. 
Please.  .  .  Oh,  I  am  sorry,  Rev.  Dodgson,  please  do 
go  on." 


Deborah  Brody 

Jerome  Bump 

Don  Charney 

Jim  Domiano 

Michael  Dupler 

Cary  Elza 
David  C.Jones 


*^       Tk^       J*-^       *^ 

Robert  Kass 

Jane  Masterson 

Robert  Mitchell 

Amy  Plummer 

Cathy  Rubin 

Thomas  Schrack 

Valerie  Taricco 


Ricardo  Jaramillo       Sarah  Jardine-Willoughby 


^         \\//^ 
-^A^     *— 


John  Tyo 


*^     Jl-^     *^     *^ 


m. 


i^n^ 


36 


Charles  Dodgson  gave  her  a  tight  smile  and  cleared 
his  throat  again. 

"Beware  thejabberwock,  my  son! 
The  jaws  that  bite,  the  claws  that  catch! 
Beware  the  jubjub  bird  and  shun 
The  frumious  Bandersnatch!" 

In  the  crowd  eyebrows  were  raised.  Cheeks  were 
pale.  Eyes  were  wide.  He  caught  a  vague,  "What  did 
he  say?" 

"Gloomius  band  of  snatch,  I  think." 

"Well,  that  hardly  sounds  appropriate  for  mixed 
company!  And  from  a  clergyman,  too." 

An  old  lady  who'd  only  heard  half  of  it,  shouted, 
"Is  this  not  The  Lady  of  Shalott,  then?" 

Dodgson  tugged  at  his  collar,  which  was  damp 
and  wilting  now,  but  he  determined  to  proceed  on. 
Perhaps  the  problem  was  he  just  needed  to  give  it  a 
bit  more  energy  for  it  to  really  grip: 

"He  took  his  vorpal  sword  in 
hand: 
Long  time  the  manxome  foe  he 

sought — 

So  rested  he  by  the  Tumtum  tree, 

And  stood  awhile  in  thought." 

"Who's  the  fellow  with  the  purple 
sword  again?"  hissed  a  lady  in  the 
front  row  to  her  sister. 

"I  don't  know.  But  he's  fighting 
someone  who  speaks  Manx." 

Dodgson  decided  that  maybe 
louder  was  the  way  to  go,  now,  and 
upped  the  volume. 

"But,  as  in  uffish  thought  he  stood, 
Thejabberwock  with  eyes  of  flame 
Came  whiffling  through  the  tulgey  wood 
And  burbled  as  it  came!" 


"Isn't  Tulgey  somewhere  near  Cheshire?" 
"Devon,  I  think.  Is  this  fellow  quite  all  right?" 
"Always  heard  he  was  a  bit  strange." 
Desperate  to  get  through  the  poem  with  any  de- 
gree of  success,  Dodgson  grabbed  up  a  nearby  lady's 
parasol  and  swept  it  aloft  like  a  mighty  broadsword. 
He  knew  he  should  have  brought  some  props,  but 
this  would  just  have  to  do. 

"One,  two!  One,  two!  And  through  and  through, 
The  vorpal  blade  went  snicker-snack!" 

"He's  having  a  fit!"  a  woman  cried,  standing  up  in 
her  concern. 

"Someone  help  the  poor  man!" 
The  lady  with  all  the  plumes  had  gone  complete- 
ly crimson  now,  and  rushed  to  his  side — just  as  the 
parasol  accidentally  popped  open,  sending  a  second 
potential  assistant  backwards  into  the  front  row 

The  Bird  of  Paradise  took  his  arm 
and  made  soothing  sounds,  patting 
him.  "There,  there.  Rev.  Dodgson." 
She  was  leading  him  from  the  podium 
now,  while  someone  picked  up  Mr.  Ev- 
ans from  row  one. 

"I'm  fine,  honestly,"  the  young 
clergyman  insisted.  "It . . .  It's  just  a  bit 
of  nonsense,  really,  I — " 

"Alice,  dear,  fetch  Rev.  Dodgson  a 
Glass  of  water,  would  you?  .  . .  There's 
a  good  girl." 

"It's  for  children,  you  know,"  he 
persisted.  "There  were  just  so  terribly 
many  Shalotts  and — " 
"Mad  as  a  hatter,  that  one,"  someone  whispered. 
"Mad  as  a  March  hare,"  agreed  someone  else  sadly. 
"Completely  off  of  his  head." 


IN   MBMORIAM 
It  is  with  great  sadness  that  we  report  the  passing  of 
Deborah  Epstein.  A  member  of  the  society  for  over  20  years, 
she  attended  and  contributed  to  many  meetings. 


37 


"THE  ANTIPATHIES, 
I  THINK  —  " 

Lester  R.  Dickey 

On  page  28  of  Martin  Gardner's 
The  Annotated  Alice,  Alice  is  falling 
down  the  rabbit-hole,  and  as  the 
trip  is  taking  so  long,  she  begins 
to  speculate  as  to  how  far  she  has 
fallen.  Of  special  interest  to  her  is 
whether  she  will  "'fall  right  through 
the  earth!  How  funny  it'll  seem  to 
come  out  among  the  people  that 
walk  with  their  heads  downwards! 
The  Antipathies,  I  think — '  (she 
was  rather  glad  that  there  was  no 
one  listening,  this  time,  as  it  didn't 
sound  at  all  like  the  right  word) 
' — but  I  shall  have  to  ask  them 
what  the  name  of  the  country  is, 
you  know.  Please,  Ma'am,  is  this 
New  Zealand  or  Australia?'"  Gard- 
ner lets  this  stand  without  annota- 
tion in  both  The  Annotated  Alice 
and  More  Annotated  Alice. 

Obviously,  "antipathies"  is 
not  "at  all  the  right  word."  She 
meant  "Antipodes."  The  Oxford 
Companion  to  the  English  Language 
(Oxford  University  Press,  1992) 
gives  the  etymology  as  "through 
Latin  from  Greek  antipodes  plural 
of  antipous/antipodos  having  the 
foot  opposite.  ...  A  term  first 
applied  in  English  to  the  people 
of  Ethiopia,  once  thought  to  live 
on  the  opposite  side  of  the  globe; 
by  the  16c,  applied  to  places  di- 


Carrollian  Notes 


rectly  opposite  one  another  on 
the  surface  of  the  earth  and  to 
that  place  directly  'under'  one's 
own  location.  A  group  of  islands 
opposite  Greenwich  in  England  to 
the  south-east  of  New  Zealand  was 
named  the  Antipodes  in  1800.  From 
the  1830s,  British  travelers  to  Aus- 
tralia and  New  Zealand  (but  espe- 
cially Australia)  were  encouraged 
by  the  reversal  of  the  seasons  and 
the  unusualness  of  the  flora  and 
fauna  to  see  an  antipodean  'world 
turned  upside  down',  in  which 
'everything  goes  by  contraries'." 

Alice  is  extremely  accurate, 
given  the  knowledge  and  custom 
of  the  time,  in  her  definition  of 
"antipodes."  Even  the  unattributed 
quotes  in  the  Oxford  Companion, 
"world  turned  upside  down"  and 
"everything  goes  by  contraries" 
seem  particularly  appropriate  to 
Alice's  Adventures  in  Wonderland. 

In  retrospect,  Alice's  use  of  the 
word  "antipathies"  seems  strangely 
well  chosen:  "Contrariety  of  feeling, 
disposition  or  nature  (between  per- 
sons or  things);  natural  contrariety 
or  incompatibility,"  according  to 
the  Oxford  English  Dictionary.  There 
is  certainly  enough  "contrariety  of 
feeling,  disposition  or  nature"  in 
Wonderland  to  justify  her  use  of  the 
word. 

The  Antipodes  are  an  uninhab- 
ited group  of  islands,  part  of  New 
Zealand,  encompassing  24  square 
miles.  Since  the  Lory,  mentioned 
in  Wonderland,  is  a  parrot  native  to 
Australia  and  surrounding  areas, 
possibly  it  is  also  a  denizen  of  the 
Antipodes. 


"World  turned  upside  down"  is 
from  Robert  Burton's  Anatomy  of 
Melancholy  (1621).  It  also  is  found 
in  the  King  James  Bible,  Acts  17:6. 
I  was  not  able  to  find  an  contem- 
porary attribution  for  "everything 
goes  by  contraries"  except  for  a 
similar  phrase  in  David  Copperfield, 
Chapter  3,  "everythink  goes  con- 
trairy  with  me."  Incidentally,  Acts 
17:7,  the  verse  following  the  "world 
turned  upside  down,"  uses  the 
word  "contrary."  "Contrariwise," 
the  favorite  word  of  Tweedledee 
in  Through  the  Looking-Glass,  ap- 
pears three  times  in  the  King  fames 
Bible.  2  Corinthians  2:7,  Galatians 
2:7,  and  1  Peter  3:9.  Since  Car- 
roll (Dodgson)  was  a  minister,  he, 
consciously  or  otherwise,  may  have 
picked  up  some  of  the  unusual 
words  and  phrases  in  Wonderland 
from  the  Bible. 


ALICE  SPEAKS 


David  Schaefer 

Alice  has  always  been  a  challenge 
for  motion  picture  producers. 
Whenever  an  advance  in  film 
techniques  has  occurred,  an  Alice 
sporting  these  improvements  has 
appeared.  Even  though  many  of 
the  productions  have  not  been 
considered  outstanding  examples 
of  film  art,  they  have  provided  a 
powerful  stimulus  to  continued 
interest  in  the  Alice  stories. 

In  1931,  Alice  entered  the 
sound  motion  picture  era  with, 
as  the  ads  at  the  time  stated,  "the 
first  articulated  Alice."  For  many 
years  this  film  version  of  Wonder- 
land, the  "Bud  Pollard  Alice,"  was 
considered  "lost,"  even  though 
there  were  some  copies  around, 
including  one  in  my  own  Alice  film 
closet.  It  shed  its  lost  distinction 
at  the  October  17,  2009,  LCSNA 
meeting  (KL  83:5)  at  the  Fort 
Lee,  New  Jersey,  Historical  Center, 
where  it  was  screened  mere  blocks 
away  from  where  it  had  been  pro- 
duced 78  years  earlier.  Included 
in  the  audience  were  the  daughter 
and  the  grandchildren  of  Ruth 


38 


Gilbert,  the  film's  star.  They  had 
never  before  seen  the  film. 

A  direct  result  of  the  meeting  is 
that  today  the  film  is  widely  men- 
tioned on  the  Internet,  including 
a  clip  from  the  film  along  with 
individual  frames  on  YouTube. 

My  16mm  copy  of  the  film  was 
purchased  around  1970,  after  my 
wife  had  found  an  Alice  in  Wonder- 
landMsted  (without  annotation)  in 
a  magazine  called  The  Big  Reel.  We 
took  a  chance  that  the  advertised 
film  might  be  an  Alice  that  we  did 
not  already  have  in  our  Lewis  Car- 
roll film  collection,  and  ordered  it. 
What  arrived  in  the  mail  was  this 
primitive  sound  film — the  "lost" 
Alicel 

Unlike  other  Alice  productions, 
this  version  is  basically  true  to  the 
book — except  for  the  love  interest 
between  the  White  Rabbit  and  the 
Duchess!  Evidently  the  producers 
felt  that  even  for  a  child's  movie, 
there  had  to  be  some  romance 
and  decided  on  this  most  unlikely 
combination. 

The  opening  and  closing  cred- 
its of  the  film  are  accompanied 
by  a  full-orchestra  rendition  of 
Irving  Berlin's  "Come  Along  with 
Alice,"  a  song  written  for  the  1916 
Broadway  musical  Century  Girl. 
There  is  no  indication  that  Irving 
Berlin  gave  permission  for  use  of 
his  song,  and  there  is  no  identifi- 
cation of  the  orchestra  or  of  the 
male  vocalist. 

This  Alice -wzs  filmed  at  the  Met- 
ropolitan Studios  in  Fort  Lee,  New 
Jersey,  with  Bud  Pollard  directing. 
Pollard  worked  with  marginal 
groups  at  the  fringes  of  the  mo- 
tion picture  industry,  producing 
and  directing  B-minus  motion  pic- 
tures. Many  times  he  simply  added 
the  new  technology  of  sound  to 
silent  films  in  the  public  domain. 
His  films  were  aimed  at  niche 
audiences,  audiences  that  Holly- 
wood ignored.  He  produced  films 
in  Italian  and  Yiddish,  and  "race 
films"  for  the  black  population.  In 
1931,  Pollard  felt  he  had  found 
another  niche  audience  with  his 
Alice — children. 


Ruth  Gilbert's  employment  as 
Alice  must  have  been  her  first  job 
after  graduation  from  the  Ameri- 
can Academy  of  Dramatic  Arts  in 
1930.  Subsequently,  she  worked  in 
live  theater,  up  to  1952,  when  she 
became  a  regular  on  The  Milton 
Berle  Show.  She  later  taught  at  the 
Lee  Strasberg  acting  school  in 
New  York. 

The  supporting  cast  had  varied 
backgrounds.  The  Duchess  and 
Mock  Turtle  had  silent  careers 
starting  in  1911,  and  the  Cook, 
King  of  Hearts,  and  Hatter  had 
live  stage  experience.  The  Gry- 
phon and  Caterpillar  continued 
to  work  in  sound  films  (they  were 
both  munchkins  in  The  Wizard 
ofOz),  while  the  White  Rabbit's 
career  included  silent,  sound,  and 
stage  productions. 

The  first  published  mention  of 
the  film  is  a  news  item  from  the 
June  21,  1931,  edition  of  the  New 
York  Times  reporting  that  ''Alice  in 
Wonderland  is  the  first  production 
in  a  series  of  four  talking  pictures 
planned  especially  for  child  audi- 
ences by  an  independent  cinema 
group  known  as  Unique-Cosmos 
Pictures  with  offices  in  the  Film 
Centre  Building  in  this  city.  The 
features  are  to  be  produced  at  the 
Metropolitan  Studios  in  Fort  Lee, 
N.J.,  where  Alice  in  Wonderland  is, 
now  before  the  cameras." 

The  initial  review  of  the  film 
(well  before  its  release)  in  the 
trade  magazine  Film  Daily  was  not 
complimentary.  It  considered  the 
film  to  be  a  "mildly  entertaining 
adaptation  of  a  fairy  tale  good 
only  for  kids  and  non-theatrical 
trade."  Later  on  it  opined  that 
"even  the  kiddies  may  be  consider- 
ably bored  due  to  lack  of  action  or 
interesting  talk."  Ninety  percent 
of  the  uninteresting  talk  was  Lewis 
Carroll's  own  words. 

The  first  theatrical  showing  was 
a  "special  children's  performance" 
at  the  Roxy  Theater  in  Manhattan 
on  the  morning  of  Saturday,  De- 
cember 5,  1931.  In  its  notice  about 
this  presentation,  Film  Daily  iden- 


tified the  film  only  as  "recently 
made  here  (in  an  eastern  studio) 
with  Charles  Levine  as  chief  cam- 
eraman." 

The  film  had  its  official  pre- 
miere at  the  Warner  Theater,  the 
same  theater  where  The  Jazz  Singer 
had  premiered  four  years  earlier. 
Billed  as  "The  First  Children's 
Talkie  to  reach  the  screen,"  Alice 
started  its  run  at  9:30  a.m.  on 
Christmas  day  of  1931.  During 
its  stay  at  the  Warner  there  were 
"FREE  toys  for  the  Children"  on 
the  25th,  26th,  and  27th.  On  the 
28th,  29th,  and  30th,  this  was 
reduced  to  "FREE  candy."  New 
Year's  Day  saw  Alice  replaced  by 
Safe  in  Hell.  There  is  some  specula- 
tion as  to  how  the  film  ever  got 
booked  into  such  a  prestigious 
venue  as  the  Warner  in  the  first 
place. 

New  York  Times  critic  Mordaunt 
Hall  reviewed  the  film  on  Decem- 
ber 28,  and  was  kinder  than  the 
Film  Daily  review  mentioned  ear- 
lier, noting  that  "There  is  an  ear- 
nestness about  the  direction  and 
the  acting  that  elicits  sympathy,  for 
poor  litde  Alice  had  to  go  through 
the  ordeal  of  coming  to  shadow 
life  in  an  old  studio  in  Fort  Lee, 
N.J.,  instead  of  enjoying  the  mani- 
fold advantages  of  her  rich  cousins 
who  hop  from  printed  pages  to 
the  screen  amid  the  comforts  of  a 
well-equipped  Hollywood  studio 
.  .  .  although  it  will  probably  meet 
with  favor  from  youngsters  who  go 
to  see  an  articulate  Alice  on  the 
screen." 

Aside  from  the  New  York  show- 
ings, only  six  other  presentations 
in  U.S.  theatres  can  be  docu- 
mented. Five  of  these  occurred 
during  the  Christmas  season  of 
1931.  In  1934,  there  was  a  showing 
in  Atianta. 

But  what  about  showings  in 
locations  other  than  theaters?  In 
August  of  1931,  Film  Daily  had  the 
news  that  the  Alice  film  would  be 
"reduced  to  a  16mm  film  for  re- 
lease simultaneously  with  the  regu- 
lar theatrical  release."  The  move, 


39 


they  claimed,  was  made  necessary 
"by  the  demand  for  the  series  by 
non-theatrical  users  throughout 
the  country."  Educational  Screen  \^zs> 
more  specific,  stating  that  the  film 
would  be  "available  in  35mm  film 
with  sound  and  in  16mm  versions 
either  sound  or  silent." 

In  what  format  were  the  16mm 
films  to  be  issued?  The  sound  was 
probably  on  a  phonograph  record. 
It  was  not  until  1933  that  the  Amer- 
ican Standards  Association  adopted 
a  standard  for  16mm  sound  on 
film  production.  The  film  shown 
at  the  Fort  Lee  meeting  was  pro- 
duced from  my  film  (16mm  sound 
on  film  on  DuPont-manufactured 
film  base).  DuPont  data  indicates 
that  this  film  stock  was  produced 
sometime  before  1940. 

