^ ^ KNIGHT LETTER ^ ^^ ^ The Lewis Carroll Society ofNorth America

Winter 2010 Volume II Issue 15 Number 85 Knight Letter is the official magazine of the Lewis Carroll Society of North America.

It is published twice a year and is distributed free to all members. Editorial correspondence should be sent to the Editor in Chief at [email protected].

SUBMISSIONS Submissions for The Rectory Umbrella and Mischmasch should be sent to [email protected].

Submissions and suggestions for Serendipity and Sic Sic Sic should be sent to [email protected].

Submissions and suggestions for From OurFar-Flung Correspondents should be sent to [email protected].

© 2010 The Lewis Carroll Society of North America

ISSN 0193-886X

Sarah Adams-Kiddy, Editor in Chief Mahendra Singh, Editor, The Rectory Umbrella Sarah Adams-Kiddy ^ Ray Kiddy, Editors, Mischmasch James Welsch 6^ Rachel Eley, Editors, From Our Far-Rung Correspondents Mark Burstein, Production Editor Andrew H. Ogus, Designer

THE LEWIS CARROLL SOCIETY OF NORTH AMERICA President: Mark Burstein, [email protected] Vice-President:

Cindy Watte r, [email protected]

Secretary: Clare Imholtz, [email protected]

www.LewisCarroll . org

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

Subscriptions, correspondence, and inquiries should be addressed to: Clare Imholtz, LCSNA Secretary 11935 Beltsville Dr. Beltsville, Maryland 20705

Additional Contributors to This Issue Barbara Adams, Ruth Berman, Angelica Carpenter, Bonnie Hagerman, Alan Tannenbaum, Cindy Watter

On the cover: Secret Garden, digital collage by Adriana Peliano. Seepage 21. 1

-^ -^0^ ^ CONTENTS

H^ i^y„s^ ^S ^i^"^^^ ^

THe ReCTORY UMBRSLLA OF BOOKS AND THINGS m

Livefrom Lincoln Center Evermore Everson 's Everytype! 45 MARK BURSTEIN MARK BURSTEIN

Keith Shepard's Wonderland Revisited, Meeting Mr. Dodgson and the Games Alice Played There 46 ANDREW SELLON SARAH ADAMS- KIDDY

Contemporary Sylvie and Bruno Reviews: T. Holden 's Alice in Verse: A Further Concatenation 11 J. The Lost Rhymes of Wonderland 46 CLARE IMHOLTZ HAYLEY RUSHING

Alice Under Skies 17 Mahendra Singh's The Hunting of the Snark 47 CHRIS MATHESON STEPHANIE LOVETT

Carrollian in Brazil: Adraina Peliano, Part One 21 A C. M. Rubin 's The Real Alice in Wonderland 48 ANDREW SELLON & MAHENDRA SINGH RAY KIDDY

Am L Blue? 27 Nancy Wiley 's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland 48 MARK BURSTEIN RAY KIDDY

MISCHMASCH Katherine Neville's "En Passant" 49 AUGUST IMHOLTZ, JR. ««

Susina 's The Place of Lewis Carroll Leaves from the Deanery Garden—Sic, Sic, Sic Jan Literature Serendipity —Ravings from the Writing Desk 31 in Children's 49 CLARE IMHOLTZ

What 's a Snark ? 35 MARKJARMON Maxim Mitrofanov 's Alisa v Zazerkale 5 AUGUSTA. IMHOLTZ, JR. Lewis Carroll Tests Outfabberwocky 3® Looking-Glass JENN THORSON Gavin O 'Keefe 's Through the 5 ANDREW OGUS CARROLLIAN NOTGS 11th Hour Ensemble 's Alice 5 * m JAMES WELSCH

The Antipathies, I Think— 38

R. DICKEY FROM OUR FAR-FLUNG LESTER CORReSPONDSNTS Alice Speaks 38 M DAVID SCHAEFER Art & Illustration—Articles (sf Academia Books—Cyberspace—Events, Exhibits, (sf Places Guildford: A Lewis Carroll Society Study Weekend 40 Movies 6f Television—Performing Arts—Things 53 AUGUST A. IMHOLTZ, JR.

The Oxford Experience: Edward Wakeling at Christ Church 43 ANN BUKI » "* r\^f^J>^ ^^-^ •1^:::^

ediTOKial

^^- 1e

''his issue takes us all over the world . . . from with "Alice Speaks."

Brazil, where we interview Adriana Peliano, Perhaps the most interesting aspect of this is-

artist and president of the Sociedade Lewis sue is that for the first time we have color pictures! Carroll do Brasil, to England, where Ann Buki de- New LCSNA president Mark Burstein's article "Am I scribes Edward Wakeling's class and August Imholtz, Blue?" discusses the changing colors of Alice's dress

Jr., reports on LCS (UK) activities in Guildford, to in various early editions of Wonderland. While we did Russia for a review of a new version of Through the consider sending each member a box of crayons with

Looking-Glass illustrated by Maxim Mitrofanov and, which to fill in the colors (but only after we'd realized finally, Lester Dickey's article takes us to the Antipa- that the Knight L^ff^- staffjust didn't have time to wa- thies! tercolor every issue, sorry!), we finally settled on hav- Next, Andrew Sellon expands the talk he gave ing our printer include a small color section. Please at the fall meeting to explain how he grew up with do let us know if you like it! Lewis Carroll, rediscovered him in acting school, and On a personal note, having taken on the editor- ultimately became the president of the LCSNA. This in-chief position last issue, I must temporarily hand it is the first in what we hope will be an ongoing series off again. As some of you already know, Ray and I are of articles written by members about how they first expecting Tweedles, I mean twins, in February. Fortu- discovered or were introduced to the works of Lewis nately, the capable hands of Mahendra Singh, editor Carroll. Do you have a story you'd like to share? of the Rectory Umbrella section and Snark illustrator We also have for you "Alice Under Skies," Chris extraordinaire, are available, and our excellent staff Matheson's thoughts on Looking-Glass, a companion of Andrew Ogus, Mark Burstein, James Welch, and to his article on Wonderland, "Lewis Carroll: The King Rachel Eley, as well as our miscellany of reviewers and of Comedy," in our previous issue. Two short fiction Far-Flung contributors, are there to back him up. But pieces, "What's a Snark?" and "Lewis Carroll Tests Out this team can always use a little extra help, if you'd 'Jabberwocky'" come to us from Mark Jarmon and like to volunteer. Jenn Thorson, respectively. Clare Imholtz provides Like the Cheshire Cat, I will return when you us with further Sylvie and Bruno reviews, and David least expect it, but for now, I disappear, leaving only Schaefer adds to our knowledge of Alice filmography a grin. SARAH ADAMS-KIDDY

IV THe ReCTORY UMBRBLLA

Our fabulous Fall 2010 meeting in New York After being introduced by our president, An- City began in the traditional manner. Here drew Sellon, Edward first welcomed the audience of

is that story, in the words of Mary Schaefer: around 70, which included eight former or current "The Maxine Schaefer Memorial Children's LCSNA presidents, Morton Cohen, and other lumi- Reading was held Friday morning, November 5, at naries. The NYIT has about 15,000 students, repre- the Earth School on Manhattan's Lower East Side. senting 106 countries, with about half grad and half

Twenty-five fourth- and fifth-grade students and their undergrads. It is a "global university," with other cam- teachers were present, as were several LCSNA mem- puses in Canada, China, and the Middle East. bers who were not direcdy involved in the reading, Edward's talk was entitled "Greetings, and a Few but whose presence and participation are always a big Wise Words about Martin Gardner." Dr. Guiliano feels plus. Patt Griffin did the reading (the tea party). The that there were three pivotal events that accounted kids loved it—and they loved Patt's rendition! All of for our presence there—a certain boat ride on July 4, them were familiar with Alice in movie or book form, 1862; the publication of The Annotated Alice in 1960, and a couple of them brought along copies that had which garnered academic acceptance of Carroll stud- belonged to their grandparents or parents. A ques- ies; and the founding of the LCSNA in 1974. Martin tion-and-answer period followed the reading, and the Gardner was fully or partially responsible for two of questions were many and varied. (So Alice was a real the three. person? That was interesting news! And how about Edward is a renowned expert on Victorian litera- Mr. Dodgson, who had two names! When did this take ture, and he first regaled us with tales of what was read place?) It was a fun reading for all of us." back in those days, such as the bestselling, voluminous For the main meeting on Saturday, Dr. Edward The Last of the Mortimers by Mrs. Oliphant or Mary Eliz- Guiliano, a former president of our Society who is abeth Braddon's sensationalistic Lady Audley's Secret. now the president and CEO of the New York Insti- Both are now forgotten, but they were long consid- tute of Technology, kindly provided us with the per- ered suitable subjects for academic study, an honor fect meeting space, located within their Lincoln Cen- not accorded Mr. Carroll's works until 1964 (!) —and ter campus. The technology, as one might expect, only then thanks to the work of Martin Gardner. Ed- was first-rate, with a number of wall-mounted video ward described meeting Martin at the first LCSNA flatscreens in flawless synch with the main one for our gathering in 1974 and several other meetings over the presentations. next five years, working with him a bit on Lewis Car- completed rendition in print. He has kindly given us roll Observed, and working together more substantively a preview; see inside back cover. on The Wasp in a Wig. Guiliano's tale of the discovery Adam Gopnik, the famed New Kwife^writer and es- of the manuscript and its purchase from Sotheby's by sayist {Paris to the Moon) last honored us with his witty

Norman Armour was fascinating. Armour bought it as presence in 2006, when he discussed his introduc- an investment and didn't want to see it published—as tion to Martin Gardner's new edition of The Annotated he thought that would diminish its value! Edward's Snark. Here he gave us "Looking-Glass and Broken account of the negotiations between Clark(son) Pot- Mirror: Honoring the Spirit of Lewis Carroll." His far- ter and the Dodgson estate, in the person of Philip reaching mind took in a spectacularly wide variety of

Dodgson Jaques, over copyright issues, made it clear topics, to say the least: nineteenth-century polar expe- that only by Martin's intervention and support (and ditions (the Snark of discovering the North Pole, the

his eventual Introduction Boojum of the Great White Winter) ; his discovery as a

to the volume) were things child of S. W. Erdnase's 1902 close-up magic "bible," resolved to everyone's satis- The Expert at the Card Table, and the revelation in a pulp

faction. magazine in 1949 of its (purported) true author in an

Edward's talk will be the article by . . . Martin Gardner; how The Annotated Alice basis for his contribution to grew "viral" and "infected other literature," including ^^j^^BPP*' A Bouquet for the Gardner, a the Beatles' "Cry Baby Cry" and "Lucy in the Sky with ^^^^ ^x^^^ Festschrift and collection of Diamonds"; Nabokov's use of a chess puzzle in Speak, ^^^^ffC^^^^ reminiscences that is slated Memory. Calling Disney's 1951 film "the work of the ^^^^Hj^^ ^^^^ to be published by the LCS- devil, which should be quarantined from humankind" ^^^HI^flH J^ NA and the LCS(U.K.) next due to its "saccharine betrayal," Gopnik also decried Guiliano Edward ygar. Its editor, the present the recent "surrealist/sentimental, bad reading" film

writer, then said a few more by Tim Burton with its "sublimation of sex." words on that subject. Carroll, he said, must be seen as a comic writer, a Our second speaker was the enormously talent- post-Renaissance poet of a realm that Gopnik calls "a ed, Toronto-based artist Oleg Lipchenko. His spec- marvelous that knows itself as myth," the formal inves- tacular illustrations to Alice's Adventures in Wonderland tigation of a "rule-bound imaginary world" that is cel- won the coveted Elizabeth Mrazik-Cleaver Award last ebrated in two domains: children's literature and the year, and he spoke about his current project in a talk usually dystopian science-fiction. "Comic" does not entided "Butcher in the Ruff: Rendering the Snark (A mean just funny; it is the "vernacular of rationality." Work in Progress)." He said that for hired illustrators, Gopnik uses the term "comic" in an academic, struc-

"ignorance of the text" is one of the familiar publish- tural sense: initially one finds the realm in order, it is ing customs. However, contrary to that philosophy, disrupted by an outside force ("common sense sent he actually first read the Snark in the equivalent of dancing"), and in the end they are reconciled, a con- a plain text version, one with illustrations that had struction that appears in everything from A Midsum-

"nothing to do with the text." Lipchenko feels that "a mer Night's Dream to episodes of Seinfeld. Citing works dream is still a dream even if retold with a scientific as seemingly diverse as Babar, From the Mixed-Up Files of tongue." The poem's meaning is, of course, obscure, Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, The Wind in the Willows, and with many possible interpre- Mary Poppins, he called the Alice books their "tonic tations, none particularly note, basis, genesis, and exodus." more truthful than the oth- Citing the work of his sister, Alison Gopnik, an ers: "the game of Could Be." expert in cognitive and language development and Oleg thought of the Bell- the author of The Scientist in the Crib: What Early Learn- man as God, moving in mys- ing Tells Us About the Mind and "The Real Reason Chil- terious ways, his intentions dren Love Fantasy" on Slate.com, he noted that what inscrutable (and hence he Alice tested in Wonderland was "not normal order, was given Dali's mustache). but consciousness." Her courage and common sense

His Banker is a bewhiskered were on trial, and she ended up with a new appre- nineteenth-century capital- ciation for her own talents. "We genuinely have more

• . .1 T> • * • J Olee Lipchencko ist; the Barnster is gowned * ^ consciousness, curiosity, and are more aware as chil- and bewigged, drawn from dren than we are ever again." life; the Broker a "young man in spats"; Boots a mys- Speaking of the limits of pure reason, Gopnik terious Wild West villain. He speculated that— the po- noted that in the course of Dodgson 's stay at Oxford, em's line "the ominous words 'It's a Boo '" could the intellectual life of the university was changed also be completed as "It's a Boo . . . ts" or "It's a Boo more profoundly than ever before or since. Begin-

. . . tcher." We very much look forward to seeing his ning as a finishing school for clergymen, Oxford during these years saw an infusion of German philo- sophical idealism and the with a tendency to joke about difficult things and who need for pure research loved to 'perform' for children and intimates." There that led to an enormous are certainly dark and disturbing moments in the Al- turnabout in priorities. tc^ books; his genius was in transforming feelings such Alice poked fun at the as these into entertainment. She spoke of the time follies of the "wise," meet- around the composition of the Snark, when he was ing characters who were nursing his nephew and godson.Charlie Wilcox, who "dysfunctional intellectu- was suffering from tuberculosis. Jenny speculated als" spouting chains of that a "crew of eight" (Dodgson, his six sisters, and abstract reasoning, let- his nephew) in search of the ineffable may have been ting the mind go as it will. the inspiration for the poem, pointing out that TB Adam Gopnik Gopnik concluded with a creates agony, and comes in fits and starts, leaving its reading from his new novel. victim to softiy and suddenly vanish away. The Steps Across the Water, in which a young girl, Rose, Woolf then discussed the time around the com- finds herself in a topsy-turvy, looking-glass world position of Looking-Glass. It was written in a colder, called U Nork. more isolated time, when a warm audience of chil-

A break and feeding frenzy followed, with Alice dren existed only in his imagination. It was a sad time films showing on the flat screen televisions in the for Carroll: he had lost contact with the Liddells, and main hall, while just outside it Messrs. Gopnik and his beloved father had died in 1868. The family had Lipchenko signed their books: Adam his The Steps to leave Croft-on-Tees, and Dodgson was now respon- Across the Water (which he kindly arranged to have sible for his ten siblings. available for sale and signing two weeks prior to the She discussed other aspects of his personality: book's release!) and Oleg his Wonderland ^.nd his new For instance, was he a control freak or laid-back? She Humpty Dumpty and Friends. A total of five books by said there was an "element of caricature in his fussi- four of our speakers were available to attendees at a ness," and called him "a bit of a blonde." From her discount, and all book sales were experdy handled breakthrough studies of his bank accounts, she noted by NYIT's internal Barnes & Noble bookseller Shawn both carelessness and meticulousness, with lots of red Wiggans, and his amiable staff. ink. He was uninsured, not the "reliable old codger" Next up was Jenny Woolf, author of Lewis Car- we sometimes assume him to be but a "careless, emo- roll in His Own Account: The Complete Bank Account of tional man who kept himself in order by rules and the Reu. C. L. Dodgson (2005) and a recent biography, regulations." Jenny then read excerpts from his let- The Mystery of Lewis Carroll: Discovering the Whimsical, ter to Mrs. Liddell on Thoughtful, and Sometimes Lonely Man Who Created Al- the occasion of the ice in Wonderland, who gave a talk entitled "Viewing dean's retirement, Lewis Carroll as a Real Person." She said her main suggesting that it had ambition in writing it was to give a picture of Charles a "tongue-in-cheek Dodgson as a person in the context of his time and, to quality" that is often a lesser degree, to counter the "unsatisfactory biog- overlooked. raphies in which ideas were presented as fact"—for She reminded E^^^^^^^H ^^i example, did Alice Liddell really have a "gentle na- us that Dodgson was ture"? Could Dodgson be thought of as a foster fa- "realistic, raised on a ther? (she already had a perfectly good one). Woolf farm, had a practical medical library, and believes that many of these books were "pictures of y^„„^ Woolf biographers' agendas, but not of Dodgson the human never shrank away being"; there was no need for them to fill in gaps with from the physical." As a child, he was "clever to the pure conjecture. point of being devious," but was offered moral guid- Ms. Woolf gave a fine example of cultural con- ance by his family. His sense of personal identity was text: Suppose a nineteenth-century gendeman were very much tied in to his family, especially his father's to walk into this very meeting; he would be scandal- deUght in his children (unusual for the time). In con- ized! Free fraternizing among men and women who clusion, Woolf felt Dodgson was "complex, individual- had not been properly introduced, the women wear- istic, with a need to entertain, to be involved. He was success- ing skirts showing their legs, some above the knees: lucky in life, free of tribulation, a happy and clearly these were prostitutes gearing up for an orgy! ful human being; boxing him into his conventional, Similarly, we can be shocked by something they took dreary role is a disservice." Liddell: Conversation for granted, such as the artistic depletion of naked Next, "The Real Alice A the form of an interview, with An- children. It's all relative. with Pictures" took stance and the She described Dodgson as a "complex personage drew Sellon taking the moderator's .

delightful Cathy Rubin, author of The Real Alice in Singh, signing his delightful, just published Snark {see Wonderland: A Role Model far the Ages, as the subject. review on page 47) Describing herself as a "distant relative," she first The chairman of the nominating committee,

talked about her youthful tea parties with her great- August A. Imholtz, Jr., next ascended the podium to aunt Phil, a child of Lionel, Alice Liddell's brother, as present the slate for officers for the next two years well as with Mary-Jean St. Clair (Alice's granddaugh- (incumbents are asterisked): ter) and Mary-Jean's daughter, Vanessa St. Clair, all of President: Mark Burstein whom were "part of the fabric of her [Cathy's] life." Vice-President: Cindy Watter* Inspired in part by the 2001 Sotheby's auction {KL Secretary: Clare Imholtz* 66:16), she and her daughter Gabriella traveled to Treasurer: Fran Abeles* Oxford, where they were given a personal tour by the Elected Directors: Matt Demakos,* Ellie Schaefer- Dean of Christ Church. Cathy treated us to a slide Salins,* Germaine Weaver, James Welsch show of these events, and ofJuly 4th "Alice Day"s in both Oxford and Lyndhurst. (Anyone curious about the difference between Mrs. Rubin the governing board, the advisory board, and the di- e -^^^^i noted that, contrary rectors is referred to our Constitution, which is under to popular myth, "About Us" on our website and was most recentiy pub-

.§ ^^^^H^^ * Mrs. Hargreaves cel- lished in XL 52:6.) ebrated having been The slate was elected by acclamation. The new the original Alice. president took the stand to say a few words, thank- She owned a total ing Andrew for his outstanding service, and manag- of 370 copies of the ing to slip in a reference to his beloved San Francisco book, half of which Giants, who had just won the World Series earlier in were sent to her by the week. He reintroduced August, who presented Dodgson, and many Andrew with a lovely fountain pen and a botde of ink Cathy Rubin of which she signed (purple, of course) as tokens of our gratitude. "Alice in Wonder- "Meeting Mr. Dodgson: One CarroUian's Jour- land." Alice Hargreaves was a humanitarian, a muse, ney," which followed, was Andrew Sellon's warm, very

and, primarily, an artist, a visual thinker: hence Cathy witty, and occasionally poignant account of his life as and Gabriella's highly illustrated book, which Cathy an actor and how he came to be a Carrollian. Fortu- called "documentary storytelling," incorporating the nately for us, his talk immediately follows this article,

taste and look of Victorian England. Her many stories so is not recapped here. about its composition—including how Annie Leibo- A fine dinner at the nearby Josephina restaurant

vitz was inspired by Dodgson 's being a photographer, was followed by a convivial after-party at Janet Jurist's. how she and Gabriella found a period designer to re- The next day many of us found ourselves on strange, create the dress Alice wore to her wedding at West- convoluted journeys trying to reach airports despite minster Abbey, and the curse of the Cuffnells fire- the New York City Marathon, which effectively shut place—^were all warmly and generously spliced with down the East Side of Manhattan—as if New York (or anecdotes about the artists, auctioneers, and collec- were we actually in U Nork?) needed any further cha- tors she met along the way. os. Happily, we had new books and heads full of new Our second feeding frenzy featured book signings ideas to pass the time. by Mmes. Rubin and Woolf, as well as by Mahendra

Rhymes With Orange Hilary B. Price -^ r n !^:C^.-::^^X\ r^:^ BEWARE IN A FATefKL Ml<;9TGP THROUGH

LOOKING GLA9;, OUR HeRolNE gecAHe... Auce 0^ IN V^0NI>t(^9eAD.

