Presentation Copy of Doublets

Lewis Carroll presented a copy of Doublets inscribed to his child-friend Edith Miller. This book, a third edition, I bought at the Nicholas Falletta Sale at Christie’s in 2005 ( lot 78). I don’t have many inscribed presentation copies in the collection although many appear for sale ; again I suppose this is my predilection for the rare and unusual over the abundant. In terms of Dodgson’s handwriting I have preferred to have a few autograph letters and books from his library. This example of a presentation copy I chose for the lovely flowing inscription and flourish in purple ink. There is an ink stain on the front cover -  it was obviously used as a book of puzzles would be.

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.

Unusual Things in Unusual Places

In April 2006 Holloways of Banbury held an Antique Furniture Sale, which contained a single lot of a box of Lewis Carroll books. They all had one thing in common – they came from the estate of Sir Harold Hartley, the famous scientist and Lewis Carroll collector. One of the books was a People’s edition of Through the Looking Glass signed by John Tenniel; several had Hartley’s bookplate; there was a copy of the Bumpus special edition 1932 Lewis Carroll Centenary catalogue signed by all the executive committee; and others. The highlight was the two volume Parrish collection catalogue set with an original slipcase and a memoranda note, although not naming him, but to “you and all your family”. The set was numbered in red ink “10”, a low number signifying an important collector.

Shown in the pictures is Harold Hartley’s “The Pursuing Conscience” bookplate. It was a good find in an unusual sale. I found it using the search engine at www.the-saleroom.com using the search word Tenniel, because Carroll had been mis-spelt Carrol.

Charles Dodgson Senior

According to Lewis Carroll’s Diaries ( ed Edward Wakeling) Vol 1, pgs 16-17, the family had moved from Daresbury into Croft Rectory by February 1843 when Charles Dodgson Senior was presented to the living of Croft. Rev Charles Dodgson ( father of Lewis Carroll) had published various essays and sermons in pamphlet form and in The Carrollian issue 16 ( Autumn 2005) I describe two of these that I acquired , dating from around that period . Since then I have found two other CD senior pamphlets, shown in the pictures ; these are very rare and hard to find. They were often bound up in volumes and then sold as disbound items by booksellers.

Signed Association Copies

Just occasionally copies of books that are quite common bear important inscriptions. Always read the small print !  Here are three books written by Lewis Carroll’s nephew, Stuart Dodgson Collingwood ( son of Mary Dodgson) written at the time of Carroll’s death in 1898. One has a presentation inscription by Wilfred ( Carroll’s brother), the second bears M. Dodgson’s inscription ( either Mary or Margaret)  and the Lewis Carroll Picture Book is inscribed by the author to a Mrs Fuller, from the family home The Chestnuts in Guildford, with an autograph letter on the rear endpaper. The photograph shows four books ; the fourth contains an autograph third person letter by Dodgson himself dated 8 June 1884 in purple ink. This item I was very pleased to have because I already had a letter also by Dodgson dated 4 days earlier to the same bookseller Meehan of  Bath

Lewis Carroll's Library - 4

This is Lewis Carroll’s personal copy of the famous autobiographical work Apologia by John Henry Newman. Published in 1865 – the same year as Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland – Newman defends his views on Catholicism against the attack by Charles Kingsley. The provenance is detailed. It was sold in the 1898 sale of Dodgson’s library and emerged in a Hodgson’s auction 17 December 1936. Lot 21, acquired by the founder of the Osborn Collection at Yale, James Osborn. Osborn died in 1976 and this book passed to a friend of his, an Anglican priest named  Brainerd ( his bookplate is on the front pastedown) and into my collection in 2005.How interesting to see that Dodgson has started an annotation in his purple ink but spelt the word pamphlets incorrectly and had to start again on the title page.  [ Ref Lovett 1431 ]

Some Scarce Music, Plays and Calendars

In 2005 I found a number of scarce ephemeral things. One was The Songs from Through the Looking Glass with music written by William Boyd, complete (as in WMGC 690), stitched white wrapper, lithographed and printed in gold. First edition, 1872, London Weekes and Co. This was a bargain that I “won” for £38 on EBay. There’s a copy of the equivalent Wonderland Songs for sale today on ABE for over £800!

In catalogue from Aleph-Bet books I found and bought Alice in Wonderland a Dream Play for Children, 1886 second edition. Any copies of this are scarce and collectible. I was happy to pay £260 for this lovely item. A later edition 1888 followed later in 2012 from Dominic Winter, in very good condition with no chips or loss to the wrapper.

Shown here also are two scarce calendars, the 1933 Delgado compiled by Langford Reed and the 1901 Looking Glass Simpkin and Marshall, the latter also from Dominic Winter in Dec 2005