K N I G H T L E T T E R
77^ Lewis Carroll Society of North America
Fall 2013
Volume II Issue 21
Number 91
Knight Letter \s 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 or pcolacino@austin.rr.com. Submissions and suggestions for Serendipidity and Sic Sic Sic should be sent to andrewogus@mindspring.com. Submissions and suggestions for All Must Have Prizes should be sent to joel@thebirenbaums.net. Submissions and suggestions for From Our Far-Flung Correspondents should be sent to
farflungknight@gmail.com.
© 2013 The Lewis Carroll Society of North America
ISSN 0193-886X
Mahendra Singh, Editor in Chief Patricia Colacino, Editor, Rectory Umbrella
Ann Buki, Editor, Carrollian Notes Cindy Watter, Editor, Of Books and Things Rachel Eley, Editor, From Our Far-Flung Correspondents Foxxe Editorial Services, Copyeditor Mark Burstein, Production Editor Sarah Adams-Kiddy, Proofreader Andrew H. Ogus, Designer
THE LEWIS CARROLL SOCIETY OF NORTH AMERICA
President:
Mark Burstein, president@lewiscarroll.org
Vice-President: Cindy Watter, hedgehogccw@sbcglobal.net
Secretary:
Clare Imholtz, secretary@lewiscarroll.org 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: Richard Harris, Adriana Peliano
On the cover: Images from The Hunting of the Snark, as illustrated by LCSNA members Jonathan Dixon (top left, middle right, bottom left), Oleg Lipchenko (top center, middle left and center), and Mahendra Singh (top right, bottom center, bottom right).
CONTENTS
TH6 RGCTORY UMBRGLLA
m
Una Visita Celestial con los Angeles 1
RAY KIDDY
My Goodness - My Snark 8
DOUG HOWICK
That eBay Snark May Be a Boojum 13
DOUG HOWICK
Stealing, Rhyming, Inking 'n Toils:
Roger Langridge Hunts Snark 14
INTERVIEWED BY ANDREW OGUS
Take Pen & Ink & Write It Down 20
EDWARD WAKELING
"That Summer Evening, Long Ago,
A-Sittingon a Gate" 23
DAVID L. NATHAN, M.D.
MISCHMASCH
m
Leaves from the Deanery Garden — Serendipity — Ravings 27 Alicel50 30
JOEL BIRENBAUM CARROLLIAN NOTSS
Books of Innocence and Experience
STEPHANIE LOVETT
The Alice Universe
MARK BURSTEIN
Gorey 's Monster
CLARE IMHOLTZ
33
34 35
Alice Through a Pinhole
MABEL ODESSEY
Sherlock Through the Looking-glass
DANIEL ROVER SINGER
Alice in the Looking-Glass
AUGUSTA. IMHOLTZ, JR.
OF BOOKS AND THINGS
m —
When I Was Eight
ANGELICA CARPENTER
The Wonder Bread Summer
ANGELICA CARPENTER
Splintered
ROSE OWENS
Alice's Sister
ANDREW SELLON
Alice sotto terra
CATERINA MORELLI
De Jacht op de Snark
DOUG HOWICK
Aventuras de Alicia Bajo Tierra
ADRIANA PELIANO
Evergreen
FROM OUR FAR-FLUNG CORR6SPOND6NTS
36
36 37
38 38 38 39
39 40
40 4i
Art & Illustration — Articles & Academia —
Books — Events, Exhibits, & Places — Internet & Technology —
Movies & Television — Music — Performing Arts — Things 42
There are those of us — otherwise reliable Car- rollians to all outward appearances — who have always harbored a certain suspicion about the Alice books. Perennial favorites of the Eng- lish-speaking world they may be, masterpieces of chil- dren's literature, certainly ... but we dissenting Car- rollians have always regarded them as merely as good as our favorite author's third and penultimate work of nonsense, The Hunting of the Snark.
The Snark 's indisputable status as the only comic epic poem (or epyllion, to be precise) still read by the general public, its peculiar genesis, and above all, its curious complicity in what can only be called an in- ternational cult of Snarkian conspiracy theorists: All of these make the poem a worthy competitor to the Alice books.
And so, North American Snark lovers will be pleased to discover that this issue of the Knight Letter is something of a Snark issue (or even Snarkapalooza, if you prefer), with plenty of contributions from our Commonwealth cousins to lend it all the requisite flavor of crossed-cheque, five-o'clock-tea-breakfasting lunacy. We're very pleased to present Australian Snark hunter Doug Howick's survey of the Guinness Brew- ery's Snark-themed advertising campaign. As an add-
ed bonus, some of the art created for the campaign is printed here in color. Our Snark hunt then reaches yet another apogee of bell-tingling excitement with an interview with New Zealand-born, UK-residing art- ist Roger Langridge. Roger is the creator of the comic book series Snarked!, an Eisner Award-winning con- tinuation of Carroll's epic, which recendy finished its run with Boom! Studio.
Perhaps this issue could also be called an illus- tration special, since we continue in this pictorial vein with an exclusive coup from the late Edward Gorey's estate, a hitherto unknown proposal for an illustrated Jabberwocky, along with news of Mabel Odessey's Alice-thevaed pinhole photography, and finally, Edward Wakeling's researches into the com- plex subject of CLD's use of different colored inks throughout his life.
Add to this our usual reviews of Carrollian media and events and even some trippy musings upon the to- pological nature of the Carrollian Multiverse, and we think you'll concur that there is not a single Boojum in this issue, thanks to our editorial insistence upon thimbles and care, our contributors' perpetual sense of forks and hope, and of course, our readers' lavish use of smiles and soap.
MAHENDRA SINGH
TH6 R6CTORY UMBR6LLA
RAY KIDDY
rhe Fall 2013 meeting in Los Angeles started off with a bang. Unfortunately, it was a real one. Flying in to Los Angeles was made con- siderably more complicated on the day before the main meeting by the fact that LAX was completely closed to air traffic after a fatal skirmish at the security gates. We were lucky to find alternative flights, and others seemed to be fortunate as well, although some people had to drive in from Las Vegas, a four-hour drive; some had to wait on the tarmac at LAX four hours before deplaning; and others arrived late on Saturday. As luck would have it, none of the present- ers were significantly delayed.
The meeting began with the Maxine Schaefer Memorial Reading. August A. Imholtz, Jr. reports:
On Friday, Nov. 1, 2013, at the 32nd Street-University of Southern California Visual and Performing Arts Mag- net School, which is located just a few blocks from the main campus of the university, some 92 fifth graders and a dozen or so teachers and guests assembled at 12:30 p.m. in the main auditorium. Marco Flores, Mag- net School Coordinator, welcomed the LCSNA mem- bers in attendance and the students, almost all of whom wore colored Hatteresque hats, though some more
closely resembled bowlers than top hats, for a twenty- minute performance of the Tea-Party scene. Professor Oliver Mayer of the USC School of Dramatic Arts dra- matized the text, which was read and performed by the following actors: Anthony Bryce Graham as The Hat- ter, Joseph O'Malley as The March Hare, Ricardo Sali- nas as The Dormouse, Taylor Hawthorne as Alice, and Marlene Forte as the Narrator — all graduates of the Dramatic Arts School. The students had read the chap- ters leading up to The Mad Tea-Party and, in a break with our tradition, the copies of Wonderland with the Maxine Schaefer Memorial Bookplate were handed out to each student before the dramatization began so that they could follow along in the text if they wished to — and many did. They had also been instructed to read the book in advance, using library or other cop- ies, up to that very chapter, a fine idea indeed.
At the conclusion of the spirited reading, Cindy Watter and I explained to the audience what the LCSNA is, who Maxine Schaefer was, and why we have been sponsoring these readings and book presenta- tions for the past fifteen years. The kids asked a num- ber of questions, leading off with the standard "What is treacle?" Other questions included "Did a girl (pre- sumably the Beamish Boy) slay the dragon?" — a ques- tion from one of the films rather than the first Alice book. "Who was Lewis Carroll?" "Why did he use that
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name?" And many more. I then read, with some slight modification, these verses from the Jan. 19, 1889 issue of Punch:
Alice was a book That every fancy took, And oh my! How did it sell! It was illustra- ted in wondrous way By our own Mister TENNIEL. Thus immortalized, It was dramatized By an Oliver Mayer-ly hand; And the 32nd School Theay- ter matinee
Is the present Wonderland.
Before heading back to their classrooms, a great many of the students mobbed the actors, Prof. Mayer, Dr. and Mrs. Cassady, and even Cindy and me to sign their copies. One little girl said, after I scribbled my name at the bottom of the flyleaf already filled with sig- natures, "Thank you so much. I'll never sell this book."
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University of Southern California (USC) 's Doheny Li- brary is a wonderful venue for an event, and we were welcomed with a warm reception Friday evening, re- plete with many savory treats.
A full slate of presentations was scheduled on Saturday morning. Catherine Quinlan, Dean of the USC Libraries, spoke first and welcomed us to the conference. Mark Burstein, our president, drove the
podium and most ably kept everything moving for the entire day.
Mark inaugurated a new tradition by introduc- ing the people who had signed up for tables, giving them a chance to say a few words. Notable amongst the tables were Brenda and Gaynell Lenoir's, with a collection of Alice dolls, dollhouses, and the like that their family has acquired over several generations. They were not selling anything, just sharing, talking, letting us admire their collection, and demonstrating their obvious pride in it.
Joel Birenbaum had a table and was selling from his extensive inventory, with a twist. All moneys from his sales were to be donated to the "Alicel50" events in New York in 2015 (see p. 30). Tatiana Ianovskaia was selling her books, which include a new Hunting of the Snark that she has done in black and white. And Matt and Wendy Crandall (and their daughter, Hayley Rushing) were there, hawking goods for the Disney-philiac collector. Raul Contreras was selling copies of his book, a modern and perhaps somewhat dark addition to the field, Alice's Bloody Adventures in Wonderland. Raul has been working in movie produc- tion and as a screenwriter and artist, and this is his first foray into book authorship. I believe I heard that the book is being picked up by Barnes & Noble. D. L. Armstrong was selling his "sequel," A Shadow for Alice (Cupcake Press, 2013).
Klas Holmlund came from Sweden to demo the Alice module from Plotagon (https://plotagon. com), a site where you can select characters, place them in scenes, write dialog and say how each line
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is to be delivered, click a button, and see it rendered as a movie! Brilliant! William McQueen and his wife, Colleen Finley, of Walrus and Carpenter Productions were another welcome presence, demoing their daz- zling, full-length Alice animation made mainly for iPads, but which work to a lesser extent on a few other platforms (www.alicewinks.com).
Many seemed to wish for more time to browse amongst the tables. A myriad of fascinating presenta- tions were scheduled to fill the day; it is hard to know if one wants so much meat in a meal, or more appetiz- ers, salads, and desserts.
Dan Bergevin led off the presentations with a slideshow talk about a delightful version of Wonder- land (Capitalized Living, 2010) that he put together. Previous editions have been published with the illus- trations of more than one artist. This edition, though, may be a record: It includes the artwork of 58 differ- ent artists, including many scenes that are not often the subject of illustration. Dan used a professional collaboration site for media artists, behance.net. (It is a bit like deviantart.com, but with less emphasis on the deviant.) He created a list of 58 subjects of illus- tration, or a "plug list," as it is called in media circles, and basically asked the community, "Who wants to do this cool thing?" He put no rules on the styles of art, and it sounds as though he did not explicitly guide the artwork. He did remind some artists that since this is a work of children's literature, some children might actually read it. And it appears that even art- ists who specialize in erotica toned it down to an ac- ceptable level, although one of the images was a bit
Dan Bergevin
over the top in terms of violence. All communication with the artists was online, and just under half of the artists were outside the U.S. Almost all of the art is surprisingly good, done in the main by professionals, and some of it is well beyond just good. But not all of it is great; he did, after all, just invite anyone to the party who said they would show up. He has done an amazing thing: We have always known these kinds of collaboration can occur on the Internet; it is just sur- prising how seldom it actually happens.
The second presentation was also Internet-de- pendent, but in a different way. Henry Jenkins, Pro- fessor of Communication, Journalism, Cinematic Arts and Education at USC, conversed live with graphic
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Christopher Tyler
novelist Bryan Talbot from his home in Sunderland. Given the fragility of the Internet at conferences in general, and the tendency that software has to be more likely to break when more people are looking at it, I was shocked that this was attempted; yet it went extremely and surprisingly well. One Carrollian even thought that Bryan was "looking right at her" for most of the presentation. (He was, in truth, seeing only Henry and the projected image on the screen behind him.) The collection of masks on the wall behind Tal- bot was commented on. It was a conversation, and so there was no thesis being argued, but there were in- formative discussions about Bryan's Alice in Sunderland and how it has stood up since being published. Talbot described how rich in history the Sunderland area is, and how he had lived in other parts of England where a work of history like this, tying together so many threads, really could not be done. They discussed the Bayeux tapestry and how it was, quite obviously, the first comic book, in addition to being a good example of the victor of the Battle of Hastings writing a pro-An- glo history on the subject. When asked, Bryan denied any plans to do another Alice book. It is good, though, that he is still participating in our meetings, and his musings were much appreciated. We also talked with him about another recent project, Dotter of Her Father's Eyes (Dark Horse, 2012), which interweaves narratives about James Joyce's daughter, Lucia, with that of Mary, Bryan's wife, the daughter of James Atherton, whose work The Books at the Wake (Faber 8c Faber, 1959) is a classic in Joycean studies.
The next presentation, by Dr. Christopher Tyler, a neurologist and inventor by day, was a bit challeng- ing on several levels. His theses were that there were many medieval roots to the story and that Alice may have been inspired by Alice, Countess of the Vexin, a "pawn" in the court of Eleanor of Aquitaine. I am, however, forced to draw a connection between this
presentation and one of Christopher's other accom- plishments: He is the inventor of the "random-dot au- tostereogram," aka "Magic Eye," a style of illustration that looks like a somewhat random arrangement of shapes and figures. But if one stares at it and looks at it in the right way, a three-dimensional shape will, for reasons probably only sensible to a neurologist who studies the visual cortex professionally, leap out of the background and become visible. I must admit that I have stared at a few of these pictures and cannot see anything. And having someone describe it to you is somewhat like trying to learn to whistle by reading about it in a book. I can stare at the pictures and I can see that it makes sense that something might be there, but I cannot tell what it is. Christopher's pre- sentation felt a bit like the same sort of thing to me.
Obviously, Charles Dodgson would have at least a churchman's knowledge of medieval Europe. But it was not clear to me why we were looking at pre- Raphaelite paintings, even if their subjects were me- dieval. And the correspondence between Alice of the Vexin, Eleanor, and our Alice seemed to shift at times to Eleanor's female descendants and relations, sever- al of whom were also named Alice. Connections were drawn between the White King and the Mad Hatter and other male relatives. But here the subject seemed to jump as well, going from young contemporaries of Eleanor's to an old man who was, I believe, her father (William IX of Aquitaine, the first troubadour) .
Towards the end, Christopher brought up a slide of da Vinci's The Last Supper in juxtaposition with Ten- niel's drawing for the Mad Tea-Party. He described how the figures seemed to match up, starting with Alice/Bartholomew from the left. (I must admit that I saw this coming.) One member felt the need to cross herself when he matched the Mad Hatter in the center of the Tea Party with the central figure in da Vinci's tableau!
Readers interested in this period and in Eleanor, who was Queen Consort of both France (m. Louis VII, r. 1137-1152) and England (m. Henry II, r. 1154- 1189), mother of Kings Richard the Lionheart and John, and the noted rival of Fair Rosamund, are re- ferred to Shakespeare's King John, the 1968 film The Lion in Winter with Katharine Hepburn as Eleanor of Aquitaine and Jane Merrow as Alice (spelled "Alais" in the play and movie), and, of course, Christopher's absorbing book Parallel Alices: Alice through the Looking- Glass of Eleanor of Aquitaine (Diatrope, 2013).
Abby Saunders, the newly hired curator of the G. Edward Cassady, M.D., and Margaret Elizabeth Cassady, RN., Lewis Carroll Collection at the Doheny Library, in- troduced this year's winners of the USC Libraries Won- derland Award, which is given to students who create something that adds to the Carrollian experience. The winners this year were coincidentally also the winners last year, but not from a lack of competition! Andrew
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Woodham is a molecular biologist by day and maintains a fascination with technology and a creative approach to puzzles, scientific or otherwise. Lindsey Jones is studying liberal arts, but also works in a laboratory. Her submis- sions were imaginative and poetic. Both showed their constructions from the last two contests.
Andrew's first submission was a large crossword puzzle (published in KL 90:31), which was designed to be something that Lewis Carroll could solve, based on his writings and things in his environment at the time. It is an extremely challenging puzzle for some- one living in this century to solve, but I am sure that some of our readers were successful. He built a 3-D assemblage of it, as well. Andrew's later submission was a statue of the Red Queen {KL 88:4), somewhere between three and four feet tall, made entirely out of playing cards. He even included references to Car- roll's writings on determinants! If one examined the cards going around the queen's dress, the numbers visible were arranged in 3x3 squares, reproducing an example of solving for the determinant of a matrix in some of Carroll's earliest writing on the subject.
The first of Lindsey's submissions was Alice's Scrap- book, a book and poem designed to feel as if Alice had created a scrapbook of her adventures in Wonder- land. Every page was covered in handmade paper de- signs representing the various scenes of the book, ac- companied by a verse of Lindsey's original poem. Her later submission was a chessboard and pieces based on the Looking-Glass characters designed to play a form of "fairy chess" (chess variants, where rules are bent) called "Alice chess," invented in 1953 by V. R. Parton, that involves mirrored moves on two chess- boards. (It should be noted en passant that Andrew
and Lindsey are engaged to be married, and we wish them all the best!)
American McGee, who was interviewed by Hugh McHarg of USC, is well known to Carrollians as the creator of video games such as American McGee's Alice and Alice: Madness Returns, published by Electronic Arts (now known as EA Games), and also known to the world at large as the chief designer of the mega- successful games Doom and Quake. He is currently in the process of creating a third Alice game with his own company, Spicy Horse Games in Shanghai, to be called Alice: Otherlands.
It was obvious that American knew that his games were not a favorite of all members of this audience. But he defended his efforts well, and seemed to win many of us over. He described his efforts to include a storyline in the first Alice title, at a time when EA pre- ferred simple arcade-style games. Later, after some of their more ferocious and erotically charged games became successful, he had to argue with them that the game would sell even if it did not descend into extreme violence, extremely bloody combat, and ex- tremely short skirts. A video preview that EA made, using a group other than American's, was demon- strated. It certainly gave us pause, and I think we are all glad that those concepts are not being used.
American gets a hugely positive reaction from the gaming community, and he could have just stayed in the venues where he is most popular, but he did come from China just to speak to us. Lewis Carroll es- tablished a very large canvas that all sorts of artists can use to paint their own visions of wonder, and there has been a lot of amazing art to come out of the Alice milieu, including the concept art and rendered art
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American McGee and Hugh McHarg
for these particular video games — see The Art of Alice: Madness Returns by R.J. Berg (Dark Horse, 201 1 ) . We may not like all of the art that we see being done, but we should acknowledge that artists use their canvases as they will. Lewis Carroll's works were subversive in their own way in their own time. We should probably not be surprised when others find new subversions to create, more attuned to our time and sensibilities.