V- 4 0- WIV«P*«»M(' •* ^ jWeetms JMt. Bobss^on ANDREW SELLON

-^(r ^-

"W 'While I've been a member of this Society ers with smiles and soap, and haggled with restau- \ #% # for many years now, it occurs to me that rants about what we want to eat, what we don't want Ji^C Jfc^very few of you know much of anything to eat, and what we're willing to pay. I've arranged about me. In this age of social networking and business for book signings, and membership and meeting me- transparency, I feel it my duty to point out that, for all mentos, and other things that begin with an "m." I've you know, for the last four years you answered lots of questions left the Society in the hands of a smil- on a mind-boggling array ing avatar that masks a raving lunatic. of Carroll-related topics, While you were all cheerfully read- some of them really out

ing your issues of the Knight Letter, there. I'm still puzzling I might have been quietly draining over the request for us

the coffers and taking private jets to to file an amicus brief on clandestine tea parties at the Binsey behalf of an artist in Cali- Well. Well in, indeed! Now, many of fornia who makes art in- you do know that I'm a professional stallations out of junked actor. You all have some idea of the cars, because, according

romance of being an actor, I suppose. to the requestor, "Lewis

It's very exciting. Just a few days be- Carroll also wasn't appre-

fore our fall meeting, I was one of ciated until much later." many middle-aged actors called in to Thanks for writing, and audition for the role of a nerdy ac- good luck with those

countant whose life is transformed by wrecks. I mean artworks.

drinking a certain brand of orange I also provided an expert juice. Each of us auditioning was told answer on the origin of to show up in mismatched clothing, the word "snark" (guess and when we arrived, we were cov- who) to the good folks ered with plastic kisses and asked to at Who Wants to Be a Mil- make faces shamelessly for the cam- lionaire, but I don't know

era. I'm so glad I invested in an MFA. if they ever stumped any- Anyway, with true looking-glass logic, one with the answer. And Andrew Sellon as Lewis Carroll in Through it occurs to me that now that my pres- of course, I've done count- the Looking-Glass Darkly idency is over, it's time we met prop- less interviews over the

erly. There are too many of you out past four years, including there for me to travel around the globe to say "How a bumper crop leading up to the Tim Burton film. d'ye do," and shake hands in person, but we'll con- I've been quoted, paraphrased, and in that greatjour- sider that done. And please do keep in mind: Once nalistic tradition, misquoted. we've been formally introduced, you can't eat me. One question has come up time after time (aside

So first of all, what ^af^I been doing the past four from the relentless bleat of the great unread: "Was years? I've done a lot of the Maxine Schaefer read- Lewis Carroll really a drug-addled pedophile?"). Sim- ings. I've done Q&A talkbacks after performances of ply put: How did I get here? How did I fall down the figu- fan, Carroll-themed plays, and I recently gave the keynote rative rabbit-hole and end up a Lewis Carroll and lecture for a CarroUian symposium at Saint Peter's president of this organization? Reporters evidently College English Club. I've negotiated and rewritten felt my personal experience would be a "way in" for hotel contracts, lobbied for meeting spaces (aided by their readers. Or perhaps they were hoping I'd pro- that would blow their Janet Jurist and the gang), charmed potential speak- duce a scandalous back story readers away and make them overnight rock stars. No hour has come 'round at last, and even as I speak, such luck. But it occurs to me that sharing my story it's slouching toward Hollywood, a star waiting to be may prompt you all to look back on, and perhaps in born. Oleg Lipchenko and Mahendra Singh are cer- future share, your own stories, possibly for the Knight tainly doing their part to promote it.

Letter and our website (more on this soon). I urge you So, what was it about the man himself? Why did to share your story, most especially with the genera- I go looking for him, and how did that lead to my tions that follow us, since they're the ones who will becoming president? My parents were good about need to carry the banner for Mr. Dodgson and for teaching me the importance of reeling and writhing, literacy after we've all softly and suddenly vanished and respect for authors, so I was aware early on that away. So yes, I'm freely confessing an ulterior motive some magician named Lewis Carroll wrote my favorite here. As you'll learn, my association with the Carroll books. (I was also aware that the Disney studio couldn't

Society has been fraught with ulterior motives, a mas- spell very well.) Anyway, I knew that Lewis Carroll had sive conspiracy, and a truly insidious cover-up. Now, been at Oxford, and that it was a pen name, and all at long last, I will unmask the the other basic people behind it all. information and/ "Begin at the beginning or misinformation

." . . Hmmm. Do you remem- I and myth that we ber your first exposure to the all first absorb

Alice books? I have no idea. I about Mr. Dodg- remember having the litde Dis- son without even ney Golden Books in hardcover, trying. well-thumbed by my three older i But maybe it's siblings. I also recall having an appropriate that old vinyl LP of performers read- acting is what led ing segments of Wonderland to me to meet the classical music themes. I did man himself and a quick search on our global to be writing this cultural archive (also known as now. I've been on eBay) , and of course pulled up stage regularly a copy of the Talespinners LP, since the age of which I promptly bought in a fit fourteen, when I of sheer nostalgia. I remember played the role of thinking as a child that the cov- Malvolio in our er was very adult and trippy. I high school's pro- would listen to that LP over and duction of Twelfth over with the volume turned Night. I'm not Andrew Sellon as Humpty-Dumpty in Looking-Glass up, mouthing the words, and feel- counting my actu- ing as though I a;a5 Alice. Gender has never really been al stage debut: a single performance of an original play a bother for me. I was unquestionably m Wonderland, in my sister's friend's basement when I was about 9; I because the sound of it was all around me. So my first appeared for one scene as a litde girl suspected of her sense of being in Wonderland actually may have been father's murder. My sister and her friend couldn't find an auditory one. But as to when I first sat down and anyone to play the role, and I campaigned mightily for read (or had read to me) the two original books, I draw it, saying I didn't care about wearing the dress, I just a perfect and absolute blank. wanted to be onstage. I haven't changed. Over 30-plus That part of my background hardly qualified me years, I've been onstage in and out of some very bizarre for the presidency of the LCSNA. I'm just another costumes, including that of a three-headed mouse one of the millions for whom the Alice books and prince, a unicorn, and a certain irritable egg—both characters seem to have always been present, as if we of the latter in member Rick Lake's musical Looking- were all born with a deluxe two-volume slipcased edi- Glass! 2Lt Harvard (with music by Michael Levine). But tion beside our bassinets. As a side note: I also don't at some point in my career, after I'd graduated from remember when I first encountered The Hunting of the Harvard and had been landing some non-union act-

Snark, I just remember it was love at first reading. To ing work around the country, I realized I needed some this day I remain puzzled as to it isn't as widely known formal training. So at the rather late age of 30, 1 audi- and loved as the Alices. Must be that less-than-happy tioned for graduate acting programs, never suspecting ending. I imagine that if Disney and/or Tim Bur- that I was, in fact, actually going down the rabbit-hole. ton made a film of it, the landscape would change. At most of the grad school auditions I attended,

In this existentially inclined age, perhaps the Snark 's I was viewed as something of an anomaly, or to be blunt, fossil; more a I remember waiting at Juilliard might come through, shirtsleeves rolled up to the el- beside another hopeful, a fresh-faced 17-year-old who bows, brandishing another still-damp print with a pair had directly come from her cheerleading practice. of wooden tongs. I don't remember how long I was I landed in a demanding three-year master's degree there; I know I was immensely grateful, reluctant to

program down at the University of North Carolina at leave, and somehow converted in some way. I felt that Chapel Hill, a place where they thought being out in I had come very close to meeting the man himself

the world a few years was actually a good credential for That summer, the more I read about Mr. Dodg-

graduate studies. Imagine. At the end of my second son, the more fascinated I became. Especially by the year, just before summer break, we were assigned our contradictions! Those were theatrical gold. A complex "senior project" for the coming year. We had to write, portrait of a man was beginning to appear before me,

direct, design, and perform a one-person show on a man about whom it seemed many nonsensical things our choice of topic. A couple of my classmates went had been said and written, at least given the facts avail-

into complete panic mode. I was actually excited; I able. Then one day I was in the hallway between grad had written a number of plays and musicals over the school classes, and a big, black crow flew overhead: A years, including a Hasty Pudding show at Harvard. couple of the students a year behind me asked whom

And although I hadn't read the Alice books in some I'd chosen as the subject of my play. I told them that

time, I knew immediately that I wanted to spend my I was having a wonderful time exploring the life of

summer vacation with the man behind the name Lewis Carroll. One of them, whom I will call Barbara "Lewis Carroll." (because that's her name), was an outspoken feminist I discovered that the UNC libraries had a frab- with a hair-trigger sense of moral outrage. She imme- jous selection of scholarly Carroll books. I walked diately said, "How could you write a play about him? into my favorite used bookstore on Chapel Hill's You know what he was, what he did? How could you

Franklin Street, and found a copy of Morton Co- write a play about that pervert??" I said to her: "I'm

hen's two-volume Letters of Lewis Carroll, a copy of writing this play in part because I think he deserves a Stuart Dodgson Collingwood's biography (I mean, fair hearing. How much do you know about his life, what were the chances?), and the Dover paperback really?" She admitted she knew nothing. "Then how of Helmut Gernsheim's Lewis Carroll, Photographer. can you be so sure of what he did or didn't do?" She's

Photography is my hobby, too, so I was blown away a very bright woman; I had her there. I said: "Wait and to discover this additional connection between myself see my play. Then you can decide."

and Mr. Dodgson. It just seemed like fate. I contacted In the course of my questing, I came across an the Ackland Art Museum on campus and learned organization called the Lewis Carroll Society of North that they had coincidentally just acquired their first America. This was back in 1992, so somehow I found Dodgson photograph, an image titled "Xie Kitchen out about the group without the aid of the now-ubiq- Seated in a Turner's Chair." To my astonishment, the uitous Internet. It must have involved pieces of paper kind curator invited me over to see the photograph, and stamps, or telephones, or something else terribly

even though it was not yet officially on display. When antiquated. I also learned that the Society's then-pres-

I arrived for my appointment, she conducted me to a ident, Charlie Lovett, lived in nearby Winston-Salem.

conference room. She noted that I shouldn't touch Again, it seemed like fate. But one of the incongruities

the image, but invited me to take as long as I wanted of my being an actor is that I had a very traditional,

viewing it, and said she thought I might want to have Harold Pinter-esque New England upbringing, and

time with it alone. I walked into the old room with I'm actually a very private person. I have simply never

its elegant moldings and endless white bookshelves. been good about getting out there and networking. At the other end of a long, polished mahogany ta- But I was sure that this Charlie Lovett person must ble was a single photograph placed on a small easel. have some crucial guidance to offer, must know it all.

It wasn't under glass or anything. It was just sitting So, I summoned up all my nerve and wrote a letter to resources I should be there. And I was alone with it. If the windows in that explain my project and ask what room had been the kind you could open, this might consulting. I received a charming, chatty, handwritten with Car- have been a crime story. As it was, I contented my- note back from Stephanie Lovett, decorated self with viewing the image. It was remarkable: crisp, rollian rubber stamp images. I collect rubber stamps. ear. It seemed that specific, intriguing—and smelly. To my astonishment, Again, fate was whispering in my massive world-class collection in as I leaned in for a closer look, I recognized the un- they actually had a mistakable aroma of darkroom chemicals! If you've their hom£. Stephanie said I should just plan to come ever printed photographs by hand, you know that and have a look. In fact, she added, there was so much I'd probably better plan to come visit smell. I think I stopped breathing for a moment. It to look at that spend the night. was as if the image had just come from the darkroom, them on a weekend and I simply wasn't prepared for as if the photographer himself might be just on the I'm from Boston; they I'm not other side of the door working on another print and this. My first thought was: How do know an axe murderer? My second thought was: Maybe I was not able to stay and talk about it with members

they're axe murderers. I mean, maybe this "society" afterward. I really wanted to hear feedback from the of theirs was a cover for some kind of poetry-spouting experts, but fate in that case was not kind. My child- sacrificial cult or something! My mind really does hood best friend, Walter Hughes, had just died of work that way—ask my long-suffering partner, Tim AIDS at the age of 34, and I had to take a cab from Sheahan. But in her reply, Stephanie had mentioned that performance direcdy down to his memorial ser-

having herbal tea together. I collect rubber stamps. vice in midtown. I had so looked forward to giving

I drink herbal tea. I decided to risk it, even if their that play for a room full of Carrollians, but when the

cups might say "Drink Me." I descended on Winston- day came, I had a very hard time getting through the

Salem. I have no idea what they must have thought of performance. In 2003, with help from Tim and my

me, and I hope they won't tell me or anyone else now! friend Elizabeth London, and with your collective in-

But to say that I was bowled over by their generosity dulgence, I presented a full-length, three-actor script and kindness would be to grossly understate the mat- on the same theme, but with a lot more content than

ter. Charlie showed me so many books, so many won- the original one-act, trying to give equal weight to the

derful objects, including a camera just like the one after-Alice years. But while we're all glad Dodgson had

Mr. Dodgson used. I had herbal tea with Stephanie, a nice time at the beach, it seems it's the Alice years

and we compared rubber stamp collections. I was in and the Alice connection that still hold the magic for

some new kind of Wonderland, with adults every bit audiences. That's where the drama is. I'm still tinker- as odd as me, eager to discuss and delight in the world ing in my head, and after doing a production of the

of Lewis Carroll over a cup of chamomile tea. These play I Am My Own Wife, in which I played 35 different

people were fans, like me. I left there feeling as if I'd characters of both sexes from all over the world in just had a crash course in Charles Dodgson, and that two hours, I've decided to go back and write a full-

I'd made two new friends. And not for a minute did I length solo version of my Carroll play, maybe in time suspect their ulterior motive, their utterly subversive for 2012 or 2015.

agenda. Or that they were not working alone. In 1998, 1 went to the Carroll Centenary week at

Back at school, I wrote and rewrote my little one- Oxford, and found myself meeting amazing people

act play, piecing together Mr. Dodgson 's own words like Edward Wakeling, Selwyn Goodacre, Mark and

from all the various sources to tell the story of the Catherine Richards, Anne Clarke Amor, Alan White,

extraordinary relationship between a young Oxford artist Adriana Peliano, and, well, the list is almost end- don and his even younger muse, and of the social con- less. That week-long conference was incredible. We

straints that shaped it. That winter, when the five of us all learned a lot. We stayed in Oxford rooms. We ate in my graduate class presented our solo shows at the in the Great Hall every day, long before Harry Potter

old PlayMakers theatre, Charlie and Stephanie were did. I also made a visit out to the nearby town of Bla- in the audience. The play was very well received, and don to visit artist Graham Piggott and his wife Corri.

Charlie and Stephanie couldn't have been more sup- I had loved the bust of Mr. Dodgson that the Soci- portive and encouraging. That meant a lot, because ety commissioned Graham to make for presentation

I figured they knew. My fellow grad student Barbara to Morton Cohen (trivia fans may remember that I was there, too, of course. She came up to me after the appeared as Lewis Carroll to honor Morton at that

performance and said simply: 'You were right. I'm meeting) . I had written ahead and asked Graham to

sorry; I didn't know anything." I felt as if somehow make one for me. Of course, despite the fragility of his

Mr. Dodgson and I had both been vindicated in the porcelain works, I ended up going home with more

face of a young, latter-day Mrs. Grundy. I also felt that than one sculpture. And on a later trip, I went back

maybe my play had a positive impact on the people for more. So before I knew it, I was not only a scholar

who saw it. in training, I was becoming a collector as well. Like a

After grad school, I moved back to New York City, cheerful Mephistopheles, Charlie Lovett reappeared

and stayed in touch with Charlie and Stephanie. I was around that time, and sold me a first edition Looking-

invited to attend LCSNA meetings, and I did so when Glass and Snark. The net was tightening again, and

they were held in Manhattan. Again, I never for a mo- I was now officially ensnared—or is that ensnarked? ment heard the secret cogs and wheels churning un- I went to more Society meetings and found the der the surface the whole time, never felt the invisible members to be helpful, clear-eyed, opinionated, and net that was slowly and inexorably tightening around fun. August and Clare Imholtz were always there, ready

me. Naive fellow that I was, I was content to meet cool with good ideas. Janet Jurist always had a few wise and people like Morton Cohen, Hugues Lebailly, Nina supportive words for me—and still does. Patt Griffin Demurova, Linda Sunshine, and Robert Sabuda, and Miller always got me smiling, and between us we've just enjoy the ride. In 1995, 1 performed a slightly al- ended up doing most of the readings for the Max-

tered version of my play for the Society in a school- ine Schaefer Memorial Outreach program. I can't say

room at Columbia University. To this day, I regret that enough about that program. If you haven't yet come

8 —

with us to one of the classrooms, seen and heard Car- I began to feel that it was perhaps my responsibility to roll's words work their magic all over again for a new take a tour of duty for two years. generation, and listened to the children's remarkable Almost immediately after the election, Mark questions and comments afterward, then you owe it Burstein, who had partnered with the talented An- to yourself to to the go next one you possibly can. It drew Ogus to turn our newsletter into a beautiful will do your heart good. Not to put too fine a point magazine, alerted me that, due to the recent birth on it, the pundits who say, "The Alice books weren't of his son, he needed to step down from his post as really written for children" have their heads up their editor in chief of the Knight Letter immediately. We well-read posteriors. My favorite child question so far simply couldn't find anyone who both had the proper came from our Aurora, IL visit, when an eight-year- credentials and was willing to shoulder the consid- old boy wondered aloud: "But if the Cheshire Cat erable workload, so I ended up taking on that post, can make himself invisible, how do we know he's not too, and did that for three years. Now, Charlie Lovett watching Alice the whole time?" Doctoral students, might say, "Oh, that's nothing, I did both when /was start your engines. president!" But he would Somewhere along do it with tongue in cheek, the way, I was invited because he knows that the to join the Society's Knight Letter is no longer a Board. I guess in those few pages cut-and-pasted days I still was consid- together. It's now a 50-plus- ered "young blood." page, soul-consuming le- I had never been on viathan. Twice a year, like a board of anything; clockwork, Tim would I imagined people begin circling around my in dark suits at a very computer asking, "Is that long table with a well- thing done yet?" sharpened pencil and As we were approach- small white Dixie cup ing the end of my two-year in front of each seat term, I told August I hoped sort of a corporate he was lining up a suitable mad tea party. But I replacement. He looked at agreed, and dutifully me with that quiet, genteel went to the board horror of his, and said, "But meetings. I've said I'm traditionally, our presidents a private person, but if always serve two terms!" you ask me to give my They hadn't mentioned Andrew Sellon as the Unicom in Lookin g-Glass! opinion it's like invit- that. But my respect for Au- ing a vampire into your gust and Clare is so great, and home. For better or worse, I will always say exactly what my Bostonian desire to be polite so strong, that I al-

I think. So I spoke up if I had ideas, agreed or dis- lowed myself to be put forth again. I thought Tim was agreed, and no one laughed at me or booted me off going to kill me. But his love of Henry Irving and El- the Board. Again, I thought: Maybe I'm being help- len Terry, and me, and the fact that his father used ful; I'll keep doing this for a bit. to quote Lewis Carroll regularly, all helped him sur-

