Presented by the Author for the Use of Sick Children

Lewis Carroll was a generous man and from time to time prepared copies of his books to be given away to hospitals for the use of sick children.

This book, in poor condition, was rescued from an auction and tells a story all of its’ own.

In July 1890 Lewis Carroll presented copies of his “Nursery Alice” printed in 1889 to hospitals. These are identified by a rectangular ink stamp at the top of the half title page saying “Presented by the Author for the Use of Sick Children July 1890”. The binding was a brown linen cloth and here a loop of string is perhaps a vestige of a tie on the ward. This 1889 printing was designed for an American first edition but the hospital copies, unlike the copies that went to America, did not have the 1889 title page replaced with an 1890 title page mounted on a stub (see Goodacre, Jabberwocky Summer 1994 pg.34).

This copy is brought alive by the graffiti and drawings of one Maud Amelia Spence aged 10, who was a patient in Cot No 16 on Louise Ward, Great Ormond Street in 1890. She seems to have taken ownership of the book and done everything except tear it to shreds – just as Dodgson himself said he intended for child readers of the Nursery Alice.

The book was acquired in July 2005 at Cheffins of Cambridge for £82. I thought it was rather special and touching.