We then had an opportunity to view the Cassady collection, and anyone who has the chance to see it should do so. The collection had been without a professional curator for quite a while; Abby Saunders was just recently hired. Abby mentioned that she was initially surprised by how often she sees the Cassadys. Some collections get donated and then the collector is not seen again. But apparently George Cassady, who lives in the San Francisco Bay Area, is quite often to be found working on the collection, and the fact that it is well cared for is obvious to all.
The collection ranges from books and letters in Carroll's own hand to Wonderland Award submissions from this very year, with many expected — and unex- pected— treasures in between. As you might expect, there was much oohing and ahhing and coveting by attendees. The first volume in a projected series of books celebrating the Wonderland Awards — The Lid- dell Book of Poetry, Tyson Gaskill and David Martino, eds. (USC Libraries, 2015) — was available for sale, and there is a new catalog of the collection in the works.
That evening, we were treated to a lovely recep- tion in the Nazarian Pavillion, a secluded courtyard attached to the Doheny. While listening to "Carrol- lian-themed" jazz by USC's Thornton School of Mu- sic students, attendees sipped cocktails and indulged
in berries, chocolate truffles, heart-shaped raspberry jam cookies, and, of course, meringue mushrooms.
On Sunday, the troop travelled to the Decker Stu- dios Fine Arts Foundry, where we saw the extraordi- nary sculptures of Karen Mortillaro. She has created bronze characters fairly true to the Tenniel artwork. But she also does interesting things with distorted perspectives. Her newer sculptures have two sides; a serpentine wall separates two different views. On one side, everything looks fairly normal. On the other, however, the sculptures are grossly distorted. But the wall on that side is a curved mirror. Look into it and one sees, in its reflection, that everything is right again. These anamorphic pieces are an apt visual rep- resentation of the strangeness of Wonderland as ex- perienced by Alice. Karen is currently working on a series of a dozen scenes done in this manner, one for each chapter of AATW.
Interestingly, Karen said she came to Alice from in- vestigations of this "distorted" art. And then, after explor- ing the visual language she wanted to speak, she went to the books for ideas and materials. It is very much oppo- site to the way most of us came to Alice, having read the book first and then becoming interested in other aspects of this world that Lewis Carroll created. It seems that Karen has found a completely different route through which to fall into the rabbit-hole.
Our tour guide was Sandy Decker, Karen's husband. The factory was filled with castings he has done for a wide variety of sculptors, in size ranging from a few inches to around sixteen feet in height. The process itself, with its super-high temperatures, caldrons, crucibles, and such was a modern take on an alchemist's laboratory.
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To bring the meeting to a close, Daniel Singer and Cal Smith graciously opened their home in Al- tadena, The Green Man Lodge, to us. This beautiful house, while not old by East Coast standards, is his- toric for Los Angeles. Originally built in the 1940s, Green Man Lodge is the masterwork of little-known woodcarver and homebuilder Louis Steinhauser (1886-1970). The house is classified as "residential folk art" rather than "craftsman," as that latter defini- tion implies an entirely different vocabulary of style and detail. Louis's Great Room, for example, is a mix of medieval banquet hall and Bavarian cuckoo-clock, with elaborate hand-carved panels featuring poly-
chromed floral and geometric patterns, figures, and a grand diorama on early Californian themes.
In addition to the house, Dan opened his collec- tion, and we all enjoyed perusing his books. He has both a signed letter from Carroll (a real one) and a set of letters from Carroll to Mrs. Liddell regarding their difficulties, which is an imagined correspon- dence penned by Mr. Singer himself. Regrettably, a volume of CLD's missing diaries, dated 1877, proved to be a stage prop. People working with the produc- tion of Dan's play A Perfect Likeness, as well as some of our more naturally theatrical Carrollians, brought much energy and verve to the golden afternoon.
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My QGDDNESS - MX SNARK
DOUG HOWICK
"What must be understood from the outset, is that this is a highly personal view of Guinness advertising by someone who does not work in brewing and has never worked in advertising. His only qualifications, in fact, are that he drinks Guinness and has great affection for the advertising which first introduced him to it. "
rhese words are not mine. They are taken di- rectly from Brian Sibley's Preface to The Book of Guinness Advertising, in which he celebrated over fifty-five years of amusing and entertaining Guinness advertise- ments (Sibley, 1985). As such, they are an ideal introduction to this "Snarticle" — how's that for the obligatory portmanteau word in a Carrollian preface?
GUINNESS ADVERTISING
Founded in 1759, Guinness is said to have published an engraving in the 1794 edition of The Gentleman 's Magazine (see Figure 1) with the caption "Health, Peace and Pros- perity." It is considered to be one of Guinness's earliest advertise- ments and implied that drinkers of Guinness porter would achieve those three benefits.
More than 100 years later in the early twentieth century, the brewery began setting the standard for beer advertis- ing with witty, engaging adverts that helped create ar- guably the best-known beer worldwide.
When sales began to decline, Guinness hired the S. H. Benson advertising agency from London in 1928, which subsequently succeeded in producing some of the best-known campaigns in advertising history. It was a leading agency in the 1920s and 30s, with long-running campaigns for Guinness, Macleans, Colman's Mustard, and many others, as well as the original Bovril account. It specialised in large outdoor poster campaigns. For Guinness, Benson chose the old-fashioned approach of simply telling the public
The Gentleman's Magazine, engraving, 1794
that "Guinness Is Good For You," accompanied by the beautiful drawings of John M. Gilroy, their in-house artist. Gilroy's first Guinness poster was produced in 1930, and he went on to create more than 100 press advertisements and 50 poster designs for Guinness over the next 35 years. The Guinness account remained with the Benson agency for almost 40 years before going to J. Walter Thompson in 1969 and subsequently to Allen Brady & Marsh in 1982. At Benson's, the copywriting department was called the Literary Department, and maintained something of a bohemian atmosphere while producing copy that was humorous, clever, and elegant. Among Benson's copywriters in those early years was the young Dorothy L Sayers, whose 1931 novel Murder Must Advertise is set in Pym's Publicity, a thinly disguised Benson's.
The beer itself had suf- fered sluggish sales and needed a boost. Gilroy's first campaign, launched in 1930 with the above-mentioned Guinness catchphrase, was an immediate success. Over the next 26 years, Gilroy would produce a veritable Noah's Ark of creatures to back up that theme — a crocodile, polar bear, ostrich, and gnu to name just a few — along with their long-suffering zookeeper, a caricature of the artist himself. The Guinness advertising was spread among posters and press adverts and so-called "Doctor Books."
THE DOCTOR BOOKS
Through much of the twentieth century, doctors thought Guinness had medicinal properties. Until the 1950s, mothers in Irish hospitals were given Guinness after giving birth because of the high iron content. So it's no surprise that the Benson agency's simple tagline "Guinness Is Good For You" was a hit with
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consumers when it was first introduced. The slogan remained the foundation of the brand for the next 40 years, until the advertising environment became a little more regulated.
At a time when the nation was health-obsessed, and adverts for tonics and salts were prevalent, Benson's took this relationship with the medical profession one step further. It produced collectable, limited-edition soft-back booklets with rhymes, text, and cartoons, and bolstered with testimonials from doctors. These high-quality booklets were sent out to doctors between 1933 and 1939. There were no publications during the war, but further books appeared in 1950, continuing until 1966, after which the Christmas Guinness Book of Records continued the tradition. The Doctor Books were wonderfully illustrated, and were notable for their clever literary parodies, making reference to Guinness both in words and pictures. Some of the pages or themes from the Doctor Books were used as magazine adverts and occasionally as posters, sometimes even before they appeared in a Doctor Book. Each booklet in the series from 1939 to 1966 was intended to be a limited-edition, collectable item, so, although finding copies in good condition in 2013 is not easy, there are some available "out there," and they continue to command a high price at auctions.
CARROLLIAN GUINNESS
The Guinness company first used Lewis Carroll as inspiration in 1929, the year in which Guinness first advertised. This was a poster entitled "The Walrus and the Carpenter" from Through the Looking-Glass. Throughout the 1930s, Guinness produced several press adverts and posters on various Lewis Carroll themes, especially Alice in Wonderland. These post- ers and press adverts were beautifully illustrated by leading artists of the time, such as John Gilroy and later Antony Groves-Raines, and written by copywrit- ers such as Ronald Barton, Stanley Penn, and John Trench, all of whom worked for S. H. Benson.
Of the 24 Doctor Books, five were based upon Carrollian themes. These were: The Guinness Alice (1933), Jabberwocky Re-Versed and Other Guinness Ver- sions (1935), Alice Aforethought (1938), Alice, Where Art Thou'? (1952), and Alice Versary (1959). Of these, only two involved the Snark: The Guinness Alice and Alice, Where Art Thou? As my predominant interest is in the Snark and in comparing the interpretations of a wide range of illustrators (see KL 82:18, "The Hunting of the Butcher"), these are the only two into which I shall now hunt further.
THE GUINNESS ALICE, 1933
Written by Ronald Barton and Robert Bevan. Illustrated by fohn Gilroy.
The Guinness Alice contained "The Hunting of the Stout" on pages 19, 20, and 21, but the content was
also used as a one-page B&W press advertisement. It certainly appeared in The Illustrated London News and probably other popular magazines of the time. With its debut in 1842, The Illustrated London News became the world's first fully illustrated weekly newspaper, marking a revolution in journalism and news report- ing. The publication presented a vivid picture of Brit- ish and world events, and the decision of the Benson agency to use it for Guinness advertisements was most appropriate.
There were actually two editions of The Guin- ness Alice, the first (coded GA281) having both line and colour illustrations, whereas all illustrations in the second (coded GA281A), are printed in colour throughout. Both have the same contents, but the second edition is rearranged and amended as follows:
"A Sane Lunch Party," "The Walrus and the Carpen- ter," ["Father William"], "Maddening!", "A Song to Comfort You," "'Off with its Head!' cried the Queen,"
"Lobster Quadrille," "A Head without a Guinness," "A Tale of Two Glasses," "'Tis the Voice of the Lobster,"
"The Hunting of the Stout," and "Oh my ears and whiskers!"
the illustrations The Guinness Alice commenced with the following words on page one:
These parodies and imitations of scenes from "Alice in Wonderland," "Alice through the Looking Glass," "The Hunting of the Snark" and "Sylvie and Bruno," are published with all due acknowledgements to the Author, Lewis Carroll, and the Illustrators, Sir John Tenniel, Henry Holliday [sic] and Harry Furniss. They are offered for your entertain- ment with the compliments of Arthur Guin- ness, Son & Co., Ltd.
It is probable that John Gilroy felt obliged to maintain the general depiction of Henry Holiday's original Bellman, concerning which Lewis Carroll and his illustrator had been in agreement 57 years previously, when the Snark was published. This was possibly to ensure that the character in his parody was instantly recognised and accepted. However, de- spite the striped fisherman's jersey, the waders, and the Phrygian cap, his Bellman has an entirely differ- ent persona, more akin to that of a runaway garden gnome!
The members of the crew pretty well all exude a comfortable familiarity. In fact, Gilroy's Baker could well have ambled straight in from leaving his 42 boxes behind on Holiday's beach. Despite their differences, every one of them looks happy, due, no doubt, to the presence of several glasses of Guinness!
9
THE HUNTING OF THE STOUT
" Pay attention, my men, while with eloquent pen
The seven chief signs I point out By which you may know, wherever you go,
The perfect and genuine Stout.
" Let us take them in order ; the first is the Head
Like foam or like cauliflower tops ;
Then the Taste — which, you'll find, is like nectar
combined
With a flavour of barley and hops.
nineteen
" Then its Use — you may serve it with oysters or cheese,
At dinner, or lunch — or alone ; And its Goodness, for treating yourself and your friends,
And promoting digestion and tone.
" The fifth is the Colour, akin to Vandyke,
Or rubies of opulent (lame ; And the sixth— the low Price, for a drink that's so nice ;
And the seventh, and last, is the Name.
" For although other Stout does exist without doubt,
Yet I feel it my duty to say, When it's GUINNESS—"
— the Bellman broke off with a shout,
For his hearers had hastened away.
He sought them with corkscrews,
he sought them with care,
He pursued them with jugs and speed To the "Garter and Star,"where they'd opened the bar —
A marvellous moment indeed !
In the midst of the words he was trying to say —
'Mid sounds of rejoicing and glee, They were merrily laughing and quaffing away —
For the Stout was a GUINNESS you sec !
twenty
The Guinness Alice, 1933
ALICE, WHERE ART THOU?, 1952
Written by John Trench. Illustrated by Antony Groves-Raines
The front and back covers of this highly original book (coded GA966) take the form, in a trompe-l'oeil style, of a house of cards through which Carrollian characters peer into — and out of — the book.
The contents are as follows: "Apoledgement,"
"Bottle and Jug (a passage which, by some oversight, Lewis Carroll never wrote)," "Mushroom Growth,"
"'It's just a copy-caterpillar,' said Alice," "Alice in Snowmansland," '"Tis the Choice of the Gourmet,"
"A Carrollingian Knight's Entertainment," "Alice Studies Natural History," "All Buttoned Up," "A Mad Lunch Party," "Alice in Posterland," "The Beaver's Lesson," and "Epilogy."
The text of "Epilogy" forms part of the outside back cover and tells us that the White Rabbit timidly explains to the Queen that the reason the Bellman is in a book about Alice is perhaps because he is hunt- ing the Snark. The Bellman is certainly looking for something as he bends over and peers upside down from one side of the cover to the other. However, with the tail of his cap dangling into an empty glass, he is probably, as the King suggests, hunting a Guinness!
10
The outside and inside of the front cover of Alice, Where Art Thou?
Alice, Where Art Thou? was produced in a very dif- ferent time from that of the early Doctor Books. It was 1952, and although the series had been well and successfully reestablished after a ten-year break, there were significant differences. The national economy was different, the availability of writers and illustra- tors at the Benson agency was different, the advertis- ing environment was different, and with a new man- aging director in 1946, the Guinness company itself was almost certainly different.
Perhaps it was intentional and perhaps it was not, but I find it to be an extraordinary happenstance — there's another appropriate portmanteau word — that the new managing director of Guinness was a British engineer named Hugh Beaver, and the Snark verse chosen for this publication was "The Beaver's Lesson"!
the illustrations Despite being one of the most technically accomplished illustrators of his day, Antony Groves-Raines is now largely forgotten and his work generally unknown. He illustrated eight of the Christmas Doctor Books and several series of co- loured press advertisements. His other work included illustrated books for children and a set of richly el- egant decorations for a collection of carols (one "r," one "1") entitled On Christmas Day in the Morning.
It is possible that members of the Literary Depart- ment at Benson's saw themselves as being responsible for steering the Guinness ship back onto a steady course after the suspension of advertising during the World War. It may have been, therefore, that the art- ist felt some affinity with the Bellman. For the Doctor Book version of "The Beaver's Lesson," Groves-Raines's Bellman has an air of benevolence and relaxation. The fisherman's jersey is pink, and he sports a red tassel on the tail of his cap. He supports the versified banner — and a couple of seagulls — on his left arm and index finger, while tingling the bell with his right hand.
As we have seen, Alice, Where Art Thou? was is- sued in 1952, but this was not the first appearance of a Beaver's lesson. Interestingly, the same words by John Trench with quite different illustrations by Antony Groves-Raines had appeared as a stand-alone advertisement — also titled "The Beaver's Lesson" — in British magazines as early as 1948, just two years after the arrival of Sir Hugh Beaver! I obtained an original copy of this some years ago, taken "from a period magazine," but I have not yet been able to confirm from which magazine it was taken. However, I know of a full-page Guinness advert, "Bottle and Jug (Number GE 1363), in a 1948 issue of The Illustrated London News.
1 1
THE BEAVER'S LESSON
" 'Tis a bottle of Guinness!" the Bellman exclaimed, "A delectable sight, don't you think?
Tis a brew, my dear Beaver, that's widely acclaimed- Vou may pour it, and watch as I drink.
"In this glass you may see what will benefit me, For its Goodness is simply unbounded,
And without extra, charge I will tell you at large Of the things on which Goodness is founded.
"As to Body, a Guinness supplies, I have heard. Not only good health but protection;
Its Head is a matter that's often referred
To, when connoisseurs speak of perfection.
"When you meet any friend you've not seen for some years
It's a !>onhomous brew to imbibe; Of its power as a tonic one frequently hears, And it's one many Doctors prescribe.
"Its Havour is finer than honey-dew, for;
I'm informed dial it renders you strong: (Some think it keeps best behind padlock ■<
But few people keep it for long)."
The Beltman, who now felt uncommonly dry, Turned round for his glass from the shelf.
But he reeled with a cry, for his friend, on the sly Had finished the Guinness himself.
Tis a bottle of Guinness ! " the BclJman exclaimed, *'A delectable sight, don't you think?
'Tis a brew, my dear Beaver, that's widely acclaimed - You may pour it, and watch as I drink.
" In this glass you may sec what will benefit mc, For it3 Goodness is simply unbounded, And without extra charge 1 will tell you at large Of the thinys on whic h Goodness is founded.
" As to Body, a Guinness supplies, I have heard. Not only good hcaldi but protection ; Irs Head is a matter thai'* often referred
speak of perfection.
'When you meet any friend you've not seen for som It's a bonhomous brew to imbibe ; Of its power as a tonic one frequently hears, And it's one many Doctors prescribe.
• Its (favour is finer than honcy-dew, far :
I'm informed that il renders you strong: (Some think il keeps best behind padlock and bar. But few people keep it for long),"
The Bellman, who now felt uncommonly dry, Turned round for his glass from the shelf,
But he reeled with a cry, for his friend, on the sly. Had finished the Guinness himself. Gr
Above, Grove-Raines '$ Bellman, Alice, Where Art Thou?, 1952 Right, one of the adverts
I wonder whether the new managing director did not initially conform to the expectations of those with longer company involvement. Certainly, the 1948 Bellman in the press advertisement is not too sure of the Beaver. Being on his own ship, he starts off by instructing the Beaver with an air of confidence, only to stagger off in surprise and horror — if not disgust — when he discovers that the Beaver is smarter than he thought and has outfoxed him.
"For the Boss was a Beaver, you see."
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I am grateful to Eibhlin Roche, archive manager at Guinness Storehouse in Dublin, Ireland, whose prompt, friendly responses to my ill-informed ques- tions have impressed me greatly. I also thank the KL for patiently and persistently encouraging me to pull this story together, ever since I first told them I'd dis- covered the Snark in my beer!
i 2
THAT EBAY SN ARK MAY BE A BGDJUM
or
YOU CAN'T JUDGE A BGDK BY ITS COVER
DOUG HOWICK
Collecting, particularly book collecting, more particularly Snark book collecting, has certain- ly changed since I first got into it more than 40 years ago. Originally, I collected lower-priced copies (even ex-library books). My hunting led me to many sources in many countries, sometimes with excitingly fortunate discoveries such as a 1975 Whittington limited edition illustrated by Harold Jones, at a Rare Book Fair in Melbourne in 1982. And I shall always remember un- earthing my first Macmillan first edition in a London bookshop in 1984.
More recently, one's searches tend to be conducted on the Internet, and a regular check of offerings on eBay is essential. Most books offered for sale on the Internet are accompanied by a photograph of the front cover.