Showings  of  the  film  in  schools 
or  churches  would  have  provided 
the  greatest  impact  on  continuing 
interest  in  Alice's  Adventures  in  Won- 
derland. 16mm  sound  films  could 
be  shown  in  schools,  churches, 
factories,  and  other  non-theatrical 
locations.  During  and  after  World 
War  II,  16mm  sound  projectors 
became  very  popular.  Whether  par- 
tial 16mm  versions  of  the  film  were 
ever  produced  is  not  known,  but 
if  they  were,  they  would  have  been 
very  suitable  for  classroom  use. 

On  December  22,  1933,  Para- 
mount released  their  expensive 
Hollywood  version  of  Alice  that 
starred  Charlotte  Henry  and  in- 
cluded practically  every  one  of 
their  big  stars. 

On  May  19,  1933  Motion  Picture 
Daily  gave  a  tongue-in-cheek  "Tip 
to  Paramount."  The  tip:  "Competi- 
tion looms  on  Alice  in  Wonderland. 
The  independent  who  made  the 
same  story  in  Jersey  three  years 
ago  and  didn't  get  much  of  a  play 
at  the  time  is  figuring  on  a  reis- 
sue, 25  prints  strong."  Perhaps  the 
print  shown  in  Atlanta  was  one  of 
these  25. 

In  any  case,  Mop  Head  Alice  (as 
my  family  referred  to  the  film, 
because  of  Alice's  unbecoming 
wig)  may  have  had  its  troubles,  but 
Alice  did  speak,  and  in  October 


of  2009,  the  northern  New  Jersey 
press  proudly  proclaimed  that 
"Alice  was  originally  a  Jersey  girl!" 

Thanks  to  August  Imholtzfor  aid 
in  locating  theater  showings,  and  to 
Richard  Koszarski,  Tom  Myers,  and 
Nelson  Page  for  their  assistance  in 
setting  up  the  Fort  Lee  meeting,  and 
providing  valuable  information. 


^ 

GUILDFORD: 

A  LEWIS  CARROLL  SOCIETY 

STUDY  WEEKEND, 

JULY  15-18,  2010 

August  A.  Imholtz,  fr. 

After  Archdeacon  Charles  Dodg- 
son's  death  on  June  21,  1868,  his 
oldest  son,  Charles  Lutwidge 
Dodgson,  was  responsible  for  his 
seven  unmarried  sisters  and  three 
younger  brothers.  One  of  the 
pressing  tasks  he  confronted  was 
moving  out  of  the  rural  rectory  of 
Croft,  where  they  had  lived  for  al- 
most 25  years,  so  it  could  be  made 
ready  for  the  next  incumbent. 
After  some  deliberation,  the  family 
settled  on  the  town  of  Guildford 
in  Surrey,  and  in  October  of  1868 
they  let  at  £73  per  annum  the 
very  first  house  they  looked  at, 
the  Chestnuts — a  Victorian  villa 
adjacent  to  the  grounds  and  ruins 
of  Guildford  Castle,  whose  origins 
are  said  to  go  back  to  the  eleventh 
century. 

And  so  we  found  ourselves  in 
Guildford  and  its  environs  this 
past  July  for  a  splendid  long  week- 
end of  lectures,  tours,  and  dinners, 
all  brilliantly  organized  by  Mark 
and  Catherine  Richards  and  ably 
assisted  by  Matthew  and  Margaret 
Heaton.  Our  first  two  days  of  lec- 
tures were  held  at  the  University 
of  Surrey's  School  of  Management. 
The  delegates  to  the  weekend 
meeting  came  from  America,  Fin- 
land, France,  Japan,  and  of  course 
Britain. 

But  why  did  Dodgson  choose 
Guildford?  Why  not  Oxford, 
or  London,  or  elsewhere  in  or 
beyond  Surrey?  That  was  the 
question  to  which  Roger  Allen 


provided  some  very  convincing,  if 
in  the  end  unavoidably  specula- 
tive, answers  in  the  introductory 
lecture  of  the  weekend  program, 
"The  Dodgson  Family  at  Guildford." 
The  Dodgson's  family's  presence 
in  Oxford  could  have  made  more 
demands  on  his  time  than  he 
could  in  conscience  satisfy,  and 
although  Roger  did  not  say  it,  one 
might  suspect  they  could  have  felt 
slightly  out  of  place  there,  aca- 
demically and  socially.  Why  not 
London?  Their  presence  might 
well  have  restricted  Dodgson's 
social  life,  and  London  certainly 
would  have  been  more  expensive 
than  rural  Guildford.  Still,  why 
Guildford?  In  addition  to  the 
attractiveness  of  the  town  and  the 
charm  of  the  Surrey  Downs,  Guild- 
ford was  easily  accessible  by  train 
from  London  as  well  as  from  Ox- 
ford. Also,  Dodgson  had  several 
friends  in  the  neighboring  villages, 
such  as  George  Portal,  vicar  of  Al- 
bury,  and  he  later  made  acquain- 
tances of  people  of  his  social  class 
and  varied  interests. 

We  visited  the  Guildford  Mu- 
seum, which  had  on  display  varied 
materials  ranging  from  such  rari- 
ties as  Alice's  own  copy  of  Through 
the  Looking-Glass,  to  Dodgson's 
surplice  with  its  oversized  sleeves, 
to  Victorian  toys  and  Wonderland 
artifacts.  The  ebullient  Maijorie 
Williams  then  led  us  on  a  walk- 
ing tour  of  the  town,  including  a 
descent  into  a  crypt,  now  below 
office  flats,  where  King  Henry  Ill's 
men  may  have  stored  their  beer 
while  the  King  stayed  at  Guild- 
ford Casde;  the  White  Hart  Inn, 
where  Dodgson  sometimes  stayed 
when  the  Chestnuts  became  too 
crowded;  Archbishop  Abbot's  Hos- 
pital of  the  Blessed  Trinity;  and 
the  splendid  Guildhall — its  bar 
looking  like  the  illustration  of  the 
courtroom  bar  in  the  Wonderland 
trial  chapter. 

Back  at  the  university,  I  gave 
a  brief  after-dinner  talk  on  the 
true  identity  of  Lewis  Carroll  as 
revealed  in  nineteenth-century 
American  newspaper  accounts 


40 


[KL  84:  8] .  I  also  answered  some 
questions  on  how  access  to  mas- 
sive full-text  databases  is  changing 
research  techniques. 

If  Roger  Allen  had  provided 
the  beginning  of  the  Dodgson- 
Guildford  story,  Charlie  Lovett 
discussed  its  end.  Friday  morn- 
ing began  with  his  excellent  il- 
lustrated lecture  entitled  "Thy 
Will  Be  Done:  Charles  Dodgson, 
Death,  and  Afterlife."  He  placed 
Dodgson 's  attitude  toward  death 
in  its  Victorian  context,  discuss- 
ing both  the  religious  and  social 
aspects,  which  are  not  always 
easy  to  distinguish  at  this  remove. 
Charlie  quoted  Michael  Wheeler's 
Death  and  the  Future  Life  in  Vic- 
torian Literature  and  Theology  on 
the  typical  Victorian  protocol  of 
death.  Dodgson  used  faith,  logic, 
and  scholarship  to  approach  his 
death,  yet  death  seemed  to  remain 
for  him  the  final  bending  toward 
divine  will.  Charlie  supported  his 
thesis  with  quotations  from  Dodg- 
son's  letters  and  even  from  Sylvie 
and  Bruno.  By  the  late  nineteenth 
century,  a  cult  of  pastoral,  in  the 
bucolic  sense,  burial  developed. 
Dodgson  had  insisted  that  his 
funeral  be  simple,  with  no  pomp 
or  circumstance.  Dodgson 's  grave 
in  Guildford's  Mount  Cemetery 
is  marked  by  a  simple  white  cross 
atop  three  steps,  signifying  that  he 
was  a  churchman. 

Charlie  generously  provided 
a  booklet  he  had  put  together  to 
each  delegate,  "The  Funeral  and 
Burial  of  Charles  Lutwidge  Dodg- 
son: A  Reconstruction  Based  on 
Contemporary  Sources,"  which 
included  a  CD-ROM  of  the  music 
from  Dodgson 's  funeral,  sung  by 
Janice  Lovett.  Our  conference 
packets  already  included  a  marvel- 
ous assortment  of  things:  copies 
of  the  1871  and  1881  Census 
pages  listing  the  inhabitants  of 
the  Chestnuts,  a  version  of  the 
"Guildford  Gazette  Extraordinary" 
(a  very  rare  Dodgson  piece)  faith- 
fully recreated  by  Mark  Richards, 
a  postcard  of  an  1868  view  of  the 
Chestnuts,  and  more. 


Next,  Selwyn  Goodacre,  in 
"The  Incomplete  Works  of  Charles 
Dodgson,"  discussed  what  Dodg- 
son was  working  on  before  he 
died,  and  what  we  might  have 
been  given  had  he  lived  longer. 
These  included  a  proposed  geom- 
etry-for-boys  book,  a  collection  of 
theological  essays  (mentioned  in 
a  June  1885  letter  to  Macmillan), 
various  Bible  collections  for  the 
young,  including  selections  to  be 
memorized  (surely  not  from  Le- 
viticus!), letters  to  an  unidentified 
agnostic,  a  "family  Shakespeare," 
possible  further  merchandizing 
of  themes  and  things  based  on 
the  Alicehooks,  more  items  like 
his  "Guildford  Gazette  Extraordi- 
nary," which  Selwyn  saw  as  a  good 
example  of  Dodgson's  proto-Saki 
adult  humor,  additional  puzzles 
like  those  published  in  Vanity  Fair, 
and  something  called  "transcen- 
dental logic." 

Mark  Richards  spoke  briefly 
about  "Drummond,  Percy,  Portal, 
and  Albury."  Henry  Drummond 
(1786-1860)  was  a  very  successful 
banker  (King  George  III  was  his 
mzyor  client),  with  a  profound 
interest  in  religion,  especially 
Christ's  Second  Coming.  After 
Drummond's  purchase  of  Albury 
Estate,  the  small  village  of  Albury 
became,  under  his  influence,  "an 
incubator  of  radical  thought" — not 
how  one  thinks  of  bankers  today. 
Henry  Drummond's  daughter 
married  Algernon  George  Percy, 
sixth  Duke  of  Northumberland, 
and  settled  at  Albury  Hall.  Their 
son,  Henry  George  Percy,  was  at 
Christ  Church  and  knew  Dodgson. 
The  Rev.  George  Raymond  Portal, 
vicar  of  nearby  Albury,  had  been 
at  Rugby,  though  a  bit  earher  than 
Dodgson.  Portal,  like  many  of  the 
Albury  citizens,  interested  himself 
in  social  welfare.  He  founded  the 
National  Deposit  Society — a  kind 
of  credit  union  prototype.  Portal, 
like  Dr.  Munsell — rector  of  St. 
Mary's — became  part  of  Dodgson's 
not-at-all-small  circle  of  friends  in 
the  Guildford  area. 


In  the  afternoon,  we  journeyed 
over  the  Surrey  Downs,  seeing 
some  of  the  beautiful  country- 
side, including  Newland's  Corner, 
where  Dodgson  took  so  many 
walks.  We  stopped  at  the  Silent 
Pool,  and  wandered  from  its 
quiet,  extremely  clear  water  to  the 
nearby  Church  of  the  Apostles, 
the  headquarters  of  the  curi- 
ous Catholic  Apostolic  Church 
founded  by  Henry  Drummond 
and  a  small  coterie  of  other  men 
attracted  to  the  millennialist  mes- 
sage of  Edward  Irving.  A  short 
ride  brought  us  to  Albury  village, 
where  we  enjoyed  tea  at  St.  Peter 
and  Paul  Church  and  heard  a  talk 
by  a  local  historian  on  the  history 
of  the  church,  which  Drummond 
built  for  the  villagers  to  use  as  a 
substitute  for  the  ancient  Saxon 
church  on  the  grounds  of  his 
estate.  We  drove  to  Drummond's 
country  mansion  (now  being 
refurbished  into  luxury  flats) 
and  the  old  Saxon  church  with 
its  nineteenth-century  Augustus 
Pugin  crypt — a  fascinating  juxta- 
position of  artistic  styles — ^where 
Drummond's  remains  reside. 

On  Friday  evening,  we  gathered 
again  at  the  School  of  Manage- 
ment, where  Edward  Wakeling 
spoke  on  "The  Personal  Effects  of 
Charles  Lutwidge  Dodgson,  1898 
and  Onwards."  Dodgson  died 
at  2:30  in  the  afternoon  of  Janu- 
ary 14,  1898.  When  his  brother 
Wilfred,  his  executor,  went  to  the 
rooms  at  Christ  Church,  he  was 
appalled  by  the  mass  of  material 
he  found:  a  personal  library  of 
2,050  titles  arranged  by  subject, 
photograph  albums,  diaries,  letter 
register,  lecture  notes,  texts  and 
working  papers,  paintings,  chil- 
dren's toys,  and  much  else.  Many 
of  these  effects  were  sold  at  auc- 
tion over  the  following  months, 
much  was  burned,  and  of  course 
much  was  retained  by  members 
of  the  Dodgson  family.  Wilfred 
kept  the  diaries,  but  sometime 
later  four  of  the  thirteen  volumes 
disappeared,  and  some  pages  were 
removed  from  surviving  volumes. 


41 


Most  of  the  current  descendants, 
however  distant,  have  some  of 
Dodgson's  materials.  In  1965, 
Phihp  Dodgson  Jaques,  "the  custo- 
dian of  Lewis  Carroll  papers  and 
relics  in  their  possession,"  in  the 
words  of  the  old  Guildford  Muni- 
ment catalogue,  offered  to  donate 
the  materials  to  the  Guildford 
Muniment  Room.  The  first  part  of 
the  materials  arrived  in  October 
of  1965,  and  over  the  years  other 
members  of  the  family  have  added 
to  the  original  deposit.  This  is 
known  as  "The  Dodgson  Family 
Collection  of  Letters,  Papers  and 
Other  Materials."  The  family,  how- 
ever, still  holds  materials  that,  in 
the  aggregate,  might  be  called  the 
Dodgson  family  deutero  collection. 

On  Saturday,  we  traveled  to 
the  Surrey  History  Centre  in  Wok- 
ing, which  contains  the  holdings 
of  the  old  Guildford  Muniment 
Room.  A  catalog,  produced  almost 
twenty  years  ago  by  Shirley  Corke, 
listed  their  Carroll  holdings  up 
to  that  time,  and  is  now  available 
online.  The  Surrey  History  Centre 
is  truly  a  state-of-the-art  facility,  as 
was  demonstrated  by  its  learned 
archivists  Julian  Pooley  and  Mike 
Page.  After  a  tour  of  the  Centre, 
we  examined  an  exhibition  of 
its  impressive  Dodgson  holdings, 
augmented  by  materials  from  the 
Dodgson  Family  Collection.  We 
saw  the  famous  letter  from  Dr. 
Tait,  headmaster  of  Richmond 
School,  to  the  Rev.  Charles  Dodg- 
son expressing  his  high  opinion 
of  the  genius  of  young  Charles, 
drafts  of  Dodgson's  letter  to  an 
agnostic,  the  infamous  note  on 
the  removed  pages  from  the  diary, 
and  the  standard  reply  to  writers 
addressing  letters  to  Lewis  Carroll 
at  Christ  Church. 

The  afternoon  was  devoted  to 
public  lectures  on  the  legacy  of 
Lewis  Carroll.  Mark  Richards  wel- 
comed the  guests,  offered  some 
general  reflections  on  the  depth 
and  extent  of  Carroll's  legacy,  and 
introduced  Selwyn  Goodacre,  who 
gave  a  very  brief  biography  of 


Carroll  as  background  to  the  after- 
noon's talks. 

Clare  Imholtz  delivered  a  talk 
on  Carroll's  nonsense  and  word- 
play, tided  "Did  You  Say  PIG  or 
FIG?"  Carroll's  words  display  his 
sense  of  humor,  and  his  neolo- 
gisms had  a  great  influence  on 

James  Joyce,  whom  Clare  quoted 
briefly,  and  on  the  surrealists. 
Many  of  his  "Jabberwocky"  non- 
sense words  are  still  in  use.  "Chor- 
de"  entered  the  Oxford  English  Dic- 
tionary in  the  1890s.  Kipling  used 
four  words  from  "Jabberwocky" 
in  his  story  "Stalky  &  Co."  Denis 
Crutch,  writing  \n  Jabberwocky, 
offered  some  brilliant  possible 
definitions  for  "vorpal,"  "tulgey," 
and  "frabjous,"  viewing  them  as 
sort  of  super  portmanteaus.  To 
him,  "vorpal"  suggested  voracious, 
formidable,  awful,  mortal,  fateful; 

"tulgey":  turgid,  bulgey,  bosky,  ugly 
(Clare  thinks  he  borrowed  some 
of  this  from  Eric  Partridge);  and 

"frabjous":  frantic,  fabulous,  raptur- 
ous, joyous,  and  juicy.  Agreeing 
with  Crutch,  Elizabeth  Sewell 
stated  in  The  Field  of  Nonsense  that 
the  words  of  "Jabberwocky"  often 
function  by  reminding  us  of  other 
words.  However,  Sewell  felt  some 
of  the  words  that  Carroll  made 
up — one  can  hardly  pronounce 
them — such  as  "mhruxian"  and 

"grurmstipth"  from  A  Tangled  Tale 
and  "hjckrrh"  from  the  Mock 
Turtle's  story,  "do  not  interest  the 
mind."  She  said  that  the  mind 

"can  enjoy  itself  with  words  like 

"tove,"  which  look  strangely  famil- 
iar. Clare  agreed. 

Selwyn  then  spoke  on  the  many 
parodies  of  the  Alice  books.  Avoid- 
ing an  overly  strict  construction 
of  the  term  "parody,"  he  showed  a 
cavalcade  of  slides  of  the  covers  of 
numerous  parodies  and  pastiches 
(political,  advertising,  religious, 
and  other),  all  drawn  from  his 
own  collection,  accompanied  by 
a  delightful  running  commentary. 
Some  of  the  fascinating  items  he 
showed  were:  Clara  in  Blunderland 
(many  Carroll  collectors  have  a 
copy  of  this,  but  how  many  collec- 


tors have  all  ten  reprints?),  Alice  in 
Motorland,  Through  a  Peer  Glass  (a 
Winston  Churchill  parody) ,  Alice 
in  Holidayland,  the  Guinness  Al- 
ices of  course,  Alice's  Adventures  in 
Railwayland,  and  Wilson  in  Wonder- 
land (about  former  Prime  Minister 
Harold  Wilson). 