And then it happened. A day came that seemed vive my second term with his customary good humor. like any other day until I received a phone call that Thank you for four years of patience, Tim! evening from August. He told me that he and Janet Last fall, it became clear that we could no lon- were the nominating committee for officers, and that ger put off overhauling our wonderful old website, they both felt I would make a good candidate to put created and maintained faithfully for many years by forth for president at the upcoming meeting. Char- Joel Birenbaum. Many members had wanted h to hap- lie and Stephanie's wildly ingenious and utterly dia- pen, but it hadn't. So, I stepped down as editor of bolical plan suddenly unfurled itself in all its wicked the Knight Letter and became leader of the website

splendor. Or . . . wait. Perhaps, I realized too late, they project. I ended up becoming the main developer as were merely the agents, and it was really August and well. Volunteering can be difficult and time-consum-

Clare all along. Charlie and Stephanie had delivered ing, as many of you know. Ask Mark Richards over in me right into their waiting hands. I know, it really is al- England. And of course, volunteering isn't]ust about ways the innocent-looking ones. Anyway, I sure hadn't doing the bits you like, it's about doing what you're seen it coming. But then I realized that most of the asked to do, and what needs to be done, when it needs people on the Board had already been president. So to be done. Happily, the vast majority of our volun- teers came through in a big way. Sometimes it was I can also share something with you now that I people I've never met, and may never meet. That's could not share with all the good folks who were able what I love about this Society. I was so impressed by to attend our fall meeting. In the weeks leading up the generosity of effort, and I was grateful, too. The to the meeting, my beloved 88-year-old father was in new website, complete with our updated blog, is truly failing health. By the day of the meeting, I was await- a collaborative project, just as it should be. I'm proud ing news from my sister that would simply go one way that in addition to classic illustrations, our new site or the other. He passed away peacefully in his sleep displays beautiful Alice-themed artworks by our own two days after the meeting. But I realized that his last members. Their art is so gorgeous that I wish I could illness may have been one of the reasons I chose to afford to buy it all and create a gallery in my house! share my story with you all, just as Charlie Wilcox's ill-

But in a way, our site is that gallery, and this way we're ness so affected Mr. Dodgson that he had to put pen sharing it with the world, and I'm not broke. to paper and acknowledge the possible existence of So in closing, here's the crucial thing you need to Boojums. My father was the man who gave me that understand about the effect Mr. Dodgson has had on Talespinners LP. He was the man who used to quote my life: I'm not by nature a selfless person. I'm also Lewis Carroll freely to us children with a twinkle in no one special; I'm just someone who used to sit in his eye. Who was always putting a good book in my the very seats you sit in when you come to one of our path, under the correct assumption that I would de- meetings. Yet for the last four years, I have had before vour it. Who loved a good story as much as anyone me a larger goal: to do right by all of you, and most I've ever known. What message did he leave behind? importantly to do right by Mr. Dodgson. I genuinely Don't just sit in the chair. Participate, volunteer, share appreciate all the opportunities for learning that I've your own stories, and mentor the next generation in had over the last four years. Looking back, I could the love of great writing. Don't assume that someone point to the frustrations and challenges, but I would else will. Do it today. prefer to point to the triumphs, and most of all to the The King of Hearts gave even more helpful ad- fact that, as a group, we made it past many challenges vice than the Cheshire Cat, of course: "go on till you to arrive at where we are today. I feel that by working come to the end: then stop." For, whatever this four- together over the past four years, we've all come a few year dream has meant, I've walked long enough, and steps closer to meeting Mr. Dodgson. And in a mor- it's my time to stop. Mr. Dodgson once wrote that dant way, he would no doubt agree! But then, I also "There is a sadness at coming to the end of anything don't kid myself; one way or another, most of it would in life." I would add that there is also peace. And grati- probably have happened without me, because you're tude. Thank you all. I wouldn't have missed it for all a good bunch. So I will just say that while I've been the tea in Wonderland. president, we've gotten somewhere. As the Cheshire

Cat says, "you're sure to do that, if you only walk long enough."

Rhymes With Orange Hilary B. Price

wm\m

lO g^yy^' ^ '^^ li^ ^ Contemporary Sylvie and Bruno Reviews: A FURTHER CONCATENATION CLARE IMHOLTZ

^^V, ^^^^ ^^^ ^

Continuing a series begun in KL 62, present- tried to doff the sock and don the buskin; but except ed here are nine contemporary reviews of in the Preface, which seems modelled on A.K.H.B.,** Sylvie and Bruno (SB), ten of SB Concluded, and treats, among other things, of expurgated edi- two of both books, two of the People's edition (1898), tions of Shakespeare, the morality of field sports, in- and five of The Story of Sylvie and Bruno (1904), an spiration and dreams, and the ancient ideas of the abridged version prepared by Carroll's brother Wil- afterworld, he has fortunately failed, and Sylvie and fred. The reviews are lively, for the most part, and the Bruno move in the same mad world, the world of top- writers' comments show a vast divide, from ecstatic to sy-turvydom governed by the logic of Dreamland, as

withering. It is interesting that the characters of Sylvie "Alice." Who but the author of "Alice," or a plagiarist, and Bruno, particularly Bruno, are appreciated, even would have written? — when the books as a whole are not. "He thought he saw an elephant. publishers' circular (U.K.) DECEMBER That practiced on a fife 31, 1889, ; p. 58 He looked again and found it was

SB is listed under New Works, with a sort of mini-re- A letter from his wife ; view: Odd ideas and fragments of dialogue made into At length I realize, he said. a kind of story, the scene oscillating between fairy- The bitterness of life." land and this world of ours, upon the many weak- Even in "Alice" there was an undertone of mel- nesses and conceits of which the author is somewhat ancholy, and "Sylvie and Bruno" is composed almost severe. [What a fascinating little review this is: it focuses wholly in the minor key; but there are flashes of the on oddity and morals and doesn't even attempt to describe same delightful humour—"'Remember,' says Sylvie, the book's narrative ("a kind ofstory"), characters, intended 'it's the early bird that picks up the worm.' 'It may, if it audience, poems, humor, etc.] likes!' Bruno said, with a slight yawn; 'I don't like eat-

JOURNAL OF EDUCATION (U.K.) JANUARY 1, 189O, ing worms one bit. I always stop in bed until the early P. 30 bird has picked them up!'" Mr. Tenniel's mantle has "I do not know if 'Alice in Wonderland' was an original fallen on Mr. Furniss, and the illustrations are not the

story—I was, at least, no conscious imitator in writing least charming part of the book. * it—but I do know that, since it came out, something The quotations are from (1) Carroll, Preface to SB; (2) Browning, "Popularity" (except that the last half of the last like a dozen storybooks have appeared on identically line should read "claret crowns his cup"); (3) Tennyson, the same pattern. The path I timidly explored—be- from his poem tlius titled. lieving myself to be 'the first that ever burst into that ** A reference to Arthur Kennedy Hutchison Boyd, a Scottish silent sea' is a beaten high-road: all the wayside — now cleric and author oi Recreations of a Country Parson (1862), a flowers have long ago been trampled into the dust: book filled with serious and moralistic reflections, which his initials and it would be courting disaster for me to attempt he contributed serially to Eraser's Magazine •m\h that style again." attached.

"Stokes hints blue, straight he turde eats: PUNCH (U.K.) JANUARY 4, 189O, VOL. 98, P. lO "Nokes prints blue, champagne crowns his feasts" Once upon a time Mr. Lewis Carroll wrote a mar- "Flower in the crannied wall." velously grotesque, fantastic, and humorous book called Alice in Wonderland, and on another occasion Tennyson, Browning, Lewis Carroll,* one queru- he wrote Through the Looking-Glass, in which Alice reap- lously high, one deeply, sadly low, all echo the same peared, and then the spring of Mr. Lewis Carroll's complaint. It is a world of imitators, copyists, plagia- fanciful humour apparendy dried up, for he has rists. But if we may borrow a CarroUian turn, because done nothing since worth mentioning in the same another has borrowed your skin, it is none the easier breath with his first two works; and if his writings for that to leap out of your own skin. Our author has

11 — —

have been by comparison watery; unlike water, they MONTHLY PACKET (U.K.) MARCH 1, 189O, NO. Ill, have never risen by inherent quality to their original P. 266

level. Of his latest book, called Sylvie and Bruno, I can Spider Isn't it delightful? Here's another of the Lewis make neither head nor tale. It seems a muddle of all Caroll [sic] books, Sylvie and Bruno.

sorts, including a little bit of Bible thrown in. It will be Arachne. Is it as quaintly droll as the rest? I suppose we

bought, because Lewis Carroll's name is to it, and have yet to prove whether there are comicalities

it will be enjoyed for the sake of Mr. Furniss's excel- that stick in one's memory like 'The Mock Turtle,'

lent illustrations, but for no other reason that I can or the Jabberwock on the Conventional signs in

see. I feel inclined to carol to Carroll, "O don't you the Map.

remember sweet Alice?" and, if so, please be good S. There is a gardener given to singing rhymes that enough to wake her up again, if you can. give one a vehement inclination to parody, as for instance [The reviewer quotes the "He thought he THE INDEPENDENT (U.S.) FEBRUARY 20, 189O, saw a banker's clerk " stanza.] VOL. 42, NO. 2151, P. 21 And the picture, by Harry Furniss, is such a Whether or not this book will delight children is de- delightful mixture of banker's clerk and hippo pendent on the fashion with children when it comes The story is an odd mixture, the wild, droll, fairy to their hands; for we all know how amusement runs part coming as a dream before a more matter- in epidemics among the bright little ones; but it of-fact set of scenes with a young doctor, who is seems to us that there must be a sort of perennial and hopelessly in love with a Lady Muriel, bringing in universal fascination in pages so filled with admiring some graver thoughts. There is a preface in which oddities, mirth-provoking incidents and engaging some other thoughts and wishes are brought in, drollery. Lewis Carroll is a name beloved of children, one for a Children's Shakespeare, which is all and grown-up folks as well, and this hotch-potch en- very well, but another for a Children's Bible, leav- tided Sylvie and Bruno is not the least amusing of his ing out all the Judgments, such as the Flood. You works. Nor is it merely amusing; the receptive young don't think that's right, do you? mind will take many valuable impressions from its pag- A. Certainly not! A child will not love God the more es and catch vivid glimpses of things worth knowing, truly or nobly for not knowing the fear of Him. along with kaleidoscopic combinations of the most It is not the parent who never punishes who is brilliant absurdities of humor. The book is beautifully most respected or loved, and even for a child the printed, attractively bound, and contains forty-six il- outlook is very imperfect that does not include lustrations by Harry Furniss; but no beauty of print the doom and guilt of sin. Indeed, without that, or of binding or of pictures can leave so deliciously where would be the need of any redemption. I pure and lasting an impression as comes with reading am sorry that should be in the book which is sure such a sketch as that where Sylvie chooses between to be everywhere read and loved. the jewel hearts offered her by the old King. MILWAUKEE SENTINEL (U.S.) MARCH lO, 189O, P. 4 THE BOOK BUYER (U.S.) MARCH 189O, VOL. 7, NO. 2, "Here's richness," indeed, for the little folk, and big P. 65. [Includes illustration, "The Professor's Explanation" folk too, for that matter Sylvie and Bruno are the most (from p. 24)] . delightful child-fairies or fairy children that ever were Lewis Carroll, the author of the famous "Alice in Won- seen and are bound to be loved as, perhaps, never derland," gives us in Sylvie and Bruno another book were fairies loved before. As in "Alice in Wonderland," that will delight the young folks. Mr. Carroll has made Mr Carroll strikes a new vein in this story, which is a a new departure in his story writing, feeling that so trifle puzzling at the first plunge into its absurdities, many books have appeared on the same pattern as but the author's fancy once caught, the charm of the "Alice in Wonderland," that it would be courting disas- idea increases with every page, till one is ready to wish ter to attempt that style again. There are some droll that the droll conceits and flights of pure unadulter- characters in the book, a musical gardener among ated nonsense might, like Tennyson's brook, "go on them, who supplies funny verses. The little girl and forever." That there is much more of the same sort in boy, Sylvie and Bruno, have some strange adventures that fertile brain of Lewis Carroll, we cannot doubt, while on their way to Fairyland. They met the King of and we hope that he will not long keep us out of the Dogland—an enormous New-Foundland—surround- enjoyment of it. It is hard work to write books, we are ed by his entire court. What a grand dog-show that told, but we find it difficult to believe this of anything must be! The book will never have it so. The illustra- that flows as easily, as gracefully, and so infectiously as tions by Harry Furniss are humorous and entertain- these felicitous phantasies seem to flow from Mr. Car- ing. (Macmillan, 12mo, $L50). roll's pen, and we may consequently be excused for teasing for "more" as soon as we have fairly devoured the one before us. A true child always loves fairies.

12 and these particular fairies are, as we have said, such early success. The forthcoming volume is a sequel or unique specimens, so perfectly adorable, that every second part to "Sylvie and Bruno"—a story which had child will be moved to sympathize with them and to its merits, but which was not to be compared in any desire to emulate them in their little experiences and way with that of the charming Alice. Sylvie's sweet example will no doubt give courage to LUDGATE ILLUSTRATED MAGAZINE (U.K.) many a wayward heart. NOVEMBER 1893, NO. 6, P. 554 THE BOOKMAN (U.K.) FEBRUARY 1893, VOL. 3, NO. 17, Fortunately, a few books stand out from the flood of PP. 151-153 commonplace. Lewis Carroll, for example, has given "Recollections of Lewis Carroll." [An overview ofDodg- us "Sylvie and Bruno, Concluded," a delightful med-

son (there is no attempt to shield his identify) apparently ley of nonsense and wisdom. The first is perhaps less written by someone personally familiar with him and even conspicuous than in former books from the same

more so with the Liddells; it includes thoughts on the Alices, pen, and the last rather more. There is nothing in

Snark, and SB; and on Dodgson 's relationships with chil- the new volume quite equal in ridiculousness to "The

dren. Here are the comments on SB.] Walrus and the Carpenter," but it contains much that

'Sylvie and Bruno' has been illustrated with Harry will make people of all ages laugh; and a hearty laugh

Furniss's usual grace and charm. In this last work, in this age of grim seriousness is a thing for which all which has proceeded within recent years from Mr. sane folks will be genuinely grateful.—John A. Steuart Dodgson's pen, the humour of his earUer writings is NEW YORK TRIBUNE (u.S.) DECEMBER 17, 1893, P. I9 rather wanting. A certain amount of refreshing non- Another new story by Lewis Carroll, being part sec- sense is still to be found, but distinctly inferior to what ond of "Sylvie and Bruno," has been published by he has given us before Macmillan & Co. It is a charming book, with many

"He thought he saw a Buffalo illustrations. It is a work intended for children, but it Upon the chimney-piece can be read with equal pleasure by older people. ;

He looked again, and saw it was LITERARY ERA ( U.S.) JANUARY 1894, VOL. 1, NO. 1, His sister's husband's niece," etc., P-49 with the variations upon the same refrain which [ This review is reprinted from the Literary World (Lon- run through the story, are scarcely to be compared to don). A review from the Literary World (Boston) was re- four lines of the 'Snark,' or to any of the dit- any out published in KL 78.] ties in either of the of 'Alice.' books It is difficult to decide whether most to be delighted a literary point of view, moreover, it is to be From that Lewis Carroll—as the author of "Alice in Won- a story which combines a fairy questioned whether derland" chooses to be called— has given us another tale as well as more with a quite grown-up romance book, or to regret that he has loaded it with so much since it serious matter can ever be a complete success, that harmonizes not at all with clever nonsense and

must always remain doubtful whether it was intended the pretty story of the two little fairies. There was a for little ones or their elders. The fairy-land portion story about Lewis Carroll, some time ago, which may of 'Sylvie and Bruno,' woven in in the form of dreams, or may not be entirely apocryphal, that when com- is as charming as anything that the author has yet writ- manded by the Queen to send a copy of his next ten, but none the less this latest story is never likely to book, as "Alice in Wonderland" was so delightful, he rate, 'Alice.' be as popular with the children, at any as complied, and sent a mathematical treatise! That is At the same time, it must be remembered that 'Sylvie what he does to us throughout the Sylvie and Bruno writ- and Bruno' is a more serious undertaking, and volumes. Those who remember the first volume will ten with a deeper purpose than anything which Mr. know what to expect. All the old characters re-appear Dodgson has before attempted. The real interest of with their charming oddities, the Professor, the Other the book, indeed, lies in the fact that it is the work Professor, the disagreeable Uggug, and all the others. of his later years, and gives us some idea of the man The gardener gives us only one more of his "second of whom so litde is now known. In the long preface, sights." [The reviewer quotes the "Argument" stanza of he gives us his views upon many things in life, and "The Gardener's Song. "] upon the possible nearness of death, and the story is But the Other Professor recites a most amusing throughout largely influenced by the deep religious "Pig-tale"—a ballad of the death of a pig who imitates feeling which has always been one of Mr. Dodgson's the jump of a frog, and the "Introductory Verses,"

strongest characteristics. . . which come at the end, have something like the clev-

er touch which has made the Snark so famous. [ The NEW YORK TRIBUNE (U.S.) OCTOBER 9, 1893, P. 8 reviewer quotes three stanzas of "Pig-Tale. "\ [prepublication notice] But we miss the former brilliance of these jingles, The author of "Alice's Adventures" has written a new the longest piece in the book is distinctly a failure, book, but we can hardly hope for a repetition of his

13 — —— — '

and it is a pity that Lewis Carroll should have taken up with bits of pure fun that when we would protest the old timeworn mother-in-law joke for his subject. we find ourselves unexpectedly in a burst of laugh-

The Professor's lecture is very amusing, though we ter. The present volume resumes the story of 'Sylvie doubt if children will quite appreciate all the humor, and Bruno,' where the first volume, published four which is often, as in the theory of ever-running trains, or five years' ago, left it off. The author, wandering in somewhat mathematical and scholastic. But our fault Kensington Gardens, passes into the 'eerie' state and with the book is that it is compounded of so many meets with Sylvie and Bruno, and the first chapter is elements. devoted to talks with them. Bruno with his comical,

yet sharp and shrewd remarks, is a fascinating litde publishers' circular (U.K.) JANUARY I3, 1894, fellow. His 'lessons' may be quoted as serving to show pp. 54—55 [Includes illustration "Her Imperial Highness what he is like. is Surprised, "p. 326.] Those readers who were children when 'Alice in Won- 'There's only three lessons to do,' said Syl- derland' and 'Through the Looking-Glass' first came vie, 'Spelling and Geography, and Singing.' out look with peculiar interest for later work from the 'Not Arithmetic?' I said. pen of Mr. Lewis Carroll. They have recollections of 'No, he hasn't a head for Arithmetic ' such hours of unalloyed delight that even the chance 'Course I haven't,' said Bruno. 'Mine of renewed pleasure of the same sort stirs up eager head's for hair I haven't got a lot of heads!' anticipations. ' — and he can't learn his Multiplication- It is therefore with lively anticipations that the table "I like History ever so much better,' handsome volume which has just been issued by Bruno remarked. — Messrs. Macmillan under the title of 'Sylvie and Bru- 'Oo has to repeat the Muddlecome table

' no Concluded,' will be taken up. Before commencing 'Well, and you have to repeat to read it we turn over the leaves wondering if we shall 'No, 00 hasn't!' Bruno interrupted. 'His- light upon any verses half as good as 'The Walrus and tory repeats itself, the Professor said so!' the Carpenter.' Almost at once we open at page 14, Sylvie was arranging some letters on a where there is a delicious song in Mr. Carroll's best board—E-V-I-L. 'Now, Bruno,' she said, 'what vein—'a very peculiar song: seeing the chorus to each does that speW}' verse comes in the middle, instead of at the end.' Bruno looked at it, in solemn silence, for

It tells how a minute. 'I knows what it doosn't spell!' he

said at last. 'King Fisher courted Lady Bird 'That's no good,' said Sylvie. 'What does it Sing Beans, sing Bones, sing Butterflies,' spell?' and how he draws attention to his 'noble head,' Bruno took another look at the mysteri- his 'beard as white as curd,' his 'expressive eyes.' She ous letters. 'Why, it's "LIVE" backwards!' he then replies in three verses that have perhaps a wee exclaimed. (I thought it was, indeed.) bit too much point in them. Let us quote one verse: 'How didyou manage to see thaL^' said Sylvie.