These photographs make it much easier to identify particular editions, and it is sometimes possible to assess unusual variations, which, for a collector, are often a cause for great elation — especially if the seller appears to be unaware of their rarity. Selwyn Goodacre's "The List- ing of the Snark" has been the authoritative source of detailed information ever since it first appeared in 1974, and it has been updated several times since then, notably in 1981 and 2006. It is thewsy to authenticate almost any edition of the Snark in almost any language.
I was quite astonished recently to see (Fig. 1) an eBay advertisement for an edition of the Snark with a cover I had never seen or heard of before!
Wow! A copy with a cover so rare that it's not even mentioned by Selwyn Goodacre? It seemed too good to be true — and it was! A few days later, what did I discover? (Fig. 2)
Not being very happy about this, I communicated with the bookseller by e-mail saying: "I strongly suspect that the picture shown is a photographic creation rather than an ac- tual photograph of the book for sale. If so, this is blatantly false advertising. Please comment. "The response was interesting, though hardly apologetic: "Thank you for your interest in this book. This is an automated and generic image used for all of our older listings that do not have photos. I have forwarded your comments on to my supervisor and they will be taken into consideration. " (Fig. 3)
The consideration into which my comments had been taken was not obvious when I cast my Internet net a little wider several days later. I found that the "automated and generic image" does not only target those of us with Carrollian interests (Fig. 4) .
And so, beamish readers, beware of the day, If the cover's a Boojum! Don't fret. It will softly and suddenly vanish away,
And you'll have been "snarked" on the 'net!
Figure 1 Hunting of the Sn ark: An Agony in Eight Fits (Id: LQ5RF20) Item condition: good Price: GBP 50.26 Approximately AU $85. 74 Buy It Now
Figure 2 Alice in Wonderland (Id: IB 1CEB34) Item condition: good Price: GBP 3.17 Approximately AU $5.44 Buy it Now
Alice In Wonderland
by '
Lewis Corroll (Author), W
The Hunting Of The Snark An Agony in Eight Fits
.by
Lewis Carroll
.Nobody's Pony
by
J. M. BerristorU
Count of Monte Cristo, The
by .
13
STEALING. RHYMING. INKING 'N TOILS ROGER LANGRIDGE HUNTS THE SNARK
ROGER LANGRIDGE INTERVIEWED BY ANDREW OGUS
Roger Langridge, winner of the Eisner and Harvey awards for his comics, is the author and artist, among many other delightful works such as No More Mrs. Nice Nun, Fred the Clown, and Frankenstein Meets Shirley Temple, of the marvelous comic series Snarked!, in which the Walrus and the Carpenter become the heroes of an epic adventure. The complete series is now available in three volumes, Forks and Hope, Ships and Sealing Wax, and Cabbages and Kings. Born in New Zealand, he now lives in London with his family. Mr. Langridge would like to save the world through comics.
kl: Hoiv did you start working on and drawing comics'?
rl: I grew up in New Zealand, which has no comic industry because the population size is very small (about 3 million people when I was a lad, about 4 million now). The ones that were available were either Australian black-and-white reprints of American comics, or British humour weeklies. Or the Australian Disney editions, which were in colour. Even before I could actu- ally read, these comics were always around, always a part of my life.
When I was about six or seven, we had a school art activity where everyone in the class had to make their own comic strip. I still have mine somewhere; it's this strip of paper which was meant for a three- or four-panel gag strip, but I've subdivided mine into maybe a dozen panels. Drew on both sides, too! I think that was the moment I decided I wanted to do this for the rest of my life. After that, it was a case of drawing pretty much every day, trying to get my work up to some kind of professional standard — and eventually, when I was about 20, knocking on the door of my university news- paper and asking them to publish me. By this time I'd figured out that, in order to become a professional cartoonist, I'd have to leave New Zealand and go somewhere where they actually had a comics industry, so my plan was to save my money for a plane ticket to London (it had to be either the UK or America, and I could work legally in the UK!), and in the meantime to get as much work into print as I possibly could, so that when I arrived I would be taken seriously
as somebody with a few published credentials under my belt. At the same time, I was pro- ducing mini-comics with my brother Andrew, and we sent a few copies to various American publishers. Fantagraphics Books saw them and liked them enough to ask us to do something for them, so by the time I was ready to go to London we'd already done a couple of things with Fantagraphics, which was an enormous help in getting people to take me seriously as a car- toonist later on, I'm sure.
So I arrived in London in September 1990 and started hassling people and trying to get edi- tors to look at my portfolio. It took me about six months, and the money was really starting to run out by about that time, but I finally managed to get some regular work on the Judge Dredd Megazine. I've never had a regular job since then — for the last 22 years I've supported myself and my family from either comics or illustration work.
kl: When did you first encounter AATW, TTLG, and Snark ?
RL: I'm pretty sure my first exposure to Alice would have been a Disney long-playing record of the 1951 movie, which was basically the Little Golden Book with an accompanying record on which the text was read aloud. My first non- Disney encounter was, from memory, the 1972 film adaptation starring Fiona Fullerton as Alice. I would have been about 6 or 7 years old at the time, I guess. (It would have reached New Zealand a year or two later than the rest of the world, as most things did in those days.) The main thing I remember about it is that Spike Milligan played the Gryphon. Milligan's comedy would later become a great influence on my own work.
I would have read the books not long after that, I think. I had a cheap edition that pack- aged Wonderland and Looking-Glass into a single volume, albeit without illustrations, but I was a pretty voracious reader as a youngster (still am!), so that didn't put me off. And I was totally hooked after that. I've gone back and reread
l4
the books every few years ever since. I now get things out of it as an adult that I didn't appreci- ate as a child, which is one of the great joys and strengths of the work — the way it operates on all these different levels simultaneously.
I came to The Hunting of the Snark pretty late, by contrast. I think I would have been at univer- sity by then, and I'd just read Martin Gardner's Annotated Alice and stumbled across his Annotated Snark in the university bookshop, so I picked it up. I didn't get into it straight away, unlike Alice, which has more immediate rewards, I think, but I've returned to it a few times over the years, try- ing to unpick it a little more each time.
kl: Did this follow or precede your interest in comics? rl: Oh, Carroll came later, but only by a couple of
years. As I say, I've been into both since early
childhood.
kl: And did you reread them all before starting the series ? Sometimes it almost feels as if you had the books open beside you when scripting Snarked!
rl: I certainly reread Snark, with which I was a little less familiar. The Alice books I referred to a litde bit, but most of the pertinent details are lodged in my head after so many readings over the years.
kl: Snarked/ is a brilliant pastiche of the Carrollian works that raises the Walrus and the Carpenter to heroic stature. Why them ? Do you have a particular interest in that poem?
RL: It's more that I have a particular interest in comedy, really. As I mentioned, I'm hugely influenced by Spike Milligan, and I love a lot of other comedians who, like Milligan, came from a music-hall or vaudeville background, like Buster Keaton, the Marx Brothers, W. C. Fields, Stan Laurel, Peter Sellers, etc. So my comics have often played with the idea of the vaudevil- lean double-act, or cross-talk routine, going right from my first published work in Art d'Ecco. I saw in the Walrus and the Carpenter the potential for a great comic (in both senses of the word!) partnership, the wily scoundrel and the innocent stooge. So that was really where the germ of the idea came from.
There's a line in a Monty Python book that has been rattling around my head for decades, too:
The Walrus and the Carpenter were
walking hand-in-hand. 'If only,' said the Carpenter, 'the law would
understand. "'
The main thing I got from that, apart from a good laugh, is that maybe the Walrus and the Carpenter had lives outside of the bits Carroll told us about. I thought they'd make good
heroes for my story because they're characters who seem to be in need of redemption. They're scoundrels, opportunists, and scavengers, so if they manage to rise above their circumstances and actually do something worthwhile, that seemed to have the potential for an interesting journey.
KL: You 've said that the series is "a love letter to the great Carl Barks and E. C. Segar (Popeye). " It's certainly luell within the "funny animals " tradition, and also a great sea story. The funny animals/ bigfoot style is a brilliant twist upon the more traditional styles of handling the Carrollian Snarkiverse. Besides Barks and Segar, whom else do you look at? And which other Alice illustrators do you look at?
rl: My style is kind of a mongrel conglomeration of bits and pieces I've seen and liked through the years. So listing everyone I've ever been inspired by would be impossible, but some of the big- ger influences would be Jack Cole's Plastic Man, Billy DeBeck's Barney Google, Ken Reid's Frankie Stein and others, Kurtzman and Elder on the early MAD comics, and, from the world of animation, Tex Avery, Chuck Jones, and Bob Clampett. My Walrus seems to me like a very Clampett-ish sort of character; he's got a seedy, lowlife sort of atmosphere about him.
As for Alice illustrators, obviously, Tenniel is always going to be the elephant in the room. There are some characters you can play around with a bit, because they've been visually inter- preted in so many different ways over the years, but with something like the Jabberwock, if it doesn't evoke Tenniel's interpretation, it feels "off somehow. So, when in doubt, I went scam- pering back to Tenniel as my starting point (or Holiday, for the Snark characters).
Some other Alice illustrators I admire, even if I don't think I've been directly influenced by them, are Ralph Steadman, Arthur Rackham, and Tony Ross. But there have been so many excellent interpretations over the years it seems wrong to single out just a few.
kl: One of the many charms of Snarked! is the appear- ance of Carrollian characters, as major players or walk-ons. The benevolent Gryphon ofAAIW has become a frightening villain (well, he 's just doing his job). How did you choose who would appear, and in what circumstances? Were there events and characters you didn 't expect who showed up ?
rl: Apart from the characters who, like the Walrus and the Carpenter, were central to the story, I started off initially not expecting to have so many characters from the books being involved; but, as I went along, building the plot, I started to see opportunities to insert them organically,
15
without having to force them in with a crow- bar. The pirates, for example, were initially just pirates, but when I asked myself who would be wearing the captain's hat, the answer seemed pretty obvious! I suppose the one I was most surprised by was the Gardener from Sylvie and Bruno, mainly because I've never managed to make it all the way through the books. The baby- talk just makes me want to throw it across the room after a while. I've considered downloading the text file off Project Gutenberg and doing a quick search-and-replace on every occurrence of "ickle" and "oo" just so I can get through the darn thing.
KL: And there are brand-new characters, like the aptly named Scarlett and Rusty. Scarlett herself is a worthy daughter of the brave and kindly Red Queen, continu- ing Carroll's tradition of a heroine rather than a hero as the focus of the story. Was that a deliberate choice, a reflection of Alice?
rl: Yes, definitely. I thought I should have a child as the main protagonist, and in Carroll's world that would be a little girl. It opened up opportunities to draw some parallels between her relationship with the Walrus and Alice's relationship with Carroll, particularly towards the end, so that was all to the good as far as I was concerned.
KL: How did you develop the drawings of the Snark itself?
RL: I almost didn't! The Snark of your imagination is always going to be far scarier than anything you can nail down on paper, and the original poem avoids being too specific, so I was tempted to follow suit; but then I thought that to build up for a year and then not reveal the thing would narratively be something of a cheat. So, having decided that I'd have to show the beast, my next problem was how to resolve the Snark/ Boojum dichotomy — really, I wanted the crea- ture to somehow be both things at the same time. I was tying myself in knots thinking of some sort of Schrodinger's Cat scenario, where it could be both and neither until you looked at it, but my six-year-old son solved the problem by drawing a Snark with two heads. Genius! Simple, elegant, and visually distinctive. He'll go far, that boy. [SeeFit the Seventh: Beautiful Soup, of Snarked!, for the artist's rendering — ed.]
kl: Did you have a sense of the whole arc of the series
ahead of time, or did the plot develop as it went along?
rl: I had the first four-issue arc nailed down pretty tightly right from the initial pitch, with the rest somewhat more loosely mapped out. Once Boom! decided to go ahead with it, I had to start writing it straight away, so I'd already written the first couple of scripts before I had a chance to go back and work out the finer details of the rest
of the story. But the broad strokes were worked out from the very start. The ending was the part that changed the most as I went along; once I figured out the 20-years-later coda, I felt like I'd finally nailed it, and a lot of what I wrote from that point on was written with the intention of making those final, emotional moments feel as if they'd been properly, honestly earned.
KL: You ve written for established characters (Popeye, Thor). Hoiu is that different from Snarked!, where you completely remade extant characters and invented new ones ? What are the pros and cons of licensed char- acters versus self-created characters ? Was it a tough pitch to Boom!?
rl: The big difference with writing established char- acters is that you always have to hand them back to their owners in more or less the same condi- tion you found them in, so your hands are some- what tied if you want to write a story where your hero grows significantly along the way. The les- sons the characters learn have to be small ones, they can't be life-changing, and they have to be more or less forgotten by the next issue. That can become exhausting after a while.
With Snarked!, I was free to have Scarlett go on a journey that could literally change her life. I suppose it's the difference between writing a sitcom and a movie screenplay: in a sitcom, your characters go from A to B and back to A, where- as in a movie they go from A to B to C and right through to Z. Movies tend to focus on the single most significant day in a character's life; sitcoms focus on a typical day, then another typical day, then another. So, applying that analogy to the comics I've worked on, Popeye would be a sitcom, Snarked! would be a movie. I suppose TTior was somewhere between the two, because the series I wrote dealt with his arrival on Earth and how he became who he is. But after that he had to stay who he is for an indefinite amount of time.
As for whether it was a tough pitch: I think my timing was extremely lucky, because I sent them the pitch at the very moment they lost the licence to produce Disney comics. They were very eager to announce a new kids' line with no Disney properties as soon as humanly possible, and my pitch landed on their desks at exactly the right time. I deliberately drew attention to the similarities to the well-received Muppet Show comics I'd done for them previously (animal characters, verse, absurd humour) , which may have made the pill a little easier to swallow. Anyway, the contract was signed within the week. I haven't been so lucky since!
KL: Can you describe the steps of your technique? rl: Calling my methods a "technique" is rather
16
Our band of fine adventurers
Wi?rif f /->mt^» T*rlA fcVl£> r».3\7£»f
Lazd owi dialogue/ word box, followed by non-photo-blue printout
The original penciled story
The scan of the pencils, again printed in non-photo-blue
The scan inked with a brush and various fancy pens
Inked drawings cleaned up
Final text overlaid in Adobe Illustrator
The final glmious color. For the full page, please please seeSnarked! Fit the Eleventh, Smiles and Soap.
17
grand! There's a fair amount of blind panic involved. I usually start with a list of things I'd like to do — settings I'm interested in, characters I like, any interesting ideas I can think of — then try to find connections between them. Pretty soon the very rough outline of a story will begin to present itself. Once I've got that basic nugget on paper, I'll write a plot. I don't always stick to it, but when I'm writing I like to have a road map; I have a terrible sense of direction in real life, and I think that carries over into my ability to tell a story, so I like to nail things down as I go to keep things clear.
Once the plot is done — and that can be a long one like Snarked!, running over 12 issues, or a short six-page story — I like to write a page-by- page breakdown of what happens on each page so I can pace the story. With Snarked!, I would do this issue-by-issue — so I'd write a page-by-page breakdown for a chapter, write the script, then do the same for the next chapter. I'd usually be writing these a few months ahead of draw- ing them, so I was typically writing and draw- ing separate issues simultaneously — which was occasionally a bit of a headache! (Played merry havoc with my sense of direction, I'll tell you that much.)
Anyway — when it came time to draw the issue, I would start with the dialogue, laying that out on the computer in Adobe Illustrator so I knew where the balloons were and how much space they were likely to take. Then I'd print those layouts at A5 (half-letter) size in light blue — non-repro blue, they used to call it — and I'd pencil the story over those printouts. I would then scan the pencils, blow them up to A4 (let- ter) size, make any corrections digitally, then print them in blue again, so I could ink them with a brush and various fancy pens. I started out inking everything with a brush, but I was relying on fibre-tip markers more and more as I
went along (mainly for the sake of speed), until by the end it was practically all done with mark- ers. I'm old-school enough to feel like that's cheating, but a deadline is a deadline.
kl: The panel arrangement is very effective; is each page or spread worked out in panels before you start the inte- rior drawings ?
rl: Yes. I'd usually have a little thumbnail drawing, not much bigger than a postage stamp, on each page of the script, so I'd know how much space to allow for each panel and how to make them all flow smoothly. I'd sometimes adjust that, but (again) it's nice to have a road map.
KL: / read sadly that you don 't anticipate making more of the series, though you have some ideas in mind. How was its reception? Do you think it was too obscure? Without telling tales out of school, was the publisher a factor? Is the audience too small?
RL: It was well-received in terms of critical acclaim — a couple of Harvey Award nominations and an Eisner Award — but my understanding is that it sold less well than was hoped for. I suspect it has a lot to do with the current comic-book store distribution model, which caters in large part to Marvel/DC superhero fans at the expense of everything else; I believe, still, that Snarked! is the sort of book that would have a far better chance in general bookstores and libraries. But, unfor- tunately, the distribution model that Boom! has to work with is the traditional comic-book store model, and the kinds of customers they serve have little interest in a funny-animal kids' adven- ture comic. To that extent, the publisher is a fac- tor, through no fault of their own — it's just the hand they have to work with — although I don't know if any other publisher would have seen the series through to the end the way they did once they started getting the sales figures. As far as that goes, Boom! were absolutely great, and I'm very grateful to them.
18
A HUGE THANK You TO
PACMEllE, LISA, MATT,
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YOU,
LOYAL BEADED!
WANT TO SEE MOPE OF THE WALPUS AMP THE CAPPENTEP? WRITE AND LET US KNOW!
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EDWARD WAKELING
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Recently, I was sent some enquiries which were received by the Lewis Carroll Society in the UK from a school, in the hopes that I could provide some answers. The questions from some young pupils at a primary (elementary) school concerned basic ideas about Lewis Carroll. They had been studying his nonsense poem "Jabberwocky." One question they asked was: "Did he have a special pen or pencil?" It set me thinking not only of pens, but also of ink colours, for we know that this varied at different times in Dodgson's life. We also know that he used a number of different pens with either broad or thin nibs, and a family descendant recorded that at some time he used a fountain pen.
In the early days of the Lewis Carroll Society (UK), Warren Weaver published an article in their journal, Jabberwocky, entitled "Ink and Pen Used by Lewis Carroll" (Volume 4, No. 1, Winter 1975). This initial research is very helpful, but I think we can add a little more to Weaver's paper. But first we should remind ourselves of his main findings. Weaver stated, on a close scrutiny of the diaries, that a pen with a fine steel nib was used for the surviving journals covering part of 1855, 1856, and up to April 1858, with a few entries in pencil. He used black ink which had faded to a brownish colour. From May 1862 until January 1868 (journals 8 and 9), Dodgson used a pen with a broader nib, but still wrote in black ink. Weaver mis- takenly writes 1888 instead of 1868, which I have cor- rected. Journal 10 began in April 1868 and continued until December 1876, and from 11 October 1870, the ink colour changed from black to violet. Weaver de- scribed the new colour as purple, but I think violet is a more accurate description. Throughout this time, Dodgson's handwriting matures from a neat but wispy style to bold and rounded lettering. For the produc- tion of the manuscript Alice's Adventures Under Ground, written between November 1862 and February 1863, the ink colour is black, but the writing is non-cursive, almost childlike, imitating printed letters.