After  a  short  tea  break  that 
included  a  surrealistic  slide  show 
to  the  strains  of  Grace  Slick's 
"White  Rabbit,"  I  gave  a  brief  talk 
on  unpublished  Alice  plays,  an- 
other aspect  of  Carroll's  legacy. 
Concentrating  on  plays  from  the 
copyright  deposit  collection  of 
the  Library  of  Congress,  plays  not 
listed  in  Charlie  Lovett's  excellent 
monograph  Alice  on  Stage,  I  read 
brief  excerpts  from  two  of  them: 
a  short  passage  from  Deborah 
Mitchell's  1976  NAACP  play  Alice 
in  Ghetto-Land,  in  which  a  "Top 
Cat"  substitutes  for  the  Cheshire 
Cat,  and  the  delightful  prologue 
from  Thomas  Patrick  McNamara's 
1976  Alice — a  Modern  Adaptation. 

Jenny  Woolf  followed  me  with 
an  interesting  talk  on  Dodgson's 
physical  appearance.  She  com- 
mented on  his  stiff  posture,  his 
slightly  asymmetrical  left  eye  with 
its  drooping  eyelid,  his  dreamy 
grey  eyes,  and  his  firm  belief  in 
mens  sana  in  corpore  sano,  demon- 
strated by  his  ability  to  walk  eigh- 
teen miles  in  four  and  three-quar- 
ters hours!  She  wondered  how 
much  of  Dodgson  himself  there 
might  be  in  his  story  "Wilhelm  von 
Schimdt": 

The  younger,  in  whom  the 
sagacious  reader  already 
recognizes  the  hero  of  my 
tale,  possessed  a  form  which, 
once  seen,  could  scarcely 
be  forgotten:  a  slight  ten- 
dency to  obesity  proved  but 
a  trifling  drawback  to  the 
manly  grace  of  its  contour, 
and  though  the  strict  laws 
of  beauty  might  perhaps 
have  required  a  somewhat 
longer  pair  of  legs  to  make 
up  the  proportion  of  his 
figure,  and  that  his  eyes 


42 


should  match  rather  more 
exactly  than  they  chanced 
to  do,  yet  to  those  critics 
who  are  untrammeled  with 
any  laws  of  taste,  and  there 
are  many  such,  to  those 
who  could  close  their  eyes 
to  the  faults  in  his  shape, 
and  single  out  its  beau- 
ties, though  few  were  ever 
found  capable  of  the  task, 
to  those  above  all  who  knew 
and  esteemed  his  personal 
character,  and  believed  that 
the  powers  of  his  mind  tran- 
scended those  of  the  age  he 
lived  in,  though  alas!  None 
such  has  yet  turned  up — to 
those  he  was  an  Apollo. . . 

Jenny  noted  that  the  young 
Dodgson  looked  quite  dapper  in 
an  early  photograph,  but  unfortu- 
nately no  photograph  of  him  after 
the  age  of  forty  apparently  exists. 
He  was  sensitive  about  his  appear- 
ance, as  Isa  Bowman's  story  of 
her  attempt  to  sketch  him  makes 
frightfully,  almost  unsettlingly, 
clear.  Here  is  Isa's  account,  how- 
ever believable  it  may  be,  of  this 
particular  torn  page  episode: 

I  had  an  idle  trick  of  draw- 
ing caricatures  when  I  was 
a  child,  and  one  day  when 
he  was  writing  some  letters, 
I  began  to  make  a  picture 
of  him  on  the  back  of  an 
envelope  .  .  .  but  suddenly 
he  turned  around  and  saw 
what  I  was  doing.  He  got  up 
from  his  seat  and  turned 
very  red,  frightening  me 
very  much.  Then  he  took 
my  poor  little  drawing,  and 
tearing  it  into  small  pieces, 
threw  it  into  the  fire  with- 
out a  word. 

And  speaking  of  pages  being 
torn  out  and  perhaps  up,  Edward 
Wakeling  concluded  the  afternoon 
lectures  with  a  talk  on  the  missing 
pages  from  Carroll's  diary.  With  a 
brilliantly  worked  out  and  surely 
Agatha  Christie-inspired  talk  (for 
she  vanished  from  her  nearby 


Surrey  Downs  home  in  1926  only 
to  appear  eleven  days  later — quite 
unlike  the  cut  diary  pages,  at 
least  so  far),  Edward  sketched  the 
scene,  presented  the  characters, 
reviewed  motives,  eliminated  the 
innocent  suspects,  and  announced 
that,  with  the  aid  of  his  "little  grey 
cells,"  he  has  identified  the  culprit, 
whose  identity  he  will  reveal  in  a 
fully  demonstrated  argument  in 
published  form. 

A  "Pistrinum  Dinner"  on  Satur- 
day evening  was  held  at  Gomshall 
Mill.  Roger  Allen  led  us  in  the  tra- 
ditional LCS  Latin  grace,  chosen 
for  the  dinners  by  the  late  Canon 
Ivor  Davies,  though  I  had  a  passel 
of  Cambridge  College  graces  at 
the  ready,  ranging  from  two  words 
to  too  many  words,  just  in  case 
one  was  needed.  Maybe  next  time. 

Sunday  morning  began  with  a 
visit  to  Millfield  Park  beside  the 
quiet  River  Wey  to  see  Edwin  Rus- 
sell's bronze  statues  of  the  rabbit 
heading  for  his  rabbit  hole  while 
Alice  sits  beside  her  sister,  who 
is  reading,  in  a  most  proleptic 
manner,  Alice's  Adventures  in  Won- 
derland] After  a  peaceful  few  min- 
utes there  with  photographs  duly 
digitally  shot,  we  walked  up  to  St. 
Mary's  church  for  a  special  Matins 
service.  Mary  Alexander  spoke  to 
us  about  Dodgson 's  preaching  at 
St.  Mary's.  Selwyn  Goodacre  de- 
livered a  brief  sermon  honoring 
his  father,  the  late  Rev.  Norman 
W.  Goodacre,  whose  views  he 
intertwined  with  Carroll's  "Easter 
Greeting,"  commenting  on  how 
both  clergymen  saw  religion  in 
children's  lives.  After  the  service, 
we  were  offered  sherry  and  crisps 
as  we  viewed  photographs  Maijo- 
rie  Williams  had  brought  of  the 
Dodgson  family  graves,  before  and 
after  their  restoration — ^which  had 
been  organized  and  supported 
by  Prof.  Katsuko  Kasai  of  Japan,  a 
member  of  the  Guildford  Study 
Weekend  group. 

On  the  way  to  lunch,  Marjorie 
Williams  pointed  out  Mrs.  Carter's 
house  on  Quarry  Street  across 
from  St.  Mary's  church,  where 


Dodgson  stayed  while  in  Guildford 
to  help  nurse  his  dying  nephew 
Charlie  Wilcox.  It  was  July  18, 
1874,  that  the  famous  final  Une  of 
The  Hunting  of  the  Snark  suddenly 
occurred  to  Dodgson  as  he  took  a 
solitary  walk  on  the  Surrey  Downs. 

After  lunch,  we  were  fortunate 
to  be  able  to  visit  the  Chestnuts 
itself,  courtesy  of  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
Baker,  who  now  own  the  property. 
A  number  of  us  toured  the  base- 
ment where  their  daughter  now 
lives  in  what  had  been  in  Dodg- 
son's  day  the  servants'  quarters. 
The  upper  stories  were  undergo- 
ing careful  renovation  so  that  the 
original  structures  could  later  be 
revealed  if  necessary. 

The  bronze  and  glass  statue  of 
Alice  passing  through  the  looking- 
glass,  a  Palladian  glass  without 
frame,  in  the  little  park  to  the  side 
of  the  hill  just  a  few  hundred  feet 
above  the  rear  of  the  house  was 
delightful  to  see. 

Unfortunately,  our  coach  was 
not  able  to  go  up  the  steep  hill  to 
the  Mount  Cemetery  to  see  the 
Dodgson  graves.  An  express  train 
brought  us  swiftly  back  to  London, 
a  little  faster  surely  than  Dodg- 
son's  trip  had  been,  but  no  less 
enjoyable. 


THE  OXFORD  EXPERIENCE: 
EDWARD  WAKELING 
AT  CHRIST  CHURCH 

Ann  Buki 

"And  in  a  very  short  time 
the  room  was  full  of  Alice: 
just  in  the  same  way  as  a 
jar  is  full  of  jam!  There 
was  Alice  all  the  way  up  to 
the  ceiling:  and  Alice  in 
every  corner  of  the  room!" 
—  The  Nursery  Alice 

The  time  I  spent  in  Edward  Wakel- 
ing's  Alice  course  at  the  Oxford 
Experience  (a  residential  summer 
program  of  one-week  courses 
for  nonspecialists,  July  25-30) 
was  worth  a  thousand  pounds  a 
minute.  En  tided  Alice's  Adventures 
in  Oxford:  The  Origin  of  Lewis  Car- 


43 


roll's  Immortal  Story,  the  class  was 
international  and  enthusiastic,  the 
atmosphere  friendly  and  collegial, 
and  our  tutor  brilliant,  generous, 
and  humorous.  There  was  much 
of  a  muchness  in  the  course;  it 
provided  prizes  to  all  Carrollians, 
from  novices  to  the  well  versed.  It 
would  not  surprise  me  if  everyone 
in  the  class  has  joined  the  LCSNA 
and/or  the  LCS. 

Each  day  began  with  Mr.  Wakel- 
ing's  presentation.  Some  of  the 
topics  covered  in  detail  included 
the  lives  of  Lewis  Carroll  and  Alice 
Liddell,  Carroll's  (and  Dodgson's) 
photographic  and  mathemati- 
cal careers,  and  a  few  of  the  un- 
founded assumptions  made  about 
Carroll.  After  hearing  some  of 
these  misconceptions,  it  occurred 
to  me  that  Carroll's  life  and  works 
have  at  times  been,  as  was  said  of 
Shakespeare's  in  Ulysses,  a  "happy 
hunting  ground  of .  .  .  minds  that 
have  lost  their  balance." 

We  had  homework  assignments, 
but  our  tutor  provided  us  with  ev- 
erything we  needed  to  succeed  in 
our  subsequent  class  presentations. 
It  was  fun  to  work  with  a  partner,  a 
different  one  for  each  of  the  two 
assignments.  Some  worked  very 


diligently  on  the  homework,  but 
I  was  a  bit  of  a  slouch.  The  same 
was  true  of  the  croquet  match 
that  a  few  of  us  played  on  a  free 
afternoon  in  the  gorgeous  Masters' 
Garden — I  finished  last. 

In  the  afternoons  Mr.  Wakeling 
took  us  on  excursions  to  Alice  and 
Carroll-related  sites,  guided  tours 
of  Christ  Church,  museums,  and 
areas  of  interest  in  Oxford.  We 
also  visited  the  places  where  the 
boat  trip  that  gave  birth  to  the 
A/zc^  stories  took  place. 

On  most  evenings  we  were 
invited  back  to  the  classroom  to 
watch  Alice  films  and  programs. 
One  night  we  gathered  to  read 
The  Hunting  of  the  Snark,  and  by 
evening's  end  were  transformed 
from  baffled  beginners  into  sanc- 
tioned snarkophiles.  On  another 
evening,  Mr.  Wakeling  gave  a  pre- 
sentation on  Dodgson's  puzzles 
and  games  that  was  open  to  all  Ox- 
ford Experience  attendees.  Judg- 
ing by  the  large  crowd's  enthusi- 
asm (and  the  number  of  people 
who  bought  his  books  afterwards), 
all  were  dazzled. 

Mr.  Wakeling  was  generous  in 
sharing  his  remarkably  extensive 
knowledge  and  precious  collec- 
tion of  resources.  He  brought  with 
him,  among  other  treasures,  the 
copy  of  Alice  that  was  presented  to 


Alice  Hargreaves  during  her  visit 
to  the  U.S.  It  was  a  thrill  to  touch 
the  page  in  the  book  that  bore  her 
signature.  And  he  did  not  have  to 
tell  us  three  times  that  we  would 
graciously  be  allowed  to  handle 
any  of  his  books. 

The  week  was  filled  with  math- 
ematical, musical,  and  magical 
moments  that  brought  the  spirit  of 
Lewis  Carroll  alive.  From  the  pub 
visit  on  the  evening  before  our 
class  began  to  the  farewell  dinner 
where  we  received  our  certificates, 
I  did  not  skip  a  single  event.  Both 
the  course  and  the  entire  Oxford 
Experience  week  gave  me  (and  my 
classmates,  I'm  sure)  more  knowl- 
edge and  enjoyment  than  a  year 
of  unbirthday  presents.  I  mark 
each  of  the  days  spent  there  with  a 
white  stone. 

The  cost  of  the  course  include 
accommodations  in  comfortable 
student  housing,  three  meals 
(with  vegetarian,  gluten-free, 
and  vegan  choices),  and  a  daily 
break  for  tea  and  biscuits  in  mid- 
morning.  Each  student  had  the 
opportunity  to  sit  at  the  high  table 
for  an  evening  meal.  For  more 
information  on  registering  for 
future  courses,  see  The  Oxford 
Experience  website. 


r_'__6jSA;;..J 


44 


EVERMORE  EVERSON'S  EVERTYPE! 

Mark  Burstein 

Borges  and  others  have  spoken 
of  a  universal  Hbrary;  for  our 
purposes,  let  us  imagine  an  enor- 
mous set  of  the  two  canonical 
Alicehooks.,  all  with  matching 
covers  and  identically  formatted, 
with  the  Tenniel  illustrations,  and 
each  in  one  of  the  ninety  or  more 
languages  into  which  they  have 
been  translated.  Michael  Everson, 
under  his  Evertype  imprint,  is,  in 
fact,  moving  in  that  direction,  with 
matching  editions  of  Wonderland 
in  English  as  well  as  Eachtrai  Eiltse  i 
dTir  na  niontas  (Irish) ,  Alys  in  Pow 
an  Anethow  (Cornish) ,  La  Aventuroj 
de Alicio  en  Mirlando  (Esperanto), 
Alice's  Abenteuer  im  Wunderland 
(German),  Contoyrtyssyn Ealish 
ayns  Qheerny  Yindyssyn  (Manx), 
Les  aventures  d' Alice  au  pays  des 
merveilles  (French),  Anturiaethau 
Alys  yng  Ngwlad  Hud  (Welsh) ;  Al- 
ices Aventyr  i  Sagolandet  (Swedish) 
and  Looking-Glass  in  English  and 
Lastall  den  Scdthdn  agus  a  bhFuair 
Eilis  Ann  Roimpi  (Irish).  He  is  cur- 
rently working  on  Italian,  Danish, 
Low  German,  and  Scots.  New 
translations  into  the  constructed 
languages  Volapiik,  Lojban,  and 
Neo  have  begun,  and  Clive  Car- 
ruthers'  classical  Latin  translations 
will  be  reset  and  republished  in 
20n.  In  addition  to  commission- 
ing brand-new  translations  (Irish, 
Cornish,  Low  German,  Scots,  and 
Volapiik),  Everson  is  creating  new 
editions  of  the  texts  in  European 
languages  (he  is  fluent  in  six)  that 
are  taken  from  the  first  editions, 
but  Romanized  (in  the  case  of  the 
German  Fraktur)  and  modernized 
in  terms  of  spelling  and,  occa- 
sionally, vocabulary,  in 
order  to  provide  thor- 
oughly readable  texts 
for  today's  readers. 

Born  and  raised 
in  America,  Everson 
moved  to  Ireland  at 
the  age  of  twenty-six, 
receiving  a  Fulbright 
scholarship  soon  after. 
Sometimes  called  "al- 


0^  ^'^cJ 


phabetician  to  the  world,"  he  is 
a  linguist,  typographer,  and  font 
designer;  was  one  of  the  principal 
editors  and  authors  of  Unicode 
(a  computer  character-encoding 
system  presently  incorporating 
96,000  letters  and  symbols  and  54 
writing  systems,  from  Mongolian 
to  Thai  to  Gothic  to  Cyrillic);  and 
is  presently  the  Irish  National 
Representative  to  the  ISO  com- 
mittee responsible  for  the  Uni- 
versal Character  Set.  He  is  active 
in  supporting  minority-language 
communities,  including  the  Celtic 
and  Finnish  language  families, 
Balinese,  and  N'Ko  (West  Africa) . 
Simply  put,  his  love  of  languages 
has  put  him  in  the  forefront  of 
a  scholarly  movement  to  encode 
the  writing  systems  of  every  single 
language  ever  spoken  into  com- 
puter form. 

One  can  understand  his  fasci- 
nation for  Carroll,  likewise  a  lover 
of  language  who  was  fascinated  by 
machines  and  once  even  devised 
his  own  alphabet  (the  "Square 
Alphabet"  for  his  Nyctograph, 
KL  75.8-9).  Beginning  with  his 
publication  of  new  translations  of 
them  into  the  Irish  tongue — the 
first  since  Padraig  O  Cadhla's 
in  1922 — Michael  became  "en- 
amored" of  the  Alice  books,  and 
soon  published  standard  English 
versions  to  match.  All  the  cover 


designs  are  identical  (save  for  the 
text,  of  course),  and  their  interior 
design  was  inspired  by  The  Anno- 
tated Alice:  The  Definitive  Edition,  in 
terms  of  the  text  fonts  (DeVinne), 
display  fonts  (Mona  Lisa,  Engrav- 
ers Roman),  Victorian  flower 
ornaments,  and  drop  caps.  He  ran 
into  all  the  usual  problems  with 
translations,  but  noted  that  in  Irish 
the  Mouse's  Tale/Tail  pun  worked 
perfectly  {parabal:  parable,  tale; 
earball:  tail).  Even  Tenniel's  illus- 
trations have  been  modified,  so 
that,  for  example,  the  label  on  the 
bottle  reads  "OLTAR  ME"  instead 
of  "DRINK  ME." 