'I just twiddled my eyes,' said Bruno, 'and '"Oysters have beards," said Lady Bird then I saw directly. Now may I sing "The King- Sing Flies, sing Frogs, sing Fiddle-strings! Fisher's Song"?' "I love them, for I know 'Geography next,' said Sylvie, 'Don't you They never chatter so: know the Rules?' They would not say one single word 'I thinks that there oughtn't to be such a Not if you crowned them kings!"' ' lot of Rules, Sylvie. I thinks Further on in the book we find a 'Pig-Tale' in Then comes the song which we quoted at the rhyme with, characteristically enough, 'introductory beginning of this notice, and the chapter ends with verses' at the beginning, in the middle, and at the end. the statement that 'human life seems on the whole to Having thus tasted casually, as it were, we settle contain more of sorrow than of joy.' This reflection down to the quiet enjoyment of the book. And let us might on the whole have been omitted. Proceeding, say at once that on the whole the reading of it has de- we follow for a time the fortunes of the Lady Muri- lighted us, though in a fairy story we could dispense el and her lover, the argumentative doctor. Most of with discussions on ethics, on charity, on 'fate, free- the chapters are, however, lightened and made truly will, foreknowledge absolute,' and similar topics. enjoyable by the introduction of the fairy children, Mr. Carroll's earlier books, it is probable, owe Sylvie and Bruno. 'Mein Herr,' too, is an extremely their very great success to the fact that they are real pleasant old fellow despite the satirical observations children's books. In his later work he is perhaps a on men and things which Mr. Carroll has put into his trifle too deep and satirical for childish understand- mouth. 'Bruno's Picnic' is an extremely taking piece ings; yet the didactic and ironical parts are so mixed of writing; the tale of the three foxes that eat one an-

14 other until there is only a mouth left, out of which one. Perhaps some philosopher can tell us why chil- Bruno draws the three foxes again, is told in Mr. Car- dren love fairy stories. The single word imagination roll's pleasantest fashion—that is to say, in the true does not quite answer the question. Are we indeed of vein of 'faery.' The cat that disappeared in one of the —"Such stuff as dreams are made of?" earlier stories until nothing was left but its grin has a RICHMOND DISPATCH (U.S.) FEBRUARY l8, 1894, parallel in this book, where a dog is made invisible all P. 1 1 [Some of the quotations are not quite right; strangest but his tail. That in itself is sufficient to indicate the is: "the human mind is a sausage, and all we ask is, how charm of 'Sylvie and Bruno Concluded.' Sequels are much indigestible stuff can be crammed into death!" This notoriously wr^successful, but perhaps that is as much should read "crammed into it!"] the fault of the readers as of the writers. If the reader Lewis Carroll is an artist in appreciation and an art- be inclined to resent the long discussions on human ist in style, a student of nature, a student of char- conduct in the present volume, it is only because he acter, and an incisive critic. The fairies Sylvie and or she is anxious to hear more from Mr. Carroll about Bruno, and Mein Herr, and the Professor serve the fairyland, more about Sylvie and Bruno, to have more author in giving play to the most whimsical fancies of those nonsense verses like 'The Kingfisher's Song' and grotesque suggestions, which, however, always and the 'Pig-Tale.' With one stanza from the latter we point a moral, and are the framework of some gem must close. [The reviewer quotes the stanza "Little birds of thought, and are frequently brought into contrast arefeeding /Justices with jam. "\ with pathos and sharp realism. We fall in love imme- Mr. Harry Furniss's illustrations are truly delight- diately with Sylvie and Bruno. They are real children ful, those around the 'Pig-Tale' being indeed, as the to us. The one fascinates by her sweetness and the author calls them, 'Triumphs of artistic ingenuity." other captivates by his child wisdom and philosophy.

BOSTON DAILY ADVERTISER (u.S.) FEBRUARY 1, 1894, Mr. Carroll says that some of the phrases he has put into the mouths of Sylvie and Bruno were caught

We happen to know quite a company of little folk and from children, and we can well believe him. they are only representative of a great many larger The manner in which Sylvie and Bruno, unseen, companies who will not welcome the last word of the save by the author, bring Muriel and Arthur together above caption [i.e., "Concluded"]. Sylvie and Bruno is a most happy conceit, and nothing could be more have become household words, veritable realities touching than their reformation of Willie. Mein Herr in thousands of homes. The little people have been says for us things we have often thought and felt but waiting eagerly for what wzis coming, and they have could not put into words, and satirizes in an inimita- in the present volume by Lewis Carroll a rare treat, ble way some of the "fads," foibles, and humbuggery but it is a treat coupled with a disappointment which of the age. is expressed in this one word "concluded." Mr. Car- The theory on which the story is constructed is roll, we take it, has by no means written himself out, very interesting, and, as given in the preface, is an but Mr. Carroll is an artist, and he has now finished index to the range of fancy indulged. Mr. Carroll says, the picture which was in his mind when, 20 years ago, "the story is an attempt to show what might possibly he published, under the title, "Bruno's Revenge," a happen, supposing that fairies really existed and that little story for "Aunt Judy's Magazine." The picture, they were sometimes visible to us and we to them, with the delightful volume now brought out by the and that they were sometimes able to assume human

Macmillans, is complete, and we can give it no high- form, and supposing also that human beings some- er praise, than to say it is, in every sense, a finished times become conscious of what goes on in the fairy

15 — —

world—by actual transference of their immaterial es- de ones the greatest delight, and at the same time the sence such as we meet with in Esoteric Buddhism. reader, assuming he is one of mature years, will find "I have supposed a human being capable of food for reflection in every phrase. The illustrations various psychical states, with varying degrees of con- are as fantastic, but as suggestive as the text, and with-

sciousness, as follows: (a) the ordinary state, with al as artistic as is Mr. Carroll's literary workmanship. no consciousness of the presence of fairies; (b) the BOOK NEWS (U.S.) MARCH 1894, NO. I39, P. 288 "eerie" state, in which, while conscious of actual sur- "Apres I'Agesilas, Helas! Mais apres I'Attila, Hola!"* roundings, he is also conscious of the presence of fair- This epigram befits the "Sylvie and Bruno" and, now, ies; (c) a form of trance, in which, while unconscious the "Sylvie and Bruno Concluded" of Lewis Carroll, of actual surroundings, and apparently asleep, his madder and madder of the productions of the author immaterial essence migrates to other scenes, in the of "Alice in Wonderland." The decline in humor is actual world, or in fairyland, and is conscious of the positively melancholy, and to read either of these vol- presence of fairies. umes is nothing short of a penance. They are really "I have also supposed a fairy to be capable of mi- sermons, or speculations about life and conduct and grating from fairyland into the actual world, and of the hereafter, aimed at grown folks, and are most un- assuming, at pleasure, a human form; and also to be fit reading for children. The nonsense verse in the capable of various psychical states—viz: (a) the ordi- concluding part is, with scarcely an exception, in- nary state, with no consciousness of the presence of capable of exciting a smile. Mr. Furniss, though his Human beings; (b) a sort of "eerie" state, in which he task as an illustrator was harder, has fallen far short is conscious, if in the actual world, of the presence of of Tenniel in the immortal Alices. In this final volume actual human beings; if in fairyland, of the presence of "Sylvie and Bruno" many questions of the day are of the immaterial essences of human beings. discussed, and those who are curious to know what "I believe that there is life everywhere—not mate- views Mr. Carroll takes of them may consult it for rial only, not merely what is palpable to our senses themselves. They will probably agree that in his hands but immaterial and invisible as well. We believe in the thing does not become a trumpet. our own immaterial essence—call it soul, or spirit, or In quoting Boileau's epigram upon Corneille's late plays, what you will. Why should not other similar essences the reviewer suggests that Carroll's powers are failing as exist around us, not linked on to a visible and mate- Corneille's supposedly had. rial body? Did not God make this swarm of happy in- SYDNEY MORNING HERALD (AUSTRALIA) MARCH sects, to dance in this sunbeam for one hour of bliss, 3, for no other object, that we can imagine, than to swell 1894 It is for many young people and some children of the sum of conscious happiness? And where shall we older growth a happy day which brings forth a new dare to draw the line, and say 'He has made all these Lewis Carroll. Sylvie and Bruno is and no more?'" book by Concluded the second part of a work projected by Mr. Carroll The difference between perfect mechanical cor- in 1873, and the first installment published in 1889, rectness in a musical rendition and the soul of music the concluding part being that now to hand. It is is brought out to its fullest in the chapter in which the a charmingly-presented volume of more than 400 performance of the brilliant society player is followed pages, illustrated out of Mr. Harry Furniss 's wealth of by that of Sylvie. quaint laughter-making draughtsmanship. But still Here is a characteristic outburst from Mein Herr: it is not the Carroll that we knew, not the creator of "Mein Herr threw up his hands wildly. 'What, again?' Alice. There are things in the book delightful, and he cried. 'I thought it was dead, fifty years ago! Oh some of the nonsense verses are as good as of old this Upas tree of Competitive Examinations! Beneath "The Pig and the Pump," "What Tottles Meant," "The whose deadly shade all the original genius, all the ex- Little Man that had a Little Gun," a capital parody of haustive research, all the untiring life-long diligence Swinburne, and a final verse of the gardener's song. by which our fore-fathers have so advanced human But Mr. Lewis Carroll has now taken himself very knowledge, must slowly but surely wither away, and seriously indeed. He is convinced that Mr. Ruskin's give place to a system of cookery, in which the human mantle is on the point of falling upon him, so that mind is a sausage, and all we ask is, how much indi- Sylvie and Bruno become priggish and the voice of gestible stuff can be crammed into death!'" the preacher is heard, as much apropos as it would This and much more Mein Herr says about "cram- be in an interlude of Punch and The preface is ming" and kindred evils connected with the conduct Judy. amazing and amusing, both unintended. of institutions of learning might be studied to advan- tage by college authorities. Bits of the book here and there may be read to

children with the assurance that they will give the lit-

16 — ^ ^

eJ2^^i?^ C^9^l€i^e^ ^S/j^^d^ti^ CHRIS MATHESON

T=*^i^yl- ^

hrough the Looking-Glass begins with pain. prised: "It quite seemed to take her breath away." But

There is an aching quality to Lewis Carroll's it doesn't take long; a few more completely gratuitous prologue: insults from the flowers, and Alice's back starts to go up. All of the sticky sweetness she's been coated with Though time be fleet, and I and thou up to this point suddenly burns off, and she's right Are half a life asunder, back to being that steely, unsentimental little girl we Thy loving smile will surely hail loved so much in the first book. Within seconds, Alice The love-gift of a fairy tale. is threatening to kill the flowers. The insults fly for a

I have not seen thy sunny face, while more and it's hugely funny, a little girl and a Nor heard thy silver laughter. bunch of flowers insulting each other. In truth, Alice

No thought of me shall find a place is more polite to these flowers than they deserve.

In thy young life's hereafter Alice then notices that Looking-Glass world is es- sentially a giant chessboard interspersed with trees, Carroll misses Alice desperately. He knew that hedges, and brooks, a perfect blend of the mathemat- this would happen. But still ... it hurts. And so he ical and the organic—of Dodgson and Carroll, you does the only thing he can do; he returns to the "Tale might say. The rest of the book will revolve around begun in other days, /When summer suns were glow- — the chess match that is occurring and Alice's some- ing " But this second book will be steeped in melan- what surprising announcement that she wishes to be choly and profound loneliness. a Queen. The story begins with Alice's cat, Dinah, who has The announcement feels odd at first, but then had kittens now. Clearly time has passed, yet Alice you think, well, of course that's what Alice wants. herself does not seem to have aged. Alice rambles on Haven't all her experiences in both books on some to Dinah and her kittens for a while, but the impa- level been leading to this? Hasn't this desire to be a tient, sharp-tongued litde girl we knew so well in Won- Queen been implicit from the very start of Wonder- derland is gone, replaced by a tender, chatty little dear. land^ Why did Alice go down the rabbit-hole, if not to It's evident that Carroll does not actually know Alice discover something about herself? Why did she enter anymore; he is writing a gauzy, sentimental memory Looking-Glass world if not to keep searching? Hasn't of her. this wish been the subtext of everything we've read so It's not a promising start. You find yourself won- far? From this point on, the drama of the book will be dering: Is this even a good idea? clear: Alice wants to grow up, and the book essentially Then Alice enters Looking-Glass world, climb- tries to talk her out of it. Don't do it, one character ing right through the mirror, and the book suddenly after another will say to her. But it won't work; Alice erupts to life as she reads "Jabberwocky." The poem will not be deterred. is violent, playful, ridiculous. In a split second, we are At certain moments, Looking-Glass is far more back in the joyful presence of Lewis Carroll. It's un- surreal than Wonderland. Here, for instance, with no canny, thrilling, deeply moving—even the language explanation—and I mean none—the Red Queen is itself is transformed. What had been cautious and tep- suddenly gone and Alice is on a train. A little voice id instandy becomes wild, mad, and beautiful. Alice starts speaking in Alice's ear, and now, suddenly, we starts to talk to the flowers, who are extremely rude. are under a tree, speaking to the Gnat. Carroll writes "I wish you could talk," Alice says. "We can talk," says a these startling transitions with a loose, easy certainty. Tiger-lily, "when there's anybody worth talking to." The tentative quality of the first 25 pages is long gone. It's starding—it happens so fast. (I wonder Carroll is rolling now, a virtuoso of dark, absurd po- whether it startied Carroll himself.) Even Alice is sur- etry; the great explorer is back in the land that he discovered, seeking out new regions. Chris Matheson is a film writer and director whose credits

include the Bill ijf Ted movies. This is a companion to his article in KL 84.

17 —

The Gnat is generally friendly but, like almost ev- As the monstrous crow frightens off the Tweedles,

eryone else in Carroll-land, is also prickly, defensive, the White Queen arrives, chasing her shawl. A mov- and borderline rude. It works every time: cute, whim- ing moment occurs when Alice, feeling lonely, starts

sical characters who don't act cute or whimsical at all, to cry, and the Queen is genuinely concerned. "Oh,

who act, in fact, like vaguely unpleasant relatives or don't go on like that! . . . Consider what a great girl coworkers. Almost every single conversation Alice you are. Consider what a long way you've come to-

has in the two books is essentially a failure. People day." Clearly, Carroll would love for Alice not to grow talk past each other, exchange insults, threaten each up, to stay a child, his Alice. But he knows that's not

other, and it's comedy gold every damn time. possible. He knows that this child must, like all chil-

In Tenniel's drawing, Tweedledee and Tweedle- dren, grow up. Isn't this what the White Queen is tell-

dum look surly, suspicious, worried, like two odd little ing Alice? You can't go back, it doesn't work. You're

boys—^which is what they are, I think. Alice has pro- a wonderful girl, you're doing great, keep going. It claimed a desire to grow up; now it's time that she must have been hard for Carroll to write this; that he meets, essentially, a couple of "boys her own age." did so speaks to the genuine love he felt for Alice and All the male characters she's met so far have been the true inner grace he possessed. "adults": the Hatter, the Caterpillar, the Cheshire The surreal transformations in Looking-Glass Cat, even the White Rabbit. Dum and Dee hug, then continue, even more effortless and poetic than the

shake Alice's hands, and, in a second, they are all ones in Wonderland. Maybe the difference is this: Won- dancing around in a circle. Suddenly there's music derland, for all its astounding beauty and laugh-out- being played by a nearby tree, and they're all singing, loud humor, did not have the same thematic drive

"Here we go round the mulberry bush." that Looking-Glass has. Looking-Glass, from the start, is

It's a glorious, intoxicating moment, Alice and built around the struggle between two competing im- these two fat boys spinning in a circle together, sing- pulses: "don't grow up, stay as you are" versus "I know ing. The carefree joys of childhood are apparently you have to grow up, and you will do so beautifully, still available to Alice. Dum and Dee get out of breath my dear." It's this thematic grounding, this absolute and, as quickly as they started dancing, they stop and clarity of purpose, that allows Carroll to make creative just stand there looking at each other. This is another leaps the likes of which no one had ever made be- of Carroll's signature comedic moves: focus on the fore—or has made since, when you think of it. Only weird, stilted pauses that occur when none of the a great genius could make these strange bounds for- characters knows what to say. ward without any trace of the arbitrary or random, Having danced together, the three children have but rather with a sort of mysterious inexorability. warmed up to each other and decide next to recite Humpty Dumpty is yet another dazzling come- poetry. This is another classic Carroll move: stop the dic creation. He is pompous, rude, smug, suspicious, story and have the characters recite a poem or sing a foolish. Carroll has the recipe down now; mix bom- song. The poem the boys recite, "The Walrus and the bastic ego with pathetic weakness, and you get come-

Carpenter," is one of Carroll's greatest. It seems, at dy. You'd think these blustery buffoons would get old, first, to be inspired nonsense: "The sun was shining but they never do. on the sea . . . And this was odd, because it was/The Right off the bat, Dumpty brisdes at being called middle of the night." But like all the greatest non- an egg. He finds it "very provoking" (which is much sense (and there isn't much, by the way: Un Chien An- funnier to me than "provocative," though I can't hon- dalou, Duck Soup, etc.), it's not, of course, nonsense estly say why) . Alice tries to be nice to him, but Dumpty at all. is dismissive. We get another one of those wonderfully The Walrus and the Carpenter pretend to be awkward pauses and then, as happens periodically, Al- kindly and sympathetic figures but are, in truth, insa- ice's acid tongue returns (she is a tad bit nicer than tiable gluttons who kill and eat children. To call this she was in Wonderland, but not much). She whispers poem the strongest warning to Alice so far beware of to herself the famous poem, "Humpty Dumpty sat on adult men, go back!—would be an understatement. a wall:/Humpty Dumpty had a great fall." "The Walrus and the Carpenter" is startling—dark This gets Dumpty's attention. He demands to and brutal and utterly unsentimental. Alice's reaction know Alice's name, then tells her it's a "stupid name."

to it is equally fascinating. She seems not to have got- He then brags about his own name and "handsome

ten the point. If she did, then she is an unusual girl, shape." This is wonderful. Here we have a fat, obnox- because her sympathies, amazingly, lie not with the ious egg-man sitting fecklessly on a high wall (that he poor little oyster children, but rather with the Walrus will soon fall off!) and, for no apparent reason, insult-

and Carpenter. "I like the Walrus best," is her immedi- ing Alice. This, I find myself thinking, is what's actu-

ate response, followed shortly by "I like the Carpenter ally, truly, deeply funny. best." (Never "I like the oysters best.") Alice is concerned for Dumpty, sitting up there

on that narrow wall. Is the subtext here that Alice — — —

is starting to act like a mother with this belligerent, Here's another comment on how these books, bragging little boy, just as she did with Dum and Dee? specifically the comedy within them, have been read. Dumpty, always full of himself, ignores her anxious, A great deal of energy has gone into discussing the "Don't you think you'd be safer on the ground?" "Of logic and wordplay and historical references the course I don't think so! Why, if I fall ever —did off books are so full of. And certainly, this is one perfectly which there's no chance of—but ifl did " he brags, legitimate way to read the Alice books. The problem the King has promised to help him. is that focusing so much on these cerebral aspects ig- There have been many wonderful/ terrible con- nores almost completely the overpowering emotional versations in the two books, but this is perhaps the intensity of the books. It's true, Humpty Dumpty 's greatest, most ridiculously bad of them all. song is not funny or playful or clever; it is, however, Humpty Dumpty launches into a poem that he stunningly dramatic. The veil drops for a moment, tells Alice was "written entirely for your amusement." and we get a glimpse—opaque for sure, but discern- Alice tries to get away, but Dumpty is insistent. His ible—of the true stakes of the story. Dumpty's poem poem is strange, enigmatic, but with a clearly ominous is disturbing, yet also quite moving. Carroll is not, in undertone. It is, I think, yet another warning to Alice. any way, trying to "seduce" Alice here. He is, rather, telling her to stay away from him. I sent a message to the fish: Carroll has made various veiled appearances in I told them "This is what I wish." the two books: As the White Rabbit, the unnamed

Who exactly is the "I" here? Remember, Dumpty letter writer at the Knave's trial, the unnamed older said only that the poem was written for Alice's amuse- sister, the gentleman dressed in white paper, the un- ment, not that he had written it. Beyond that, what is named "I" in Humpty Dumpty's poem. But some of it that this "I" wishes for from the little fish that can- those were perhaps unintentional. Carroll knew he not even be spoken of? It's quite obvious that Carroll was writing himself as the White Knight. It's his self- was in love with Alice—both books revolve around portrait. The scene, therefore, is highly significant: that fact—but this poem clearly suggests that that Alice and her creator together on the page at last. love had an "unspeakable" aspect to it as well. But it's a strange scene. It feels like something the book has been building up to for a long time, but I sent to them again to say now that it's happening—nothing really happens. Al- "It will be better to obey." ice and the White Knight walk along, chatting about But the fish "would not listen to advice." his inventions, with him falling off his horse, and her helping him back on, and this goes on for several pag- I took a kettle large and new, es, until they are just about to part. "And here I must Fit for the deed I had to do. leave you," the White Knight says. We are back with the Walrus and the Carpenter, And you think: Why did Carroll even bother? but this time, the homicidal impulses are more na- But then, just before they part, the White Knight ked; they are not whimsical in the least. decides to sing Alice a song because "you are sad." Al-

ice doesn't really want to hear it. (She almost never My heart went hop, my heart went thump: does; it's another one of the greatjokes of the books I filled the kettle at the pump. characters are constantly reciting poems or singing Then some one came to me and said songs to Alice that she doesn't even want to hear.)