There is no definite date when Dodgson re- turned to black ink. He used both black and violet ink between February 1886 and July 1893. Weaver stated that black and violet ink were used up to 25 January 1891, but this is for diary entries only. A search of let- ters, manuscripts, book inscriptions, and other writ-
ings has failed to find any violet ink used before 11 October 1870, but the overall picture is more com- plicated than Weaver imagined. From 1870 to 1876 there are examples of black ink being used each year, although violet predominates. Apart from one exam- ple, from 1877 through to 1885, it is invariably violet ink. Then we come to the transition period, which be- gins in 1886. Here, the picture is very mixed, with sev- eral changes, sometimes in one month. For example, December shows a wide variation. A study of letters shows that black ink was used on the 9th, 13th, 19th, and 22nd, whereas violet ink was used on the 15th, 16th, and 31st. Thereafter, both colours were used in the succeeding years until 1891. The year 1892 ap- pears to be black ink only. There is some variation in 1893, and then it settles to invariably black for the rest of Dodgson's life.
Clearly Dodgson had pens with different co- lours of ink which he interchanged. Violet ink was available at Christ Church in Dodgson's rooms and in the Common Room. But it may not have been gen- erally available in London or at Guildford. We know that, on certain occasions, Dodgson went to the Of- fices of his publisher, Macmillan and Company, in London and inscribed scores of his new books on the day of publication, to go to friends. The first book we need to consider is Through the Looking-Glass, which came out in December 1871, a year and three months after violet ink had been adopted. According to Dodg- son's Diaries, he inscribed 101 copies which had been sent to him at Christ Church on 8 December 1871. Over 80 of these books have been traced, but, unfor- tunately, the ink colour is not always known — 24 are known to be in violet ink, but none has been discov- ered in black ink. We can probably assume that all the inscriptions made on this day were in violet ink. The next major book was The Hunting of the Snark, which came out in 1876. This time, Dodgson travelled to London to inscribe 80 presentation copies at Macmil- lan and Company on 29 March 1876. Copies bearing this date have been tracked down, and 46 are known. Of these 18 are in black ink, and one is in violet ink (but it is a spurious copy) . We can safely assume that, although this is during Dodgson's violet ink period, he used black ink which was available at the Offices of Macmillan and Company.
20
The next major work was Rhyme1? and Reason? published on 6 December 1883. This is still within the violet ink period. Dodgson recorded in his diary for the publication date: "Arrival of 12 copies of Rhyme? and Reason? of which I disposed of 1 1 the same day." He was at Christ Church. The following day he re- ceived more copies and noted: "Sent off more than 40 more." If my theory is correct, these should be signed in violet ink, and they are. Three copies dated 6 December 1883 are known; two are in violet ink, and for the other the ink colour is unknown. Twenty- four copies dated 7 December 1883 are known: 11 are in violet ink, and none is in black ink. A Tangled Tale came next, published on 22 December 1885 (the date Dodgson received his first copy). However, he was about to set out for Guildford two days later, and he was away from Oxford for several days, return- ing on 23 January 1886. Four copies are known that were, almost certainly, inscribed at Guildford in Janu- ary 1886; two are in violet ink, and the ink colour is not known for the other two. Four copies are known which were inscribed on Dodgson 's return to Christ Church, dated either 27 or 29 January. Again, two are in violet, and for two the colour is unknown. There- fore, it appears that violet ink was also available to Dodgson at The Chestnuts, Guildford. (He probably took some with him.)
The Game of Logic had a chequered beginning. The printing of the first edition in December 1886 did not meet Dodgson 's satisfaction, and it was re- printed in February 1887. Dodgson appears to have received copies from Macmillan on 22 February. Dodgson then went to Macmillan and Company on 4 March, and he noted that he "inscribed 49" cop- ies. There are 46 copies known dated simply "March 1887," but it is likely that most of these were inscribed in London, and the ink is invariably violet. On this oc- casion Dodgson probably took a supply of violet ink with him.
We now come to the Sylvie and Bruno books, and the first was published in December 1889 when Dodg- son was still mainly using violet ink. He noted: "Went to town for the day, to write in about 150 copies of Sylvie and Bruno." Ninety copies have been traced, and they are invariably inscribed in violet ink. Sylvie and Bruno Concluded came out in 1893 at a time when Dodgson had gone back to using black ink. In his di- ary he noted for 24 December 1893: "First sight of a complete Sylvie and Bruno Concluded. A dozen arrived from Macmillan. Took one to Mrs. Walters and one to Mr. Ware." The copy to Mrs. Harriet Walters has come to light. On the same day Dodgson inscribed copies for his sisters Louisa and Margaret, and also to Minna Quin (a distant relative). On 27 December he noted: "To town, and spent some hours at Macmillans', writ- ing in copies of Sylvie and Bruno Concluded." Eighty-
one copies with this date have been traced, and the ink colour is invariably black.
Probably the most varied year for ink colour is 1886, when the transition from violet to black began, but this was not fully established until 1894. Weaver's dates are based on diary entries only. In addition, I have looked at a substantial number of letters and presentation copies for 1886, and I offer this updated list:
January: Violet throughout
February: Violet except for a small period from 22nd to 25th when black was used
March: Black throughout
April: Diary black throughout; 4th, letter in violet; 12th, letter in violet
May: Black throughout
June: Black throughout
July: Black throughout
August: Mainly black but a period from 3rd to 18th when violet was used
September: Diary black throughout; 30th, pre- sentation copy in violet
October: Black throughout
November: Black throughout
December: Black to 13th; period of violet for 15th and 16th; period of black from 17th to 22nd; period of violet from 23rd to 31st
There are a few examples of documents written in one colour ink and amended in another. This was true for the illustration plan drawn up for Through the Looking-Glass. The initial plan was probably written in black ink after discussion with Tenniel in January 1870, although the document is not dated. At this time Dodgson intended to use the illustration of the "Jabberwock" as the frontispiece, marked so in black ink. But this is amended to the "White Knight" after consultation with various friends in February 1871, and the changes are in violet ink. This is exactly the time when Dodgson adopted violet for the first time, and the chronological changes are easy to identify because the ink colour changes. Weaver also cites a manuscript written on 27 January 1871 in violet ink, but amended in black ink. I have been unable to discover what this document was about. Weaver sug- gested that the change of ink colour was probably a deliberate act to show Dodgson's changes. A math- ematical paper entitled "Syllabus" (MS: Princeton) dating from 1870 or 1871 is written in black ink, but amended in violet ink. Another mathematical paper entitled "Geometrical Conic Sections" is in black ink, with amendments in violet ink dated 13 February 1872 (MS: Princeton). Dodgson wrote other math- ematical documents in black ink, and his changes are
21
shown in violet ink. In all the cases I have investigated, the original documents pre-date October 1870, and the amendments post-date 10 October 1870.
To summarise, only black ink (sometimes faded to brown) was used up to 10 October 1870. From 11 October 1870, violet ink is used, but black ink oc- curs from time to time in most years up to 1894. For the last four complete years of Dodgson's life, black
ink was used exclusively. For presentation copies in- scribed on the day of publication and for some days subsequently, ink colour was constant, and this has enabled a number of spurious copies (forgeries) to be detected. A few items in blue ink have emerged, but these are very dubious and likely to be forgeries. A detailed mapping of all the changes in ink colour has yet to be made.
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^^^^^ brief 1871 letter written by ^m^X^ Charles Lutwidge Dodgson was M. ^.recently found carefully tucked into the half-tide page of a first (1886) edi- tion of Alice's Adventures Under Ground. A mid-twentieth-century owner's bookplate was pasted onto the front endpaper, but the book was otherwise unmarked and in good condition.
In the note (Figure 1), Dodgson ad- dresses "My Dear Mary," and describes the recipient as "my little friend." He had ap- parently planned to meet the girl near a hotel at 8:00 in order to give her "the piece of wedding-cake" that he had promised to her. He waited for her outside the hotel, but she didn't arrive. The author appar- ently sent the piece of cake with the note, and he bade her farewell in writing be- cause he could not do so in person.
According to Dodgson 's published di- ary entries, the letter's date (August 15, 1871) and location (Whitby) are consis- tent with his whereabouts. Dodgson made six trips to this town in North Yorkshire be- tween 1854 and 1871, each time staying at 5 East Terrace, which is now marked with a commemorative plaque placed by the Whitby Civic Society (Figure 2). Once known as Bar- nard's Hotel, the building has a commanding view of the cliffs, beach, and North Sea that frame the mouth of the River Esk.
Dodgson 's final stay in Whitby, from July 25th to August 16th of 1871, was occasioned by the wed- ding of his younger brother Wilfred Longley Dodg- son (1838-1914) to Alice Jane Donkin (1851-1929) on August 9th. The Donkin-Dodgson wedding took place in the nearby village of Sleights, an affair that was colorfully described in the Whitby Gazette on Au- gust 12th (Figure 3). The article, which was pasted into Lewis Carroll's scrapbook, indicates that "the Rev. C. L. Dodgson, of Christ's Church, Oxford," as- sisted the vicar in performing the ceremony.
The bride, who was from North Yorkshire, was one of a number of Dodgson 's child-friends named Alice, a group often discussed in analyses of his Alice
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books. She appears in a well-known 1862 photo by Lewis Carroll entitled "The Elopement" (Fig- ure 4), the title of which is noteworthy given her marriage into the Dodg- son family nine years later.
Dodgson was re- united with friends and family while in Whitby for the wedding. One of the new faces he en- countered there was that of Mary Suter Brown (1861-1954, Figure 5), who was nearly ten years old at the time. Carroll recorded this in his di- ary on Tuesday, August 15th:
Figure 1: ALS from Charles Lutwidge Dodgson to Mary Suter Brown, Whitby, August 15, 1871. Dimensions: 4x6 inches (97 mm x 160 mm)
My little friend Mary Brown (an acquain- tance made through the Howdens, and out of Scotland for the first time), at last mustered courage to come over with me alone to the lodgings, which is a great advance in our friendship.
Although Mary may have accompanied the au- thor to his hotel without her family, Dodgson was lodging with his sisters Margaret and Henrietta, so it is unlikely that the pair were entirely alone together.
On the following day, en route from Whitby to London, Dodgson made a list of about twenty-seven people he had met during his three-week trip. The Howdens of Cheshire appear along with their ten- year-old daughter, Jeanie. Also included in that list are "Mrs. Brown, Donald and Mary" of "Ettrick Lodge, Selkirk" in Scotland.
Mary Brown had four older brothers: Henry (1852-1913), Donald (1854-1917), George (1857- 1915), and Guy (1858-1918). Their parents were Wil- liam (1822-1890) and and Gideon {nee McKenzie,
23
1821-1889). William and his brother James worked at the family-owned wool mill in Selkirkshire. James was a poet better known by his pen name, J. B. Selkirk. The Browns' Scottish Baronial style home (Figure 6), called Ettrick Lodge, was built in 1853 and expanded in 1870. In the 1871 Selkirk Census, Mary's family lived there, along with three female servants and a male tutor.
Although Dodgson's August 15th diary entry indicates that the Howdens introduced him to the Browns, another version of events was described by a later acquaintance of Mary. Dodgson allegedly came upon Mary sitting on a gate crying. She had torn her stocking and feared her mother would be angry. Dodgson offered to accompany Mary back to her fam- ily and intercede on her behalf, and after he did so, the two became fast friends.
How can we be certain that the Mary mentioned in the letter discussed here is, in fact, Mary Brown? The name was ubiquitous throughout the nineteenth cen- tury, and Dodg- son's list of new acquaintances in Whitby men- tions three differ- ent girls named Mary. The first, Mary Carlisle, was already twenty years old, so she is unlikely to be the recipient of this note to Dodgson's "little friend." The second was Mary Dods, the child of a friend of the family, and although she was eleven years old in 1871, little is known about a connection be- tween her and Dodgson at this or any other
point in his life. This leaves Mary Brown, who is in- deed described as a "little friend" in Dodgson's diary on the same day the note was written. And his decision to close the letter with 'Your aff [ectiona] te friend" an- ticipates the lifelong friendship that resulted.
This letter and the diary entry are not the only ev- idence of Dodgson's encounter with Mary Brown on that Tuesday in 1871. Edward Wakeling, the prolific Carroll collector, researcher, and writer, owns a copy of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland that was inscribed by the author to Mary and dated August 15, 1871.
Figure 2: An old view of Whitby from the River Esk, with 5 East Terrace indicated by an arrow. Photograph courtesy of La Rosa Hotel, which now occupies that address.
There is no direct evidence indicating whether the note discussed here was written before or after their encounter on that day. In fact, Dodgson doesn't specify if the time he refers to was eight o'clock in the morning or evening. But since he bids Mary "good- bye," apparently believing that they had lost their last chance to meet before his departure, we may infer that he wrote this in the evening after his last known encounter with her.
Still, the note might have been written before she visited with Dodgson, at a point when he thought she was not coming. If so, perhaps he gave her the cake and note in person after all. But we can assume that he was waiting for her outside his own hotel, as he apparently had easy access to the cake, writing paper, a pen, and his own violet-colored ink. Unless he was remarkably persistent in waiting, writing the note, and then walking to and from her hotel to get her, the encounter he references in his diary was a separate event earlier in the day. Thus, the note and cake — a
perennial favor- ite gift for chil- dren— most likely reached Mary after their last meeting.
This is sig- nificant, as Dodg- son and Brown would never meet in person again. However, they be- gan a widely pub- lished pen-friend- ship that lasted until his death in 1898. His letters to her are often quoted in Carroll biographies for his very personal reflections about (among other topics) relationships, human suffering, morality, religion, and aging. Mary never married, ap- parently living on an inheritance, and little is known about the rest of her life, save for a couple of 1930s interviews about her relationship with Dodgson.
Although the letter's content is sufficient to ex- plain its context, it can also be studied as a material object. Dodgson wrote the letter on folded paper with his trademark violet-colored ink, both of which the prolific letter writer doubtless kept at hand when he traveled. Rather than his recognizable free-flowing cursive hand, he used a serifed printed hand, which he often did when writing to small children. The care
24
MARRIAGE REJOICINGS AT SLEIGHTS. The village of Sleights was on Wednesday last the scene of
freat rejoicings, on the occasion of the marriage of Miss Alice ane Donkin, daughter of Edward Donkin, Esq., of Sleights Old Hall, to Wilfred Longley Dodgson, Esq., agent to Lord Boyne, Bunvarton, Shropshire, and son of the late Venerable Archdeacon Dodgson, Canon of Bipon.
The weather was brilliantly fine, and early in the morning many villagers were astir hoisting flags and preparing other indications of rejoicing.
The wedding took place at the church, at 11 o'clock, the ceremony being performed by the Rev. T. Walker, the vicar, assisted by the Bev. C. L. Dodgson, of Christ's Church, Oxford, brother of the bridegroom.
The party left the hall in the following order : first, the gentlemen, including the bridegroom, proceeded through the fleid to the church ; next, the fire bridesmaids who proceeded , by the road ; the bride and her father following in a carriage. On the party entering the church, the organ and choir gave a selection, the bridesmaids and gentlemen formed a line on each side of the aisle, through which the bride and her father having passed, they again Joined and walked to the altar. On the conclusion of the ceremony, the organ and choir again gave their services.
The bride wore a dress of white silk trimmed with white satin rouleaux, a wreath of orange blossom, and a white lace veil. The bridesmaids, Miss Margaret Dodgson, Miss Mary Eleanor Donkin, Miss Alice Emily Donkin, Miss Henrietta Dodgson, and Miss Wilcox, were uniformly dressed in white book muslin looped with blue ribbon, and white tulle bonnets trimmed with forget-me-nots. Mr. Edwin Dodgson, brother of the bridegroom acted as best man.
The decorations in the village were more extensive than any in the recollection of the oldest inhabitants, many of them displaying good taste and judgement on the part of those who had undertaken the task, the principal of whom I was Chas. Bartholomew, Esq. Flags were suspended across the high-road from the trees which form an avenue and give the village of Sleights a more pleasant and picturesque ap- pearance than any village round about. The British Ensign and the Union Jack wer« the most prominent, streamers of many colours being tastefully interspersed.
Over the gateway at the entrance of the Old Hall, the residence of E. Donkin, Esq., father of the bride, was a tastefully and cleverly executed design, bearing the words " Love," "Joy," with " W. L." and " A. J.," the initial letters of the bridal pair between. In the centre a hand grasped the letter " D." repeated. At each side of the gateway was a pretty streamer. Underneath the above motto and between the streamers was the word " Happiness," the whole being very nicely cut out and interwoven had a pretty appearance.
Approaching the Church gates was a beautiful triumphal arch, composed of evergeens and flowers, surmounted with a large monogram " D " on a red ground. The arch bore on the front the words, "Health, Wealth, Long Life," and on the reverse, "Joy, Love, and Happiness." This was a chaste construction and had cost Mr. Bartholemew and his helpers some labour and thought. Over the gateway was a flag bear- ing another monogram, and round the top of each pillar was entwined respectively a profusion of white and red roses.
The church was most elaborately and exquisitely decorated with beautiful mosses, heather, and flowers of various kinds, and the golden heads of corn and barley intermixed, gave it an appearance such as is seldom witnessed in a village church. The labours of Miss Origan, the Misses Bartholomew, and Miss Jennings, were here shown to great advantage. Across the aisle at the chancel end was an arch of evergreens and choice garden flowers ; the caps of the pillars supporting the gallery were covered, and the pillars entwined with flowers of different kinds. The gallery was festooned with ever- greens, bouquets of flowers, and everlasting ; and on the front was the motto, " Love is of God." The windows were like as many beds of choice flowers among rich heather and moss, giving out the most delicious perfume. The altar was a perfect arbour of rare flowers, the rails being Interwoven with ivy, and the window most chastely and elaborately hung.
Iij the afternoon a variety of races and sports for ribbons, &c, came off on the lawn in front of the hall, and tea was provided in the Schoolroom, which was tastefully decorated, when about 40 partook of an excellent tea, after which a , selection of glees, part aongs, <fcc, were given by the choir ! and by the instrumentalists, Messrs. W. F., A. E., and E. H. Donkin.
The bridal pair left by the noon train for Chester, and the day was generally observed as one of great festivity in the village.
Figure 3 Newspaper clipping from the Whitby Gazette,
August 12, 1871, from p. 51 of Lewis Carroll's scrapbook in the U.S. Library of Congress.
Figure 4: "The Elopement, " by Lewis Carroll, 1862. The girl in the image is Alice Jane Donkin, age 11.
with which he formed the letters was typical of his aes- thetic eye and attention to detail.
Can we know who pasted the note into this 1886 Alice book? There are no nineteenth-century clues in the book itself, and we cannot know if Mary Brown even owned a copy of this first edition. We do know that Dodgson sent Mary many of his later books, in- cluding Through the Looking-Glass and The Nursery Alice.
An approachable and perhaps more interesting question is why the letter was pasted there at all. An answer may be found in a comparison of the block lettering in this letter to the hand Carroll used to write the famed 1862 manuscript for Alice Liddell, a facsimile reprint of which was published as Alice's Ad- ventures Under Ground (Figure 7). They are strikingly similar, which would have been enough of a reason for a previous owner of the letter and book to put the two together.
The note ends with a touch of Carrollian humor and logic. First Dodgson tells Mary that he "must wish good bye [sic] in writing." But this statement is not equivalent to actually bidding her goodbye, which he does in the final one-word sentence: "Goodbye." Here Dodgson is playing with the use-mention dis- tinction, which was elucidated in works of linguistics and analytic philosophy published subsequent to Carroll's writings. Dodgson first discusses his inten- tion, and only after this does he act upon it.