Everson 's  friend  and  col- 
league Nicholas  Williams  (Profes- 
sor of  Irish  at  University  College 
Dublin),  the  translator  into  Irish, 
then  gave  the  world  a  new  Cornish 
Wonderland  (the  first  since  Ray 
Edwards's  Alysy'n  Vro  a  Varthsusyon 
in  1994),  and  the  dam  was  burst, 
soon  resulting  in  a  reset  Esperanto 
edition  in  the  1910  Elfric  Leofwine 
Kearney  translation,  and  an  Alice's 
Adventures  under  Ground,  the  first 
typeset  version  with  the  Carroll 
illustrations.  Everson  set  himself  a 
challenge  of  laying  out  an  entire 
book  in  one  day,  and  succeeded 
with  The  Hunting  of  the  Snark.  A 
Nursery  Alice  followed  (in  color) , 
and  he  recently  began  work  on  a 
new  omnibus  edition  of  Sylvie  and 
Bruno  (a  difficult  book  in  many 
ways,  he  says) . 

He  has  since  branched  out 
into  the  world  of  Alice  imitations, 
parodies,  and  spinoffs,  releasing 
Wonderland  Revisited  and  the  Games 
Alice  Played  There  (2009:  Keith 
Sheppard,  ill.  Cynthia  Brownell, 
reviewed  on  p.  46),  A  New  Alice  in 
the  Old  Wonderland  (orig. 
1895:  Anna  Matlack  Rich- 
ards, ill.  by  the  author's 
daughter  Anna  Richards 
Brewster) ,  Alice  in  Wonder- 
land in  Words  of  One  Syllable 
(orig.  1905:  retold  by  Mrs. 
J.  C.  Gorham),  Clara  in 
Blunderland  (orig.  1902: 
"Caroline  Lewis"  [Edward 
H.  Begbie],  ill.  J.  Stafford 

45 


Ransome),  Lost  in  Blunderland 
(orig.  1903:  dxlio) ,  John  Bull's 
Adventures  in  the  Fiscal  Wonderland 
(orig.  1904:  Charles  Geake  and 
Francis  Carruthers  Gould,  ill.  F. 
C.  Gould),  Alice  in  Blunderland:  An 
Iridescent  Dream  (orig.  1907:  John 
Kendrick  Bangs,  ill.  Albert  Lever- 
ing), The  Westminster  Alice  (orig. 
1922:  "Saki"  [H.  H.  Munro],  ill.  F 
C.  Gould) ,  New  Adventures  of  Alice 
(orig.  1917:  John  Rae,  ill.  by  the 
author) ,  Rollo  in  Emblemland  (orig. 
1902:  John  Kendrick  Bangs  and 
Charles  Raymond  Macauley,  ill.  C. 
R.  Macauley) ,  and  a  single  volume 
containing  both  Gladys  in  Gram- 
marland  (orig.  c.  1897:  Audrey 
Mayhew  Allen,  ill.  "Claudine")  and 
Alice  in  Grammarland  (orig.  1923: 
Louise  Franklin  Bache,  ill.  Henry 
Clarence  Pitz) . 

In  preparation  are  Eileen 's 
Adventures  in  Wordland  (orig.  1920: 
Zillah  K,  Macdonald,  ill.  Stuart 
Hay),  Davy  and  the  Goblin  (orig. 
1884:  Charles  E.  Carryl,  ill.  E.  B. 
Bensell),  Alice  in  Plunderland  (orig. 
1910:  "Loris  Carllew,"  ill.  Linton 
Jehne),  and  some  portmanteaux 
of  shorter  pieces  written  between 
1878  and  today 

And  more  translations.  And 
more.  At  the  rate  Evertype  is 
going,  perhaps  we  can  look  for- 
ward to  the  Universal  Carroll  Li- 
brary being  completed  in  a  decade 
or  two! 

When  asked  what  he  thinks 
about  his  progress  so  far,  Michael 
replied,  in  Irish,  "7w5  maith,  leath  na 
hoibre"  ("Well  begun  is  half  done"). 


Wonderland  Revisited,  and  the 

Games  Alice  Played  There 

Keith  Sheppard,  illustrated 

by  Cynthia  Brownell 

Evertype,  2009 
ISBN  978-194808343 

Reviewd  by  Sarah  Adams-Kiddy 

One  night  after  going  to  bed, 
Alice  wakes  up  to  find  her  bed  has 
turned  into  a  small  boat,  bobbing 
along  a  river  on  a  warm  summer's 
day.  The  dog  rowing  the  bed/ 
boat  is  only  the  first  of  the  many 


characters  she  meets  that  speak 
nonsense  to  her  in  true  Wonder- 
land fashion.  When  she  asks  if 
she  might  ask  what  he  is  doing  in 
her  bed,  he,  after  some  quibbling 
about  whether  she  may  or  may  not 
ask,  responds  by  asking  what  she  is 
doing  in  his  boat!  These  conversa- 
tions are  amusing,  but  the  reader 
does  feel  that  Sheppard  is  trying 
a  bit  too  hard  with  the  CarroUian- 
style  twists  of  logic  and  grammar. 
(To  his  credit,  I've  never  encoun- 
tered a  CarroUian  pastiche  that 
didn't.) 

Instead  of  joining  a  deck  of 
cards  to  play  croquet  with  hedge- 
hogs and  flamingoes,  or  becoming 
a  pawn  on  a  massive  chessboard, 
in  Wonderland  Revisited  Alice  and 
the  characters  she  encounters  act 
as  the  pieces  of  various  games,  in- 
cluding bridge,  euchre,  darts,  fox 
and  geese,  mah^ong,  and  snakes 
and  ladders.  The  Red  Queen  ap- 
pears several  times  to  play  croquet 
and  draughts,  a  group  of  morris 
dancers  plays  nine  men's  mor- 
ris, and  Alice  caddies  for  the  Red 
King.  New  characters  include  a 
talking  tree,  the  Jack  of  Diamonds, 
a  gameskeeper  who  keeps  track 
of  the  games  but  then  turns  into 
a  goat,  and  aggressive  geese  that 
want  to  eat  Alice,  dragons  that 
don't,  and  a  snake  that  does.  And 
of  course,  none  of  the  paths  leads 
to  where  Alice  wants  to  go! 

Many  of  the  games  mentioned 
in  the  book,  such  as  bridge  and 
mah-jong,  may  be  unfamiliar  to  a 
child  reader,  and  many  use  names 
and  terms  unfamiliar  to  Ameri- 
can readers,  such  as  draughts 
(checkers)  and  snakes  and  ladders 
(chutes  and  ladders).  But  Shep- 
pard's  introduction  kindly  in- 
cludes a  paragraph  on  most  of  the 
games,  giving  enough  of  an  over- 
view of  each  to  allow  the  reader  to 
understand  what  is  happening  in 
the  action  and  "get"  any  jokes  that 
might  otherwise  be  missed. 

Speaking  of  jokes,  Sheppard 
plays  with  words,  grammar,  logic, 
and  numbers,  as  did  Carroll.  Ana- 
grammatic  poems  appear,  and  sev- 


eral characters  insist  on  referring 
to  Alice  as  "Celia."  In  addition, 
Sheppard  makes  some  fun  refer- 
ences to  the  original  Alice  books, 
academia  (You  knew  that  the  capi- 
tal of  France  is  "F,"  didn't  you?), 
and  also  to  twentieth-century  cul- 
ture. Sometimes  these  are  spelled 
out  for  the  reader,  and  sometimes 
not — surely  the  pelican  with  a  bill 
full  of  ink  is  a  reference  to  Pelikan 
fountain  pens? 

Despite  the  many  clever  and 
interesting  ideas  in  this  book,  it 
unfortunately  did  not  hold  my 
interest  for  much  more  than  a 
chapter  at  a  time.  Brownell's  line 
illustrations  are  a  bit  clunky,  as 
well.  I  suspect  that,  true  to  the  au- 
thor's stated  intention,  this  book 
would  be  much  more  amusing  to 
read  aloud  to  a  child. 


Alice  in  Verse:  The  Lost 

Rhymes  of  Wonderland 
J.  T.  Holden,  illustrated 

by  Andrew  Johnson 
Candleshoe  Books,  2009 

ISBN  978-0982508992 

Reviewed  by  Hayley  Rushing 

Don't  let  the  tide  fool  you.  Alice  in 
Verse:  The  Lost  Rhymes  of  Wonderland, 
by  J.  T  Holden,  is  not  a  volume 
of  Carroll's  forgotten  poetry. 
Rather  it  is  Holden's  experiment 
in  exploring  his  own  childhood 
imagination,  sparked  by  the  tales 
his  grandfather  once  told  him  of 
mythical,  lost  poetry  that  shed  light 
on  the  mysteries  of  Wonderland. 
Holden's  Lost  Rhymes,  illustrated 
by  Chicago-based  artist  Andrew 
Johnson,  is  a  volume  of  nineteen 
CarroUian-style  poems  that  are 
actually  a  quite  convincing  pas- 
tiche, befitting  the  misleading  title. 
The  poems  are  more  akin  to  fan 
fiction  than  traditional  pastiche  as 
they  follow  Alice's  journey  through 
Wonderland  and  Looking-Glass 
Land,  because  they  fill  in  blanks 
rather  than  create  new  adventures 
for  her  As  if  taking  cues  from 
the  many  movie  adaptations  that 
combine  the  two  books,  the  poems 
travel  through  both  Wonderland 


46 


and  Looking-Glass,  starting  (as 
always)  with  the  rabbit-hole  and 
ending  with  the  trial  over  the  tarts, 
with  smatterings  of  tea  parties, 
caterpillars,  Tweedles,  and  live 
flowers  mixed  in.  Indeed,  unlike 
other  modern  retellings,  Holden's 
Lost  Rhymes  must  follow  the  origi- 
nal story,  for  while  the  rhymes  are 
clever  and  the  meter  is  fun  to  read 
(especially  aloud),  they're  not 
much  for  autonomous  storytelling; 
they  don't  carry  the  story  on  their 
own,  but  merely  remind  us  of  what 
we  already  know. 

In  terms  of  imitative  style,  the 
clever  rhymes  are  very  CarroUian, 
my  current  favorite  being  "elocu- 
tion" and  "execution"  during  the 
trial  scene,  where  Holden  writes. 

Whilst  Hare  and  Hatter  plied 

the  Mouse 

With  soothing  elocution. 
There  rose  a  voice  in  bold  dissent 

To  halt  the  execution... 

Also,  the  incorporation  of  what 
Martin  Gardner  called  a  "figured" 
poem,  recited  here  at  the  tea- 
party,  is  an  excellent  nod  to  the 
Mouse's  Tale,  though  without  the 
pun.  The  meter  varies  by  poem, 
creating  an  individual  tone  for 
every  piece,  which  was  a  surprise 
for  me.  I'd  expected  solely  the 
iambic  quatrains  that  are  typical  of 
Carroll's  poems  (mosdy  parodies 
of  popular  poetry  of  the  time); 
instead,  though  the  tone  remains 
distincdy  CarroUian,  each  poem 
has  a  unique  vitality  that  helps  cre- 
ate a  dynamic  whole. 

Johnson's  spooky  illustrations 
are  striking  and  oddly  morose  in 
smudged  blacks  and  grays.  More 
scary  than  odd,  the  art  seems  typi- 
cal of  the  "Alice  is  the  new  black" 
trend  of  the  modern,  Goth-fashion 
Alice.  Rather  than  curiously  pon- 
dering as  she  leisurely  descends 
the  rabbit-hole,  Alice  looks  genu- 
inely terrified  as  she  falls  with  what 
appears  to  be  a  speed  that  would 
likely  impede  introverted  thought 


(as  when  Alice  wildly  hurtles  down 
the  rabbit-hole  in  the  Burton 
film).  In  terms  of  imaginative  style, 
I  particularly  love  the  Hatter's 
bulging,  tumorous,  turban-like  hat 
and  the  White  Rabbit's  long,  gaunt 
face  and  haunted  eyes,  for  who 
hasn't  felt  haunted  by  lateness? 
With  such  grim  artwork,  it's 
fitting  that  the  author's  upcom- 
ing book  is  O  the  Dark  Things  You  'II 
See!,  again  illustrated  by  Johnson, 
which  is  an  ominous  parody  of  Dr. 
Seuss's  Oh  The  Places  You  'II  Go!,  set 
to  hit  the  shelves  in  March,  ac- 
cording to  Holden's  page  on  Ama- 
zon, though  Candleshoe  Books' 
site  says  it'll  be  May.  Holden  has 
also  reported  in  interviews  that  he 
has  more  rhyming  poetry  books  in 
the  works,  Bedtime  Tales  for  Naughty 
Children  and  Gothic  Tales  for  the 
Wicked  Soul,  though  their  release 
dates  are  yet  to  be  determined. 


The  Hunting  of  the  Snark: 
An  Agony  in  Eight  Fits 

Lewis  Carroll,  illustrated 

by  Mahendra  Singh 

Melville  House,  2010 

ISBN  978-1935554240 

Reviewed  by  Stephanie  Lovett 

If  you  would  like  to  know  what 
you  are  getting  before  you  order 
a  copy  of  Mahendra  Singh's  new 
The  Hunting  of  The  Snark,  imagine 
the  results  if  Edward  Gorey  were 
to  draw  a  dream  Rene  Magritte 
had  about  Hieronymus  Bosch. 
Entertaining  and  provocative, 
Singh's  deadpan  pen-and-ink 
"engravings" — a  style  that  pays 
homage  to  Tenniel  and  Holiday — 
conjure  a  variety  of  sources,  not 
so  much  to  illustrate  the  text  as  to 
create  a  parallel  text,  a  visual  Snark 
joining  the  verbal  Snark. 

Winning  at  "spot  the  reference" 
is  always  gratifying,  and  readers 
will  hugely  enjoy  the  walk-ons 
by  Alice  characters,  allusions  to 
Dodgson's  photography  and  mi- 
lieu, joyful  plunderings  of  surreal- 
ism's  vast  iconography,  and  a  myr- 
iad of  jokes  that  ring  the  bells  of 


your  knowledge  of,  inter  alia,  his- 
torical personages,  Victorian  Eng- 
land, and  things  Indian  (though 
I  must  say  I  got  that  last  one  via 
Kipling).  Rather  than  spoil  your 
fun  by  enumerating  these  finds,  I 
will  instead  reassure  you  that,  far 
from  being  a  superficial  show  of 
cleverness,  these  visual  jokes  serve 
the  artist's  larger  purpose  of  tak- 
ing us  deeper  into  the  world  of  the 
Snark.  This  great  depth  (perhaps 
so  great  as  to  be  a  chasm  .  .  .  and 
so  can  we  say  that  these  illustra- 
tions are  abysmal,  in  a  good  way?) 
results  from  the  fact  that  these 
images  and  ideas  bring  along  with 
them  the  entirety  of  the  worlds 
they  come  from,  and  from  the 
necessity  of  active  participation  by 
the  reader.  You  are  creating  depth 
by  being  there  yourself. 

Of  the  many  devices  at  work  in 
these  illustrations,  one  that  re- 
ally drives  their  functioning  is  the 
constant  play  between  realism  and 
staginess.  Scenes  dissolve  back  and 
forth  between  a  theater  setdng  and 
a  (strange  and  dreamy)  realism. 
Characters  are  sometimes  them- 
selves and  sometimes  performing; 
they  are  figures  in  a  theater,  in  a 
shadowbox,  in  an  11-circuit  laby- 
rinth, in  a  picture  within  a  picture. 
This  play-fulness  emphasizes  the 
storytelling  process  and  invites  us 
to  see  the  characters  as  more  than 
themselves — as  exemplars,  meta- 
phors, personae  for  the  ages. 

Like  the  Beaver  and  the 
Butcher,  the  story  of  the  Snark  and 
these  illustrations  walk  hand  in 
hand,  each  filling  our  heads  with 
ideas  through  its  own  particular 
means.  Your  attention  to  Mahen- 
dra Singh's  work  will  be  amply 
repaid;  you  will  learn  more  about 
a  book  you  thought  you  knew,  and 
you  may  even  weep  with  delight. 


47 


^ 


The  Real  Alice  in  Wonderland: 

A  Role  Model  for  the  Ages 

C.  M.  Rubin  with  Gabriella  Rubin 

AuthorHouse,  2010 

ISBN  978-1449081317 

Reviewed  by  Ray  Kiddy 

I  was  prepared  to  be  unimpressed 
with  The  Real  Alice  in  Wonderland, 
but  I  was  pleasantly  surprised.  Not 
impressed,  mind  you,  but  I  found 
that  it  does  have  a  bit  to  say.  The 
completist  will  want  to  own  this,  of 
course,  but  most  Carrollians  may 
want  to  read  through  the  book 
before  buying  it.  It  could  be  an 
approachable  book  for  the  rela- 
tive of  a  collector,  someone  who 
vaguely  wonders  what  all  the  fuss 
is  about  and  does  not  need  to  be 
very  rigorous  about  getting  an 
answer.  Plus,  I  have  a  soft  spot  for 
my  relatives  who  scrapbook.  And 
if  this  book  seems  very  much  like 
a  scrapbook,  its  origins,  indeed, 
are  a  project  the  author's  daugh- 
ter Gabriella  did  in  high  school. 
Just  as  a  scrapbook  can  record  the 
details  of  a  day,  perhaps  a  child's 
first  day  at  school,  and  make  it 
interesting,  so  this  book  records 
an  "incredible  journey"  described 
on  the  book  flap  as  encompass- 
ing London,  Oxford,  Lyndhurst, 
Guildford,  and  Llandudno.  This 
is  a  small  geographical  span  for 
an  "incredible  journey,"  but  of 
course,  one  does  not  have  to  go  to 
the  ends  of  the  earth  to  find  some- 
thing exotic  or  interesting,  and 
the  British  Isles  do  pack  rather  a 
lot  into  a  small  space.  If  you  enjoy 
a  lighthearted  visual  presentation, 
something  perhaps  akin  to  a  web- 
log  in  book  form,  and  if  you  can 
overlook  text  being  overwritten  by 
ornate  clusters  of  roses  that  oc- 
cupy a  rather  large  space  in  each 
corner  of  many  pages,  or  the  use 
of  public-domain  clip  art,  you  will 
enjoy  the  visual  effect  that  this 
book  achieves. 