"The little fishes are in bed." The song is "very, very beautiful," according to the White Knight. It's called—among other things Can there be any doubt what "I" is thinking of? Is "The Aged Aged Man," and when the White Knight he going to kill the little sleeping fishes and eat them? begins to sing, Alice is struck by it. In fact, Carroll Or does he have something else in mind? tells us, this scene is the most memorable thing Al- For a moment, the poem's "narrator" seems to ice experiences on her entire journey, the thing that reconsider. "Wake the fishes up!" the poem shouts. she will never forget. She stands there, "Ustening, in a Humpty Dumpty literally screams this line at Alice. half-dream, to the melancholy music." He obviously wants her to hear this. But she doesn't. The White Knight sings about meeting an old As usual, Alice misses the warning—or chooses to man, much older than himself, and asking him, "How miss the warning—completely. is it you live?" The old man's answer:

I took a corkscrew from the shelf: "... I look for butterflies I went to wake them up myself. That sleep among the wheat: mutton-pies, And when I found the door was locked, I make them into street." I pulled and pushed and kicked and knocked. And sell them in the

And when I found the door was shut,

I tried to turn the handle, but 19 "

The White Knight is not satisfied. "Come, tell me heard today have "been about fishes in some way." In how you live!" he says and thumps the old man on the truth, the only one that was about fish was Humpty

head. The old man tries to explain once again: Dumpty's, so we may infer that Alice is still thinking about that one—especially given her recent remark. ". . . when I find a mountain-rill, I think Alice is on to Carroll now; I think she's fig- I set it in a blaze;" ured out what's going on. Suddenly the banquet starts

The White Knight shakes the old man until his to descend into chaos. There is drinking, screaming;

face is blue. dishes and bottles are knocked over. Alice needs to take charge. The White Queen grabs Alice's hair. "Come, tell me how you live," I cried, "Something's going to happen!" she screams. "And what it is you do!" Phallic imagery abounds. The candles suddenly The old man's response: grow hugely tall, the bottles turn into birds—and

strangest of all, the White Queen's place is taken by a He said "I hunt for haddock's eyes piece of meat that hoarsely laughs at Alice. Among the heather bright, "I can't stand this any longer!" Alice cries. She And work them into waistcoat-buttons grabs the now doll-sized Red Queen and shakes her In the silent night." violently back and forth "with all her might." She is And suddenly the White Knight understands clearly enraged at this woman—but why? Has Alice, what's being said to him. The old man, of course, is in growing up, become a woman like the Duchess,

the White Knight himself. In Tenniel's drawing, he is shaking her baby until it became a pig?

faceless, slumped over, but look at the hair. Carroll It's a strange and disturbing exit from Looking- has been talking to himself: Glass world—^violent, angry, and seemingly irrational. Alice has grown up and become a queen, but what How will I live? she has become in order to do so is unsettling.

You will make nonsense. As Alice wakes up, she is shaking a kitten. (What

if she didn't wake up? Would she shake the kitten to No, but how will I live? death?) You will present that nonsense to the world. The fascinating thing about the final moments of

In the end, the White Knight is doing absurd, vio- the book: Alice, acting as a sort of "mother cat" to the lent things to himself. The old man, he now under- two kittens, clearly identifies with them, and not with stands, was in agony, rocking his body back and forth the fishes she heard so much poetry about. Tomor-

in misery. Carroll has seen his own future, and it is row, she tells the kittens, she'll recite "The Walrus and lonely and full of anguish. the Carpenter" to them while they eat—and they can The story is effectively over; the book could end pretend they're eating oysters.

at this moment and be completely satisfying. There In the end, then, it wasn't Alice who was an oys-

are a few intriguing moments remaining, however. ter being led to its demise. It was Carroll himself. First, there's the odd revelation of Humpty Dumpty The book ends in agony. Carroll can't stop thinking appearing "with a corkscrew in his hand." Does this of Alice.

suggest that the "I" in Dumpty's song was himself? ("I Still she haunts me, phantomwise, took a corkscrew from the shelf:/I went to wake them Alice moving under skies up myself") Alice seems to think so. "I know what he came—for," she says; "he wanted to punish the fish The greatest comedy book ever written ends in because heartbreak and anguish (which is perhaps as good a

It would be fascinating if Carroll had allowed her lesson in true comedy as there is). No one has come to finish her sentence. What would she have said? For close to topping Carroll's achievement in nearly a not giving him what he wanted? For not obeying? For century and a half since. His uncanny mixture of bril- locking him out? liant, imaginative play, deep silliness, and profound Not long after that, Alice tells the banquet table longing and pain has never been equaled.

that she finds it very strange that all the poems she's

20 ^ ^ A CARROLLIAN IN BRAZIL: ADRIANA PGLIANO ANDREW SELLON 6= MAHENDRA SINGH

^fS^£1. ^J?',,^^ ^

Part I

'he last decade has seen a growing Brazilian kl: What first interested you in Lewis Carroll?

influence in academia, business, geopolitics, ap: My interest in Carroll began when I was a little and now it seems, the world of Lewis Car- child and watched Hanna-Barbera's animated roll. Brazil's heterogeneous and youthful culture may version of Alice hundreds of times. When I was prove a positive influence upon CarroUian studies nine, I received Wonderland as a gift, with beau- and art globally—and one young Brazilian in partic- tiful illustrations that had a big impact on my ular, Adriana Peliano, seems to be the driving force imagination. This Alice of Nicolas Gilbert was behind this. Not only has she produced a staggering similar to a real, brunette girl, while the other abundance of wonderful CarroUian art, she has also characters were more like cartoons. It made me founded the Sociedade Lewis Carroll do Brasil (Lewis feel closer to Alice and her adventures. When

Carroll Society of Brazil), a critical step for Brazil and I was 12, I went to Disney World and bought a

South America in general. Cheshire Cat, still my mascot and my first Alice

We have already published some of Adriana 's collectible. At the age of 14, I received a trans- writings and artwork {KL 83, "Alice's Ad- lated adult edition with a seri- ventures on the Woodpecker Ranch"), ous preface that opened my and recently Andrew Sellon, president of mind to the huge possibilities the LCSNA, and Mahendra Singh, editor of understanding the book in of the Rectory Umbrella, conducted the unsuspected ways. After that, following two-part interview with her, to Alice grew inside me; I began be concluded in the next issue. to read more and more about CarroUian topics and other kl: Could you give us a brief account ofyour works of Carroll such as Sylvie background, your stay in the U.K., and and Bruno and the Snark, and your current professional activities ? I collected memorabilia and ap: I was born in Brasilia in 1974. I stud- different Alice editions and ied architecture and graduated in movies. I must not forget to communication with postgraduate mention my love for Carroll's studies in design and the visual arts. photographs of little girls; I first went to England in 1998 for Alice Liddell and Xie Kitchin the centenary year of Lewis Carroll's are my favorites. death in Oxford. After that I studied design in London for a month and kl: You have done so many

lived in Kent for a year while I did an Carroll-related things, several ver- MA in new media arts. sions of the Alice books, the music the exhibition I'm a designer, illustrator, visual An unnamed imagefrom Adriana 's first col- with your husband,

artist, and art teacher. I mainly work lage series, entitled Metamorphosis. She was collage art—could you give us a promoting dialogues between arts such 15 at the time and hadjust read an "adult" brief resume? edition Alice that provided som^phihsophi- as literature, the visual arts, music, and of ap: In my graduate course I did cat and psychoanalytical analyses of Carroll's theater, creating covers, posters, books, my first photographic study rep- work, ideas which interacted powerfully with search and other graphic stuff. I work as a resenting Alice in her works ,. . , . , . her simultaneous discovery of the of freelancer, usmg digital manipulation, for identity and her attendant photography, collage, and assemblage, inner crisis. I manipulated mixing different techniques to create hybrid the images in the laboratory—this was before characters, puzzles, visual games, and labyrinths learning Photoshop! Then I began an enor- of dreams such as my Alice illustrations. mous research process, both theoretical and iconographic, to produce my own illustrations.

21 I created the characters as assemblages, with a That's the most important. Wow, it's too much, plethora of symbolic objects, and then digitally isn't it? Right now I'm planning a big exhibition

manipulated these illustrations. connecting Carroll and Edward Lear. It will be a

During that time I also made an Alician cabinet of wonders! sound collage with my husband, the composer kl: In your earlier article for the Knight Letter, you and sound designer Paulo Beto (it was around explained the works ofMonteiro Lobato and how 1996, 1 think). I illustrated a book based on he introduced Lewis Carroll to Brazil. How popular Carroll's life and the Alicehooks in 2010, and is Lewis Carroll and his style of nonsense in Brazil I have just finished another project I began today ? ten years ago, to translate the original Alice's ap: Monteiro Lobato was the first translator of Alice Adventures under Ground manuscript and then rec- into Brazilian Portuguese. He noted in his intro- reate it in Portuguese, using Carroll's digitized duction that it was very hard to translate this handwriting, drawings, and even the same page book, since it had been written for the English design. It will published at be the mind. Lobato created an impor- end of this year by Scipione. tant literary adventure series I have also written three tales for Brazilian children, 17 books inspired by Alice, in which I (jTapituIo 1 where the children had adven- mixed her into the literary uni- tures with many characters of verse of different authors, such the cinema, mythology, folklore, as the Dadaist Kurt Schwitters Jjt ^car ali ^^jntods. arm, a. and literature. So he translated (the tale "Dreamchild"), and the vrrria. nd l/tfra. Ja rio^ sfm, Carroll's book and also invited ttr TuuU. pro. feXVr: a:mst ou. amazing Brazilian writer Clarice JuaS vuex tinitL n/iuu^ o Alice to visit Brazil in his own tiVfo Sujt irynS. eitara Lispector (the tale "ClaHce"). jut. books. Iwio, mas tie rzoe imAa. ^au- One of these tales became a ras t n^m t«nvtria£, moJ& yfrro. ou£. *«T-vt tt-nx livye, />«».sptt. Some translators have recre-

multimedia performance with iictf sern. ji^uraa t ^^rn. cofiytrtas t £/a inti.0 cotn^^u A ated Carroll's puns, parodies, reading, music, a. fyttitar coisiyo (t(ojeito jiu poJi,jti jut o color t^amuie and projections. and word games into Portuguese. dia J-^^' tUa. St. Sfntir f>rtgiufosa. t mtto Irtl/'J «e. o fm2.tr I wouldn't call these stories ttctr lorut jtUrlantla tit. it. m.^r^orUae vaJl-ria o esj-orft They didn't try to make literal parodies but literary montages, Jit. it. Ui,a tuJm. d.1. rruuta t,%tra.ortUnaTti) ncita, nt.m ple, popular Brazilian children's published yet. mjt&mo Aliit CamSif^trea. iaa fara da nartnat ^^nde songs. They thought it would be au.yiu. o coelha ^a/a-tu^o sax^nAo * Ac,ai.,ai. f (jOTna tstbu. I also presented an art installa- closer to Carroll's playfulness atretHaJo ' fpt-nsAndo Tto case mauk lra.rtLt, A lit*. ptr~ tion in a recent collective exhibi- ctln.lL. jai. tUvtriA ttr St tspaLtitaxU, $o' auJL naujajtit if people could understand the tion inspired by Alice, Alicidades marr\Vitb tajla iht paxictu. iruuto JUtturalj^ma^ gujLn' game. I think these translations da o caeuia iriraa. am. rtZaaca do Iralso ale toUtt,, odtaaL a.% (a portmanteau corresponding karat t. sa-ia. ttt nova tm. iisp*rat(a, ALta se itu. conht. bring the spirit of the book

in English to Alicities) , where I closer to children, but of course created a large montage titled adults usually prefer more fidel- Butterfly Tears in which Alice is ity, which sometimes loses the Thefirst chapter ofAdriana 's Portuguese inside an anatomical illustration version of the Under Ground manuscript. humor and the complexity of of a human head (a hollow skull Carroll's handwriting had been recreated in a digi the text. For example, last week, representing the rabbit hole), tal typeface. Adriana began this project in 1998 while observing Maggie Taylor's crying butterflies which drift and it should befinished and available illustration of the three sisters through space to land upon a to the public shortly. who lived in the well, I found blue cocoon. I imagined it as a the drawings on the wall rather process about inner transformations. strange. Then I realized that the word "draw" Recently I finished a series of collages a using had a double meaning, but in Portuguese that rare vintage Alice from the 1930s illustrated by disappears. the first Brazilian y4/2V^ illustrator, Fahrion. John But we have some important Brazilian Alice Some of these collages were sent to the interna- translators, and their works are very significant. tional members of our Society. "Jabberwocky" has had some creative and auda- I maintain two Carrollian blogs and also cious translations that are very exciting. Since conduct workshops where people can create the seventies we have had some more sophis- subjective metamorphic and kaleidoscopic Alices ticated translations, and some years ago the through collages, and surrealist games like Annotated Alice vr2LS published here. We also have the Exquisite Corpse all of this to answer the — some free adaptations that adapt Alice's refer- question: Who is Alice for you? You can see the ences to our popular culture, as I noted before. results online. Alice is the biggest Carrollian reference here; his photographs are also famous. We had one

22 good Sylvie and Bruno translation and one of the one publishing house in special, Cosac & Naify, Snark, which is rare and almost impossible to that has recently published a very artistic and find. At our blog people can find more Brazilian metalinguistic Alice illustrated by Luiz Zerbini.

editions of Carroll. I have done some exhibitions with my work The Brazilian public reception is a complex in galleries, museums, and the Internet. Many answer. I will base it upon my own experiences people who saw the photographs of my char-

talking to people and giving workshops about acters created by assemblages (I didn't exhibit the subject. For many people Alice is still a crazy, the illustrations) find them very intriguing and sometimes scary, sometimes funny Disney movie. exciting but don't know enough of the book to Many went recently to see the Tim Burton understand the linguistic aspects and the refer- movie; some went more for Tim Burton than for ences to the text; they have just my explanations Alice. Others just ask me if Carroll used drugs as a guide. The people who know Alice better and are suspicious of his love for girls. But some or who are more intimately familiar with art publishers have presented usually love them, gorgeous and serious editions since they propose that help people to love the games of language book in a less superficial way. and labyrinths of

I receive many e-mails from possibilities and do students preparing scholarly not permit a passive works inspired by Alice, look- understanding.

ing for a deeper understand- kl: You have several ing. stimulated Tim Burton strong motifs in your this market and the interest in Carrollian work; we'll

the book. We don't know yet start with the feminine to what extent it is a transitory motif. It's common fever or if it vnW last. Alice is amongst Carrollian

also a cult among people with artists to use Alice as an open and literary mind a symbol offeminine background, but unfortunately independence and Brazilian people are not very growth, but when you

literate in general. use this motifyou the time I have At same no ofien incorporate cer- doubt that the interest in the tain sexual tensions is different subject here very within it, although

from England. Alice is mostly a with great taste

general notion of a nonsensical and skill. Is this a and psychedelic universe that Brazilian reaction or stimulates the imagination, the an Adriana reaction?

humor, and the surreal. The ap: I think it is

Annotated Alice made a good Salvador Dalis mouth serves as a surrealist's hookah, demanding more an Adriana impression; people now usually Alice's identity and asking us to explain its own nature. An im- reaction. Alice's sexu- More images mention aspects of that. But I agefrom the 5m^5 Alicinations, 1996-1998. from ality is rarely explored this series are available on-line in Adriana's Alicinations blog. still know very few people who here, since it's con- are interested in discussing spe- sidered more a book analytical cific passages of the texts or different for children. I need to mention one important

approaches. artist that explores the sexuality in Alice, Arlindo kl: How do Brazilians react to your Carrollian art, espe- Daibert, but his work is very radical, and is still

cially the surrealist element? Do they prefer a more almost unknovm.

literal approach (like North American visual culture In my case I was always intrigued by the

and mass media), or is your culture more open to such corporal feelings of Alice, her metamorphic intuitive visual/linguistic thinking? identity, her bodily transformations. If we think ap: My Alice illustrations for both books were never of a growing girl becoming a woman, her grow- is significant. published. When I did them 12 years ago the ing consciousness of her own body publishers told me they were amazing but they I imagine that at some level it has to do with weren't commercial. Now the situation has Carroll's anxieties about women's bodies and his changed. We have more experimental illustra- own body. I didn't study any deeply sexual analy- tions published here, thanks in great extent to ses of the book; I followed my intuition. Since

23 Alice moves me in her sensuous way of dealing I didn't connect it to the movie. Many critics try

with foods and drink, doors and keys. I'm deeply to fit art in their schemas; I have an open dia- interested in her metamorphic body and iden- logue with theories to avoid that.

tity. I think Alice's identity cannot be fixed; is a Disney's Alice is herself too conservative and

constant becoming, she flows in her own tears, superficial, to my taste; I like the movie more for

mixes with mushrooms and animals, is mistaken the other characters, and also some of the visual

for flowers and snakes, faces vertigo, and is then solutions like the Cheshire Cat disappearing, the

threatened with decapitation. Despite all the dif- caterpillar smoking, and the hybrid and nonsen- ficulties, she conquers with her inner strength; sical characters that live in the woods, like the

she is my heroine. bread and butterfly which I love. But the movie

It is not just an intellectual is more Disney

connection, it involves the whole than Carroll; we

being. Maybe her sexuality is shouldn't compare close to children's sexuality, them too much inhabiting her whole body, and or ask for fidelity. like a child, she fears and cannot The worst aspect of

understand it. I love the Alice Disney's Alice is that

ofJan Svankmajer since it deals people confuse it with Alice's "basements" and with the book. In

"attics," her unconscious, facing fact I like every- fear, sexuality, and rites of pas- thing connected sage. to Alice, including

There are many symbols in what I don't like the books that point to sexual (laughs).

suggestions. I'm attracted to I believe the

the unreachable garden; it's an sexual aspects are

image of desire and its dissatis- important because

faction. In Freudian terms, it also they go deeper into suggests a conflict between the Alice's corporal principles of reality and pleasure. conflicts and her

Alice is close to a phallic symbol, frustrated desires.

in a flux between potency and Her body is in con- impotency. tinuous metamor- For me Alice's sexuality has phoses and fluxes

more to do with a jump into that sometimes fit, the inner caves of the body, sometimes don't,

beyond fixed identities, than which is sexual in From the 2010 series, Clalice, collages for a tale Adriana is writing with specific psychoanalytic argu- a broader way. I in which she mixes Alice with the texts of the wonderful Brazilian ments. I avoid making the image identify with these writer Clarice Lispector. The collages include pictures based on Car- an example of the theory that aspects in particu- roll's photographs, fulia Margaret Cameron 's photographs and Rene may be schematic. I want to be lar. Bour's drawings for a vintage French Alice edition. psychologically touched by the The idea of the

symbols more than by intellectual rite of passage is ideas; I'm an artist more than a theorist. But of also very intriguing in a more feminist approach. course I'm familiar with psychology and psycho- In a way Alice faces her identity and the obsta- analysis. I've read more Jung than Freud, mainly cles of society to become closer to her inner in connection with art and fairy tales. strength. This point of view interests me, of course. Alice stimulates us to defy power, to defy KL: Is such an open feminism important to your vision the nonsense of social constraints. She opens of Alice? Is the sexual aspect important? What do you new possibilities for children and woman as well. think of other popular Alices, such as the Disney film, In this way it is a political book, showing that lit- which avoid such issues or make them trivial? Does it matter? erature is not made to domesticate with morals, ap: I'm interested in feminist and sexual explora- but to stimulate the independence of thought. tions when they are not obvious or those of a KL: / would also say that a certain Freudian language of

pamphleteer. I've recently read a beautiful and images is in your work, similar to Hans Bellmer. Is sensitive feminist andjungian analysis of Tim this deliberate?