25
Figure 5: Mary Suter Brown (November 16, 1861-November 29, 1954). This is one of two similar images of Mary, which are the only ones known. Photograph courtesy of the Brown and Gold- thorp family descendants.
The timing of this letter's use-mention wordplay is noteworthy, given the publication of the second Al- icehook, Through the Looking-Glass, a few months after the date on the letter. Alice's confusion over the title of one of the songs in this literary classic also features the use-mention distinction. The White Knight, who is often considered to be a semi-autobiographical rep- resentation of Dodgson himself, explains:
"The name of the song is called 1 Haddocks' Eyes.'" "Oh, that's the name of the song, is it?" Alice said, trying to feel interested.
"No, you don't understand," the Knight said, looking a little vexed. "That's what the name is called. The name really is ' 'The Aged Aged Many
"Then I ought to have said 'That's what the song is called'?" Alice corrected herself.
"No, you oughtn't: that's quite another thing! The song is called ' Ways And Means': but that's only what it's called, you know!"
"Well, what is the song, then?" said Alice, who was by this time completely bewildered.
"I was coming to that," the Knight said. "The song really is 'A-sitting On A Gate: and the tune's my own invention."
The last line of the song is the apt tide of the present article, about a note written on a "summer evening, long ago," to a little girl Lewis Carroll pur- portedly met "a-sitting on a gate."
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The author wishes to thank Timothy James Brown, Barbara Anderson, Steven Goldthorp, Enid Cruick- shank, and other relatives of Mary Suter Brown for the invaluable information and photographs they provided. The author also thanks Mark Burstein and Edward Wakeling for their assistance in the prepara- tion of this manuscript.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Carroll, Lewis. Alice's Adventures Under Ground. Lon- don: Macmillan, 1886.
Carroll, Lewis. The Nursery Alice. London: Macmillan, 1890.
Carroll, Lewis. Scrapbook. Edited by Edward Wake- ling for the U.S. Library of Congress. Compiled 1855-1872.
Carroll, Lewis. Through the Looking-Glass, and What
AliceFound There. London: Macmillan, 1871. Cohen, Morton N., ed. The Letters of Lewis Carroll.
New York: Oxford University Press, 1979. Taylor, Roger and Wakeling, Edward. Lewis Carroll:
Photographer. Princeton: Princeton University
Press, 2002.
Wakeling, Edward, ed. Lewis Carroll's Diaries: The Private Journals of Charles Lutwidge Dodgson. Luton: Lewis Carroll Society, 1993-2007.
Editor's note: We received many delightful thank-you letters from the children at Frank Morgan Elemen- tary School in Clemmons, NC, to the members and officers of the LCSNA. Both they and their teacher, Mrs. Lisa England, had greatly enjoyed last April's Maxine Schaefer reading. Here are some excerpts from these charming letters — and by the way, these children have excellent handwriting!
Thank you so much for coming. I had a great time. I can't believe that you came to our school out of all the schools there are ... I really love reading the book. Now it is on my bookshelf standing tall and proud.
Ivanna (Mad Hatter)
m
Thank you for coming to our school. I know it was a tough choice but thank you for choosing Morgan. You guys were great . . .
Lewis Carroll was a good author . . . the best author you can ever see. Isaiah N.
*
Thank you for giving us the copies of "Alice in Wonderland" . . . the book was awesome and my favorite part was when the cat came in. I hope there is going to be a second book. Lewis Carroll was very smart to change his name in a hard way and I can not do that. Ethan Russell
m
It was a real treat for you guys to come and for us to get to meet you. I also want to thank you for the Alice in Wonderland books. I read the whole thing and the other night I was watching TV and I watched a little part of the actual movie of Alice in Wonderland in the colors black and white . . . Madelyn Marion
m
Thank you for coming to our school! My favorite part of your presentation was the beginning. Do you have a favorite school that you have been to? My favorite character is the Cheshire Cat. I am very happy that you guys chose our school ....
Hannah Ellin Jacobson
&
The Alice in Wonderland books are AMAZING and they are also really funny too. While I was reading the book, I enjoyed the pictures a lot. The songs in the animated version of Alice in Wonderland are fun to sing along to but my favorite was the song with the sassy flowers! Overall, I have come to love Alice in Wonderland even more! fadeM. (AKA White Queen)
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The . . . brilliant illustrations Tenn- iel created for the two Alice books pose a special problem of dread. I found the deep crosshatching and the angry playing cards menac- ing, but with nothing of the mor- bid fascination that afflicted my younger daughter . . . The drawing, specifically, of Alice elongating made her squeal ... Once, experi- menting, I offered to peek with my little girl at this potent illustration, and at the moment of vision she cried out and slapped the book shut so furiously the forbidden page was torn in half. John Updike, 'The Child Within," in Just Looking: Essays on Art, KnopJ, New York, 1989
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... the sheer density of anonymous comments ... only underscored what I'd long suspected, that Cordova was not just an oddball eccentric along the lines of Lewis Carroll or Howard Hughes, but a man who also inspired devo- tion and awe in a vast number of people, not unlike a leader of a religious cult.
Marisha Pessl, Night Film,
Random House, 2013
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For the Austrians . . . being asked to assert their own sterling quali- ties in full voice seems truly baf- fling. A trick question straight out
of Alice in Wonderland.
David Rakoff, Fraud, Doubleday, New York, 2001
mi.
I fell into the rabbit hole, and emerged in another world, online.
Meghan O'Rourke, "What's Wrong with Me?, "The New Yorker, August 26, 2013
m
In real life ... there are dead ends that don't pan out or take you down a rabbit hole.
Valerie Plume, in "Talk," The New York Times, September 29, 2013
m
What a strange little person this was. Amy felt, in a good way, as though she'd fallen down the rab- bit hole.
Jincy Willet, Amy Falls Down, St.
Martin's Press, New York, 2013
She tends at times to press too hard, plunging down rabbit holes of forehead-wrinkling psychologi- cal conjecture . . .
Claudia La Cocco, reviewing Balanchine & The Lost Muse by Elizabeth Kendall, The New York Times, July 30, 2013
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Alice in Wonderland, holding a flamingo, implied the topsy-turvy world of the Belle Epoque.
Amanda McKenzie Stuart, Empress of Fashion: a Life of Diana Vreeland, HarperCollins, New York, 2012
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I wondered if that was true: if they were all really children wrapped in adult bodies, like children's books hidden in the middle of dull, long adult books, the kind with no pic- tures and conversations. Neil Gaiman, The Ocean at the End of the Lane, William Morrow and Company, New York, 2013. [References to Carroll abound.]
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People bounced their heads up and down and snapped their fin- gers like a whole herd of Cheshire Cats.
Christopher Paul Curtis, The Mighty Miss Malone, Wendy Lamb Books, Random House, New York, 2012
*
The band is sewn on to the side of the crown; no one would dream of untying the bow, but the mad- dest of hatters would not dream of omitting it.
Quentin Bell, On Human Finery, the Hogarth Press, London, 1976
Temenos (teuevos) is a piece of land cut off and assigned as an official domain, especially to kings and chiefs, or a piece of land marked off from common uses and dedicated to a god, a sanctu- ary, holy grove or holy precinct. . . . C. G. Jung relates the temenos to the spellbinding or magic circle. . . . The temenos resembles among others a "symmetrical rose garden with a fountain in the middle" (the "squared circle") in which an encounter with the uncon- scious can be had and where these unconscious contents can safely be brought into the light of con- sciousness. Wikipedia
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Collaboration seemed unlikely when you saw them together — Hueffer [Ford Madox Ford] tall, blond, moustached, with extrovert bohemian manners, and [Joseph] Conrad short, dark, bearded and prickly. He [H. G. Wells] privately nicknamed them the Walrus and the Carpenter, on account of Hueffer's prominent front teeth
David Lodge, A Man of Parts,
Viking Penguin, 2011
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Mine are the tears of the Walrus, bemoaning the wholesale carnage of his little oyster friends as he scops another bivalve into his vora- cious, sucking maw.
David Rakoff, Don't Get Too Comfortable, Doubleday, New York, 2005
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v L* LLjd OF MARK BURSTEIN
In the spirit of Thanksgiving, a heaping serving of gratitude is due to those who made the fall meet- ing in El Pueblo de Nuestra Sehora la Reina de los Angeles del Rib de Porciuncula — LA for short — such an unforgettable one. Let us start with the organiz- ers, Karen Mortillaro and George & Linda Cassady, for their generous and diligent efforts in making us feel most welcome, bounteously fed, and gloriously entertained. We could not have asked for a better venue than USC's elegant Doheny Library and environs, and the ef- forts of Dean Catherine Quinlan, Hugh McHarg, Tim Stanton, and Patti Johnson in hosting us, keep- ing track of us, transporting us, feeding us, informing and inviting students and teachers, and prepar- ing a sophisticated packet of mate- rials for the meeting were truly be- yond the call of duty. Thanks go to our speakers and presenters: Dan Bergevin, Henry Jenkins & Bryan Talbot, Christopher Tyler, Andy Malcolm, Abby Saunders, Andrew Woodham 8c Lind- sey Jones, and American McGee, who got Shanghaied in reverse, flying out here from that very city just for the meeting. And to all those others who came from afar, especially overseas, such as Mark & Catherine Richards from the U.K. and Klas Holmlund from Swe- den. To Karen again and her partner (in art, business, and life) , Sandy Decker; and to Daniel Singer and his partner, Cal Smith, for opening up their fascinating foundry and spectacular home, respectively. To the staff of the 32nd Street-USC Visual and Performing Arts Magnet School, where the Maxine Schaefer Me- morial Reading was held (and to the USC students for performing there); see page 1. Though our theme was "Outsiders," there was no one in attendance who felt like one, so thank you, thank you, one and all.
Plans for our meeting next spring, which will be at the New York Institute of Technology, April 25-27, are beginning to coalesce. As it's the 40th anniversary of our Society, we will include a panel discussion of that legendary first meeting by founding members Morton Cohen, Michael Patrick Hearn, Justin Schil-
ler, Edward Guiliano, and, we hope, David Schaefer and Ray Wapner. Composer Bruce Lazarus and singers will perform his song cycle Carrolling, Chris Morgan will speak on editing The Game and Puzzle Pamphlets. Other exciting presentations will be by Craig Yoe, editor of the forthcoming Alice in Comic-land; Mike Schneider, ring- leader of the Wordless Alice project; Rob Stone on Alice board games; performer Madison Hatta; and poet Jes- sica Young {Alice's Sister, see p. 39).
Our fall 2014 meeting will be in Toronto; spring 2015 in Austin (under negotiation); fall 2015 with Alice 150 in New York; and spring 2016 at the University of Maryland in College Park, near Washington DC.
In terms of publications, I do hope you all enjoyed your free members premium, Cohh 6% IXapcnwb Jluea: Sonja in a Kingdom of Wonders, even if you, like me, could only read the front- and back-matter. To know that the number of copies in the known universe has gone from two to four hundred must be quite gratifying to Olga Ivanovna Timirjazeva (Carroll's "Miss Timiriaseff"), the presumed translator, wherever she may be (heaven, presumably, for this if nothing else!). Speaking of which, work on Alice in a World of Wonderlands (Oak Knoll, 2015), Jon Lindseth, ed.; The Game and Puzzle Pamphlets (LC- SNA/University of Virginia, 2014); and Alice in Comic-Land (IDW, 2014) con- tinues to proceed apace. (The last-named is not an LCSNA production, but it features collabo- ration and an intro by yours truly, so I'm invoking my droit du seigneurby including it.) Excelsior!
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ALTCE150
CELEBRATING WONDERLAND
JOEL BIRENBAUM
^^"^^licel50 is just around the corner (2015), ^n^A and because we started preparations nearly JL ATour years ago, I am happy to report that things are going well. We have six major exhibition sites in NYC covering various aspects of Alice's promi- nent position in popular culture, and the word is spreading globally. The popularity of the Alice books has always spiked in anniversary years, and our goal is to create events and exhibitions that are both signifi- cant and widely appealing. We are doing everything possible, and many things impossible, to ensure that the celebration of the 150th anniversary of Alice's ini- tial publication is the best Alice celebration ever.
Alice in a World of Wonderlands, a book on the translations of Alice, is progressing nicely. As of this writing there are 233 writers, and 142 languages. Jon Lindseth, the driving force behind this effort, decided that since we established an impressive net- work of experts, we should use that expertise to full advantage. He is organizing a one-day colloquium on Thursday, October 8, 2015, at The Grolier Club on the topic. The price will be $75, and the event will be limited to 150 attendees. Grolier always gets a good turnout for these events from their own members, so order tickets early: Send a check to Jon Lindseth, 46155 Fairmount Blvd., Hunting Valley, OH 44022. If you are a lead writer who participated in the "Alice in Translation" project, you will be Jon's guest, so just send a note (no check) to the above or an e-mail to jalindseth@aol.com. Speakers will be from Germany, Spain, Scotland, China, and Hawaii. The Translation Dinner, the evening of October 8, will be at The Cos- mopolitan Club and limited to 200. Alison Tannen- baum and August Imholtz are co-chairs of arrange- ments, which have not yet been finalized. Michael Suarez, S.J., director of the Rare Book School at the University of Virginia and co-editor of The Oxford Com- panion to the Book, will speak.
Our fall gathering will take place as part of a two- day conference on Friday and Saturday, October 9 and 10, with a theme of Alice in popular culture. In these sessions the importance of the Alice books and their impact in the public arena will be discussed. The
conference will be followed by AlicePalooza, a one- day gathering on Sunday, October 11, geared for a younger audience, which will address the subjects of gaming, Japanese popular culture, comic books, and more. Our intent is to engage yet another generation with the multifaceted wonders of Alice.
The calendar for these events is as follows:
EXHIBITIONS
1. The Morgan Library & Museum. June 26 to October 11. This will be a major exhibit in their large exhibition space presented in cooperation with The British Library. The last three Morgan Alice exhibits have been their most attended in the year presented.
2. Columbia University. Memorabilia from their 1932 celebration of Carroll's one hundredth birthday, with Alice Hargreaves in attendance.
3. The Grolier Club. Alice in Translation. Jon Linds- eth and Alan Tannenbaum to co-curate. Septem- ber 15 to November 15.
4. New York Public Library Performing Arts at Lincoln Center. Alice on Stage. Charlie Lovett to curate.
5. New York Public Library auditorium at Lincoln Center. A five-week run of David Schaefer's col- lection of Alice films.
6. New York University (Fales Library) . Flat Alice (ephemera, parodies, and spinoffs) from the Jon Lindseth collection. Marvin Taylor and Char- lotte Priddle to co-curate.
schedule:
1. Thursday Oct. 8 - Translation Colloquium (9:45 a.m. to 4:15 p.m.) at The Grolier Club. $75. Lim- ited to 150, including Grolier members.
2. Thursday, Oct 8 - Gala Translation Dinner (eve- ning) at the Cosmopolitan Club. Can seat 200.
3. Friday, Oct. 9 - Conference day 1 (all day) at New York Institute of Technology
4. Saturday, Oct. 10 - Conference day 2 (all day) at New York University
5. Sunday, Oct. 11 - AlicePalooza, (all day) at New York University
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The above is a description of planned events. It is my belief that the heart of the celebration will be the grass-roots events that spring up around the city. These will include performances, mad tea parties, school events, and spontaneous street gatherings. Some spontaneous events will no doubt require pre- planning.
I have received notes from folks as far away as Sin- gapore and Taiwan who told me that they were plan- ning to attend. Please let me know if you're thinking of attending (joel@thebirenbaums.net). I am plan- ning on staying for a week or ten days to enjoy the exhibits and activities.
There will certainly be other events in the U.S. So far we have heard of plans for events in Massachu- setts, West Virginia, Virginia, Pennsylvania, upstate New York, and Maryland. The Charles M. Schulz Mu- seum in Santa Rosa, California will have a Peanuts in Wonderland exhibition from November 2014 through April 2015. We will pass on details as they become available.
If you want to help make this celebration a huge success, we need people to work on the following:
setting website requirements, fundraising, establish- ing education programs, and hosting guests in New York City. If you have any other talents to offer, or suggestions for conference speakers, those are also welcome. Did I mention fundraising? Much of what we have arranged so far has been at no cost to the LCSNA. We have committed LCSNA funds for some Alice 150 expenses, but we are far short of our bud- get needs. At the Fall LCSNA meeting, I raised over $1,300 by selling some of my duplicate Alice collect- ables for the cause. I also received a $100 donation from one of our members. Please consider donating whatever amount you feel comfortable with.
Also: Please consider helping to coordinate something in your home town! Connect with a local library, or college, or museum or some such and see if they would be willing to have an exhibit or program celebrating Alice 150!
My hearty thanks go to those who have already contributed their precious time and money in sup- port of this epic project. I hope to see you all in NYC in 2015, where we can celebrate with thousands of our new friends.
BOOKS OF INNOCENCE AND EXPERIENCE
A Visit to the New York Public Library's Exhibit The ABC of It: Why Children s Books Matter Stephanie Lovett There's no catalogue, I'm sorry to say. No book. No DVD. You'll just have to do what I did: rationalize a trip to New York. Just be sure to go by March 23, 2014. After that, the New York Public Library's exhibi- tion The ABC of It: Why Children 's Books Matter will, alas, go out like a candle, melt away like dream- rushes, break into its constituent pieces like a passed-around plum- cake. All of those pieces will in fact fly back onto the shelves and into the vaults of the NYPL, as this show was drawn entirely from its own holdings. The treasures in- clude the Secret Garden MS, a hand- drawn Edward Lear book, W. W. Denslow drawings, and a spectacu- lar Meggendorfer circus (oh, and a New-England Primer, John Locke, Comenius, and Songs of Innocence) .
Being received in the royal court of so much literary aristoc- racy ("Stephanie — Milo. Milo — Stephanie.") was not why I would have been glad to overheat my credit card on any documentation the NYPL might have cared to produce; I was actually not think- ing much about these rarities per se. Caught up in the narrative of Leonard Marcus's curation, I spent three and a half hours read- ing every card; walking around taking in the nonverbal messages of space, style, color, and juxtapo- sition; eavesdropping on the other patrons; and reveling in a web of connections across space and time.
The eavesdropping was out- standing, and the presence of Har- riet the Spy didn't stop me from spying as well, jotting things down in a notebook, as I did in imita- tion of her decades ago when we first met. Adults frequently gasped with delight on turning and see- ing an old friend, exclaiming to a
companion "It's Harold!" or "Mary Poppins!" Children sat in Milo's car, made Lizbeth Zwerger's Little Mermaid's illustrations move on an iPad, and saw better than those of us at a higher eye level the subver- sive under-the-bed reading built in to the comics installation.
I also heard, brought to life all around me, one of the themes of the show — What is our vision of childhood? Marcus asks us in the first section to consider whether children need to have the dick- ens whipped out of them, or to be pointed towards a garden of learning by a kindly hand, or to be left alone to develop their own natures and discover the world. Should they live in a world of fan- tasy or in reality? Are children nat- urally good or naturally naughty? We saw Blake and Rousseau and Cotton Mather arguing this within the display cases; it was also being enacted in the living space of the exhibit hall. Some parents were exploring the galleries along with their children, crawling and climb- ing, reading and watching, han- dling and looking. Other voices were loudly berating children for playing with things incorrectly and causing trouble.