A  Carrollian  who  wants  to  take 
this  book  seriously  will  probably 
be  frustrated.  This  is  the  not  the 
first  book  to  claim  to  present  new 
information,  and  then  provide 


absolutely  no  specifics,  citations, 
or  provenance  for  any  of  it,  or  to 
claim  that  Lewis  Carroll  was  less 
than  wholly  responsible  for  his 
book.  The  author  makes  the  claim 
here  that,  after  Dodgson  stopped 
spending  time  with  the  Liddells, 
he  and  Alice  Liddell  corresponded 
in  secret,  and  that  Alice's  advocacy 
was  necessary  for  the  publication 
oi  Alice's  Adventures  in  Wonderland. 
I  am  not  sure  how  one  would  go 
about  providing  corroboration  for 
these  goings-on.  The  author  does 
not  even  attempt  it,  so  where  does 
one  go  with  this? 

This  book  does  speak  about  the 
middle  part  of  Alice  Liddell 's  life, 
which  is  often  overlooked.  Alice 
usually  shows  up  in  our  conscious- 
ness either  as  the  young  girl  on 
the  river  Thames,  or  as  the  older 
woman  who  had  to  sell  her  manu- 
script and  who  later  came  to  New 
York  to  be  honored  at  Columbia 
University.  The  middle  of  her  life 
as  Alice  Hargreaves  is  much  less 
familiar  to  most  people,  and  it  is 
good  to  see  a  picture  of  her  as  she 
was  for  much  of  her  life,  a  wife, 
mother,  and,  even  an  artist.  What 
one  does  mostly  see  is  a  picture, 
and  another  picture,  and  a  mirror 
image  of  the  picture  to  fit  on  the 
facing  page.  .  .  .  But  most  of  Alice's 
story  has  been  better  documented, 
just  as  we  have  other  books  (such 
as  Linda  Sunshine's)  that  collect 
art  about  Lewis  Carroll  and  Alice 
from  many  sources.  There  may  be 
new  information  here,  but  if  that 
is  so,  it  will  have  to  be  republished 
with  citations  and  sources  to  be 
credible. 

Yet  again  Alice  is  presented  as 
the  true  source  of  the  creativity  or 
the  stories  in  Lewis  Carroll's  most 
famous  work.  Of  course,  at  first 
glance  we  see  this  puckish  young 
girl,  fetchingly  posed,  an  artist  in 
her  own  right,  and  then  we  see 
Reverend  Dodgson,  a  church- 
man and,  even  worse,  a  teacher 
of  mathematics.  Which  of  these 
figures  seems  lighthearted,  which 
creative,  which  clever?  The  au- 
thor even  suggests  here  that,  after 


their  estrangement,  "who  knows 
going  forward  what  other  creative 
projects  Alice  might  have  inspired 
him  to  create?"  And  yet  collectors 
have  entire  rooms  filled  with  his 
later  works.  Why  is  it  so  difficult  to 
credit  Lewis  Carroll  with  creativ- 
ity? A  poem  may  be  inspired  by  a 
flower,  but  we  don't  suggest  that 
the  flower  lobbied  for  the  poem 
to  be  published  and  sent  letters  to 
the  editor  about  it. 

This  book  could  have  been 
better,  and  more  informative.  It 
is  good  for  what  it  is  and  as  far  as 
it  goes,  but  more  diligence  and 
effort  might  have  made  it  a  more 
important  one. 


Alice's  Adventures  in  Wonderland 

Lewis  Carroll,  illustrated 

by  Nancy  Wiley 

Wiley  O'Brien 

Workspace,  Inc.,  2009 

ISBN  978-0615294926 

Reviewed  by  Ray  Kiddy 

Nancy  Wiley  has  done  an  admi- 
rable job  illustrating  Alice's  Adven- 
tures in  Wonderland  with  dolls,  dolls 
that  she  rightly  calls  "sculptural." 
Obviously,  certain  tableaux  are 
going  to  be  more  fun  to  do,  but 
she  executes  different  sculptures 
for  almost  all  of  the  "Tenniel  42" 
and  adds  many  extras.  These  in- 
clude Dodgson  reading  in  a  chair, 
the  boat  ride  on  the  Thames,  the 
raven  and  the  writing  desk,  many 
versions  of  Father  William,  and 
more  than  a  few  Crustacea  and 
other  sea  creatures.  Of  course,  cats 
and  pigs  and  grins  and  teacups 
abound.  I  cannot  decide  which  is 
my  favorite  figure.  There  is  some- 
thing to  appeal  to  every  Carrol- 
lian, whether  it  be  the  frustrated 
expressions  of  the  card  soldiers, 
the  three-masted-ship  hat  of  the 
Duchess  at  the  Queen's  party,  the 
sleeping  Gryphon,  the  dancing 
lobsters,  or  all  of  the  different  at- 
titudes on  display  at  the  trial. 

Reinterpretations  of  Alice  often 
try  to  shock,  but  Wiley's  figures 
do  not  stoop  to  that.  Neither  are 
they  twee.  They  are  childlike,  with 


48 


some  fluffiness  evident  in  most  of 
the  creatures  portrayed.  But  they 
are  also  complex.  Some  of  the 
scenes  might  have  become  self-car- 
icatures, but  Wiley's  faces  are  ex- 
pressive, and  her  use  of  cloth,  hair, 
and  body  positioning  makes  them 
amusing  in  a  straightforward  way, 
while  also  layered  with  suggested 
meanings.  For  exmaple,  the  house 
of  the  White  Rabbit  looks  like  a 
traditional  dollhouse,  with  its  side 
wall  cut  away.  It  seems  an  obvi- 
ous effect  when  you  are  working 
with  dolls,  but  I  cannot  remember 
a  drawing  that  sliced  the  house 
open  in  this  way.  The  use  of  the 
dollhouse  almost  seems  to  show 
Wiley  laughing  at  herself.  Yes,  it 
is  a  doll's  house,  but  it  also  works 
to  illustrate  the  story  very  well, 
and  she  is  not  afraid  to  use  it.  The 
Queen  is,  of  course,  shouting,  but 
being  a  card,  she  has  an  upside- 
down  face  on  the  front  of  her 
dress.  Again,  a  simple  effect,  but 
the  differing  expressions  make  it 
more  than  just  a  simple  trick. 

When  I  spoke  with  Nancy  Wiley 
at  the  Philadelphia  meeting  this 
past  spring,  she  did  not  seem  to 
be  ready  to  attempt  Through  the 
Looking-Glass,  but  I  hope  she  con- 
siders it.  Some  of  the  darker  ele- 
ments of  that  story  will  be  a  chal- 
lenge, but  that  is  why  I  hope  she 
will  do  it.  Her  dolls  are  complex 
enough  to  model  the  ambiguities 
and  darkness  in  that  story,  and 
the  characters  would  not  be  flat 
cutouts.  I  very  much  look  forward 
to  her  vision  of  the  Jabberwock  in 
particular. 


jW 


"En  Passant" 

Katherine  Neville,  in 

Masters  of  Technique,  edited 

by  Howard  Goldowsky, 

Boston:  Mongoose  Press,  2010 

286  pp.,  ISBN  978-0970148262 

Reviewed  by  August  A.  Imholtz,  Jr. 

Chess  fiction,  a  genre  that  of 
course  has  its  own  Library  of  Con- 
gress subject  heading,  is  not  an 
area  in  which  Charles  Lutwidge 
Dodgson  has  figured  too  promi- 


nently, in  spite  of  his  own  chess 
creation.  Through  the  Looking-Glass. 
Is  he  featured  in  mystery  stories? 
Yes  indeed — ^you  only  have  to  think 
of  works  by  Peter  Lovesey,  John 
Dickson  Carr,  Donald  Thomas, 
and  many  others.  Science  fiction? 
Of  course;  think  of  Jose  Farmer 
and  the  rest.  But  chess  stories? 
Strangely  less  so.  Yes,  there  are  a 
few;  perhaps  one  could  mention 
Massimo  Bontempelli's  The  Chess  Set 
in  the  Mirror,  but  Katherine  Neville 
has  changed  the  chess  landscape 
with  her  engaging,  multilevel  short 
story  "En  Passant."  The  tide  refers 
to  a  move  in  chess,  a  sort  of  penalty 
or  compensatory  maneuver  on  the 
part  of  a  pawn,  which — ^when  it  has 
advanced  to  the  second  rank — can 
be  captured,  in  a  peculiar  way,  by 
a  pawn  on  the  fifth  rank.  Here  is 
a  more  technical  definition  drawn 
from  the  Wikipedia  entry: 

En  passant  (from  the  French: 
in  passing)  ...  is  a  special  form  of 
capture  made  immediately  after  a 
player  moves  a  pawn  two  squares 
forward  from  its  starting  position, 
and  an  opposing  pawn  could  have 
captured  it  as  if  it  had  moved 
only  one  square  forward.  In  this 
situation,  the  opposing  pawn  may 
capture  the  pawn  as  if  taking  it  "as 
it  passes"  through  the  first  square. 
The  resulting  position  is  the  same 
as  if  the  pawn  had  only  moved  one 
square  forward  and  the  opposing 


pawn  had  captured  normally.  The 
en  passant  capture  must  be  done 
on  the  very  next  turn,  or  the  right 
to  do  so  is  lost.  Such  a  move  is  the 
only  occasion  in  chess  in  which  a 
piece  captures  but  does  not  move 
to  the  square  of  the  captured  piece. 

The  latter  exception  is  not 
unimportant  to  the  way  the  mean- 
ing of  "en  passant"  plays  out  in 
the  story.  Without  completely 
giving  away  the  whole  plot  and 
conclusion,  one  can  say  that 
Charles  Lutwidge  Dodgson,  John 
Ruskin,  Prince  Leopold,  Dean 
Henry  George  Liddell,  and  of 
course  Alice  Pleasance  Liddell 
are  all  ensnared  in  a  situation — a 
chess  match,  actually — at  Alice's 
contrivance,  in  the  garden  of  the 
deanery  of  Christ  Church.  Each 
character  is  represented  by  a  chess 
figure:  Dodgson  a  knight,  Liddell 
a  bishop,  Ruskin  a  rook  ("What 
else?"  one  might  ask),  and  Alice, 
of  course,  a  pawn  and  then  a 
queen.  This  Alice  is  not  the  little 
girl  of  Wonderland  but  a  young 
woman  of  twenty-one,  who  simply 
wishes  to  "live  an  ordinary,  simple 
life,  as  others  did,  a  life  of  sched- 
ules and  rules  and  plans,  a  life 
with  a  husband  and  children."  At 
the  end  of  the  chess  match,  Alice 
is  freed  from  a  captured  state, 
captured  en  passant,  in  which  she 
was  almost  imprisoned  forever.  Or 
was  she?  Corpus  Christi  College, 
perhaps  by  poetic  license  or  for 
some  other  reason,  has  become 
Corpus  Christie;  otherwise,  Kath- 
erine Neville  proves  herself  here  a 
master  of  technique. 

HSi 


The  Place  of  Lewis  Carroll 

in  Children 's  Literature 

Jan  Susina 

Roudedge,  2010 

ISBN  978-0415936293 

Reviewed  by  Clare  Imholtz 

Jan  Susina  explores  the  central- 
ity  of  Lewis  Carroll  to  children's 
literature  from  many  angles,  chap- 
ter by  chapter  unveiling  multiple 
Alices:  inter  alia,  a  book  for  adults, 
a  book  for  children,  a  book  for 


49 


upper-middle-class  children,  and 
a  book  that  has  found  its  way 
(with  Carroll's  blessing  during  his 
lifetime)  into  every  niche  market, 
from  biscuit  tins  to  multimedia 
games.  He  also  examines  Carroll's 
letters,  photography,  and  late 
novel,  Sylvie  and  Bruno. 

Susina,  a  professor  of  literature 
at  Illinois  State  University,  has 
read  widely  and  deeply  on  Lewis 
Carroll,  children's  literature  in 
general,  and  Victorian  mores.  He 
guides  us  like  a  sensible,  though 
never  stodgy,  uncle  through  the 
pitfalls  of  Alice  scholarship,  but 
also  presents  lively  new  insights 
and  throws  welcome  light  into  the 
comers,  all  in  lucid  and  accessible 
prose.  He  makes  no  bones  about 
one  issue:  Some  recent  scholar- 
ship is  "surprisingly  ugly."  Susina 
defends  Carroll  as  "a  proper  Vic- 
torian," and  the  victim  of  a  double 
standard  when  compared  to  certain 
of  his  contemporaries  (e.g.,  Hawar- 
den  and  Cameron)  whose  photos 
of  children  are  every  bit  as  open 
to  sexual  interpretation.  He  also 
addresses  other  common  misper- 
ceptions.  For  example,  he  does 
not  totally  accept  the  theory,  now  a 
truism,  that  Carroll  revolutionized 
children's  literature,  though  he 
grants  that  Wonderland  did  move 
the  genre  away  from  didacticism 
and  toward  entertainment. 

At  times,  Susina  may  be  too 
accepting  of  time-honored  views 
of  Carroll.  He  mentions,  but 
does  not  challenge,  Carroll's  dis- 
sembling claim  in  the  Preface  to 
Sylvie  and  Bruno  Concluded  that  he 
did  not  read  reviews,  despite  the 
ample  evidence  in  his  letters  that 
Carroll — like  virtually  every  other 
author  in  history — ^was  very  inter- 
ested in  reviews  of  his  books.  Su- 
sina also  repeats  the  chestnut  that 
Carroll  was  painfully  shy,  the  Alice 
books  being  a  way  to  transform 
himself  from  Dodgson  to  Carroll. 


The  first,  wonderful  chapter 
discusses  Carroll's  often  over- 
looked juvenilia  and  highlights 
some  little  known  aspects  of  it, 
relating  the  author's  youthful 
writing  practices  to  his  adult  work. 
Readers  will  enjoy  the  samples 
Susina  provides.  Chapter  Two 
demonstrates  that  Wonderland 
was  a  part  of  the  already  flourish- 
ing tradition  of  the  literary  fairy 
tale.  Here  Susina  examines  and 
responds  to  the  arguments  of 
critics  such  as  Ruth  Berman  and 
John  Goldthwaite.  Chapter  Three 
considers  Carroll's  obsession  with 
letters,  arguing  that  it  is  in  letters 
that  the  two  seemingly  distinctive 
personalities  of  Carroll  and  Dodg- 
son are  trulyjoined.  Susina  pres- 
ents his  own  solution  to  the  raven 
and  writing-desk  riddle,  a  solution 
based  on  Carroll's  letter  writing. 
He  also  suggests,  incorrectly  I 
believe  (given  what  we  know  about 
the  1863  break  with  the  Liddells, 
which  he  never  mentions  in  this 
very  nonbiographical  tome),  that 
the  handwritten  manuscript  of 
Under  Ground  can  be  viewed  as  a 
"love  letter"  to  Alice  Liddell. 

Chapter  Four  covers  the  "Alice 
industry"  and  the  rise  of  chil- 
dren's consumer  culture,  which 
are,  in  fact,  major  themes  of  this 
book.  Carroll's  interest  in  Alice 
repackagings  was  notable,  but  is 
perhaps  slightly  overstated  here. 
For  example,  I  don't  believe  that 
Carroll  was  actively  involved  with, 
beyond  giving  permission  for,  E. 
Stanley  Leathes's  Alice  in  Wonder- 
land Birthday  Book  (1884).  Nor 
should  he  be  credited  or  blamed 
for  the  Looking-Glass  Biscuit  Tin 
nor  those  ivory-carved  Wonderland 
and  Looking-Glass  figure  parasol 
handles. 

Chapter  Five  presents  an  inci- 
sive analysis  of  Carroll's  interest  in 
his  imitators,  and  his  own  anxiety 
lest  he  himself  be  accused  of  hav- 
ing imitated  other  authors.  Susina 
also  notes  that  in  some  cases  imi- 
tations of  Carroll  appear  to  have 
influenced  his  own  later  work.  A 
long  analysis  of  Carroll's  attacks 


on  Edward  Salmon  establishes 
indubitably  that  Carroll  cared  very 
much  about  his  public  image. 

Chapter  Six,  a  detailed  look 
at  The  Nursery  Alice,  is  particularly 
rewarding,  and  is  a  good  example 
of  Susina's  ability  throughout  this 
book  to  thoroughly  examine  and 
synthesize  not  only  the  critical 
evidence  but  the  textual  and  para- 
textual  evidence,  and  to  see  fresh 
connections  between  different 
facets  of  Carroll's  writing.  Chapter 
Seven  examines  the  photograph 
of  Alice  Liddell  as  The  Beggar-Maid, 
setting  it  firmly  within  both  the  so- 
cial context  of  the  period  and  the 
development  of  art  photography, 
such  as  O.  G.  Rej lander's  work, 
which  Carroll  much  admired. 
Chapter  Eight  focuses  on  class 
issues,  contrasting  Carroll's  lack  of 
novelistic  concern  about  poor  chil- 
dren with  other  popular  writers  of 
the  time,  such  as  Charles  Kingsley 
and  the  now  virtually  unknown 
Hesba  Stretton,  \^hose  Jessica's  First 
Prayer  sold  vastly  more  copies  in  its 
day  than  did  Wonderland. 