Burton's Alice. The arguments were gorgeous but ap: I love Hans Bellmer. I believe he had a deep

24 impact on my work, as did other artists and I give lectures about the Alice transformations many surrealists and also Dadaists like Raoul in the story of visual arts, the evolution of her

Hausmann and Hannah Hoch. I'm also visual representations in art and illustration. I very influenced by contemporary artists like love how she can change and become incorpo- Svankmajer and the Brothers Quay. As I told you rated in the transformations of culture and the

I'm open to psychoanalytic analyses, but I don't imaginary. I like to emphasize her plasticity, the

go further into Freudian theories. I just read way she grows, twists and turns, and is always Freud's own texts after my Alice project and becoming, from surrealism, psychedelic, gothic,

became engaged in particular with the idea of steampunk, etc. I don't think it is a betrayal; it

the uncanny, which also connects me to Bellmer. shows how deep her presence is in our culture

I have affinities with his dismembered dolls and and collective unconscious. In this way, I think reassembled bodies that that her doubts about her- point to an anguish self after several transfor- related to the crisis of mations continue during

the body image and the history. I don't know any identity as an integrated literary character that has

whole. I also identify been represented in so with his conception of many radically different the body as an anagram ways.

that can be rewritten. As a collage artist, in- Psychoanalytic con- spired by surrealism but not cepts were not the main a surrealist, what interests

point during my creative me is the possibility to cre- process, but I'm sure ate new connections, pro-

that what I read influ- pose displacements, freely

enced me, as did my appropriate. I intend to analytical personal pro- open new ways to see Car- cess, which drew upon roll's works instead of be- the influence of my own coming fixed in Victorian

unconscious mind. I was references. Whoever works

also influenced by psy- with collage is always look- choanalysis through the ing for new possibilities to surrealist movement. play with the same images;

it is like a semiotic game, kl: Surrealist and even proto- a machine to re-signify. I surrealist influences seem so learned to admire Tenniel's important in your work, but Alice, but I've spent a long is this fair to Lewis Carroll? to all that. One 's illustra- Humpty Dumpty says Bosch ofAdriana time being disappointed We know that he and his tions/or the book: Lewis Carroll era victoriana by Kdtia Canton by how many illustrators contemporaries visualized (2010). The book explores the Mice books along with Carroll's life were fixated on his example his work in a very literal, and the historical context of the Victorian age. These are digital instead of liberating the charming manner. The collages mixing Tenniel's illustrations with various famoiis paint- imagination. Alice liberates surrealist philosophy would ings of art history, in this instance, Hieronymus Bosch's Garden of my imagination, that's why I probably have horrified him. Earthly Delights. still follow the white rabbit. Can we excuse ourselves I love to subvert Tenniel, and I will dare to recon- from this "translator's betrayal"? Do you think that figure him as much as I can. surrealism is within Lewis Carroll or have we imposed Carroll knew that his works had a broader it, looking back from the twenty-first and twentieth meaning, bigger than his own understanding. I centuries ? think his illustrations are more intriguing than ap: These are all big questions. I'm interested in he himself understood. I'm publishing his manu- what Carroll inspired after him as much as in script of Alice's Adventures under Ground and have what he proposed in his own time. I don't think written a text about his illustrations. I believe he really was a surrealist but surrealism had an that in a way they are opposite to Tenniel's. I open mind to all manifestations that broke with think Tenniel's were adequate to the common a strict rational mind, opening it to other states Victorian taste, more conventional, formal, of consciousness and a broader understanding and rigid; Carroll's drawings are an invitation of reality and language. I think Carroll's works to strangeness, the unknown, and the under- fits in this universe. So he is in fact a very fertile surrealist inspiration. 25 ground. That's why I feel they have connections party, as Disney suggested. I wanted to demon- with Hieronymus Bosch and the surrealist besti- strate how it was grounded in the reality of its aries, creating monstrous, hybrid creatures like time, the author's life, mathematics, logic, and the gryphon and the mock turtle. Their illustra- scientific references, etc. It gave multiple levels

tions are my favorites among all. to my work since I was always mixing my char- acters and the linguistic inventions with photo- kl: You seem interested in various literary/philosophical graphs of Carroll, Alice, and other references. theories and systems. How is theory usefulfor a work- It presented a possibility to operate inside and ing artist such as you, when so many other artists outside the story, to sew in (and readers) happily ignore references, play with real- it? ity and imagination, etc. ap: I look for ideas that pro- pose new understandings I also became fascinated by Gilles Deleuze and his of language, culture, and The Logic Sense. This is art. When I'm engaged in of a very complex work but a work of illustration or also very powerful, decon- art, I can read all kinds structing the whole system of texts that stimulate me of occidental logic and to present the literary recreating our understand- text in a more disturbing, ing of language, sense, and provocative, and unusual reality. I did the way. I'm interested in When Wonderland characters and everything that opens illustrations I was thinking news doors in my imagina- of Deleuze 's concepts of tion and way of thinking. the division of bodies and What I read influences "surface events," of the bod- me a lot, but many times ies in their deep, logical when I create I forget the attributes and the surface theory, although it may events that flow on the sur- still be working in the background. face of the sense. It's diffi- For my Wonderland and cult to explain even in my own language, so I won't Looking-Glass illustrations go further in English, to I read many articles and avoid misunderstandings. theories, then I chose two The point is that Carroll, main references. One for Deleuze, proposes a was the approach of the Messrs. Carroll and Dodgson subsumed by the Brothers Dum! series of paradoxes ques- Annotated Alice (which Another illustration Jrom Kdtia Canton's book, in this case utili tioning both good sense wasn't known in Brazil at zing Giuseppe Arcimboldo's painting. The Librarian. and common sense. I also that time) to show that followed this path. the book was not a silly

^OCJElDcyfi:iE

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

26 T*^i^fL -^0^ ^ Am I Blue? MARK BURSTEIN

^i^gl:»^ -^

Msk anyone what color Alice's dress is and son, depicts her wearing a corn yellow frock through- they'll undoubtedly reply, "Why, blue, of out, though the apron is trimmed with blue and sports course." Unless you happen to be talking to a large blue bow. The equally authorized Wonderland a CarroUian who knows that the only authorized color Postage-stamp Case (1889) and De La Rue card game edition, The Nursery Alice in 1890, which was colored (1894) also show her in a yellow dress. End of story. by Tenniel and featured a cover by E. Gertrude Thom-

^ Find the *Rabbit runnina away* and The' Fan'.

.ICE TELESCOPING.

Above, left: The Nursery Alice, 1890

Above, right: De La Rue card game, 1894

Left: The Wonderland Postage- Stamp Case, 1889

Postage-Stamp Case 27 \ '^'

Top left: McKay, 1912

Tap right: Crowell, 1893 (Wonderland) MWi'k'

Below right: Crowell, 1893 (Looking-Glass)

Not quite. American publisher Thomas Crowell published a fine edition in 1893 with one color fron- tispiece, depicting her in a blue frock, in each of the two books. Randomly looking through editions, au- thorized or un-, that appeared around that time and feature at least one color plate, I notice, for example, a McLoughlin Brothers edition of Wonderland from

1903 in which her dress is red on the cover yet char- treuse in the frontispiece. Many other pictorial covers from that period have her in red, and frontispieces or interior illustrations dress her in either red, dark orange, or yellow (I am just looking at the Tenniels and Tenniel knock-offs, not those by other artists such as Rackham).

28 Above, left: Macmillan Little Folks, 1903

Above, right: Macmillan Little Folks, 1907

Left: Hurst, 1904

Below: Donohue, c. 1901

In 1903, Macmillan issued "The Little Folks' Edi- tion" of Wonderland and Looking-Glass "adapted for very little folks from the original story," in which the 32 Tenniel illustrations in them had been simplified, redrawn, and then colored. Alice wears a blue dress

throughout, which is likely to have been the origin of this particular canard. However, fascinatingly, in

the second Litde Folks' Edition (1907), her dress is consistently red! The illustrations had reverted to the

original Tenniels, but now were colored. Was it a mar- keter's decision? A printer's? Mrs. Hargreaves's?

29 Then, in 1911, Macmillan released a combined I am indebted to Selwyn Goodacre, Frankie Morris, Wonderland/Looking-Glass "with sixteen new colour Brian Sibley, Gary Sternick, and Edward Wake- plates" (Harry Theaker did the honors) —and there lingfor assistance. Goodacre's article "So What her dress is, once again, blue. Despite an American Should Alice Wear?" (Dodo News No. 12, August release of the "Little Folks" red-dress edition as "Wee 1992, from the Daresbury Dodo Glubfor children) Books for Wee Folks" by Altemus in 1926, blue was informs this as well. pretty much ingrained. Certainly the 1946 Random House boxed set with the Fritz Kredel coloring and a few years later, Mary Blair's characteristic hue for her dress in Disney's 1951 film sealed the deal, at least as far as popular culture goes. Curiouser and curiouser.

Disney, 1951

Random House, 1 946

-^

Zits by Jerry Scott and Jim Borgman

30 ^ ^

^ ^

leaves fKoo) The Deaneny Ganden

What is the current copyright state story? My project only references you with additional ideas for your own of Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonder- the original books. Should there project. land, Through the Looking-Glass, and be problems? While the works are in public do-

The Hunting of the Snark books? Thank you so much for shed- main, it would of course be only ap- More-or-less trustworthy sources ding light on this litde shadow in propriatefor you to cite that your own on the Internet (Project Guten- my mind. work is "inspired by the works ofLewis berg and Wikipedia), indicate Isabelle Melangon Carroll, " or something like that, to give that these books are in the public Lewis Carroll his fair due. Send us the LCSNA President Andrew Sellon re- link you post your work, and we domain. I'm asking this because I sponds: when trying to create a comic where can note it on our blog, in our Face- am You are correct that all three of book group, etc., to help generate some Alice is a character and Won- Charles Dodgson's (Lewis Carroll's) Looking-Glass more interest in your work. Good luck derland and the greatest literary works are now in the world are part of the settings. I with your project! public domain. In fact, they have been been told that as long as have my for many years now. You are also cor- are I can sources the books, quote rect that Disney can only copyright Carroll's fear. A follow-up to letters in KL 84: work with no How- their own original content. By the way, ever, I have also told that Mr. Sellon, been a few years ago Disney actually part- Thank you so much for your time. Disney is apparendy the current nered with Slave Labor Graphics to I like your idea about reliable "owner" of Alice in Wonderland in produce a Tommy Kovac/Sonny Liew I find that sources and research. North America. hard to comic series called Wonderland (origi- believe, especially since just I have just shared your letter ABC nally in six issues, now in a single Alice with my 11th grade students. They released a mini-series about hardcover volume as well), which in as well. listened intentiy. What happened part pokes fun at the visual style of truly in the next was that one student said, So, are the books their animated Alice from 1 93 L You public domain? Are there adapta- "We should read the book," and might want to have a look at that; it 's another said, "Why don't we have tion rights that belong to some- quite good. You might also want to one? does Disney only have a party and wear costumes?" so Or browse our website a bit more, as it has rights on their "version" of the we decided that we will be having a lot of information that might provide

31 an end-of-the-year "Wonderland purchased a new version of Al- evoke the spirit of Carroll more success- Costume Party." I'm thinking that ice's Adventures in Wonderland fully than others, but frankly none of they can recite some of their own with illustrations by Camille Rose the adaptations can hold a candle to poems and some of Carroll's. "Bril- Garcia, and upon re-reading the Carroll's own witty wordplay. You may lig" idea! childhood classic I realized that have missed that in the opening credits Of course, all the computers in quote from Alice was nowhere to of the 1951 Disney film, they actually the classroom will be showing your be found. I took further steps to misspell "Carroll"! So that gives you website. try to find the quote in Carroll's some warning that theirfocus in that Monie Rude-Scrivner literature but have been unsuc- charmingfilm was not primarily on Stockton, cessful in every attempt, yet all CA accuracy. over the Internet it is cited as a It's also not unusual to find mis- Lewis Carroll quote. I missing Am information about Lewis Carroll and LCSNA's website is dynamic a reading, or is this just a Disney- his works (and just about any other and friendly and conveys unrelent- added quote which Carroll is now subject under the sun) on the Internet. ing enthusiasm for all things credited with? Thank you so much You had the good instincts to go to the CarroUian. if you're able to shed any light on original source material. That's always Liz Ainley ofStorypods Audio- this for me. the best way to find out the truth of the books Jarrod Medlen matter. Our website and that of our Oxford, England LCSNA President Andrew Sellon re- sister organization in the U.K. contain m sponds: a wealth of information and commen- Trust your eyes. If it's not in the books, tary on Carroll's life and works, so you I have a simple question . . . well, one that would seem simple but Carroll didn 't unite it. The lines you might want to browse both a bit more, has exhausted me the past few cite were created by Disney 's scriptwrit- as well as check out our site's blogfor a ers. While occasionally you might more pop culture angle. you enjoyed days trying to answer. I remember If a line from the 1951 Disney's Alice see a stage or TV/film adaptation of reading the original book, I encourage the Alice books that tries to use large to pick unexpurgated copy in Wonderland. The line is Alice you up an chunks Carroll's own words, it's the Looking-Glass saying, "If I had a world of my of o/Through and own, everything would be non- typical in adaptations for the produc- What Alice Found There, as well ers/writers to attempt to go their own as the brilliantThe the sense. Nothing would be what it Hunting of way with dialogue. Some attempts Snark. writing in both books is is because everything would be The remarkable, both some what it isn't. And contrary-wise; and offer fasci- authorial colors not in what it is it wouldn't be, and nating shown the book. what it wouldn't be, it would. You first Mice see?" However, I have recently

"She watched with curiosity as I six impossible things before picked up a battered old Alice in breakfast.'" Wonderland. With shaking hands From "Meeting the Man Who

I groped for a synchronicity in Made Him the (Mistaken) the pages and as I greedily read Messiah" by Scottfames. New through the passage I had chosen, York Times, August 20, 2010, she asked me what it said. Sur- about the meeting between author prised and embarrassed, I read it and economist Raj Patel and out to her: MK mystic Benjamin Creme of Share

'She was getting a little giddy "Mr. Patel . . . concluded that Mr. International, who had identified with so much floating in the air Creme was 'a sweet, pleasant old Patel as the messiah. and was rather glad to find herself man' who ultimately 'was like the walking again in the natural way.'" Red Queen in Alice in Wonderland From The First Verse by who said she could believe Barry McCrea, Carroll &' Graf Publishers, New York, 2005.

32 "Tess the chambermaid had been From "Puz_le" by Gregory Maguire, left behind in the bedchamber, a short story collected in The curled up with Alice in Wonderland, Dragon Book, Jack Dann and murmuring 'BHmey!' each time an Gardner Dozois, editors. Ace Books, amazing thing happened, which New York, 2009. was every other paragraph." From The Birthday Ball by Lois Lowry, Houghton Harcourt Mifflin After encountering a young Publishing, York, 2010. New crying a "rolling flood sion about his habit of thinking woman of gummy tears," the main character backwards—imagining words as notes that, the they would be spelled in reverse "Lower down steps, "Somewhere near the top in the a mouse was swimming to safety." order—and reciting poetry to him- fantasy section [of the list of The book also includes a chapter self with all the words backwards. recently published books for titled "The Duchess and the Cook." From A Time of Gifts by Patrick children] comes Alice in Orchestra From I Shall Wear Midnight by Leigh Fermor, John Murray Ltd, (cobenden-sanderson, Land Terry Pratchett, HarperColliins, 1977; reprinted by New York Review , a partial parody which sets 3/6) New York, 2010. of Books Classics, 2005. out to let small people know about odd things such as tubas and double-bassoons, and does this While browsing the book sellers at 'He had a pile of English books, very entertainingly. I say 'partial' the Edinburgh Book Fair, restora- some from the British Council because Mr. ernest la prade has tion expert Brooklyn Wainwright Library, some with USIS stickers. borrowed Carroll's framework "spied an illustrated Alice In Wonder- I remember a thin one, Shane, trying to imitate his magic without land and rushed over to examine about an American village much lunacy which mitigates the heresy it. It was a 1927 edition in spring like Punjab, and Alice in Wonder- of his act." green leather, mint condition, land, which gave me nightmares." From an anonymous review, with heavy gilding around the ircwiJasmine by Bharati Mukherjee, Punch, December 12, 1934. edges and on the spine. Ornate Grove Weidenfield, 1 989; reprinted dentelles decorated the inside by Fawcett (pb), 1991. front and back covers. There was a While visiting Bohemia, the author wonderful gilt-tooled White Rab- a comments, "Bohemia had been bit on the center of the front cover, "A fortunate arrival, Bea thought, Protestant country at the outset of checking his pocket watch, and a as Jane and Al hugged Shimmer the Thirty Years' War. It was Catho- scolding Queen of Hearts on the and introduced Coral. Now they lic at its close as once more and back. It was delightful. Expensive, could talk of something else. Ships free of heresy as . . . the sea-shore but worth it." There is only one or shoes or sealing wax. Anything." of oyster-response at the end of other reference to the book after From In the Family Way by Lynne 'The Walrus and the Carpenter.'" — its purchase "that it isn't really a Sharon Schwartz, William Morrow Later, while visiting Slovakia, he children's story!" and Company, Inc., New York, finds a cache of his host's daugh- From If Books Could Kill: A 1999. ters' childhood books. The Alice Bibliophile Mystery by Kate

books are there; he begins to read Carlisle, Signet, 2010. them, and that launches a discus- "The only solo child in any such adventure that ever showed up in these old books was stolid aproned Alice, who wandered through Wonderland more or less alone, with only her own hydroencepha-

litic head to keep her company.

That is: Alice slowly going mad. Who could blame her?"

33 WRiTinq Desk

OF MARK BURSTEIN

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

suppose I'll now just have to get used to the pri- Our next meeting will be in Everybody's Favorite

vate jet, the luxury yacht, the bodyguards, and all City, San Francisco, at the headquarters of Archive,

I the other perks that come with being an LCSNA org, whose mission is to digitize the world. Their facili- president. Oh, right. Reality. In all seriousness, I am ties include a lovely desanctified church, where we will pleased with, humbled by, and a bit terrified of as- hold the meeting, and one of their digitizing centers suming the mantle of Society president. As the first (worldwide, they average a thousand books a day, not (but undoubtedly not the last) president whose par- to mention making an accessible backup of the entire ent also served in this vaunted office (Sandor having Internet every two weeks!). The next day will feature done so from 1983-84) —a dynasty I'd rather asso- an open house at my ranch in Petaluma, a town once ciate with John and John Quincy than George and known for its chicken farms run by Yiddish-speaking George W—and also as the former Warden of Out- farmers (poultry was replaced by dairy a half-century land, a title bestowed upon me by Peter Heath when ago), and famed as the birthplace of Snoopy. It is in

I functioned in a similar capacity for the West Coast scenic Sonoma County, the heart of California's wine

Chapter of the LCSNA (1979-87), I hope that I may country, and a 45-minute drive from San Francisco. live up to the amazing precedents (pun unavoidable) The Burstein Collection is housed in a three-story that our eleven former presidents have set in a leader- tower, and selected highlights will be on display. As ship tradition going back to Stan Marx. we go to press, not much else, even the exact date, is

I cannot say enough, nor ever fully express our known, but I promise you an unforgettable inaugural thanks to Andrew Sellon for his stalwart and exempla- meeting. ry guidance over these last four years, in which he has produced excellent meetings, helped to design and manifest a wonderful new incarnation of the website, and even run the Knight Letter for five issues, but let me try: thank you very much, Andrew. Enormous thanks are also due to Edward Guilia- no, who kindly arranged for superb facilities for our New York meeting, and to him and the other speakers who made it so memorable. Some big shout-outs are due to our Knight Let- ter staff. Our fearless leader for the past two and this present issue, Sarah Adams-Kiddy, is expecting twins in February! Hence she is resigning from most editorial duties until her time is once again, more or less, her own. The dashing Mahendra Singh, who has edited the Rectory Umbrella for that same period, is taking over as editor in chief, beginning next issue. And we also very much want to acknowledge former president Alan Tannenbaum, who has been supplying our magazine with the photographs of speakers at our meetings for many a year.

34 What's a Snark? MARKJARMON ^ ^

for Lewis Carroll

"What's a Snark?" I must ask you You can see of this quest I was somewhat obsessed

Please answer me this if you can. And the time it had gotten away here

Or should I ask you, who? I started at quarter to five in October

Is it bird, or fish, or man? And now it was going on New Year.