The Blakean position certainly thrives throughout the show; Mar- cus says of Sendak, for instance, that his "young heroes radiate inner knowledge and strength, and are unafraid to say when the emperor has no clothes." Children who are powerful and moral and wise abound, and showing them the way is Alice. Her name first
arises in an early display of The Phantom Tollbooth, and references to her and Carroll occur through- out. Her own section lies between the Great Green Room and Max's enormous Wild Thing, accessed through either a doorway or a rab- bit hole, and she seems to occupy a space between the sleepy famil- iarity of Goodnight Moon and Max's "dreaming unconscious . . . where demons can be faced down and life's balance ultimately restored."
The show is arranged themati- cally rather than chronologically, which is very satisfying (and prevents some tempting but false assumptions about a linear progression in literature), and creates some fabulous literary salons within the cases (I want to be at the soiree with Randolph Caldecott, A. B. Frost, and Ead- weard Muybridge). Alice lives in one of the largest sections devoted to a single book or author, and I puzzled till my puzzler was sore over what the Alice items on dis- play were saying about what the book means to children, adults,
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and the human relationship with literature. In this space, you can visit with an ivory Tweedle parasol handle, whose direct connection with both Carroll and Alice is documented in a letter quoted in its card; four Tenniel drawings, later copies of his Alice work, in the description of which we learn about Tenniel's reluctance to illus- trate Looking-Glass; Carroll's letter to Alice asking for the loan of the Under Ground MS, accompanied by the story of its publication; a copy of the published facsimile; the copy of the 1866 Alice that Carroll presented to Alice, with the saga of the 1865 debacle; and a print of the "Beggar Maid" photo. There is a title card for the whole section with a brief account of the genesis of the story and describing Alice as "a new kind of hero: the fearless young adventurer with curiosity to spare." As well as the rabbit hole, there is also a large moving sculpture, partly made of book pages, of Alice, from the Nursery Alice in fact, with her neck expand- ing and contracting. While the
quantity of items and sheer square footage compared with just about everything else in the exhibition make their own statement about the significance of the Alice books, what these specific items add up to thematically I'm just not sure. We do get a solid connection to the "visions of childhood" theme via an observation by Carroll about how healthy and humbling it is to come into contact with souls so much nearer to God. My double-barreled hypothesis about all this is that (a) I am too close to the material, and doubtless a "civilian" would be delighted with these Alice artifacts and charming snippets of infor- mation, and (b) these denizens of the Berg Collection were just too good to resist, even given the space restraints of the show, and I am being churlish and am over- thinking this!
The show couldn't have been larger, given the size of the gallery and of a visitor's brain, and every one of the 250 or so items means a dozen not included, so comment- ing on what is absent is just wishing for a different exhibit. Still, I did find myself agreeing with New York Times reviewer Edward Rothstein that a consideration of adults read- ing aloud to children would have been welcome. In the context of thinking about literature as a way for children to find themselves and their way in the world, the contrast between a child experiencing a book as coming from the reading adult and a child independently appropriating a book as his or her own is significant — but this wish may come from seeing so much of myself in the show that I wanted to see more. Likewise, a missing piece that would have been significant to me was a nod to the current uptick in adult readers of books written for young people. The show's ques- tion about why children's books matter might be partly illuminated by some thoughts about all the adult Hunger Games readers, as well as all the adult readers of graphic
novels and comics (both of which get their own display). While I'm whining for more, I might mention that I also found myself standing in front of a lush chro- molithograph or color-saturated gift book (they get a nice section too) wanting information about the technical processes involved and how the mechanics and economics of printing have been significant in the story of what children's books are available and at what price. One more quibble: I was grateful that the team working on the Alice 150 survey of Alice translations, Alice in a World of Wonderlands, wasn't there to see Harry Potter's measly 68 languages being celebrated!
The richness of the experience of this exhibition for an Alice enthusiast cannot be overstated. For instance, in light of the constant interpretation of Alice as allegorical, it's fascinating to see other works under suspicion for being Trojan horses — who knew that Ferdinand, dear Ferdi- nand, was so dangerous to young Americans? (Someone, I guess, but not me.) Carroll is men- tioned under merchandising and culture, among other places, and Humpty Dumpty is the case study for the recurrence across media, genres, and eras of a single char- acter. Seeing the whole landscape within which our own narrower interest resides, the "vivid record of literate society's changing hopes and dreams," awakens a larger emotional and intellectual engagement with our beloved corner of it.
Leonard Marcus's presence is vivid in the overall curatorial vision and also in the incisive and insightful language of the exhibit cards — the Denslow drawings, for example "crackle with convic- tion." One doesn't always have this sense of a voice in a museum exhibit, but this one clearly has an author (but not — did I men- tion this — a catalogue). It has a
33
Llrw HilinpIV Ihiiupiv the Kuij& l-,:uurile.
At the ABC exhibit: the first hnoivn illustra- tion ofHumpty Dumpty ( 1843), a detail of an accordion-styte frieze. "Aliquis Fecit " (Latin for "someone made this ") is the pseudonym of Samuel Edward Mayberly of Christ Church, Oxford.
reader as well — I felt myself very much a reader and a dialogue part- ner in this show, because it speaks so loudly to someone who grew up reading Pippi, The Mixed-Up Files, Charlotte's Web, Nancy Drew, and Babar, and who then had the expe- rience of reading Harry Potter to the next generation (extra added bonus: someone who, as a teacher and education student, thinks a lot about Locke, progressivism, and that "vision of childhood" conun- drum).
If you want to have this con- versation yourself — and there's so much more: Winnie-the-Pooh, Eric Carle, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Wanda Gag, the Poky Little Puppy, and my new hero, Anne Carroll Moore — you'll have to get yourself to 42nd and Fifth. Be sure to spend some time in the dark alcove dedi- cated to banned books. There on the wall you will find the magic, the passion, and the necessity of children's literature captured in an objection to A Wrinkle in Time, "a frightening book — [it] makes you believe in make-believe."
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THE ALICE UNIVERSE
Mark Burstein
No, it's not a global collection of ec- centric individuals interested in Mr. Carroll's oeuvre, it's a term in today's seemingly wildly nonsensical world of theoretical physics. Not being a math- ematical physicist, I can only quote directly from Wikipedia, with a few edits and comments thrown in.
A nonorientable wormhole is a wormhole connection that appears to reverse the chirality [handedness] of anything passed through it. It is related to the "twisted" connec- tions normally used to construct a Mobius strip or Klein bottle.
In topology, this sort of connec- tion is referred to as an Alice handle.
As well as turning left-handed screw threads into right-handed screw threads, and left-handed gloves into right-handed gloves [shades of the "Aged, Aged Man" l\ , reversing the chirality of an ob- ject is also usually associated with the idea of reversing the sign of electromagnetic charge — if a positron can be considered as a time-reversed electron [shades of the White Queen!] , it can also be considered as an electron aging conventionally, but with one spatial dimension reversed. The existence of a traversable nonorientable wormhole would seem to allow the conversion of matter to antimatter, and vice versa.
A [hypothetical] universe that includes one of these nonorient- able connections does not allow a global definition of whether a particle is "really" matter or anti- matter, and this sort of universe, with no global definition of charge, is referred to in research papers as an Alice universe.
What a Klein bottle is to a closed two-dimensional surface, an Alice universe is to a closed three- dimensional volume. The name is a reference to the character in Lewis Carroll's children's book Through the Looking-Glass.
An Alice universe can be con- sidered to allow at least two topo- logically distinct routes between any two points, and if one con- nection (or "handle") is declared to be a "conventional" spatial connection, at least one other must be deemed to be a nonori- entable wormhole connection.
Once these two connections are made, we can no longer de- fine a given particle as matter or antimatter. A particle might ap- pear as an electron when viewed along one route, and as a posi- tron when viewed along the other. If we define a reference charge as nominally positive and bring it alongside our "undefined charge" particle, the two particles may attract if brought together along one route, and repel if brought together along another — the Alice universe loses the ability to distinguish between positive and negative charges, except locally.
As with a Mobius strip, once the two distinct connections have been made, we can no longer identify which connection is "nor- mal" and which is "reversed" — the lack of a global definition for charge becomes a feature of the global geometry. This behavior is analogous to the way that a small piece of a Mobius strip allows a local distinction between two sides of a piece of paper, but the distinction disappears when the strip is considered globally.
In another nod to Lewis Car- roll, charge with magnitude but no persistently identifiable polar- ity is referred to in the literature as a Cheshire charge, after Carroll's Cheshire cat, whose body would fade in and out, and whose only persistent property was its smile.
/ also found references to the related Alice string, a half-quantum vortex in a vector Bose-Einstein condensate. Would that Martin Gardner ivere here to make sense of all this!
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gorey's monster: edward gorey's planned book of "jabber wocky" translations
Clare Imholtz
Edward Gorey first read Lewis Car- roll at age BVz, and loved his works the rest of his life, but rarely dis- cussed Carroll, even among close associates.
Gorey's affection for Carroll can be observed in only a few places in his huge oeuvre, but some in- fluence is incontrovertible. See, for example, Gorey's illustration to accompany Felicia Lamport's hilarious satiric poem lampoon- ing literary critics, "Centenary Lines to Alice's Variorum Quorum" (Cultural Slag, p. 65, Houghton Mifflin, 1966). In the illustra- tion, a frustrated, and despairing Cheshire Cat (head only) floats above a group of critics discussing Alice. Victor Kennedy has pointed out precisely how Gorey's drawing parodies Tenniel's illustration in Chapter 8 of Wonderland, in which the King, Queen, and executioner argue about whether it is possible to behead a Cat lacking a body. (Kennedy, Victor. "Mystery! Unrav- eling Edward Gorey's Tangled Web of Visual Metaphor," in: Metaphor and Symbolic Activity, 8/3: 181-93.)
Gorey illustrated Carroll overtly on only one other occasion. In the journal Antaeus, Volume 13/14, Spring/Summer 1974, Gorey pro- vided a series of drawings to illus- trate a complicated and humorous logical puzzle, "Froggy 's Problem," from Carroll's Symbolic Logic Part 2, compiled and edited by William Warren Bartley, which would be published along with Part 1 by Clarkson Potter in 1977. These six illustrations appear in the pub- lished book as well.
New evidence of Gorey's inter- est in Carroll has now come to light. Papers in the files of the Ed- ward Gorey Charitable Trust reveal that in 1962, when working as art director at Bobbs-Merrill, Gorey conceived an idea for a book of
Jabberwock drawing © Edward Gorey Charitable Trust
"Jabberwocky" translations, each with a different illustrator.
The correspondence in the file is obviously far from complete, but does offer a few hints as to what Gorey was about. He contacted three Carroll experts: Martin Gard- ner, author of The Annotated Alice, Warren Weaver, author of Alice in Many Tongues, the seminal book on Alice translation (then in prepara- tion); and Lall Montgomery, a well- known collector of translations and parodies, to ask their advice; they all responded with helpful information and suggestions. He planned a 32-page book, 814 x 11 in size, with twelve translations.
It seems that Gorey used Gardner's book, which had been published only two years earlier, as a guide. He decided to begin his "Jabberwocky" book with the two Latin translations mentioned in The Annotated Alice (those by Augustus Arthur Vansittart and Hassard Dodgson, Carroll's uncle) along with the two translations that Gardner had reprinted: the French by Frank L. Warrin and the Ger- man by Robert Scott. In a letter to Weaver dated May 26, 1962, Gorey states that he will use Ronald Knox's translation into Classical Greek; apparently Weaver had sug- gested this version.
He asked Weaver to send him Af- rikaans, Chinese, Italian, Japanese, Czech, Portuguese, Dutch, Hebrew,
Norwegian, and Bengali transla- tions, explaining that he wanted to be able to choose from as many translations as possible, while noting that some languages might be difficult to set in type. Weaver must have suggested including "Jabberwocky" parodies, for Gorey commented that they "sound intriguing," and that, "There's obviously the makings of a second little book there." (A book of "Jab- berwocky" parodies and imitations was finally published in 2002: Jab- berland, compiled by Hilda Bohem and Dayna McCausland [now Dayna Nuhn]. Ontario, Canada: Battered Silicon Dispatch Box.)
An undated sheet of paper, half typed and half handwritten, details some of Gorey's ideas for illustration. He mentions the fol- lowing possible illustrators: John Tenniel, Mervyn Peake, Rowland Emmett (illustrator of the Guin- ness book Jabberwocky Re-versed) , Franciska Themerson, Ronald Searle, "Ffolkes" (presumably Michael ffolkes), Charles Ad- dams, Edward Ardizzonne, Tomi Ungerer, Saul Steinberg, Maurice Sendak, Arthur Rackham, Kath- leen Haven, and himself. "What others in existence?" he asks, and then adds the name Eric Blegvad. Of those, perhaps half had already illustrated "Jabberwocky."
A handwritten column on the same sheet lists some ideas for translators, including Vladi- mir Nabokov for Russian and Aldo Camerino for Italian. Also mentioned are Maurice Grosser (known as an artist rather than a translator) for Greek and Moses Hadas (professor of Latin and Greek at Columbia University) for Yiddish or Hebrew. Perhaps Gorey planned to commission some translations as well as illustrations?
Also handwritten on this sheet is a title that may have been under consideration: First Twelve Gaberbocchus. ("Gaberbocchus" is the title of the Latin translation by Carroll's Uncle Hassard.) It is
35
unclear, though, why Gorey says "First Twelve," as the languages he selected (see below) do not rep- resent the first twelve translations of Through the Looking-Glass, the book in which "Jabberwocky" ap- peared. Curiously though, most of these languages were among the very earliest translations of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, the first Alice book.
Another typed sheet presents a tentative but fairly well-developed illustration plan. Obviously, with modern languages, Gorey is trying to match nationality of the illustrator with the language of the translation.
1 Half title: Peake head
2 Frontispiece: Tenniel full page
3 Title page: Tenniel half page
4 Copyright: Themerson spot
5 Contents: Themerson spot
["Steinberg" is typed to the far right.]
6 & 7 Original version and Peake
full page 8 & 9 Latin version and Emmett
10 & 11 Latin version and Searle
12 & 13 French version and Francois [presumably Andre Francois]
14 & 15 German version and Ungerer
16 & 17 Danish version and Blegvad
18 & 19 Italian version and Giovanetti [presumably Giordano Giovanetti]
20 & 21 Russian version and
22 & 23 Spanish version and
24 & 25 Hebrew/Yiddish version and
26 8c 27 Greek version and Ffolkes
28&29
30&31
32 Acknowledgements: Themerson spot
Unfortunately, there is no fur- ther information currently known about this planned "Jabberwocky" translation volume. We don't know if Gorey approached any of the
proposed illustrators or translators. Gorey left Bobbs Merrill in 1963. Nonetheless, and even though the book never appeared, we do have a Gorey sketch of the Jabberwock!
Quotes and drawing from Gorey are used with the kind permission of the Edward Gorey Charitable Trust.
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ALICE THROUGH A PINHOLE: AN OXFORD ALICE DAY
Mabel Odessey
The Oxford University Botanic Garden was kind enough to cel- ebrate this year's Alice Day with the opening of my exhibition of pinhole photographs. Imagine that as you were strolling through the Botanic Garden this summer, you caught a glimpse of the White Rabbit, or the Queen's gardeners in this installation, which mingled the fictional with the real. Photo- graphs printed on large boards were juxtaposed amongst the flow- ers and plants. Botanical signage with quotes from Carroll's text accompanied the images.
The subjects of these pinhole photographs were marionettes made by the English artist Margaret Littleton Cook in the 1940s. The photographs explore the Carrol- lian characters as representations of psychological states and Alice's dream of Wonderland as a spiritual journey. Placing the images out- doors created a link between the imaginary, psychological journey and a concrete space.
Lewis Carroll the photogra- pher must have known about the camera obscura and the way that it reverses things and turns them upside down. The pinhole cam- era seemed to me the best con- ceptual and visual way to express the mysterious and dreamy atmo- sphere of Wonderland.
Carroll uses nonsense to explore concepts such as time, perception, impermanence, dual- ity, and identity. My use of mari- onettes as subjects echoes this playful approach to such existen- tial questions.
The installation used the qualities of different spaces in the garden to emphasize the atmosphere, shady places for the darker, more mysterious pho- tographs, and the more open spaces to echo the images of understanding and clarity. Visi- tors had a unique experience of the images as the light and the garden changed throughout the day and season.
The exhibition is available and adapt- able to a variety of locations; you can contact the artist at mgodessey@gmail. com for more information.
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SHERLOCK THROUGH THE LOOKING-GLASS
Daniel Rover Singer
Sherlock Through the Looking-Glass is a drama by Gus Krieger that had its world premiere in a production staged by Porters of Hellgate in North Hollywood, CA, September 2013. Holmes and Watson are interrupted by a troubled, beautiful young woman, who hires them to find out why her sister has started babbling incoherent nonsense out of Alice in Wonderland, all of which leads to the arrest of Rev. C. L. Dodg- son. Intertwining dialogue and characters from both Alice books, this attempt at smashing these to- gether with Arthur Conan Doyle manages only to make both
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authors sound irritating rather than clever. The Porters of Hell- gate, a young company devoted to presenting the classics (as well as the occasional original piece), needs to learn a thing or two about showmanship. No set, awkward costumes, emotionless script, and dreadful acting made for a very tiresome evening. I don't know how it ended because I fled at intermission. The concept showed promise, but not in the hands of these kids.
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ALICE /JVTHE LOOKING-GLASS: JEANNE HARPER'S EXHIBITION AT THE UNIVERSITY OF ROCHESTER
August A. Imholtz, Jr.
In upstate New York, the University of Rochester's impressive Rush Rhees Library occupies a com- manding view of the university's campus, and there in the library's Rare Book and Special Collections department, longtime LCSNA member Jeanne Harper mounted a splendid Alice exhibition, from January 27 to September 13, 2013. Drawn almost entirely from Jeanne's personal Lewis Carroll collection and superbly curated by Leah Hamilton, the exhibi- tion showed how, in Jeanne's own words, "With a single text (the Alice books) one can trace the history of children's book making for almost 150 years (1865-2012), follow the successive art move- ments, and observe how often the illustrators reflect their own time and place, e.g., an Art Deco flap- per girl in 1929, a surrealistic Alice in 1969. This is an exhibit for the general public. The intent (or hope) is — and this is mentioned early on in the exhibit — that the viewer will learn something new, be surprised, and find pleasure in seeing these illustrations and art- ists' books about 'Alice.'"
As one entered a corridor considerably wider than any rabbit-hole and far more enticing, leading to the main rooms of the Special Collections department, one saw on the left the first of a
series of eight small vitrines con- taining a facsimile of Alice's Adven- tures Under Ground, a photograph of Charles L. Dodgson, and some early Alices, followed by the 1872 first edition of Through the Looking- Glass innovatively displayed so that the text block rested in a case and the front and back covers, like the wings of an airplane, were open to be seen in a single plane. In ad- dition to the Nursery Alice, which rounded out this illustrated history of the original books, there were also examples of some of Carroll's non-Alice books. Only the Sylvie and Bruno books were, alas, told "No room!"
On one's right, twelve floor-to- ceiling panels, many specially com- missioned, showed scenes from various illustrators [e.g., Dusan Kallay, Moritz Kennel, etc.] along with a few paragraphs about how Jeanne went down the rabbit-hole (i.e., started collecting Alice). One of these ceiling-high cases held illustrations by the German artist Thorsten Tenberken, whose work Jeanne had seen in the 1995 Bo- logna Illustrators of Children 's Books catalog; she was so impressed that she wrote to the artist, who oblig- ingly sent her some of his unpub- lished illustrations. Another held, inter alia, the five Merrill Lynch, Pierce, Fenner & Smith ads featur- ing Alice, from 1959 issues of The New Yorker, which were part of her presentation on Alice in popular culture. Works of George Walker, Scott Gustafson, Salvador Dali, and Guinness were also highlighted in those tall cases.