Chapter  Nine  discusses  Sylvie 
and  Bruno  both  as  a  self-revelatory 
text  and  an  example  of  Carroll's 
desire  to  write  for  both  children 
and  adults.  In  Chapter  Ten  we 
are  back  to  marketing,  and  in 
particular  the  role  of  book  jackets 
and  other  paratextual  materials. 
Susina  deconstructs  the  design  of 
fourteen  Alice  paperback  covers 
and  dust  jackets,  but  unfortu- 
nately, illustrations  of  them  are 
not  included.  (The  handsome, 
restrained  cover  of  Susina's  own 
book,  we  can  note  here,  authorita- 
tively conveys  that  this  is  a  serious 
book  about  a  fun  and  imagina- 
tive topic.)  Continuing  the  same 
theme.  Chapter  Eleven  moves  us 
along  to  explore  how  Wonderland 
has  been  transformed  by  technol- 
ogy. It  is  one  of  the  most  trans- 
lated texts  into  hypertext  (perhaps 
because  it  jumps  from  place  to 
place  itself) . 


50 


In  the  final  chapter,  Jon  Sci- 
eszka's  "well-intentioned"  but 
"wrong-headed"  and  "exceed- 
ingly strange"  book — Walt  Dis- 
ney's Alice  in  Wonderland  (Disney 
Press,  2008) — comes  in  for  heavy 
criticism  because,  Susina  says,  it  is 
based  on  the  wrong  pictures  (Mary 
Blair's  rather  than  Tenniel's)  and 
omits  the  conversations. 

Because  the  chapters  of  Su- 
sina's  book  originally  appeared 
separately  ("have  accumulated 
over  time"),  they  are  sometimes 
repetitive;  the  book  would  have 
benefited  from  more  editing.  This, 
as  well  as  the  inadequate  index — 
which  has  huge  gaps  and  does  not 
follow  standard  practices — may 
reflect  publishing  economics  (as 
does  the  sky-high  price  of  this  vol- 
ume, enough  to  pick  up  a  couple 
of  nice  Alices).  The  meager  index 
is  a  true  shame  in  a  book  so  rich 
in  detail  and  broad  in  thought. 
There  also  are  a  few  small  errors 
of  fact.  For  example,  Blackburn 
and  White  used  Wilfred  Dodgson's 
abridgment  of  Sylvie,  not  one  of 
their  own  devising,  in  Logical  Non- 
sense, and  Wonderland  went  out  of 
copyright  in  1907,  not  1911.  But 
these  are  of  minor  concern  in  this 
most  informative,  enlightening, 
and  highly  recommended  book, 
an  important  addition  to  the 
literature  for  general  Carrollian 
readers  as  well  as  academics. 


Alisa  V  Zazerkale 

Lewis  Carroll,  translated  by 

Nina  M.  Demurova,  illustrated 

by  Maxim  Mitrofanov 

Moscow:  Rosman,  2010 

ISBN  978-5-353-04505-2 

Reviewed  by  August  A.  Imholtz,  Jr. 

This  is  a  beautifully  printed  new 
Russian  edition  of  Through  the 
Looking-Glass  illustrated  by  Maxim 
Mitrofanov  and  translated  by 
Nina  Demurova,  who  adds  an 
afterword  on  the  problems  of 
translating  Alice  into  Russian. 
And  how  delightfully  different 
this  book — like  Mitrofanov's  ear- 
lier Alisa  V  Stranye  Chudes  (ISBN: 


978-5-353-0388-7),  published  last 
year  by  the  same  press — is  from 
so  many  of  the  Russian  books, 
including  Alice  translations,  of  the 
Soviet  years  of  the  1950s  and  later. 
The  paper  is  good,  and  the  type 
clear,  well  spaced,  and  very  read- 
able. The  illustrations,  of  which 
there  are  some  96  (42  of  them 
full-page  illustrations)  are  all  in 
color — again  a  marked  departure 
from  the  Alices  of  the  Soviet  era. 
Not  as  simplistic  as  Greg  Hildeb- 
randt's  or  as  threateningly  adult 
as  Barry  Moser's,  the  illustrations 
are  gently  playful,  of  the  sort  that 
would  appeal  to  young  readers, 
who  were  of  course  the  main  au- 
dience for  Lewis  Carroll's  Alice 
books  from  the  very  beginning. 
Especially  charming  are  the  il- 
lustrations of  the  Red  Queen  with 
her  chess  figure  accoutrements, 
including  a  scepter  consisting  of  a 
fireplace  poker  with  a  chess  king 
fixed  at  the  tip  like  a  finial  (p.  29); 
the  contrasting  pair  of  a  dapper 
Walrus  in  a  red  coat  and  striped 
morning  trousers,  surely  from 
beyond  the  North  Sea,  and  a  very 
Russian-looking  but  unusually  thin 
Carpenter  (pp.  56-57);  and  the 
crow  from  Chapter  Four  making 
off  with  the  White  Queen's  shawl 
in  his  long  beak  at  the  begin- 
ning of  Chapter  Five  (pp.  66-67). 
Humpty  Dumpy  is  portrayed 
with  a  most  bemused  grin  and  a 
face  suggestive  of  one  of  the  late 
Roman  emperors,  as  he  perches 
on  a  folded  chessboard  (of  the 
sort  in  which  the  pieces  are  stored 
when  not  in  play),  instead  of  being 
shown  balanced  on  his  usual  dull 
wall  (p.  80).  Mitrofanov  sometimes 
follows  Tenniel,  with  modification, 
but  more  often  departs  from  him 
with  some  charming  results.  The 
concluding  acrostic  poem,  nicely 
worked  out  in  its  Russian  text  (no 
mean  feat) ,  is  framed  with  little 
figures  from  the  story,  chess  pieces 
included,  and  the  half-visible  head 
of  Dinah  at  the  bottom  of  the  page 
looking  up  to  see  what  she  started. 


Through  the  Looking  —Glass 

and  What  Alice  Found  There 

Lewis  Carroll,  illustrated 

by  Gavin  L.  O'Keefe 

Ramble  House 

ISBN  978-1-60543-432-2 

ISBN  978-1-65043-432-9 

Reviewed  by  Andrew  Ogus 

It  must  be  difficult  to  resist  the 
urge  to  outdo  Lewis  Carroll's 
imagination  when  illustrating  his 
books.  In  this  simple  edition  of 
Looking-Glass,  the  wasp-waisted 
Red  Queen  literally,  though  merci- 
fully briefly,  makes  Alice  an  actual 
Pawn.  Unlike  the  other  White 
Pawns  that  appear  in  the  back- 
ground of  another  illustration, 
she  has  retained  her  human  head. 
Some  charming  ideas:  like  Mer- 
cury, the  elephants  have  winged 
feet,  and  the  Rocking-horse-fly's 
hind  legs  become  his  own  rockers. 
The  curling  ribbons  and  chains 
that  recur  throughout  are  a  pleas- 
ant touch,  but  the  skeletons  and 
skulls  are  not,  nor  is  the  literal 
interpretation  of  Humpty  Dump- 
ty's  suggestions  for  Alice's  face. 
The  bewildering  array  of  sizes  and 
shapes  in  the  illustrations  makes 
for  an  inconsistent  layout.  A  para- 
graph of  type  brilliantly  reversing 
to  white  out  of  the  black  crow  is 
sadly  marred  by  not  bleeding  off 
the  page.  One  wishes  for  a  similar 
use  of  imagination  and  greater 
skill  throughout. 

^ 


Alice 

11th  Hour  Ensemble, 

Theatre  of  Yugen 

San  Francisco,  September  9-19 

Reviewed  by  James  Welsch 

A  new  theater  piece  called  Alice 
at  the  Theatre  of  Yugen  in  San 
Francisco  ran  from  September  9 
through  19,  directed  and  "imag- 
ined" by  Allison  Combs.  As  a  work 
of  "movement  theatre,"  it's  about 
60%  interpretive  dance  and  40% 
dialogue,  easily  juggling  different 
genres  of  theater  with  different 
types  of  music  (from  techno  to 


51 


folk  rock) ,  and  varying  levels  of 
seriousness  and  silliness. 

Alice,  in  her  traditional  blue 
outfit  but  played  by  a  leggy  adult 
actor/ dancer  (Megan  Trout),  is  al- 
ready exhausted  on  the  stage  when 
the  audience  is  let  in  the  theater. 
("Is  that  Alice?"  asks  a  young  girl 
behind  me,  Alice  having  already 
silendy  begun  her  opening  num- 
ber while  an  usher  noisily  hobbles 
past  her  to  turn  off  a  loud  fan, 
and  the  audience  settles  in.)  This 
Alice  starts  out  with  grown-up 
anxieties,  obsessive-compulsively 
counting  numbers,  and  reassur- 
ing herself  repeatedly,  "okay,  okay, 
okay."  In  contrast  to  the  wildness 
she's  about  to  encounter,  we  real- 
ize that  her  troubled  state  of  mind 
at  the  beginning  is  her  supposed 
normalcy. 

Then,  instead  of  a  white  rabbit, 
she  is  shaken  from  her  routine  by 
a  single  playing  card  falling  from 
the  sky.  A  tribe  of  five  strange 
savages  in  rags  starts  to  tease  her 
and  mess  with  her  mind,  taking 


her  through  the  mind-and-body- 
changing  adventures  of  Wonder- 
land, loosely  inspired  by  Carroll's 
book.  (While  Alice  is  exploring 
the  corridor,  before  it  really  gets 
going,  the  child  behind  me  de- 
clares "This  is  upsetting  because 
it's  boring.")  Growing,  shrinking, 
falling,  mushrooms,  being  stuck  in 
a  house,  scary  forests,  and  all  man- 
ner of  psychedelic  abstractions 
are  created  by  the  weird  tribe  with 
their  flexible  interlocking  limbs, 
in  extremely  creative  ways.  Only 
using  their  bodies,  they  show  us  a 
caterpillar  sitting  on  a  mushroom, 
and  when  he  sucks  on  his  hookah 
(one  of  their  fingers) ,  the  whole 
mushroom  inhales  and  exhales. 
It's  most  fun  during  the  wild 
dance  numbers  with  their  very 
cool  choreography;  it  drags  a  little 
during  the  dialogue,  which,  as  in 
so  many  Wonderland  adaptations, 


is  always  a  lot  less  clever  than  Car- 
roll's original.  For  some  reason, 
their  amazing  Cheshire  Cat,  very 
feline  and  Kabuki-ish,  sticks  closer 
to  Carroll's  words,  and  is  conse- 
quently much  more  powerful. 
After  Alice  has  gone  native, 
becoming  one  of  the  weird  savages 
herself,  a  new  square  peg  (named 
Lewis)  also  finds  himself  lost  in 
Wonderland.  Lewis's  unhappy 
anal-lretentiveness  makes  us  real- 
ize what  Wonderland  is  to  these 
folks:  everything  "other"  in  Ameri- 
can society.  Their  Wonderland 
is  part  hippie,  part  hipster,  part 
Burning  Man,  part  mushroom 
trip,  totally  gay,  multicultural,  and 
sexy.  It  has  games  with  no  rules, 
self-examination,  community, 
humor,  and,  of  course,  lots  of 
dancing  and  singing.  It's  also  dirty. 
Uptight  Lewis  rejects  it  outright, 
and  even  Alice  eventually  wakes 
up.  But  she's  definitely  dirtier  than 
before  her  trip  to  Wonderland. 
("Is  she  dripping  sweat?"  asks  the 
child  behind  me.) 


52 


ARTS  (Sr"  ILLUSTRATION 

www.delicious.com/lcsna/klSS+art 
It  was  inevitable  that  a  connection 
between  the  Tea  Party  moveme^ 
and  the  Mad  Tea  Party  (both 
which  were  all  over  the  zeitgei 
2010)  would  be  utilized  in  poHt' 
cartoons,  and  a  few  high-profile 
ones  should  be  mentioned.  Dr 
Friedman's  illustration  in  the  April 
12  issue  of  the  Nation  (for  Richard 
Kim's  article  "The  Mad  Tea  Party") 
chose  Sarah  Palin  as  the  Hare, 
Glenn  Beck  as  the  Hatter,  and 
Rush  Limbaugh  in  the  distance  as 
the  Cheshire  Cat.  Edward  Sorel's 
stylish  illustration  in  the  May  2010 
Vanity  Fair  (for  Richard  Linge- 
man's  article  "The  Maddest  of 
Mad  Tea  Parties")  went  with  Lim- 
baugh as  Humpty  Dumpty,  Palin  as 
a  pink-frocked  Alice,  Bill  O'Riley 
as  the  Hare,  and  again  Beck  as 
the  Hatter  with  a  Fox  News  label 
on  his  hat.  And  is  that  supposed 
to  be  John  McCain  as  the  jowly 
and  consternated  Caterpillar?  The 
Economist  put  theirs  on  their  cover: 
Palin  now  as  a  Kalashnikov-wield- 
ing  Alice,  Limbaugh  as  the  Hare, 
and  a  weeping  Beck's  hat  tag  now 
reading  "Nonsense  24/7."  Garry 
Trudeau  also  made  the  joke  in 
his  April  1,  2010,  Doonesbury  strip, 
when  Zonker  tells  a  teabagger, 
"I  thought  I  saw  a  Mad  Hatter," 
and  gets  the  reply,  "Different  tea 
party.  That's  Uncle  Sam."  Alice  was 
elsewhere  politicized  in  a  cartoon 
by  Tom  Meyer  in  the  San  Francisco 
Chronicle  on  July  25,  with  a  canna- 
bis-smoking  caterpillar  discussing 
California's  Prop  19  with  an  obese 
Alice. 

This  year  the  Silver  Eye  Center 
for  Photography  in  Pittsburgh, 
PA,  exhibited  two  digital  photo 
artists  inspired  by  Alice.  "These 
Strange  Adventures:  The  Art  of 
Maggie  Taylor"  ran  from  May  14 
to  August  21  and  included  digital 
images  that  illustrate  the  hard-to- 
find  Modernbook  Editions'  AATW 
(2008).  Photo  montages  based 
on  Tenniel's  AA/W illustrations  by 


t>  on*esh  on  a  en /,^ 


Abelardo  Morell  were  shown  from 
May  7  to  June  25. 

The  Tinman  Gallery  in  Spokane, 
WA,  hosted  an  "Alice  in  Wonder- 
land Invitational"  from  July  30  to 
August  21,  2010.  Over  thirty  local 
artists  provided  original  pieces 
based  on  AAFW. 

Under  the  web  page  heading 
"Tributes  and  Parodies,"  artist  Jus- 
tin Hillgrove  presents  an  array  of 
original  cartoon-gothic  paintings 
of  tea  parties,  Cheshire  Cats,  and 
Jabberwocks.  The  acrylic  paintings 
are  also  available  as  prints,  t-shirts, 
and  jigsaws  from  linked  websites. 

Kit  Carson,  jeweler  to  the  stars  and 
creator  of  a  popular  and  almost 
affordable  line  of  Alice  pendants, 
appeared  at  an  exhibition  of  his 
work  held  at  the  Craft  in  America 
Study  Center  in  Los  Angeles  on 
June  19,  2010.  Carson  discussed 
his  artistic  inspirations,  which 
include  cowboys,  art  nouveau, 
desert  animals,  dragonflies,  and, 
of  course,  Lewis  Carroll. 


The  British  Library 
owns  the  archive  of 
Mervyn  Peake's  Alice  W- 
lustrations,  which  were 
on  display  at  the  West- 
ern Bank  Library  in 
London  from  June  30 
to  September  29,  2010. 
The  British  Guardian 
(April  4,  2010)  ran 
an  article  by  Vanessa 
Thorpe  about  Peake's 
surreal  Alice  art  and 
some  "previously  un- 
seen private  letters,"  called  "How 
the  devastation  caused  by  war 
came  to  inspire  an  artist's  dark  im- 
ages of  Alice." 

Also  in  London,  Wonderland 
Gallery's  "Alice  Underground  Art 
Collection,"  a  preview  collection 
by  artists  Paul  Skellett  and  Pokey 
Pola,  was  on  display  October  20 
and  21.  As  the  London  Evening 
Standard  reported,  "The  collection 
includes  12  brand  new  and  never 
seen  before  mixed  media  images, 
mounted  in  hand  made,  hand 
painted  baroque  frames,  a  signa- 
ture of  both  artists." 


ARTICLES  6r'ACADEMIA 

www.delicious.coin/lcsna/kl85 
+articles-academia 

The  New  Kwifea' contained  many 
curious  references  to  our  man  and 
his  work  during  this  Carrollian 
bonanza  year.  Anthony  Gottlieb's 
article  "Win  or  Lose:  No  voting 
system  is  flawless.  But  some  are 
less  democratic  than  others"  (July 
26,  2010)  gave  Dodgson  praise  for 
considering  voting  systems  that 
are  more  fair  than,  for  instance, 
the  U.S.'s  current  winner-take-all 
method,  and  even  brought  the 
Liddell  family  into  the  discussion. 
Rebecca  Mead's  article  about  the 
play  Gatz  (September  27,  2010) 
included  a  nice  quip  from  one  of 
the  director's  colleagues  in  r*?  Alice 
adaptations:  "Every  experimental 
director  has  to  go  through  an  Alice 
in  Wonderland  thing,  and  John  was 
very  lucky  to  have  gotten  his  out 
very  early."  Over  in  the  classical 


53 


music  department  in  the  August  9 
issue,  Alex  Ross  used  the  word  "ga- 
lumphs" to  describe  pianist  Lang 
Lang's  Chopin  interpretation.  Even 
one  of  their  famously  ambiguous 
cartoons  had  Tweedledum  saying 
to  Alice,  "If  it's  all  right,  I  prefer 
the  name  Dave."  After  some  e-mails 
to  the  blog  discussing  what  the  joke 
meant,  Clare  Imholtz  posed  the 
classic  question,  "But  is  it  funny?" 

An  ad  for  whiskey  in  Harper's 
Magazine  (May  2010,  pp.  42-43) 
featured  an  excerpt  from  Lewis 
Carroll's  rare  text  "Feeding  the 
Mind,"  first  published  in  the  same 
magazine  in  May  1906. 