"What's a Snark?" I have asked it twice I needed some rest, (oh I needed some rest!)

That alone should perk up your ears. So I rested my eyes for a minute

"What's a Snark?" I have asked it thrice Then wouldn't you know, down a hole I did go

This puzzle has had me for years. With cupboards of marmalade in it.

I've been planning a quest for months now I was falling so long, I was falling so slow

On the back of an old railway stub But the bottom it finally came

But I can't seem to find any answers And there stood a man with a bell in his hand And, aye, isn't thatjust the rub! And a book of celestial names.

I've checked Cook's maps from his journeys He said with a grin, "Hello Mr. Jim.

I've read Cousteau's logs from his dives I can show you that thing which you seek." A sea hag munched "hurlyburly" So he opened his book and gave me a look

I avoided a Mariner's eye. Saying "Careful-nowjim-just-one-peek!"

I then had the notion to travel the ocean "A Snark" (it read) "is a creature that lives

(for that's where Snarks live, you see) In the dreams of little ones' heads,

But I hadn't a boat, nor nothing to float But as you grow older and sights get much colder

So I never did push out to sea. The poor Snark goes belly up dead!"

So back to the books for a couple of looks So keep a young soul, whenever you go To see where this Snark may keep rest For a stroll through the midsummer park But KingJames and Webster and Britannica too 'Cause you never will know, oh the places you'll go! Were also dead ends in my quest. When you'll get to be, so to speak, snarked.

Mr farmon is a high-school English teacher in Newfersey. His poem was originally published in the Canadian chil-

dren 's magazine Crow Toes Quarterly, Vol. 3, Issue 1,

No. 9, fanuary 2009.

35 .

H^^^s -^^^ ^

urns Carroll Tests Out ]ahkrwoc\y JENN THORSON

^i^ >*v ^

'he woman was packed into her black Victori- something new. Er, different, I think. And I . . . Um, ,

an dress, her hair piled high, bearing plumes I'm not sure how . . . Well, you see, this piece was . . . was

that bobbed like an exotic bird looking to at- . . . Well, maybe it's just best I begin." tract another exotic bird for an afternoon of passion The room grew quiet. He cleared his throat. and seed. "Twas brillig, and the slithy toves As the audience before her clapped, she an- Did gyre and gimble in the wabe: ". nounced, . . And next, we will have a reading from All mimsy were the borogoves. Rev. Charles Dodgson, who plans And the mome raths outgrabe." quite a treat for us. He says he's been writing a bit in his spare time, and to- He paused for effect, but could day will recite a poem of his very own hear the murmurs in the crowd. "What

creation. I haven't heard it yet myself, language is that?" whispered one.

so we'll all be surprised and delighted "Native Australian. They've boro-

together. Welcome, Rev. Dodgson. I goves in the Outback," responded an- expect your poetry to enlighten and other, more informed gentleman.

inspire us all." "I had slithy toves in my garden Young Charles Lutwidge Dodg- once," mumbled someone near the son stepped to the podium, and felt back. "Dreadful pests. Had to use lime the sweat bead up around his starched on them." collar. He hadn't shared this with any- "What part of the Bible is this?"

one yet, and he knew it was a little risky. murmured a lady in gray flannel, flip- Normally, at these sorts of functions, he just stood ping unsettled through her pocket Bible. "Book of up and read Tennyson's Lady of Shalott and was Isaiah?"

done with it. But there had already been three Lady The Bird of Paradise at the front of the room of Shalotts today. The lady could only die so many flushed, looking like the pressure building up might

times in one afternoon. The moment begged variety. shoot her clear from corset and all. "Shhh, everyone.

And variety he would give them. Please. . . Oh, I am sorry, Rev. Dodgson, please do

"Um, thank . . . thank you," he said. "It's a pleasure go on."

to be with you all today. I ... I've been working on

*^ Tk^ J*-^ *^

Deborah Brody Robert Kass Jerome Bump Jane Masterson Don Charney Robert Mitchell Jim Domiano Amy Plummer Michael Dupler Cathy Rubin Cary Elza Thomas Schrack David C.Jones Valerie Taricco Ricardo Jaramillo Sarah Jardine-Willoughby John Tyo

^ \\//^ *^ Jl-^ *^ *^ -^A^ *— m. i^n^

36 — " "

Charles Dodgson gave her a tight smile and cleared "Isn't Tulgey somewhere near Cheshire?"

his throat again. "Devon, I think. Is this fellow quite all right?" "Always heard he was a bit strange." "Beware thejabberwock, my son! Desperate to get through the poem with any de- The jaws that bite, the claws that catch! gree of success, Dodgson grabbed up a nearby lady's Beware the jubjub bird and shun parasol and swept it aloft like a mighty broadsword. The frumious Bandersnatch!" He knew he should have brought some props, but In the crowd eyebrows were raised. Cheeks were this would just have to do. pale. Eyes were wide. He caught a vague, "What did "One, two! One, two! And through and through, he say?" The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!" "Gloomius band of snatch, I think."

"Well, that hardly sounds appropriate for mixed "He's having a fit!" a woman cried, standing up in company! And from a clergyman, too." her concern.

An old lady who'd only heard half of it, shouted, "Someone help the poor man!"

"Is this not The Lady of Shalott, then?" The lady with all the plumes had gone complete- Dodgson tugged at his collar, which was damp ly crimson now, and rushed to his side—just as the and wilting now, but he determined to proceed on. parasol accidentally popped open, sending a second

Perhaps the problem was he just needed to give it a potential assistant backwards into the front row bit more energy for it to really grip: The Bird of Paradise took his arm and made soothing sounds, patting "He took his vorpal sword in him. "There, there. Rev. Dodgson." hand: She was leading him from the podium Long time the manxome foe he now, while someone picked up Mr. Ev- sought ans from row one. So rested he by the Tumtum tree, "I'm fine, honestly," the young And stood awhile in thought." clergyman insisted. "It—. . . It's just a bit "Who's the fellow with the purple of nonsense, really, I sword again?" hissed a lady in the "Alice, dear, fetch Rev. Dodgson a

front row to her sister. Glass of water, would you? . . . There's

"I don't know. But he's fighting a good girl." someone who speaks Manx." "It's for children, you know," he Dodgson decided that maybe persisted. "There were— just so terribly louder was the way to go, now, and many Shalotts and upped the volume. "Mad as a hatter, that one," someone whispered. "Mad as a March hare," agreed someone else sadly. "But, as in uffish thought he stood, "Completely off of his head." Thejabberwock with eyes of flame Came whiffling through the tulgey wood

And burbled as it came!"

IN MBMORIAM

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

37 "THE ANTIPATHIES, "World turned upside down" is " I THINK— from Robert Burton's Anatomy of

Melancholy It also is Lester R. Dickey (1621). found in the KingJames Bible, Acts 17:6. On page 28 of Martin Gardner's I was not able to find an contem- The Annotated Alice, Alice is falling Carrollian Notes porary attribution for "everything down the rabbit-hole, and as the goes by contraries" except for a trip is taking so long, she begins similar phrase in David Copperfield, to speculate as to how far she has Chapter 3, "everythink goes con- fallen. Of special interest to her is trairy with me." Incidentally, Acts whether she will "'fall right through 17:7, the verse following the "world the earth! How funny it'll seem to turned upside down," uses the come out among the people that word "contrary." "Contrariwise," walk with their heads downwards! the — rectly opposite one another on favorite word of Tweedledee The Antipathies, I think ' (she the surface of in Through the Looking-Glass, ap- was rather glad that there was no the earth and to pears three that place directly 'under' one's times in the Kingfames one listening, this time, as it didn't Bible. Corinthians own location. group of islands 2 2:7, Galatians sound at all like the right word) A 2:7, and 1 Peter 3:9. Since Car- ' opposite Greenwich in England to —but I shall have to ask them the south-east of New Zealand was roll (Dodgson) was a minister, he, what the name of the country is, consciously or otherwise, have named the Antipodes in 1800. From may you know. Please, Ma'am, is this the 1830s, British picked up some of the unusual New Zealand or Australia?'" Gard- travelers to Aus- words and phrases in tralia and Zealand (but Wonderland ner lets this stand without annota- New espe- Bible. cially Australia) from the tion in both The Annotated Alice were encouraged by the reversal of the seasons and More Annotated Alice. and the unusualness of the flora and Obviously, "antipathies" is ALICE SPEAKS fauna to see an antipodean 'world not "at all the right word." She David turned upside down', in Schaefer meant "Antipodes." The Oxford which 'everything goes by contraries'." Alice has always been a challenge Companion to the English Language Alice is extremely for motion picture producers. (Oxford University Press, 1992) accurate, given the Whenever an advance in film gives the etymology as "through knowledge and custom of the time, in techniques has occurred, Alice Latin from Greek antipodes plural her definition of an "antipodes." sporting these of antipous/antipodos having the Even the unattributed improvements has quotes in the Oxford Companion, appeared. Even though many of foot opposite. ... A term first "world turned upside the productions have not applied in English to the people down" and been "everything goes by contraries" considered outstanding examples of Ethiopia, once thought to live particularly of film art, they have provided on the opposite side of the globe; seem appropriate to a Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. powerful stimulus to continued by the 16c, applied to places di- In retrospect, Alice's use of the interest in the Alice stories. word "antipathies" seems strangely In 1931, Alice entered the well chosen: "Contrariety of feeling, sound motion picture era with, disposition or nature (between per- as the ads at the time stated, "the sons or things); natural contrariety first articulated Alice." For many or incompatibility," according to years this film version of Wonder- the Oxford English Dictionary. There land, the "Bud Pollard Alice," was

is certainly enough "contrariety of considered "lost," even though feeling, disposition or nature" in there were some copies around, Wonderland to justify her use of the including one in my own Alice film

word. closet. It shed its lost distinction The Antipodes are an uninhab- at the October 17, 2009, LCSNA ited group of islands, part of New meeting (KL 83:5) at the Fort Zealand, encompassing 24 square Lee, New Jersey, Historical Center,

miles. Since the Lory, mentioned where it was screened mere blocks

in Wonderland, is a parrot native to away from where it had been pro- Australia and surrounding areas, duced 78 years earlier. Included

possibly it is also a denizen of the in the audience were the daughter Antipodes. and the grandchildren of Ruth

38 Gilbert, the film's star. They had Ruth Gilbert's employment as tified the film only as "recently never before seen the film. Alice must have been her first job made here (in an eastern studio) A direct result of the meeting is after graduation from the Ameri- with Charles Levine as chief cam- that today the film is widely men- can Academy of Dramatic Arts in eraman."

tioned on the Internet, including 1930. Subsequently, she worked in The film had its official pre- a clip from the film along with live theater, up to 1952, when she miere at the Warner Theater, the individual frames on YouTube. became a regular on The Milton same theater where TheJazz Singer My 16mm copy of the film was Berle Show. She later taught at the had premiered four years earlier. purchased around 1970, after my Lee Strasberg acting school in Billed as "The First Children's wife had found an Alice in Wonder- New York. Talkie to reach the screen," Alice

landMsted (without annotation) in The supporting cast had varied started its run at 9:30 a.m. on a magazine called The Big Reel. We backgrounds. The Duchess and Christmas day of 1931. During

took a chance that the advertised Mock Turtle had silent careers its stay at the Warner there were film might be an Alice that we did starting in 1911, and the Cook, "FREE toys for the Children" on not already have in our Lewis Car- King of Hearts, and Hatter had the 25th, 26th, and 27th. On the

roll film collection, and ordered it. live stage experience. The Gry- 28th, 29th, and 30th, this was What arrived in the mail was this phon and Caterpillar continued reduced to "FREE candy." New primitive sound film—the "lost" to work in sound films (they were Year's Day saw Alice replaced by

Alicel both munchkins in The Wizard Safe in Hell. There is some specula- Unlike other Alice productions, ofOz), while the White Rabbit's tion as to how the film ever got this version is basically true to the career included silent, sound, and booked into such a prestigious book—except for the love interest stage productions. venue as the Warner in the first between the White Rabbit and the The first published mention of place.

Duchess! Evidently the producers the film is a news item from the New York Times critic Mordaunt felt that even for a child's movie, June 21, 1931, edition of the New Hall reviewed the film on Decem- there had to be some romance York Times reporting that ''Alice in ber 28, and was kinder than the

and decided on this most unlikely Wonderland is the first production Film Daily review mentioned ear- combination. in a series of four talking pictures lier, noting that "There is an ear- The opening and closing cred- planned especially for child audi- nestness about the direction and its of the film are accompanied ences by an independent cinema the acting that elicits sympathy, for by a full-orchestra rendition of group known as Unique-Cosmos poor litde Alice had to go through Irving Berlin's "Come Along with Pictures with offices in the Film the ordeal of coming to shadow

Alice," a song written for the 1916 Centre Building in this city. The life in an old studio in Fort Lee,

Broadway musical Century Girl. features are to be produced at the N.J., instead of enjoying the mani-

There is no indication that Irving Metropolitan Studios in Fort Lee, fold advantages of her rich cousins

Berlin gave permission for use of N.J., where Alice in Wonderland is, who hop from printed pages to his song, and there is no identifi- now before the cameras." the screen amid the comforts of a cation of the orchestra or of the The initial review of the film well-equipped Hollywood studio

male vocalist. (well before its release) in the . . . although it will probably meet This Alice -wzs filmed at the Met- trade magazine Film Daily was not with favor from youngsters who go ropolitan Studios in Fort Lee, New complimentary. It considered the to see an articulate Alice on the Jersey, with Bud Pollard directing. film to be a "mildly entertaining screen." Pollard worked with marginal adaptation of a fairy tale good Aside from the New York show- groups at the fringes of the mo- only for kids and non-theatrical ings, only six other presentations tion picture industry, producing trade." Later on it opined that in U.S. theatres can be docu- and directing B-minus motion pic- "even the kiddies may be consider- mented. Five of these occurred tures. Many times he simply added ably bored due to lack of action or during the Christmas season of the new technology of sound to interesting talk." Ninety percent 1931. In 1934, there was a showing silent films in the public domain. of the uninteresting talk was Lewis in Atianta. His films were aimed at niche Carroll's own words. But what about showings in audiences, audiences that Holly- The first theatrical showing was locations other than theaters? In wood ignored. He produced films a "special children's performance" August of 1931, Film Daily had the in Italian and Yiddish, and "race at the Roxy Theater in Manhattan news that the Alice film would be films" for the black population. In on the morning of Saturday, De- "reduced to a 16mm film for re-

1931, Pollard felt he had found cember 5, 1931. In its notice about lease simultaneously with the regu- another niche audience with his this presentation, Film Daily iden- lar theatrical release." The move, Alice—children.

39 they claimed, was made necessary of 2009, the northern New Jersey provided some very convincing, if "by the demand for the series by press proudly proclaimed that in the end unavoidably specula- non-theatrical users throughout "Alice was originally a Jersey girl!" tive, answers in the introductory

country." Educational Screen \^zs> lecture of the the Thanks to August Imholtzfor aid weekend program, specific, stating that the film "The Dodgson Family at Guildford." more in locating theater showings, and to would be "available in 35mm film Richard Koszarski, Tom Myers, and The Dodgson's family's presence with and in versions in Oxford could have sound 16mm Nelson Pagefor their assistance in made more his either sound or silent." setting up the Fort Lee meeting, and demands on time than he In what format were the 16mm providing valuable information. could in conscience satisfy, and films to be issued? The sound was although Roger did not say it, one probably on a phonograph record. ^ might suspect they could have felt It was not until 1933 that the Amer- GUILDFORD: slightly out of place there, aca- ican Standards Association adopted A LEWIS CARROLL SOCIETY demically and socially. Why not a standard for 16mm sound on STUDY WEEKEND, London? Their presence might film production. The film shown JULY 15-18, 2010 well have restricted Dodgson's at the Fort Lee meeting was pro- social life, and London certainly August A. Imholtz, duced from my film (16mm sound fr. would have been more expensive

on film on DuPont-manufactured After Archdeacon Charles Dodg- than rural Guildford. Still, why film base). DuPont data indicates son's death on June 21, 1868, his Guildford? In addition to the that this film stock was produced oldest son, Charles Lutwidge attractiveness of the town and the sometime before 1940. Dodgson, was responsible for his charm of the Surrey Downs, Guild- Showings of the film in schools seven unmarried sisters and three ford was easily accessible by train or churches would have provided younger brothers. One of the from London as well as from Ox- the greatest impact on continuing pressing tasks he confronted was ford. Also, Dodgson had several interest in Alice's Adventures in Won- moving out of the rural rectory of friends in the neighboring villages, derland. 16mm sound films could Croft, where they had lived for al- such as George Portal, vicar of Al- be shown in schools, churches, most 25 years, so it could be made bury, and he later made acquain- factories, and other non-theatrical ready for the next incumbent. tances of people of his social class locations. During and after World After some deliberation, the family and varied interests.

War II, 16mm sound projectors settled on the town of Guildford We visited the Guildford Mu- became very popular. Whether par- in Surrey, and in October of 1868 seum, which had on display varied

tial 16mm versions of the film were they let at £73 per annum the materials ranging from such rari-

ever produced is not known, but very first house they looked at, ties as Alice's own copy of Through if they were, they would have been the Chestnuts—a Victorian villa the Looking-Glass, to Dodgson's

very suitable for classroom use. adjacent to the grounds and ruins surplice with its oversized sleeves, On December 22, 1933, Para- of Guildford Castle, whose origins to Victorian toys and Wonderland mount released their expensive are said to go back to the eleventh artifacts. The ebullient Maijorie Hollywood version of Alice that century. Williams then led us on a walk- starred Charlotte Henry and in- And so we found ourselves in ing tour of the town, including a cluded practically every one of Guildford and its environs this descent into a crypt, now below

their big stars. past July for a splendid long week- office flats, where King Henry Ill's On May 19, 1933 Motion Picture end of lectures, tours, and dinners, men may have stored their beer Daily gave a tongue-in-cheek "Tip all brilliantly organized by Mark while the King stayed at Guild-

to Paramount." The tip: "Competi- and Catherine Richards and ably ford Casde; the White Hart Inn, tion looms on Alice in Wonderland. assisted by Matthew and Margaret where Dodgson sometimes stayed The independent who made the Heaton. Our first two days of lec- when the Chestnuts became too same story in Jersey three years tures were held at the University crowded; Archbishop Abbot's Hos- ago and didn't get much of a play of Surrey's School of Management. pital of the Blessed Trinity; and

at the time is figuring on a reis- The delegates to the weekend the splendid Guildhall—its bar sue, 25 prints strong." Perhaps the meeting came from America, Fin- looking like the illustration of the print shown in Atlanta was one of land, France, Japan, and of course courtroom bar in the Wonderland

these 25. Britain. trial chapter.