In the large main reading rooms, there were fourteen exhibit cases of illustrated Alice books, with some space left for researchers. This second part of the exhibition contained most of the books from 1898 to 2012.
Though Jeanne has been col- lecting Alice for only about 20 years, she has amassed an amazing collection, which includes several artists' books; first editions; signed, numbered, and limited editions;
and so forth. Numerous illus- trated editions were arranged in chronological order, covering several categories of illustration (such as Golden Age, small and fine press books, "Jabberwocky" illustrations), and a large selec- tion of foreign language transla- tions and adaptations of Alice (Russian, Hungarian, Pitjanjatara, Portuguese, etc.), many with illus- trations by artists other than Ten- niel (e.g., Kalinovsky, Lipchenko, Sewell, Peliano, Engelbert, etc.), filled several cases. Onto the large wall at the southwest end of the two rooms, Jeanne had pro- jected a brilliant transparency col- lage of Christ Church, Alice Lid- dell, her sisters, and Lewis Carroll, by Tania Ianovskaia, whose fas- cinatingly illustrated Alice books were also in one of the cases.
In her handout for visitors, Jeanne asked a series of questions, ranging from the simple and subjective "What book or books did you like best?" to the more profound "What was Lewis Car- roll's contribution to children's literature?" As a partial answer, in addition to all that was on display, she had quoted in the exhibition Edmund Wilson's comment "It is the psychological truth of these books that lays hold of us all." In a talk she gave at the opening of the exhibition, she concluded with a story about Winston Churchill. He was a great reader, a prolific writer, and, of course, he had a very fine library. A visi- tor once said to him, "Well, Win- ston, I suppose you have read all these books." Churchill replied: "No, I haven't read all of them, but I know what is in each of them and sometimes I just come in and pat them."
Jeanne Harper, Leah Hamil- ton, and Acting Special Collec- tions head Katie Clark deserve to be congratulated for producing an excellent survey of Alice in a city formerly famous as the home of Eastman Kodak.
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When I Was Eight Chris tyJordan-Fenton 6^ Margaret Pokiak-Fenton Illustrated by Gabrielle Grimard Annick Press, 2013 ISBN 978-1-55451-8 Issued also in electronic format
Angelica Carpenter
Olemaun, an Inuit girl, wants to go to the outsiders 'school so she can learn to read. Her father says no, but she wears away at him until finally he leaves her at the Indian Residential School. A cruel nun takes her hair, her clothes, and her name. All she has left is a book that her older sister has read to her, about a girl named Alice.
The other children tease her. The nuns lock her in a scary base- ment. They won't teach her to read because she doesn't speak English, but by tracing letters, she teaches herself.
Finally she rebels. Even before she can read it, the story of Alice gives her courage. "I was a girl who traveled to a strange and faraway land," she writes, "to stand against a tyrant, like Alice."
This paperback picture book is adapted from a best-selling 2010 memoir called Fatty Legs, based on the true story of Marga- ret Pokiak-Fenton, but the Alice connection is mentioned only in the picture book. The watercolor illustrations are warm and moving. On the cover, Olemaun clutches a red-bound copy of Alice (not a recognizable edition, I think). On the book's last page, she is happily reading it.
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The Wonder Bread Summer
Jessica Anya Blau Harper Perennial, 2013 ISBN 978-0-06-219955-3
Angelica Carpenter
This novel opens with college student Allie Dodgson holding a Wonder Bread bag full of cocaine. She is pulling out pinches, her heart rat-a-tat-tatting, her limbs
trembling like a small poodle's. At least she knows that trying coke was a bad decision. The company she keeps is depressing, to say the least. I won't bore you with a description. After the first page, I decided not to read any more, but the back cover says that she will be pursued by a hit man named Vice Versa as she tumbles down a rab- bit hole of teenage mistakes and heartache. Presumably there are other Carrollian references. The author seems to be a respected naughty novelist. I am probably too old to read this book.
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Splintered A. G. Howard Abrams, 2013 ISBN 978-1419704284
Rose Owens
The tumult of entering adoles- cence can feel as though you are trapped in a different world, an alternate universe where every- thing is both sharp and hazy. Dis- covering who you are, what your relationship to the world and your new body are like, is terrifying and exhilarating all at the same time.
We find a similar sense of Bild- ungsroman in A. G. Howard's up- dated and amplified envisioning of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Alyssa, our protagonist, is not only trying to navigate the challenging and disorienting sea of becoming a woman, but also has a deadly secret. The women in her family (through some very knotty and magical ties) have been cursed ever since her great-great-great grandmother Alice Liddell went
down the rabbit hole. Alyssa has al- ways heard voices, felt out of place, as if she is missing something, sensing feedback from another world that she can't quite get a lock on.
In adapting the story we all grew up on, Howard twists the tropes to make it her own. The novel does sometimes fall prey to the Twilight dilemma of the bad, otherworldly boy versus the earthy, dependable boy, a cliche that can pull one out of the story. That being said, Howard gives Alyssa a fair amount of agency to make her own choices and define herself. The last third of the book features Alyssa coming into her own and taking control of the adventure through her own power and self- awareness.
Howard also dispenses with much of the whimsy that we see in Carroll's books, and instead intensifies the horror and grue- some qualities of Wonderland. We are constantly seeing bones, blood, and hairless grotesques, as well as the glittering seductive macabre. In this way, Howard harkens to the video game, comic book, and film adaptations of Alice that have proliferated during the past twenty years — keeping it edgy and inter- esting for the kids. Our blonde Alice is both repelled by and drawn towards this high-octane, disfig- ured world. At times, the grisly and ghastly come on too strong, though perhaps this is meant to capture the extremely dark lens through which one begins to see the world as one grows up.
The book itself is very cine- matic, and can fall into the trap of telling rather than showing, with many bright flourishes and quick zooms in and out, enough to make one dizzy. This can be distracting and jarring, with details coming fast and furious at the reader. This being said, the audience for the book is most likely not a woman approaching her thirties, but teen- agers with their own 2013 ideas about Wonderland.
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Without giving too much away, Howard clearly leaves this book open for a sequel, and perhaps a film adaptation. It's encouraging to see that Alice and her adven- tures still inspire writers today, and this reviewer feels confident that a book like Splintered will lead read- ers back to the original to discover where Alyssa Gardner's adventures all began.
Alice's Sister Jessica Young Turning Point Books, 2013 ISBN 9781625490384
Andrew Sellon
On any given day, you can find articles from anywhere in the world pointing out aspects of our modern culture — particularly our laws and politics — that seem to mirror the topsy-turvy, nonsensical worlds created by Lewis Carroll in his two Alice books. In Alice's Sister, a quietly powerful book of poems by Jessica Young, the comparison comes closer to home, specifically to a family of four: a little girl named Alice, her older sister Mary, and their mother and father. All four are given their chance to speak out individually, and they do so in a fascinating melange of styles and meters. The next-door neighbor who gives the girls piano lessons also contributes a voice, as do an omniscient narrator and a surprise character or two. The resulting narrative mosaic, divided into what might well be called four dreamlike fits, charts the course of an unspeakable event within the family that tears it asunder irreparably. But while the tale is told through many voices, this is not Rashomon; there is no disagree- ment here about what happened, only about how to live with it.
The cycle of poems is further enriched by Young's occasional inclusion of a few phrases from
Carroll's Alice books. Lovers of the original works may best appreci- ate the elegant and remorseful ironies she elicits by weaving a few of Carroll's playful words amongst her own somber ones. Young also offers her own evolving versions of "Jabberwocky" at key points in her disturbing tale, continually recal- culating the cost of trust violated. There, as in the other poems, the characters find not gleeful nonsense, but a numbness or non- sense that alters every familiar detail of the physical world and makes it suddenly alien, and possi- bly hostile, with scant hope of the sought-after escape or release:
My fingers move, my mind does too,
I hit a C and picture tea. Mad hatted friend, what did you brew?
There's so much it's a sea.
The sea begins to rise, quite fast. The houses gone, the whole
world wet. The landscape is now
deep and vast,
and everywhere — a threat.
Yet, by the end, there are a few faint glimmers of hope and heal- ing, bringing the cycle to a believ- able and satisfying close. Young is careful to note at the end of the book that this is not an autobio- graphical story, but that she hopes to do justice to the reality of the characters she has created. She has done so, admirably.
My one minor critique is about a printing choice: For reasons that become clear, Young wants to set apart the poems narrated by the father. But rendering his poems in a very faint, gray print makes them a bit more difficult to read on the page than I think advisable. In all other respects, this is a beautifully conceived and realized work that rewards repeated readings.
Ms. Young will be speaking to us at our spring gathering in New York.
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Alice sotto terra (Italian) Text and illustrations by Stefano Bessoni Logos Edizioni, 2012 978-88-576-0597-5 Alice under Ground (English) 978-88-576-052-72 Alicia bajo tierra (Spanish) 978-88-576-052-89-15
Caterina Morelli
Stefano Bessoni breathes new life into Alice's adventures. Inspired by Carroll's life and the two Alice classics, the book introduces in succession, through short, clear sentences, their major and minor characters. The chapters, which in the original are structured accord- ing to the differing vicissitudes of Alice, are here focused on descrip- tion of the characters, as in a besti- ary or old botany volume.
The book opens with the pro- tagonist's picture, and then, in a regular rhythm produced by the alternation of text and images, rounds up nineteen other charac- ters. Among the pages we find the main characters such as the White Rabbit, the Hatter, the March Hare, and Humpty Dumpty, and others who play second fiddle, such as the Frog-Footman, the three gardeners (Five, Seven, and Two), and the Executioner.
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All the illustrations are meticu- lously finished down to the small- est details, but they have no set- tings. Yet Bessoni's interpretation gives us an innovative Alice who is an expression of the grounds and its properties: the land being underground influences the repre- sentation of the characters. All of them manifest stylistically a strong connection with Nordic folklore creatures of the woods (sprites, goblins, and elves) and to Eastern European surrealism.
Bessoni himself said, during our interview last year, that his illustra- tions were strongly inspired by Jan Svankmajer's movie New z Alenky (Alice) and by Dusan Kallay's inter- pretation. This book, said the art- ist, was born as a travel notebook with sketches and notes about the land's inhabitants; then Alice be- comes one of them, dropped per- fectly into that world where logic is upside-down.
The colors of the pictures are very natural, not artificial or bril- liant; they seem to have been ex- tracted from the grinding of earths, minerals, or wild berries. The pres- ence of skulls, limbs of odd ani- mals, a rabbit's mutilated ears, and the characters' cerulean complex- ions suggests death and decom- position and creates, at the same time, a macabre and grotesque atmosphere. Bessoni, however, avoids confining his artwork to this gloomy climate. He often intro- duces something funny and ironic, which defuses the dark atmosphere and frees the viewer from both a sense of repulsion and a morbid attraction to the macabre.
His characters do not inspire fear. The Hatter, indeed, hosts on his hat a cuddly teddy bear alongside a frightful skull. Alice is a sweet, skinny little girl with stick legs, big round eyes on a pale face, and a dazed look. In a picture on the last page, she reminisces about her adventures; it seems that she has just fallen out of bed after a long dream.
This is just a first foray into the world of Carroll, said the author, and he does not exclude expand- ing his work in the future with other settings and more characters. The book is available in Italian, Spanish, and English.
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De Jacht op de Snark Uitgeverij Vliedorp, 2013 Translated and illustrated
by Tom van Weerden ISBN 978-94-6048-013-3
Doug Howick
This is a soft-cover publication on quality buff paper, with title and a sailing ship with some crew on board, on the front cover. All con- tents are in Dutch. In an Afterword (Nawoord), the translator/ illustra- tor concedes that there have been several previous translations of the Snark into the Dutch language and maintains that creating a good translation while preserving text, rhythm, and rhyme is impossible. "Why another attempt?" he asks, and then answers his own question by confiding, "It's like asking the mountaineer why he climbs the mountain. The same is true for the illustrations."
I am unable to offer any author- itative comment on his translation, although there appear to be some differences from earlier ones with which KL readers may be familiar.
As an artist, Tom van Weerden confides that the original illustra- tions by Henry Holiday are hard to beat. In comparison, his nine illus-
trations, one for each Fit plus his very pleasant version of the Bell- man's Ocean-Chart, have at first the look of scrapbook sketches. However, they are carefully crafted with an understanding and an enjoyment of the charac- ters' personalities, and as a result, they provide each crew member with a refreshing individuality.
Altogether, this is a neat production and, as a limited edition of just 222 copies, it is a worthy addition to any serious Snark collection. The publisher, Dick Ronner, can be contacted at mail@zolderman.nl.
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Aventuras de Alicia Bajo Tierra Translated by Modest Solans Illustrated by Leonor Solans Gracia 2012
ISBN 978-84-616-1711-1-15
Adriana Peliano
"It's dreamy weather we're on" Tom Waits
Last Christmas my dear friend Leonor Solans Gracia, an amaz- ing Spanish artist, sent me a gift that evoked treasured memories of golden summer days. She had recreated Alice's Adventures under Ground in huge, vibrant oil paint- ings that allow us to witness a girl in her intimate, curiouser and curiouser dreams. The paint- ings were born as an exhibition on the 75th anniversary of the death of a single, precious, real Alice, immortalized by a man who knew how to share wonder and fancy in ever lovelier and lovelier ways, and how to depict a girl in her strength and beauty. Leonor seems to follow his call.
Leonor's father, Modest Solans, translated the original story in an exchange of love gifts with his daughter. In turn, her artworks were first presented at the Biblio- teca de Andalucfa in Granada in 2009, which turned into a video (available on YouTube) with Tom Waits' Alices the landscape wait-
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ing for Alice to awaken. Following that, like a dream inside a dream, some of those paintings jumped into this book. It seems alive, invit- ing in whispers, "Open me, read me, go on adventures in the dance of my pages." As with Carroll's own illustrations to the manuscript, the girl at one precise moment faces us, looking into our eyes, which gives the disturbing feeling that she is not just part of someone else's dream, but is aware that we are all dreaming together. Always Alice, always anew — Leonor invites us to recover the unknown and chal- lenge our most cherished dreams.
The art living in the book wel- comes Alice in her dive into the po- tency of life. In the pictures, unique Alices play at being themselves, with eager eyes and willing bodies flowing in the textures and colors and rhythms and lights through an enchanted girlhood, forever in flux and becoming. These are not just scenes of the narrative of the story, but living states of magic discoveries. We know that Tenniel's
drawings are too rigid and formal to allow flows of subjectivity, body sensations, subtle feelings, vital experiences. Here these Alices are not just looking to come back home or to catch a rabbit. Her rabbit this time, as with some other characters, is just an ink mark, blurred, as if it had turned into its shape through her and our imaginations and figur- ing minds.
The cover, ah! It shows Alice with the caterpillar posed like a question mark, and her wonder wander- ing turns into the greatest puzzle and never-ending question, as she threads through Carroll's living dreams and labyrinths, looking for the most beautiful garden ever seen.
As we flip through the book and dive into its adventure, here Alice dreams in the dreamy weather, there she jumps freely into the page as if into a blank map. Here she faces the secrecy in a keyhole, there she plays at growing smaller and bigger with a magic key. Here she drinks desire to become another, there she experiences her tears with the whole body. Here she befriends animals with excitement, there is defied and accused by strange beasts. Here she folds into herself, conquering her own empowered, intimate space, there she finds the tree of life with its call for inner mys- teries. Here she dares venture into foreign gardens and curious games, facing strangeness and amusement; at the end we are allowed to see the unfinished painting dissolving in the canvas to prepare for her awakening. We go out of pictures and representations, conversations and the written story, and come to be our own Alices in our own real- ity, pregnant with new surprises and adventures.
The volume was privately printed in an edition of 540; copies are still avail- able through the artist: Leonor Solans | C/Paseo de Cartuja, 25 \ 18012, Granada, Spain; leocadix@hotmail. com. She has PayPal and the price (€15) includes postage, though I'm sure a contribution would be welcome.
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Evergreen Since our last issue, the titles released by the pluperfect plen- teousness of Michael Everson's Evertype are:
Aliz kalandjai Csodaorszdgban, Wonderland newly translated into Hungarian by Aniko Szilagyi (ISBN 978-1-78201-34-0).
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, printed in the (George Bernard) Shaw "square alphabet" using fonts designed by Everson (ISBN 978-1-78201-036-4).
Cohh et u,apcmew duea: Sonja in a Kingdom of Wonder, a facsimile of the first Russian translation in 1879. This differs from our mem- ber's premium edition in that it is in paperback, has a different cover, and the pages are printed in color (ISBN 978-1-78201-040-1).
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, printed in the Ewellic alphabet. Doug Ewell devised this phone- mic alphabet in 1980; this edition is set in fonts designed by Everson (ISBN 978-1-78201-035-7).
De Lissel ehr Erlebnisse im Wunner- land, Wonderland translated into Palatine German by Franz Schlosser. Palatine, or Pfalzisch, is a West Franconian dialect of German spoken in the Rhine Valley (ISBN 978-1-78201-042-5).
Anecinu npuzodu y LJ,yda3eM% Won- derland translated into Belarusian by Max Scur (ISBN 978-1-78201- 044-9).
The Aventures of Alys in Wondyr Lond, Wonderland translated into Chaucerian Middle English verse (no less) by scholar Brian S. Lee, illustrated by Byron W. Sewell (ISBN 978-1-78201-031-9).
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ART & ILLUSTRATION
Alice in Berlin, an interactive video installation by Ruth Sergei, which we men- tioned here in KL90:45, has since traveled to the United States and appeared in New York from September 27 to 29 at Arcilesi Homberg Fine Art, and in Chicago from October 19 to 20 at the Out of Line Art Studio. In the second location, the installation formed part of the "Mad Hatter Tea Party," an exhibition that ran until No- vember 4, and was a "multi-media wacky, whimsical art show includ- ing mixed media sculpture, soft sculpture, 3-D photography, and paintings inspired by Lewis Car- roll's 'Alice in Wonderland' and other classical story-books." A video demonstration of the instal- lation can still be found on Ser- gei's website.
The exhibition Camille Rose Garcia: Down the Rabbit Hole was on display at San Francisco's Walt Disney Family Museum from May 9 through November 3. Garcia's gorgeously punky pink-and-black- saturated illustrations for Arh'W were published in an edition in 2010. The exhibit had 40 of Gar- cia's works juxtaposed with 10 by Disney's Mary Blair.
In the medieval wilds of Northern Manhattan sits the Cloisters, that surreal monastic museum main- tained by the Met. They had an exhibit this spring called Search for the Unicorn, with tapestries and other ancient art depicting the "fabulous monster." Sure enough, a Looking-Glass quote was right at the entrance: "If you'll believe in me, I'll believe in you." (And just like Fox Mulder, I want to believe.)
South African ceramics artist Wilma Cruise had a solo show titled Will You, Won 't You, Will You Join The Dance? at Grahamstown's National Arts Festival 2013. This is the fourth installment in her "Alice in Wonderland Sequence."