In  conjunction  with  the  release  of 
her  biography  The  Mystery  of  Lewis 
Carroll  (St  Martin's  Press,  2010), 
Jenny  Woolf  also  published  a  great 
article  in  the  April  2010  Smithson- 
ian, "Lewis  Carroll's  Shifting  Repu- 
tation: Why  has  popular  opinion 
of  the  author  of  Alice's  Adventures 
in  Wonderland  undergone  such  a 
dramatic  reversal?"  We  enjoyed 
the  letter  to  the  editor  published 
later  from  a  lawyer  in  California: 
"As  an  attorney,  I  think  [the  ar- 
ticle] did  a  good  job  of  document- 
ing the  modern-day  habit  of  judg- 
ing or  casting  spurious  allegations 
based  on  hearsay  and  innuendoes. 
[.  .  .]  Dodgson,  unfortunately,  can- 
not defend  himself,  and  to  smear 
his  reputation  in  such  a  manner  is 
unpardonable'  (emphasis  added). 

On  May  30,  2010,  LCSNA  member 
Dr.  Francine  Abeles  gave  a  paper 
on  the  early  development  of  quasi- 
determinants  at  Concordia  Uni- 
versity. Although  not  specifically 
on  Dodgson,  the  paper  included 
a  discussion  of  his  condensation 
method  as  an  algorithm  for  com- 
puting them. 

Niraj  Chokshi,  writing  for  the 
Atlantic  online  (July  31,  2010)  used 
TTLG  to  demonstrate  the  inadver- 
tently poetic  capacities  of  Micro- 
soft Word's  autosummarize  fea- 
ture. ("Alice  asked.  Alice  laughed. 
Alice  laughed.  Alice  pleaded.  Alice 
explained.")  He  was  inspired  by 
new  media  artist  Jason  Huff,  who 


has  autosummarized  the  100  most 
downloaded  copyright-free  books. 
Ten  years  ago  we  did  the  same 
with  AAm^  (XL  63:20). 

Issue  48  (Fall  2010)  of  Bitch  Maga- 
zine, "The  Make-Believe  Issue," 
included  "Alice  in  Adaptation- 
Land — How  wanderer  Alice  be- 
came warrior  Alice,  and  why."  In 
the  well-written  article,  Kristina 
Aikens  made  the  interesting  point 
that  Carroll's  curious  Alice  is  more 
of  a  feminist  icon  than  Burton's 
Alice,  who  puts  on  armor,  kills  the 
Jabberwock,  and  seeks  to  colonize 
China. 

The  April  2010  edition  of  The 
Lion  and  the  Unicorn  (Volume  34, 
Number  2)  contained  two  book 
reviews  that  mentioned  Lewis  Car- 
roll. Anne  Lundin  reviewed  Marah 
Gubar's  Artful  Dodgers:  Reconceiving 
the  Golden  Age  of  Children's  Literature 
(Oxford  University  Press,  2009), 
and  Dorothy  Clark  reviewed  Jan 
Susina's  The  Place  of  Lewis  Carroll 
in  Children's  Literature  (Routledge, 
2010).  Clark  described  the  latter 
book  as  "a  rich  analysis  that  inte- 
grates a  prodigious  understand- 
ing of  Carrollian  scholarship  and 
cultural  history."  See  our  review 
on  p.  49. 

Both  poems  in  the  September 
2010  edition  oi  Asimov's  Science 
Fiction  used  AA/W themes  as  their 
central  metaphors.  "The  Now  We 
Almost  Inhabit"  by  Roger  Dutcher 
and  Robert  Frazier  used  the 
Cheshire  Cat  and  Alice's  changing 
size  "as  images  of  changeable  reali- 
ties," and  LCSNA  member  Ruth 
Berman's  poem  "Egg  Protection" 
(mistakenly  called  "Egg  Produc- 
tion" in  the  table  of  contents) 
used  "the  pigeon's  opinion  of 
long-necked  Alice  as  a  predatory 
serpent  as  the  opinion  of  birds  in 
general  regarding  humans." 

Sen  Wong's  unpublished  manu- 
script, "Hijacking  Alice:  Under- 
ground Logic  and  Mirror-Image 
Language,"  described  as  "a  chap- 
ter-by-chapter interpretation  of 
the  logico-philosophical  ideas"  in 
the  Alice  books,  is  now  available 


online.  The  manuscript  contains 
the  depressing  disclaimer  that  it 
was  rejected  by  publishers  in  the 
U.S.  and  U.K.  in  2003,  and  that 
a  book  containing  research  very 
similar  to  his  was  later  released 
by  one  of  those  publishers.  He  is 
making  the  manuscript  available 
online  to  "protect  the  authorship 
of  [his]  ideas." 

Leigh  Van  Valen,  whom  the  New 
York  Times  called  an  "Evolutionary 
Revolutionary"  in  their  obituary 
on  October  30,  died  on  October 
16  this  year  at  age  76.  His  most 
famous  hypothesis,  which  explains 
why  some  organisms  develop  two 
sexes,  was  named  after  the  Red 
Queen  from  TTLG.  See  "The  Red 
Queen  Principle"  in  AL  55:11. 

Speaking  of  Looking-Glass,  Book 
and  Magazine  Collector  for  Decem- 
ber 2010  has  named  it  one  of 
the  Top  50  Funniest  Books  of  All 
Time,  listed  chronologically  at  #6 
between  The  Life  of  Samuel  Johnson 
and  Three  Men  in  a  Boat.  This  must 
mean  TTLG  is  at  least  fifty  spots 
ahead  of  AAIW'in  the  official  rank- 
ings of  funniest  books.  Perhaps 
the  comedinati  are  still  puzzling 
over  the  Hatter's  riddle? 


■ir 


BOOKS 

www.delicious.com/lcsna/klSS+books 

A  few  copies  of  Burton  in  Under- 
land:  Carrollian  Reviews,  collected 
and  edited  by  Clare  Imholtz  and 
Byron  Sewell  (Force  5  Press:  Hur- 
ricane, WV),  a  28-page  booklet 
published  in  an  edition  of  42 
copies,  are  available  from  Byron 
Sewell,  P.O.  Box  425,  Hurricane 
WV  25526,  for  $5.00  each  post- 
paid. This  privately  published 
booklet  includes  reviews  of  and 
reflections  on  Tim  Burton's  Alice 
in  Wonderland  by  thirty  members 
of  the  LCSNA. 

For  those  who  like  their  cook- 
books macabre  and  strikingly 
illustrated.  Recipe  for  Murder:  Fright- 
fully Good  Food  Inspired  by  Fiction 
by  Esterelle  Payany  (Flammarion, 
ISBN  978-2080301642)  will  be 


54 


perfect.  Thirty-two  literary  villains, 
including  the  Queen  of  Hearts, 
inspire  sinister  recipes.  Three  little 
pigs  in  a  blanket  accompanied  by 
Brutus 's  Caesar  salad?  Yum. 

One  of  the  fanciest  computer- 
animated  trailers  for  a  book  we've 
ever  seen  is  for  French  illustra- 
tor Benjamin  Lacombe's  pop-up 
children's  stories  (including  A/e'c^) 
called  R  etait  unefois.  It's  available 
from  French  publisher  Seuil,  and 
is  also  being  published  in  Italian  as 
Cera  Una  Volta. 

Campfire  Graphic  Novels,  a  pub- 
lishing house  out  of  New  Delhi, 
India,  released  an  AA/Was  part  of 
their  large  and  expanding  series  of 
comic  versions  of  classics,  myths, 
biographies,  and  originals.  The 
adaptation  ($9.99,  72  pages,  full 
color)  is  by  Lewis  Helfand,  with 
art  by  Rajesh  Nagulakonda  (who 
has  previously  illustrated  their 
Joan  of  Arc,  The  Time  Machine,  and 
Oliver  Twist).  Campfire 's  mission 
statement:  "It  is  night-time  in  the 
forest.  A  campfire  is  crackling,  and 
the  storytelling  has  begun.  In  the 
warm,  cheerful  radiance  of  the 
campfire,  the  storyteller's  audi- 
ence is  captivated.  Inspired  by  this 
enduring  relationship  between  a 
campfire  and  gripping  storytell- 
ing, we  bring  you  four  series  of 
Campfire  Graphic  Novels.  .  ."  A 
noble  cause,  but  isn't  reading 
comic  books  by  firelight  a  bit  hard 
on  the  eyes? 

The  Folio  Society  has  published 
a  facsimile  of  the  original  manu- 
script oi  Alice's  Adventures  under 
Ground.  The  print  run  will  be 
limited  to  3,750  hand-numbered 
copies,  each  clad  in  goatskin  and 
gold  and  priced  at  $179.95. 

Safely  confined  in  Arkham  Asy- 
lum, the  Joker  has  plenty  of  time 
to  recount  scurrilous  stories  of  Bat- 
man's greatest  enemies.  That's  the 
premise  of  DC  Qormc\  Joker's  Asy- 
lum, a  series  of  month-long  weekly 
"one-shots,"  which  in  August 
featured  the  Mad  Hatter,  a  creepy, 
buck-toothed  weirdo  obsessed  with 
hats,  tea,  2ir\d  Alxct.  Joker's  Asylum 


II:  Mad  Hatter  #1  was  written  by 
Landry  Quinn  Walker  and  drawn 
by  Keith  Giffen.  The  consolidated 
Joker's  Asylum:  Volume  II  (ISBN  978- 
1401229801)  will  be  published  in 
January  2011. 

Volume  1  of  a  new  zine  from 
Oakland  and  Berkeley  writers.  The 
Benevolent  Otherhood,  contains  a 
nonsense  poem  by  S.  Sandrigon 
mentioning  Tweedledee  and  Twee- 
dledum. The  poem,  "Sacred  Mas- 
sacre," took  some  inspiration  from 
Jon  A.  Lindseth's  article  \n_KL  83, 
"A  Tale  of  Two  Tweedles." 

The  opening  of  AA/Wwas  featured 
in  magazine  ads  for  "100  Classic 
Books"  for  Nintendo  DS.  That's 
right,  you  can  now  read  Lewis  Car- 
roll's classic  book  on  your  small 
portable  gaming  device. 

Inevitably,  a  graphic  novelization 
of  Burton's  Alice  in  Wonderland  was 
released  this  summer  by  Disney 
and  Boom  Studios,  with  stylish  art 
by  the  suavely  monikered  Massi- 
miliano  Narcisco. 

Los  Angeles  author  Mel  Gilden  re- 
leased his  middle-grade  children's 
book  The  Jabberwock  Came  Whiffling 
directly  as  an  e-book  for  the  Ama- 
zon Kindle  ($3.99).  In  the  story, 
Albert  finds  himself  in  the  Tulgey 
Wood  amongst  borogoves,  snarks, 
Alice,  et  al.,  on  a  quest  to  slay  the 
title's  monster. 

Another  new  self-published  novel 
found  in  the  endless  catalogues  of 
Amazon.com  has  the  amusing  title 
Straight  out  of  Lewis  Carroll's  Trash 
Can:  A  Jonathan  Tollhausler  Adven- 
ture, by  Michael  J.  Rumpf  (ISBN 
978-0615398082,  $15.99). 

Our  spies  have  found  several  Lewis 
Carroll  references  in  Barbara  Clev- 
erly's  2008  mystery  novel  Folly  du 
Jour  (ISBN  978-1569475133).  Mr. 
Dodgson,  a  cafe  named  LeLapin 
Blanc,  the  Red  Queen,  Alice,  and 
a  hole  into  Wonderland  all  make 
cameos. 


CYBERSPACE 

www.delicious.com/lcsna/ 
kl85+articles-acadeinia 


An  impressive  66  "Celebration  of 
Mind"  parties  were  organized  by 
Gathering4Gardner,  to  honor  the 
CarroUian  giant  Martin  Gardner 
(October  21,  1914-May  22,  2010) 
on  what  would  have  been  his  96th 
birthday  this  year.  The  website 
g4g-com.org  used  Google  maps 
to  help  people  find  the  celebra- 
tion nearest  them,  from  Buenos 
Aires  to  Aurangabad,  India.  And 
@g4g-com  was  always  a-twitter  with 
updates  on  the  preparations. 

What  would  Dickens  blog?  There 
have  been  rumors  that  serializa- 
tion, which  flourished  in  the  Victo- 
rian era,  will  be  burbling  back  into 
the  mainstream  because  of  the  way 
people  digest  media  in  the  post- 
blogging  age.  In  the  vanguard,  a 
graphic  novel  called  Namesake  is 
being  serialized  on  the  Web  every 
Tuesday,  Thursday,  and  Saturday. 
Its  creator,  Isabelle  Melan^on, 
promises  that  Alice  and  other 
Lewis  Carroll  characters  will  fea- 
ture prominently.  "" Namesake  is  the 
story  of  Emma  Crewe,  a  woman 
who  discovers  she  can  visit  other 
worlds.  She  finds  out  that  these 
are  places  she  already  knows — fan- 
tasy and  fairy  lands  made  famous 
through  the  spoken  word,  litera- 
ture, and  cinema." 

At  the  other  end  of  the  webcomics 
spectrum  is  a  series  called  Here  We 
Come  A-Carrollinghy  Doctor  Ran- 
domness at  Webcomics  Nation.  It 
seems  inspired  by  David  Rees's  style 
of  cut-and-paste  Web  strips  {My  New 
Fighting  Technique  Is  Unstoppable  and 
Get  Your  War  On) ,  except  that  it  uses 
Tenniel's  illustrations  as  the  stock 
images  to  which  irreverent  text 
bubbles  are  added. 

Geoff  Martin  from  the  UK  Lewis 
Carroll  Society  has  a  new  website 
called  Lewis  Carroll  1st  Editions.  It 
contains  many  pictures  and  ex- 
panding encyclopedic  information 
on  the  subject. 

NewsBiscuit,  an  online  Onion- 
esque  gazette  with  the  motto 
"the  news  before  it  happens.  .  ." 
published  an  article  titled  "Mad 
Hatter,  Dormouse  Elected  to  Con- 


55 


gress  in  Tea  Party  Landslide"  on 
November  3.  Taking  the  joke  to 
the  nth  degree  before  it  gets  old, 
the  article  quoted  the  Red  Queen 
and  Mock  Turtle,  and  referenced 
the  Lobster  Quadrille.  Illustrating 
the  article  was  a  picture  of  Johnny 
Depp's  Hatter  with  new  Republi- 
can House  Majority  Leader  John 
Boehner's  orange  face  photo- 
shopped  beneath  the  famous  hat. 


EVENTS,  EXHIBITS,  &  PLACES 

www.delicious.com/lcsna/ 
kl85+events-exhibits-places 

Please  Ma  'am,  is  this  New  Zealand  ? 
If  Alice  really  had  fallen  right 
through  the  earth,  the  owners  of 
Larnach  Castle,  New  Zealand's 
only  casde,  like  to  think  she 
might  just  have  ended  up  in  their 
garden.  Since  the  1930s,  an  in- 
creasing number  of  Wonderland 
touches  have  been  added  to  the 
35-acre  grounds,  which  are  open 
daily  to  the  public. 

Oxford  Storypods,  creators  of  an 
AA/Waudiobook,  held  a  com- 
petition for  nonsense  poetry  in 
the  CarroUian  vein.  The  winning 
poems,  "Wishful  Thinking"  by 
Ruth  Smith  and  "The  Ffrig  of 
Frogimar"  by  Hugh  Timothy,  have 
been  professionally  recorded  by 
former  LCSNA  president  Andrew 
Sellon  and  are  available  as  a  free 
download  from  the  Oxford  Story- 
pods  website. 

Kathryn  Beaumont,  voice  of  both 
Disney's  Alice  and  Wendy  from 
Peter  Pan,  appeared  at  the  Walt 
Disney  Family  Museum  in  San 
Francisco  on  May  22,  2010,  to 
share  her  memories  as  a  voice-over 
artist.  The  actress,  who  turned  72 
this  year,  was  recently  heard  in 
the  video  game  "Kingdom  Hearts 
Birth  by  Sleep"  as  the  voice  of 
"Kairi's  Grandma."  She  will  also 
be  introducing  the  special  feature 
"Through  the  Keyhole:  A  Com- 
panion's Guide  to  Wonderland"  in 
the  digital  remastering  of  the  1951 
film  to  be  re-re-re-released  in  Feb- 
ruary 2011.. 


If  you  like  to  talk  about  cabbages 
and  kings  with  your  meal  before 
you  eat  it,  you  might  investigate 
The  Walrus  and  the  Carpenter 
Oyster  Bar  in  Seattle.  According 
to  the  website,  the  new  restaurant 
is  "located  at  the  South  end  of 
Seattle's  Historic  Ballard  Avenue 
in  the  newly  renovated  Kolstrand 
building,"  which  "will  be  the 
perfect  home  for  this  rustic,  light- 
filled,  oyster  haven."  We  hope 
every  dining  experience  will  also 
include  ruminations  on  innocence 
and  death. 

There  was  an  exhibit  at  the  Veluws 
Museum  Nairac  in  Barneveld, 
Netherlands,  from  June  12 
through  October  30.  It  celebrated 
the  many  looks  of  Alice,  featuring 
illustrations  from  Tenniel  through 
Camille  Rose  Garcia.  They  also 
claimed  to  have  had  "een  bijzon- 
dere  Aboriginal  uitgave"  (an  Ab- 
original special  edition?) .  In  addition 
to  the  art,  visitors  were  invited  to 
make  "a  journey  through  Wonder- 
land, where  a  number  of  themes 
and  life-size  figures  are  depicted. 
See  yourself  in  the  strange  mir- 
rors, sliding  into  the  perpetual  tea 
party  celebration  with  the  Mad 
Hatter  and  the  March  Hare  and 
take  a  look  at  the  animal  room" 
(translated  from  the  Dutch  using 
Google  Translate). 

The  Mayor  of  Aliso  Viejo  in  Or- 
ange County,  CA,  is  happy  to  be 
accused  of  living  in  an  "Alice  in 
Wonderland"  world.  In  his  State 
of  the  City  address  on  October 
13,  he  declared,  "Aliso  w  Won- 
derland" before  holding  a  staged 
conversation  with  a  dubbed  video 
of  Johnny  Depp  as  the  Mad  Hatter. 
City  dignitaries  then  posed  for  pic- 
tures with  Wonderland  characters 
hired  for  the  occasion. 

From  June  5  through  July  23, 
there  was  an  exhibition  at  Lon- 
don's East  Central  Gallery  called 
"Memoria  Technica,"  with  some 
thematic  connection  to  the 
memory  device  Carroll  helped  to 
develop.  The  show  featured  art  by 
David  Adika,  Zadok  Ben-David, 


Clarissa  Cestari,  Carlos  Garaicoa, 
and  Vivienne  Koorland. 