U 9f*f*e&& on t/en t&
each take a chapter. It appears to be a digital book only, and it tragically misspells the au- thor's name on the cover, but a lot of the illustrations are quite beautiful and/or fascinating. Not safe for work.
"In this series of exhibitions I interrogate the curious interface between Alice in Wonderland and the animals that inhabit her dream world," says Cruise. "Using ceramic sculpture, painting, draw- ings and text, I explore the nature of animal/ human communication within the fecund metaphor pro- vided by Lewis Carroll's tales." If you didn't make it to Graham- stown, the exhibition will be at the Oliewenhuis Art Museum in Bloemfontein in 2014.
Artist David Delamare has many of his attractive Alice artworks for sale as giclee prints. The work includes stately and ornate origi- nal takes on scenes such as "The Courtroom" and "The Rose Gar- den," with monkeys dressed as cards and a warthog wearing a ruff.
There's a cool German edition of Alice im Wunderland featuring not one but twelve risque artists, who
ARTICLES & ACADEMIA
Mathematics may be a universal language, but it is still relatively uncommon to hear it spoken by students of the humanities. "The Common Denominator," a three- day interdisciplinary conference at Leipzig University, March 21-22, 2014, then, looks set to be an unusual conversation. Organized by the Institute for British Stud- ies, the conference will feature postgraduate panelists from such diverse fields as popular culture, literature, and linguistics, who will explore the reception and representation of mathematical concepts in Britain and the Com- monwealth. Among the keynote speakers will be Robin Wilson, professor of mathematics and au- thor of Lewis Carroll in Numberland (2008). Carrollians have noted that Lewis Carroll stopped for the night in Leipzig on his "Russian tour" and also spent a few nights in nearby Dresden. LCSNA mem- bers who seize this opportunity for an interesting trip are requested to please send us a postcard.
. . . which leads us to the subject of stamps in Lewis Carroll Phillus- trated, written by Roger Allen, a longtime member of the LCS (UK). The amusing, 42-page, color-printed booklet considers Carroll's connections with the post office and postage stamps, and consists of "most of the char- acters and scenes in the Alices and the Snark, illustrated by means of postage stamps of the world, all culled from [Allen's] copious collection." To receive a copy, please send $22 in cash or a ster- ling check for 13 GBP (no checks
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in US dollars) to: Mr. Roger E. Allen, 29 Soloman Drive, Bideford, Devon EX39 5XY, England.
An article by Mark Davies entitled "The Real Mad Hatter?" which appeared in the Times Literary Sup- plement, May 15, 2013, considered evidence that Carroll's Hatter may have been partly inspired by an eccentric Oxford tailor, hosier, and hatter by the name of Thomas Randall. Davies is a local historian of Oxford, England, and the au- thor of A lice in Waterland: Lewis Carroll and the River Thames in Ox- ford (2010). The article may still be read on the TLS website.
On May 23, 2013, the blog of the New York Review of Books featured "The Unanswerable Question," an article by Alberto Manguel on the enigma of dreaming as considered in literature, itself a rather dream- like trip through the works of many authors, with frequent refer- ence to the queen of all dream- ers— Alice.
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BOOKS
Yayoi Kusama's illustrations for AAfW, first published in 2012, now appear in a new Japanese edition translated by LCSNA member Kimie Kusumoto. Kusumoto has translated Alice once before, for the edition illustrated by British artist Brian Partridge, but, as she explained on our blog, Kusama's illustrations inspired a different ap- proach: "Brian's Alice was so cute and the characters were drawn rather comically, so I tried to translate it in a tone that was fit for young girls. For Kusama's I tried to choose a rather 'dry' tone and tried not to be explanatory, though I am not sure how much I fulfilled what I planned. There are also in- tentions of the editors, you know? For instance, I wanted to keep mile or foot or inch as they were, but the publisher asked me to change them to metric system as Japanese people use them normally."
Dutch speakers may be interested in a new collection of essays about Lewis Carroll, Het wonderland van Lewis Carroll ( The Wonderland of Lewis Carroll) by Carel Peeters, pub- lished in 2013 by De Harmonie (ISBN: 978-9076168456). Peeters is a literary journalist and academic based in Amsterdam. His book has been reviewed in the Dutch press as "a kaleidoscopic image of a ka- leidoscopic man."
Three of Carroll's books, AAiVl^ TTLG, and Snark, have been "eNo- tated" for Kindle editions by Pam Sowers and are available on Ama- zon.com. Part of a series published by eNotated Classics, the books combine the potential for hyper- linked explanatory information in e-books with a rather good port- manteau. Pam Sowers is a free- lance writer and researcher based in Washington.
Inconvenient People: Lunacy, Liberty and the Mad-Doctors in Victorian England by Sarah Wise was pub- lished this year by Bodley Head (ISBN-13: 978-1847921123) and reviewed in the Wall Street Journal on August 23 as "a gripping study of the Victorian madhouse." The book makes reference to Robert Skeffington Lutwidge, Lewis Car- roll's uncle, and the first secretary of the UK government's Lunacy Commission, as well as to the (dis- puted) theory that Carroll accom- panied his uncle on visits to asy- lums and that the Snark may contain a subtle reference to the unfortunate murder of "dearest Uncle Skeffington" by an inmate armed with a rusty nail.
In Alice in tumblr-Land and Other Fairy Tales for a New Generation (Penguin, 2013), author/illustra- tor Tim Manley presents a series of vignettes telling what happened to Alice and a host of fairy-tale char- acters after we last heard from them.
Lewis Carroll's Puzzles in Wonderland (Carlton/Metro 2013) is a bit of a misnomer. There are a few of Car-
roll's original puzzles in the text, but most of them are puzzles "inspired by" (i.e., adapted to fit) the Wonderland environs, and nicely illustrated with the colored Tenniel drawings. R. W. Gallard has provided a nice collection of puzzles, conundrums, riddles, and brain-teasers categorized as "Easy," "Curious," and "Harder."
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EVENTS, EXHIBITS, PLACES
An English commercial real estate firm called Office Space in Town is testing the market for novelty work environments with a Lon- don office decked out as a very Tim Burton-y Wonderland. Work space innovations include giant playing cards suspended over conference tables and a business lounge in which faux topiary hedges create private booths. Pho- tographs of the interiors, which seem guaranteed to inspire either productivity or madness, were featured on the blog of OfficeBro- ker.com on October 1, 2013.
The Minnesota Center for Book Arts in Minneapolis presented a juried exhibition of book, paper, and print works based on the Alice books. Titled Wonderland Revisited, the exhibition ran from October 18 to December 15, 2013, at their Open Book building in downtown Minneapolis. Call 612.215-2520 for more details.
A UK florist has been repri- manded by an environmental health officer for a window dis- play featuring a cut-out of Dis- ney's caterpillar smoking his hookah. The UK tabloid press, which always loves a good story of "health and safety gone mad!", reported the story with audible glee: "The council officer warned Ms Scholfield that the wooden caterpillar might be in breach of laws preventing employees from smoking in the workplace and said he should investigate further. He also claimed the presence of a
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shisha pipe led him to believe Ms Schofield might be running an illegal shisha pipe 'smoking den.'" Ms Schofield's defense was spirited: "He told me he'd come in to inves- tigate because there had been a complaint that the shisha pipe was contravening UK smoking in the workplace regulations. I said, 'But it's a wooden caterpillar,' and he said 'yes, but it's smoking,' and I said 'no, it's not.'" Lack of space, and uncontrollable giggling, pre- vent us from reprinting the entire entertaining story in full. ( The Daily Mail, '"Florist told to remove dis- play model of Alice in Wonder- land's caterpillar after council said she was breaking anti-smoking laws," 11 October, 2013).
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INTERNET (^TECHNOLOGY
There was a time when books were printed on paper, and it became a habit of many readers and thinkers to scribble notes in the margins, perhaps folding down an impor- tant page. In 1963, the Hi-Liter was released on the market, adding a bit of neon to beloved passages everywhere. All of these reading habits are being adapted just fine as books go digital. Amazon Kindle and Google Books eReading apps have various options for sticky notes, highlighting passages, fold- ing down pages, and even sharing notes and passages with your social network. The key difference, for the paranoid isolationist, is that they know that you're doing it. Lewis Carroll's AATW'xs one of the default free books that come with most Kindles and Kindle apps, and Amazon can analyze the data from all their users. This leads us to the fascinating statistic that, according to the Nexv Republic, the 43rd most highlighted passage, marked by more than four thousand Kindle readers, is: "Never imagine yourself not to be otherwise than what it might appear to others that what you were or might have been was not otherwise than what you had been would have appeared to them
to be otherwise." The 42nd right now, if you were wondering, is Jane Austen, and a huge number of the top fifty are from Suzanne Collins's Hunger Games series. Carroll's next appearance on the list is the Cat- erpillar's crocodile poem, in 91st position.
Over at the Hujfington Post, LCSNA member C. M. Rubin continues to regularly blog about Alice. This year has seen "ALICE-The Legacy" on April 9, about Judi Dench's turn as Ms. Hargreaves in John Logan's Peter and Alice, "Alice? - Utter Non- sense!" on July 3, about Alice Day 2013 and nonsense; and "Alice - Tea in Chicago" on September 8, an interview with Out of Line Gal- lery's curator, Ayala Leyser, about her gallery's art-filled "Mad Hatter Tea Party" in September.
The new computer game "The Night of the Rabbit" claims to be inspired by both Alice and Dr. Who. The protagonist, Jerry, fol- lows an alabaster lagomorph into a realm called Mousewood, "a land where critters can speak and mys- tery abounds." PC and Mac ver- sions can be downloaded for $20 from the gaming website Steam. Judging by the trailers, this video game seems to be more about exploring and discovering myster- ies than about decapitating evil queens with chainsaws, so that's a nice change.
Charles Dodgson's one trip onto the continent culminated with an exploration of St. Petersburg and Moscow in July of 1867. The web- site Russia: Beyond the Headlines offers an aid to retracing your favorite author's steps, including a Google Map of places mentioned in his journal and other Wonder- land-related locations.
Children today have more to worry about than just avuncular storytell- ers who wish to photograph them as peasant girls. The Disney Chan- nel is airing a public safety cam- paign starring singer Una Healy, of
the girl group The Saturdays, as Alice, falling into the dangerous "unknown realm of the 'digital' world." There's a promotional photo of Healy in a blue-and- white dress falling through what looks like the Matrix.
There's another new Disney kids' video game, for iPads and iPhones, called "Alice in Wonder- land: A New Champion." The game art is derived from the 2010 Tim Burton movie, but is a bit more cartoonish, and Alice has almost anime-esque huge eyes. A New Champion "invites players to experience the enchanting curi- osities of said Wonderland while defending all that is silly from the Red Queen and her assorted minions." The same game ap- pears to be called "Disney Alice in Wonderland" on Android devices, and can be downloaded for free.
Nights in the Past is an online travel guide to hotels and other public accommodations that have connections to famous people. Truly a labor of love, the site lists hundreds of famous people and describes thousands of accommo- dations. Historic hotels are also listed by country or theme to assist in vacation planning. The entry for Lewis Carroll suggests The Old Deanery in Ripon, York- shire, and The Ravensworth Arms in Lamesley, Tyne and Wear, both on rather slim premises — but if Christ Church should ever sell up to Best Western, we are sure it will be added to the list in no time.
MOVIES (^TELEVISION
This summer, Johnny Depp's pas- sion project The Lone Ranger -was, one of the biggest flops in his- tory— (why exacdy did a western need a $250 million budget?) — but Disney still has faith in his iconic Mad Hatter's marketing appeal. A sequel to the 2010 Tim Burton version of Alice in Won- derland has been "announced," possibly for a Summer 2015 re-
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lease. The only credits on IMDB (where it is listed as Alice in Won- derland 2) are for Depp, returning screenwriter Linda Woolverton, and a new director, James Bodin, known for 201 1 's The Muppets and HBO's Flight of the Conchords (both fairly delightful and self-parodying projects). Moviefone reports: "The follow-up is tentatively tided Through the Looking-Glass."
A low-budget thriller called Alyce Kills was released as video on de- mand this May, from director Jay Lee (of Zombie Strippers! fame). There's a rabbit-hole metaphor (drugs, madness), and various characters named after Wonder- land residents. It received a few good reviews from slasher-genre fans, including Chuck Bowen at Slant, who wrote, "Alyce Kills often suggests a blunt, trashy fusion of Repulsion and Bartleby, the Scrivener.'" We admit we're curious how Car- roll, Polanski, and Melville inspired a film about a brunette with a hatchet and a drug problem.
The independent film Abigail Harm opens with actress Amanda Plum- mer reading the scene from Look- ing-Glass where Alice meets a fawn. This tale from Carroll is echoed in the unfolding plot, as Mahnola Dargis deconstructs in her New York Times review "It Gets Curiouser and Curiouser," from August 29, 2013. "Is this woman meant to be Alice, or is she the fawn?" she writes. "Time and the filmmaker, you may reasonably believe, will tell. Cer- tainly, after a few scenes, it's easy to assume that Abigail is Alice, if rather less charming, and that a young, seemingly bewildered naked Asian man she finds in a derelict building may be the fawn." Abigail Harm was directed by Lee Isaac Chung.
If you want to make your own com- puter-generated Alice in Wonderland movie, a website called Plotagon is
developing a tool that converts screenplays into mini videos, in- cluding a full Wonderland charac- ter pack.
A twelve-minute U.S. government public safety announcement from 1971 called Curious Alice is now available for your entertainment on the U.S. National Archive's YouTube account. Some fairly weird animation using Wonderland characters is meant to scare kids away from drugs, but could possi- bly backfire as an experience to enjoy with them.
In case you missed all the advertis- ing online, on TV, on buses, on billboards, and even the occasional giant mushroom out on the streets of Manhattan, ABC spinoff series Once Upon a Time in Wonderland premiered on October 10th at 8 pm. It stars Sophie Lowe as Alice and John Lithgow as the voice of The White Rabbit.
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MUSIC
A Massachusetts band fronted by Daniel Hales — named and punctuated thusly: Daniel hales, and the frost heaves — performed original live music for the New Renaissance Players' February 2013 production of Alice in Wonderland in Turner Falls, MA. And the frost heaves were planning on record- ing those songs this summer as a new album, with Indiegogo and Kickstarter fundraising campaigns to raise a few grand to cover the costs. It doesn't look as if they reached their goal, but hopefully they still got a chance to record some of their 18 songs, which ren- dered classical Carroll poems in a gentle Indie folk rock. Possible other bands with similar naming structures — Lewis carols, and the edward lears?
A composer named Bruce Laza- rus has completed a new art-song cycle called "Carrolling: The Lewis Carroll Project." It's billed as "a one-hour theater piece or cabaret for one male and two female singer-actors with piano," and some excerpts can be found under the "Songs" tabs on his website. There's also a whimsical video with "chef and soprano" singing the song "Bread Today, an Operatic Cooking Show." Bruce will be performing at our spring meeting in New York.
Will Todd, an English composer with the Queen's Jubilee Anthem on his CV, wrote the music for a new Alice opera. The hour-long show was performed in July 2013, outside on the Yucca Lawn in London's Holland Park, with Welsh soprano Fflur Wyn. Ex- cerpts can be heard on Opera- HollandPark's YouTube page.
On the opposite end of the genre-spectrum, American alter- native metal band Breaking Ben- jamin released a music video last year for their song "Evil Angel." The video features goth Alice- themed cut-out animation, as if Monty Python's Terry Gilliam had taken images from American McGee's video games. The March Hare's eye comes out in a creepy way, et cetera. In conclusion, the song is rubbish.
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PERFORMING ARTS
Following its successful premiere at the LCSNA Spring Meeting in Winston Salem, NC, Daniel Sing- er's play A Perfect Likeness was again performed at the David Schall The- atre in Los Angeles, July 19 to 28, this time produced by Kimi Walker and directed by Jesse Corti, and featuring Bruce Ladd and Daniel J. Roberts. The same company will next take the play to the Fremont Centre Theatre in South Pasadena, CA (November 7 to December 22, 2013). The play describes a fictional encounter between Lewis Carroll and Charles Dickens, "so lovely and entertaining that you want it to be true," one review said.
The Nebraska Ballet filled the house for their production of Alice in Wonderland earlier this year, and that was before the audience even arrived. The ballet, which was cho- reographed by Kennet Oberly with costumes by Deborah Overturff, featured the entire first and second companies of the Nebraska Ballet, along with almost 100 specially recruited youth dancers. Perfor- mances were held at the Iowa West- ern Community College Arts Cen- ter on April 26 and 27.
The Long Island Ballet Theatre, resident at the Huntington Center for Performing Arts in Hunting- ton, NY, danced their own Alice in Wonderland, choreographed by former NYC Ballet dancer Christo- pher Fleming, with two perfor- mances on June 1, 2013.
A 60-minute audio play, based on AAi Wand narrated by New York actress Barbara Rosenblat, was released as a computer download in June this year. "Right out of the gate, we had downloads from 23 countries," said executive producer David Farquhar in an interview. "The most, for some reason, are in California." Alice in Wonderland featured an original song called "My Garden Back Home" by Broadway composer George Zarr, and cast members included emerg- ing talent Georgia Lee Schultz as Alice. For more information, go to voicesinthewind.ca.
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THINGS
Too much money? Too few dia- monds bedecking your IT accesso- ries? Shawish Jewelry in Geneva has solved both problems at once with a $32,000 diamond-studded flash drive shaped like a mushroom. Part of a range of diamond-stud- ded mushroom accessories, the USB device apparently contains
(we are not sure how) "luxury VIP Concierge Services and a content specially adapted on your lifestyle and interests." Data capacity is not specified.
The Alice Shadow Box sold by Benjamin Pollock's Toy Shop in Covent Garden, London, consists of four illustrated sheets that can be cut out and used to create a shadow box or other diorama. The pack includes an Alice doll and a variety of other well-drawn characters and accessories. Pol- lock recommends, "Leave it plain or colour it yourself — add deco- ration, imagination and peep through into a Pollock's Toyshop Wonderland." The Victorian, slightly gothic illustrations might be more suited to adult crafters than to small children looking for a traditional paper doll (£7.95, approx. $13).
Baba Studio is a Prague-based business selling the work of Rus- sian/Irish husband and wife partnership, Alex Ukolov and Karen Mahony. Working in a style they call "modern baroque," the couple have created a beauti- ful and unusually unhackneyed line of Alice-inspired works that include purses, cushion covers, and art dolls, which are for sale
King Aroo by Jack Kent
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at baba-store.com. An elaborate Alice tarot deck is in the works, and progress can be followed on the AliceTarot Facebook page.
Sue Shanahan is a children's illus- trator and portrait artist whose prints are for sale on etsy.com under the name SueShanahanStu- dio. Her Alice in Wonderland paper doll — designed to be framed rather than cut up and played
with — was designed for the United Federation of Doll Clubs. A print costs $22.
Two English companies make an "Eat Me" cookie stamp: search Suck.uk.com for a round model ($15), or SassAndBelle.co.uk for a rectangular model (£5, around $8).
A London boutique called Alice Looking describes itself as "the
destination brand for all things Alice." It is not clear precisely what they sell, although it seems that the general gist is high con- cept and high priced, and that there is some connection to the chess set illustrated by John Ten- niel discovered last year. Visitors to alicelooking.com, or to the boutique itself, are encouraged to report back to these pages or to our Facebook group.
Sergio Aragonesfor MAD
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