A  la  Bibliotheque  Frontenac  in 
Montreal,  as  part  of  Festival  litteraire 
international  de  Montreal  Metropolis 
bleu,  there  was  an  exhibit  called 
''Alices  et  merveilles''  from  April  21 
through  25.  The  ''festival  dans  le 
festivaV  featured  many  children's 
activities  in  addition  to  the  library's 
collection  of  some  of  Carroll's 
letters.  The  27th  Annual  Montreal 
Antiquarian  Book  Fair,  held  at 
Concordia  University  on  Septem- 
ber 25  and  26,  also  had  a  Lewis 
Carroll  theme.  Noted  Carroll  col- 
lector Luc  Gauvreau  opened  the 
event  and  displayed  items  from  his 
extensive  collection. 

LCSNA  member  Sue  Welsch  dis- 
played highlights  from  her  Lewis 
Carroll  collection  at  the  Incline 
Village  Public  Library  in  Incline 
Village,  Nevada,  on  Lake  Tahoe, 
from  November  3  until  December 
30.  Welsch,  who  used  to  teach 
a  class  at  Sierra  Nevada  College 
called  "The  Logic  and  Literature 
of  Lewis  Carroll,"  also  delivered  a 
talk  at  the  library  on  December  18. 

Jon  Stewart  and  Stephen  Colbert's 
Rally  to  Restore  Sanity  and/or 
Fear  in  Washington,  DC,  on  Oc- 
tober 30,  attracted  a  crowd  about 
250,000  strong,  with  many  of  the 
postmodern  protesters  wielding 
witty,  apolitical,  and/or  absurd 
signage.  Riffling  through  the 
archives,  we  found  a  few  Carroll- 
related  ones,  including  "Humpty 
Dumpty  Was  Pushed!";  "We're  All 
MAD  Here"  beneath  a  picture  of 
Disney's  1951  Cheshire  Cat;  "Dodo 
Never  Feared  Anything  (Now 
Extinct)";  "The  Mad  Hatter  Wants 
His  Tea  Party  Back!"  and  "Don't 
Believe  Everything  You  Think!" 

On  November  15,  the  Leonard 
Joel  Auction  House  in  Sydney,  Aus- 
tralia, attempted  to  sell  a  facsimile 
of  Under  Ground,  along  with  what 
was  described  as  "part  of  a  poem 
about  bats,"  written  on  a  single 
sheet  of  paper  in  Carroll's  unmis- 
takable scrawl.  The  sale  was  not 
successful,  but  LCSNA-member 


56 


efforts  to  decipher  the  poem  were. 
Visit  our  blog  Far-Flung  Knight  to 
read  the  poem. 


MOVIES  8c  TELEVISION 
www.delicious.com/lcsna/ 
kl85+niovies-tv 
Could  this  be  the  last  time  the 
Knight  Letter  reports  on  goth 
rocker  Marilyn  Manson's  long- 
dreaded  naughty  Charles  Dodgson 
project?  With  necessary  hesitation, 
perhaps  yes?  Phantasmagoria:  The 
Visions  of  Lewis  Carroll  was  to  star 
ginger-haired  22-year-old  model 
Lily  Cole  as  the  often-naked  Alice 
Liddell,  alongside  Tilda  Swinton. 
Manson  was  also  psyched  to  an- 
nounce that  he  was  using  "pos- 
sibly illegal"  editing  techniques 
to  flash  graphic  images  into  the 
audience's  subconscious.  Now  the 
studio  claims  to  have  permanendy 
shelved  the  project  after  a  leaked 
R-rated  trailer  repulsed  YouTube 
viewers,  and  it  is  widely  believed 
that  this  tantalizing  movie  will 
never  see  the  light  of  day  (unless, 
as  we  think  is  possible,  repressing 
it  is  all  part  of  the  plan) . 

Speaking  of  pornography,  this 
was  definitely  a  cash-cow  year  for 
Alice  in  the  adult  film  industry, 
with  at  least  three  major  hardcore 
Wonderlands.  One  of  the  more 
creative  ones  to  date  appeared  to 
be  Cal  Vista's  Alice  starring  Sunny 
Lane,  set  in  a  nightclub  called 
"The  Hole." 

The  DVD  of  Tim  Burton's  Alice  in 
Wonderland  W2LS  released  on  June  1, 
2010.  And  if  you  hadn't  heard,  Dis- 
ney did  quite  well  from  this  flick, 
now  their  third  biggest  hit,  behind 
only  that  other  Johnny  Depp  ve- 
hicle Pirates  of  the  Caribbean:  Dead 
Man 's  Chest  and  Toy  Story  3.  It  cur- 
rently is  the  sixth  highest-grossing 
film  of  all  time  worldwide  {Avatar, 
Titanic,  and  The  Lord  of  the  Rings: 
The  Return  of  the  King  complete 
places  one  to  five),  and  has  earned 
more  than  a  billion  dollars. 

The  magazine  Cinefex,  "the  fine- 
qualityjournal  documenting 
cinematic  special  effects"  (not  to 
be  confused  with  Sinefex,  which  is 


about  the  videogame  version  of 
Dante's  Inferno)  had  a  thirty-page 
spread  about  the  special  effects  in 
Tim  Burton's  Alice  in  Wonderland. 
The  article,  "Down  the  Rabbit 
Hole"  by  Joe  Fordham,  featured 
33  color  photographs,  "many 
showing  how  scenes  were  staged 
and  visually  processed." 

The  Hunting  of  the  Snark,  2l  new  film 
directed  by  Michael  McNeff  and 
narrated  by  the  great  Christopher 
Lee,  is  in  post-production  and  set 
to  be  released  in  2011  by  Vorpal 
Pictures.  It's  billed  as  an  "adapta- 
tion of  Lewis  Carol's  (sic)  The 
Hunting  of  the  Snark  [using]  cutting 
edge  technology  to  successfully 
capture  the  story's  enchanting 
world  on  the  big  screen."  So  far, 
information  about  this  movie  and 
the  mysterious  McNeff  himself  has 
been  about  as  difficult  to  research 
as,  well,  a  you-know-what. 

It  may  interest  you  to  know  that 
there  are  many  things  called  "Mal- 
ice in  Wonderland,"  including  a 
1985  Elizabeth  Taylor  movie,  a 
2009  Snoop  Dogg  hip-hop  album 
(technically  Malice  N  Wonderland), 
and  a  "Malice  in  Wonderland 
Adult  Dark  Goth"  Halloween  cos- 
tume. One  Malice  in  Wonderland 
that  seems  to  have  fallen  through 
the  cracks,  though,  is  a  2009  film 
with  Maggie  Grace  (from  Lost)  and 
Danny  Dyer,  directed  by  Simon 
Fellows  and  released  May  2010 
on  DVD.  In  this  "Modern  Twist 
on  a  Classic  Tale,"  Grace's  Alice 
is  an  heiress  living  in  London, 
the  White  Rabbit  becomes  Dyer's 
Cockney  cab  driver  named  Whitey, 
and  the  tarts  are  prostitutes. 

In  the  July  4,  2010,  New  York  Times, 
there  was  an  article  on  the  History 
Channel  television  program  "Pawn 
Stars,"  which  is  about  a  Las  Vegas 
pawn  shop.  The  article  featured 
the  following  titillating  anecdote: 
"Shelby  Tashlin  of  Las  Vegas 
walked  to  the  counter  clutching  a 
boxed  edition  of  Alice  in  Wonder- 
land containing  an  etching  and  12 
lithographs  by  Salvador  Dali.  Ms. 
Tashlin 's  opening  thrust:  the  Dali 


prints  were  limited  in  number.  Mr. 
Harrison's  parry:  'He's  pretty  well 
known  for  fudging  numbers.'  .  .  . 
Ms.  Tashlin  wanted  $10,000.  Mr. 
Harrison  asked  if  she  had  taken  a 
httle  blue  pill,  and  offered  $5,000. 
She  politely  declined  and  walked 
away  still  clutching  Alice  in  Wonder- 
land. 'I  was  hoping  it  would  go  the 
other  way,  but  I'm  not  surprised,' 
she  would  tell  a  reporter  later."  We 
recommend  Ms.  Tashlin  pursue 
other  avenues  to  sell  her  Dali  Alice. 


PERFORMING  ARTS 

www.delicious.com/lcsna/ 
klSS+performing-arts 
In  Chicago,  a  "crew  of  motley  ec- 
centrics (including  Alice)"  hunted 
the  Snark  in  the  United  States  pre- 
miere of  a  play  called  Boojum!  Non- 
sense, Truth,  and  Lewis  Carroll.  (We 
understand  the  "Nonsense"  and 
the  "Lewis  Carroll,"  but  will  with- 
hold judgment  on  the  "Truth.") 
Described  as  "part  existential 
musical  theater  and  part  fantasy 
adventure  story,"  it  was  created  by 
Australian  play-writing  and  com- 
posing team  Martin  Wesley-Smith 
and  Peter  Wesley-Smith  (whose 
identical  last  names  are  either 
an  extraordinary  coincidence, 
or  else  not  a  coincidence  at  all). 
Co-presented  by  Caffeine  Theatre 
and  Chicago  Opera  Vanguard, 
the  show  ran  from  November  18 
through  December  19,  2010,  at  the 
Chicago  Department  of  Cultural 
Affairs  Storefront  Theater.  In  con- 
junction with  the  show,  Caffeine 
Theatre  hosted"01d  Father  Wil- 
liam's Frabjous  and  Curious  Poetry 
Contest";  the  winning  poems  were 
performed  at  the  Lewis  Carroll 
Coffeehouse  in  the  Storefront 
Theater  on  November  29. 
Snarks  were  also  hunted  in  New 
York  at  the  Manhattan  Repertory 
Theater's  Fall  Fest,  September  16 
through  19,  in  an  adaptation  by 
Katie  Dickinson.  That  production 
of  The  Hunting  of  the  Snark  prom- 
ised "all  the  zaniness  one  can  an- 
ticipate from  Carroll's  world." 

Atmos  Theatre,  a  volunteer-run 
theater  company  in  San  Francisco, 

57 


CA,  adapted  AAIW for  its  ninth 
season  of  "Theatre  in  the  Woods." 
The  show  was  performed  as  part  of 
a  guided  hike  through  a  redwood 
forest  and  ran  every  Saturday  and 
Sunday  in  August  and  through 
September  19  in  Woodside  (a  few 
cities  south  of  San  Francisco).  The 
adaptation  was  written  by  Brian 
Markley  and  directed  by  Amy 
Clare  Tasker. 

An  update  on  Wonderland:  The 
Musical,  from  Jekyll  df  Hyde  com- 
poser Frank  Wildhorn:  It's  coming 
to  Broadway!  After  another  run  in 
Tampa  Bay  in  January  201 1,  it  will 
move  to  New  York  City,  and  start 
previews  on  March  21  at  the  Mar- 
quis Theatre.  The  "heartwarming 
and  spectacular"  (heartwacular?) 
new  musical  is  about  an  adult 
modern-day  Alice  who  journeys 
"to  Wonderland  and  the  Looking- 
Glass  World  where  she  must  find 
her  daughter,  defeat  the  Queen 
and  learn  to  follow  her  heart.  .  ." 

The  Yale  Dramatic  Association 
(Dramat)  staged  underclassman 
Oren  Stevens's  new  play  Phantom- 
wise,  which  weaves  together  the  life 
of  Alice  Liddell  with  her  fictional 
adventures.  It  ran  October  7-9  at 
the  Yale  Repertory  Theatre.  Appar- 
endy,  it  is  only  the  second  time  in 
modem  memory  that  Dramat  has 
produced  a  student-written  work, 
so,  congratulations  Mr.  Stevens! 

The  first  American  production  of 
Ron  Nicol's  Beware  the  Jabberwock 
was  at  the  Playhouse  Children's 
Theater  Company  in  Belfast,  ME, 
in  April,  and  the  work  was  subse- 
quently staged  at  the  Wean  Per- 
forming Arts  Center  in  Danbury, 
CT,  in  May.  The  nonsensically  fun 
and  whole-family-friendly  play  has 
been  published  by  Baker's  Plays,  a 
subsidiary  of  Samuel  French,  Inc. 


THINGS 

www.delicious.com/lcsna/kl85+things 

Bloomsbury  Auctions  generated 
a  considerable  amount  of  hype 


around  their  sale  of  "the  long-lost 
Wasp  in  the  Wig  letter"  on  May 
27  this  year,  and  it  paid  off  hand- 
somely: The  letter  sold  for  £51,240 
(around  $81,800)— the  world  re- 
cord for  a  Tenniel  letter  and  well 
over  double  the  £20,000  estimate. 
But  who  bought  it? 

If  you  weren't  the  lucky  bidder, 
you  could  craft  your  own  more 
affordable  CarroUian  correspon- 
dence with  Graphic  45 's  "Hallow- 
een in  Wonderland"  paper  collec- 
tion. The  paper  designs  feature 
"spooky"  modifications  of  Tenn- 
iel's  illustrations,  including  becob- 
webbed  mushrooms  and  Tweedle 
twins  jack-o'-lanterns. 

Prospero  Art's  AA/Wembossed 
collector's  tin  is  possibly  the  first 
tin  ever  to  have  its  own  promo- 
tional YouTube  video.  The  limited 
edition  tin  is  sold  as  a  package  ei- 
ther with  two  decks  of  Alice  playing 
cards,  a  jigsaw  puzzle,  or  both. 

A  husband-and-wife  artistic  duo, 
collectively  known  as  Cart  Before 
the  Horse,  creates  "fine  folk  art"  in 
the  form  of  quirky  hand-painted 
posable  figurines.  "Cirque  du 
Wonderland,"  a  cool  commission 
featured  on  their  website,  includes 
a  Mad  Hatter  strongman  lifting 
teapot  dumbbells  and  a  Cheshire 
Cat  acrobat  standing  on  its  head 
(literally) . 

The  Victorian  Trading  Company 
sells  a  variety  of  AA/Wthemed 
Victoriana,  including  garden 
statues  and  jewelry.  To  this  range 
they  have  added  theater-quality 
costumes,  including  an  elaborate 
Queen  of  Hearts  gown,  complete 
with  hoop  and  tulle  petticoat, 
and,  for  around  $250,  "Alice's 
Blue  Dress,"  a  detailed  replica  of  a 
Victorian  girl's  dress,  available  in 
three  adult  sizes. 

The  Black  Apple 's  Paper  Doll  Primer 
by  Emily  Martin  is  a  paperback 
book  filled  with  paper  dolls,  paper 
clothes,  and  creative  cut-and-play 
projects,  including  a  paper  the- 
ater. Alice  is  there  too.  (Potter 
Craft,  ISBN  978-0307586568) 


Toy  maker  Funko  has  added 
Alice,  the  Mad  Hatter,  the 
Cheshire  Cat,  and  the  White 
Rabbit  to  its  range  of  Wacky  Wob- 
bler bobble-heads.  Remember  to 
brake  smoothly,  or  it  really  will 
be  "off  with  their  heads.  .  ."  They 
also  have  a  line  of  "Plush"  soft 
toys,  now  including  a  button-eyed 
Alice,  Mad  Hatter,  Cheshire  Cat, 
and  White  Rabbit.  All  look  accept- 
ably cuddly  and  just  a  little  creepy. 
Between  $9  and  $15  from 
Amazon.com. 

Dollmasters  is  an  online  treasury 
of  artist-made  toys  for  collectors 
and  very,  very  good  children. 
Recent  additions  to  their  catalog 
include  two  finely  dressed  Alice 
dolls,  an  "Alice  and  the  Pink  Fla- 
mingo" hanging  ornament,  and 
mechanical  music  boxes  in  which 
Tweedledum  and  Tweedledee 
dance  to  "Tea  for  Two"  when 
wound  with  a  little  key. 

Classico  San  Francisco  has  created 
a  range  of  magnets,  postcards, 
and  mugs  using  Angel  Domin- 
guez's  watercolor  illustrations  for 
the  1996  Artisan  edition  of  AAIW 
(available  only  through  resellers). 

Finally:  Were  you  looking  for  a 
place  to  buy  life-sized  cardboard 
cutouts  of  Tim  Burton's  Alice,  Hat- 
ter, Red  Queen,  and  the  Tweedles? 
Try  Advanced  Graphics,  "The 
Home  of  Cardboard  People." 

Checkmate  Chess  Sets  sell  five 
AAIW-xhemed  chess  sets.  The 
crushed  marble  and  resin  pieces 
are  made  in  England  but  can  be 
purchased  in  dollars  online.  $157 
and  up. 

Gump's  of  San  Francisco  went 
all-out  on  Alice-related  gifts  in 
this  year's  winter  catalog.  Two  full 
pages  of  merchandise  include 
Glass  ornaments,  puzzles,  and  sofa 
cushions. 


58 


3i;iii^{UliUH1>Ji^lilfii»i}|)uM!liiU!HivN:;i:!t;-';;:;);;l 


"The  method  employed  I  would  gl&dly  explain, 
While  I  have  it  so  clear  m  my  head, 
If  I  had  but  the  time  and  you  had  but  the  brain - 
but  much  yet  remains  to  be  said. 
"In  one  moment  I've  sttn  what  has  hitherto  been 
Enveloped  In  absolute  mystery, 
And  without  extra  charge  I  will  give  you  at  large 
A  Lesson  In  Natural  History." 


Two  extraordinary,  and  quite  differ- 
ent, interpretations  of  "The  Hunting 
of  the  Snark.  "Above:  Thanks  go  to 
Oleg  Lipchenkofor  a  preview  of  his 
not  yet  published  interpretation;  some 
o/"  Aw  Wonderland  illustrations  can 
be  seen  in  KL  80  (cover,  article  on  pp. 
16-19).  Left:  A  sampling  ofMahen- 
dra  Singh 's  illustrations  can  also 
be  seen  in  KL  81  (cover,  pp.  4,  37), 
and  his  recent  book  is  the  subject  of  a 
review  on  p.  47. 


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