In any case, Mop Head Alice (as But why did Dodgson choose Back at the university, I gave my family referred to the film, Guildford? Why not Oxford, a brief after-dinner talk on the because of Alice's unbecoming or London, or elsewhere in or true identity of Lewis Carroll as

wig) may have had its troubles, but beyond Surrey? That was the revealed in nineteenth-century Alice did speak, and in October question to which Roger Allen American newspaper accounts

40 [KL 84: 8] . I also answered some Next, Selwyn Goodacre, in In the afternoon, we journeyed questions on how access to mas- "The Incomplete Works of Charles over the Surrey Downs, seeing sive full-text databases is changing Dodgson," discussed what Dodg- some of the beautiful country- research techniques. son was working on before he side, including Newland's Corner, If Roger Allen had provided died, and what we might have where Dodgson took so many the beginning of the Dodgson- been given had he lived longer. walks. We stopped at the Silent

Guildford story, Charlie Lovett These included a proposed geom- Pool, and wandered from its discussed its end. Friday morn- etry-for-boys book, a collection of quiet, extremely clear water to the ing began with his excellent il- theological essays (mentioned in nearby Church of the Apostles, lustrated lecture entitled "Thy a June 1885 letter to Macmillan), the headquarters of the curi- Will Be Done: Charles Dodgson, various Bible collections for the ous Catholic Apostolic Church Death, and Afterlife." He placed young, including selections to be founded by Henry Drummond

Dodgson 's attitude toward death memorized (surely not from Le- and a small coterie of other men in its Victorian context, discuss- viticus!), letters to an unidentified attracted to the millennialist mes- ing both the religious and social agnostic, a "family Shakespeare," sage of Edward Irving. A short aspects, which are not always possible further merchandizing ride brought us to Albury village,

easy to distinguish at this remove. of themes and things based on where we enjoyed tea at St. Peter Charlie quoted Michael Wheeler's the Alicehooks, more items like and Paul Church and heard a talk Death and the Future Life in Vic- his "Guildford Gazette Extraordi- by a local historian on the history torian Literature and Theology on nary," which Selwyn saw as a good of the church, which Drummond the typical Victorian protocol of example of Dodgson's proto-Saki built for the villagers to use as a death. Dodgson used faith, logic, adult humor, additional puzzles substitute for the ancient Saxon and scholarship to approach his like those published in Vanity Fair, church on the grounds of his death, yet death seemed to remain and something called "transcen- estate. We drove to Drummond's for him the final bending toward dental logic." country mansion (now being

divine will. Charlie supported his Mark Richards spoke briefly refurbished into luxury flats) thesis with quotations from Dodg- about "Drummond, Percy, Portal, and the old Saxon church with

son 's letters and even from Sylvie and Albury." Henry Drummond its nineteenth-century Augustus and Bruno. By the late nineteenth (1786-1860) was a very successful Pugin crypt—a fascinating juxta- century, a cult of pastoral, in the banker (King George III was his position of artistic styles—^where bucolic sense, burial developed. mzyor client), with a profound Drummond's remains reside. Dodgson had insisted that his interest in religion, especially On Friday evening, we gathered funeral be simple, with no pomp Christ's Second Coming. After again at the School of Manage-

or circumstance. Dodgson 's grave Drummond's purchase of Albury ment, where Edward Wakeling in Guildford's Mount Cemetery Estate, the small village of Albury spoke on "The Personal Effects of

is marked by a simple white cross became, under his influence, "an Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, 1898 atop three steps, signifying that he incubator of radical thought"—not and Onwards." Dodgson died was a churchman. how one thinks of bankers today. at 2:30 in the afternoon ofJanu- Charlie generously provided Henry Drummond's daughter ary 14, 1898. When his brother a booklet he had put together to married Algernon George Percy, Wilfred, his executor, went to the each delegate, "The Funeral and sixth Duke of Northumberland, rooms at Christ Church, he was Burial of Charles Lutwidge Dodg- and settled at Albury Hall. Their appalled by the mass of material son: A Reconstruction Based on son, Henry George Percy, was at he found: a personal library of Contemporary Sources," which Christ Church and knew Dodgson. 2,050 titles arranged by subject, included a CD-ROM of the music The Rev. George Raymond Portal, photograph albums, diaries, letter

from Dodgson 's funeral, sung by vicar of nearby Albury, had been register, lecture notes, texts and Janice Lovett. Our conference at Rugby, though a bit earher than working papers, paintings, chil- packets already included a marvel- Dodgson. Portal, like many of the dren's toys, and much else. Many ous assortment of things: copies Albury citizens, interested himself of these effects were sold at auc- of the 1871 and 1881 Census in social welfare. He founded the tion over the following months, pages listing the inhabitants of National Deposit Society—a kind much was burned, and of course the Chestnuts, a version of the of credit union prototype. Portal, much was retained by members "Guildford Gazette Extraordinary" like Dr. Munsell—rector of St. of the Dodgson family. Wilfred (a very rare Dodgson piece) faith- Mary's—became part of Dodgson's kept the diaries, but sometime fully recreated by Mark Richards, not-at-all-small circle of friends in later four of the thirteen volumes a postcard of an 1868 view of the the Guildford area. disappeared, and some pages were Chestnuts, and more. removed from surviving volumes.

41 Most of the current descendants, Carroll as background to the after- tors have all ten reprints?), Alice in however distant, have some of noon's talks. Motorland, Through a Peer Glass (a

Dodgson's materials. In 1965, Clare Imholtz delivered a talk Winston Churchill parody) , Alice Phihp Dodgson Jaques, "the custo- on Carroll's nonsense and word- in Holidayland, the Guinness Al- dian of Lewis Carroll papers and play, tided "Did You Say PIG or ices of course, Alice's Adventures in relics in their possession," in the FIG?" Carroll's words display his Railwayland, and Wilson in Wonder- words of the old Guildford Muni- sense of humor, and his neolo- land (about former Prime Minister ment catalogue, offered to donate gisms had a great influence on Harold Wilson). the materials to the Guildford James Joyce, whom Clare quoted After a short tea break that Muniment Room. The first part of briefly, and on the surrealists. included a surrealistic slide show the materials arrived in October Many of his "Jabberwocky" non- to the strains of Grace Slick's of 1965, and over the years other sense words are still in use. "Chor- "White Rabbit," I gave a brief talk members of the family have added de" entered the Oxford English Dic- on unpublished Alice plays, an- to the original deposit. This is tionary in the 1890s. Kipling used other aspect of Carroll's legacy. known as "The Dodgson Family four words from "Jabberwocky" Concentrating on plays from the Collection of Letters, Papers and in his story "Stalky & Co." Denis copyright deposit collection of Other Materials." The family, how- Crutch, writing \n Jabberwocky, the Library of Congress, plays not ever, still holds materials that, in offered some brilliant possible listed in Charlie Lovett's excellent the aggregate, might be called the definitions for "vorpal," "tulgey," monograph Alice on Stage, I read Dodgson family deutero collection. and "frabjous," viewing them as brief excerpts from two of them: On Saturday, we traveled to sort of super portmanteaus. To a short passage from Deborah the Surrey History Centre in Wok- him, "vorpal" suggested voracious, Mitchell's 1976 NAACP play Alice ing, which contains the holdings formidable, awful, mortal, fateful; in Ghetto-Land, in which a "Top of the old Guildford Muniment "tulgey": turgid, bulgey, bosky, ugly Cat" substitutes for the Cheshire Room. A catalog, produced almost (Clare thinks he borrowed some Cat, and the delightful prologue twenty years ago by Shirley Corke, of this from Eric Partridge); and from Thomas Patrick McNamara's listed their Carroll holdings up "frabjous": frantic, fabulous, raptur- 1976 Alice—a Modern Adaptation. to that time, and is now available ous, joyous, and juicy. Agreeing Jenny Woolf followed me with online. The Surrey History Centre with Crutch, Elizabeth Sewell an interesting talk on Dodgson's is truly a state-of-the-art facility, as stated in The Field ofNonsense that physical appearance. She com- was demonstrated by its learned the words of "Jabberwocky" often mented on his stiff posture, his archivists Julian Pooley and Mike function by reminding us of other slightly asymmetrical left eye with

Page. After a tour of the Centre, words. However, Sewell felt some its drooping eyelid, his dreamy we examined an exhibition of of the words that Carroll made grey eyes, and his firm belief in its impressive Dodgson holdings, up—one can hardly pronounce mens sana in corpore sano, demon- augmented by materials from the them—such as "mhruxian" and strated by his ability to walk eigh- Dodgson Family Collection. We "grurmstipth" from A Tangled Tale teen miles in four and three-quar- saw the famous letter from Dr. and "hjckrrh" from the Mock ters hours! She wondered how Tait, headmaster of Richmond Turtle's story, "do not interest the much of Dodgson himself there School, to the Rev. Charles Dodg- mind." She said that the mind might be in his story "Wilhelm von son expressing his high opinion "can enjoy itself with words like Schimdt": of the genius of young Charles, "tove," which look strangely famil- The younger, in whom the drafts of Dodgson's letter to an iar. Clare agreed. sagacious reader already agnostic, the infamous note on Selwyn then spoke on the many recognizes the hero of my the removed pages from the diary, parodies of the Alice books. Avoid- tale, possessed a form which, and the standard reply to writers ing an overly strict construction once seen, could scarcely addressing letters to Lewis Carroll of the term "parody," he showed a be forgotten: a slight ten- at Christ Church. cavalcade of slides of the covers of dency to obesity proved but The afternoon was devoted to numerous parodies and pastiches a trifling drawback to the public lectures on the legacy of (political, advertising, religious, manly grace of its contour, Lewis Carroll. Mark Richards wel- and other), all drawn from his and though the strict laws comed the guests, offered some own collection, accompanied by of beauty might perhaps general reflections on the depth a delightful running commentary. have required a somewhat and extent of Carroll's legacy, and Some of the fascinating items he longer pair of legs to make introduced Selwyn Goodacre, who showed were: Clara in Blunderland up the proportion of his gave a very brief biography of (many Carroll collectors have a figure, and that his eyes copy of this, but how many collec-

42 .

should match rather more Surrey Downs home in 1926 only Dodgson stayed while in Guildford exactly than they chanced to appear eleven days later—quite to help nurse his dying nephew to do, yet to those critics unlike the cut diary pages, at Charlie Wilcox. It was July 18, who are untrammeled with least so far), Edward sketched the 1874, that the famous final Une of any laws of taste, and there scene, presented the characters, The Hunting of the Snark suddenly are many such, to those reviewed motives, eliminated the occurred to Dodgson as he took a who could close their eyes innocent suspects, and announced solitary walk on the Surrey Downs. to the faults in his shape, that, with the aid of his "little grey After lunch, we were fortunate

and single out its beau- cells," he has identified the culprit, to be able to visit the Chestnuts

ties, though few were ever whose identity he will reveal in a itself, courtesy of Mr. and Mrs. found capable of the task, fully demonstrated argument in Baker, who now own the property. to those above all who knew published form. A number of us toured the base- and esteemed his personal A "Pistrinum Dinner" on Satur- ment where their daughter now character, and believed that day evening was held at Gomshall lives in what had been in Dodg-

the powers of his mind tran- Mill. Roger Allen led us in the tra- son 's day the servants' quarters. scended those of the age he ditional LCS Latin grace, chosen The upper stories were undergo- lived in, though alas! None for the dinners by the late Canon ing careful renovation so that the such has yet turned up—to Ivor Davies, though I had a passel original structures could later be

those he was an Apollo. . of Cambridge College graces at revealed if necessary. the ready, ranging from two words The bronze and glass statue of Jenny noted that the young to too many words, just in case Alice passing through the looking- Dodgson looked quite dapper in one was needed. Maybe next time. glass, a Palladian glass without an early photograph, but unfortu- Sunday morning began with a frame, in the little park to the side nately no photograph of him after visit to Millfield Park beside the of the hill just a few hundred feet the age of forty apparently exists. quiet River Wey to see Edwin Rus- above the rear of the house was He was sensitive about his appear- sell's bronze statues of the rabbit delightful to see. ance, as Isa Bowman's story of heading for his rabbit hole while Unfortunately, our coach was her attempt to sketch him makes Alice sits beside her sister, who not able to go up the steep hill to frightfully, almost unsettlingly, is reading, in a most proleptic the Mount Cemetery to see the clear. Here is Isa's account, how- manner, Alice's Adventures in Won- Dodgson graves. An express train ever believable it may be, of this derland] After a peaceful few min- brought us swiftly back to London, particular torn page episode: utes there with photographs duly a little faster surely than Dodg-

I had an idle trick of draw- digitally shot, we walked up to St. son 's trip had been, but no less

ing caricatures when I was Mary's church for a special Matins enjoyable. a child, and one day when service. Mary Alexander spoke to

he was writing some letters, us about Dodgson 's preaching at THE OXFORD EXPERIENCE: I began to make a picture St. Mary's. Selwyn Goodacre de- of him on the back of an livered a brief sermon honoring EDWARD WAKELING AT CHRIST CHURCH envelope . . . but suddenly his father, the late Rev. Norman he turned around and saw W. Goodacre, whose views he Ann Buki what I was doing. He got up intertwined with Carroll's "Easter "And in a very short time from his seat and turned Greeting," commenting on how the room was full of Alice: very red, frightening me both clergymen saw religion in just in the same way as a service, very much. Then he took children's lives. After the jar is full of jam! There crisps my poor little drawing, and we were offered sherry and was Alice all the way up to tearing it into small pieces, as we viewed photographs Maijo- the ceiling: and Alice in threw it into the fire with- rie Williams had brought of the every corner of the room!" out a word. Dodgson family graves, before and — The Nursery Alice after their restoration—^which had And speaking of pages being I in Wakel- been organized and supported The time spent Edward torn out and perhaps up, Edward ing's Alice course at the Oxford by Prof. Katsuko Kasai ofJapan, a Wakeling concluded the afternoon Experience (a residential summer member of the Guildford Study lectures with a talk on the missing of one-week courses Weekend group. program pages from Carroll's diary. With a for nonspecialists, 25-30) On the way to lunch, Marjorie July brilliantly worked out and surely worth a thousand pounds a Williams pointed out Mrs. Carter's was Agatha Christie-inspired talk (for minute. En tided Alice's Adventures house on Quarry Street across she vanished from her nearby in Oxford: The Origin Lewis Car- from St. Mary's church, where of

43 roll's Immortal Story, the class was diligently on the homework, but Alice Hargreaves during her visit international and enthusiastic, the I was a bit of a slouch. The same to the U.S. It was a thrill to touch atmosphere friendly and collegial, was true of the croquet match the page in the book that bore her and our tutor brilliant, generous, that a few of us played on a free signature. And he did not have to and humorous. There was much afternoon in the gorgeous Masters' tell us three times that we would of a muchness in the course; it Garden—I finished last. graciously be allowed to handle provided prizes to all Carrollians, In the afternoons Mr. Wakeling any of his books. from novices to the well versed. It took us on excursions to Alice and The week was filled with math- would not surprise me if everyone Carroll-related sites, guided tours ematical, musical, and magical in the class has joined the LCSNA of Christ Church, museums, and moments that brought the spirit of and/or the LCS. areas of interest in Oxford. We Lewis Carroll alive. From the pub Each day began with Mr. Wakel- also visited the places where the visit on the evening before our ing's presentation. Some of the boat trip that gave birth to the class began to the farewell dinner topics covered in detail included A/zc^ stories took place. where we received our certificates, the lives of Lewis Carroll and Alice On most evenings we were I did not skip a single event. Both Liddell, Carroll's (and Dodgson's) invited back to the classroom to the course and the entire Oxford photographic and mathemati- watch Alice films and programs. Experience week gave me (and my cal careers, and a few of the un- One night we gathered to read classmates, I'm sure) more knowl- founded assumptions made about The Hunting of the Snark, and by edge and enjoyment than a year

Carroll. After hearing some of evening's end were transformed of unbirthday presents. I mark these misconceptions, it occurred from baffled beginners into sanc- each of the days spent there with a to me that Carroll's life and works tioned snarkophiles. On another white stone. have at times been, as was said of evening, Mr. Wakeling gave a pre- The cost of the course include Shakespeare's in Ulysses, a "happy sentation on Dodgson's puzzles accommodations in comfortable

hunting ground of . . . minds that and games that was open to all Ox- student housing, three meals have lost their balance." ford Experience attendees. Judg- (with vegetarian, gluten-free, We had homework assignments, ing by the large crowd's enthusi- and vegan choices), and a daily but our tutor provided us with ev- asm (and the number of people break for tea and biscuits in mid- erything we needed to succeed in who bought his books afterwards), morning. Each student had the our subsequent class presentations. all were dazzled. opportunity to sit at the high table It was fun to work with a partner, a Mr. Wakeling was generous in for an evening meal. For more different one for each of the two sharing his remarkably extensive information on registering for assignments. Some worked very knowledge and precious collec- future courses, see The Oxford tion of resources. He brought with Experience website. him, among other treasures, the copy of Alice that was presented to

r_'__6jSA;;..J

44 . . ,

0^ ^'^cJ EVERMORE EVERSON'S EVERTYPE! designs are identical (save for the Mark Burstein text, of course), and their interior Borges and others have spoken design was inspired by The Anno- of a universal Hbrary; for our tated Alice: The Definitive Edition, in purposes, let us imagine an enor- terms of the text fonts (DeVinne), mous set of the two canonical display fonts (Mona Lisa, Engrav- ers Alicehooks., all with matching Roman), Victorian flower covers and identically formatted, ornaments, and drop caps. He ran with the Tenniel illustrations, and into all the usual problems with phabetician to the world," he is each in one of the ninety or more translations, but noted that in Irish a linguist, typographer, and font languages into which they have the Mouse's Tale/Tail pun worked designer; was one of the principal been translated. Michael Everson, perfectly {parabal: parable, tale; editors and authors of Unicode earball: tail). Even Tenniel's illus- under his Evertype imprint, is, in (a computer character-encoding trations fact, moving in that direction, with have been modified, so system presently incorporating matching editions of Wonderland that, for example, the label on the 96,000 letters and symbols and 54 bottle reads ME" instead in English as well as Eachtrai Eiltse i "OLTAR writing systems, from Mongolian of "DRINK ME." dTir na niontas (Irish) , Alys in Pow to Thai to Gothic to Cyrillic); and Everson 's friend and col- an Anethow (Cornish) , La Aventuroj is presently the Irish National de Alicio en Mirlando (Esperanto), league Nicholas Williams (Profes- Representative to the ISO com- sor of Irish at University College Alice's Abenteuer im Wunderland mittee responsible for the Uni- (German), Contoyrtyssyn Ealish Dublin), the translator into Irish, versal Character Set. He is active ayns Qheerny Yindyssyn (Manx), then gave the world a new Cornish in supporting minority-language Wonderland first Les aventures d'Alice au pays des (the since Ray communities, including the Celtic Vro merveilles (French), Anturiaethau Edwards's Alysy'n a Varthsusyon and Finnish language families, in 1994), and the dam was burst, Alys yng Ngwlad Hud (Welsh) ; Al- Balinese, and N'Ko (West Africa) soon resulting in a reset Esperanto ices Aventyr i Sagolandet (Swedish) Simply put, his love of languages edition in the Elfric and Looking-Glass in English and 1910 Leofwine has put him in the forefront of Lastall den Scdthdn agus a bhFuair Kearney translation, and an Alice's a scholarly movement to encode Adventures under Ground, the first Eilis Ann Roimpi (Irish). He is cur- the writing systems of every single typeset version with the Carroll rently working on Italian, Danish, language ever spoken into com- illustrations. Everson set himself a Low German, and Scots. New puter form. laying entire translations into the constructed challenge of out an One can understand his fasci- languages Volapiik, Lojban, and book in one day, and succeeded nation for Carroll, likewise a lover Neo have begun, and Clive Car- with The Hunting of the Snark. A of language was fascinated by who Nursery Alice followed (in color) ruthers' classical Latin translations machines and once even devised and he recently began work on a will be reset and republished in his own alphabet (the "Square new omnibus edition of Sylvie and 20n. In addition to commission- for his Nyctograph, Alphabet" Bruno (a difficult book in many ing brand-new translations (Irish, 75.8-9). Beginning with his KL ways, he says) Cornish, Low German, Scots, and of publication of new translations He has since branched out Volapiik), Everson is creating new the them into the Irish tongue— into the world of Alice imitations, editions of the texts in European first since Cadhla's Padraig O parodies, and spinoffs, releasing languages (he is fluent in six) that in 1922 "en- —Michael became Wonderland Revisited and the Games are taken from the first editions, of the Alice books, and amored" Alice Played There (2009: Keith but Romanized (in the case of the soon published standard English Sheppard, ill. Cynthia Brownell, German Fraktur) and modernized All the cover versions to match. reviewed on A New Alice in in terms of spelling and, occa- p. 46), the Old Wonderland (orig. sionally, vocabulary, in 1895: Anna Matlack Rich- order to provide thor- ards, ill. by the author's oughly readable texts daughter Anna Richards for today's readers.

Brewster) , Alice in Wonder- Born and raised land in Words One Syllable in America, Everson of (orig. 1905: retold by Mrs. moved to Ireland at C. Gorham), Clara in the age of twenty-six, J. Blunderland (orig. 1902: receiving a Fulbright "Caroline Lewis" [Edward scholarship soon after. H. Begbie], ill. Stafford Sometimes called "al- J.

45 .

Ransome), Lost in Blunderland characters she meets that speak eral characters insist on referring dxlio) Bull's nonsense to her in true Wonder- to Alice as "Celia." In addition, (orig. 1903: , John Adventures in the Fiscal Wonderland land fashion. When she asks if Sheppard makes some fun refer-

(orig. 1904: Charles Geake and she might ask what he is doing in ences to the original Alice books,

Francis Carruthers Gould, ill. F. her bed, he, after some quibbling academia (You knew that the capi-

C. Gould), Alice in Blunderland: An about whether she may or may not tal of France is "F," didn't you?),

Iridescent Dream (orig. 1907: John ask, responds by asking what she is and also to twentieth-century cul-

Kendrick Bangs, ill. Albert Lever- doing in his boat! These conversa- ture. Sometimes these are spelled ing), The Westminster Alice (orig. tions are amusing, but the reader out for the reader, and sometimes

1922: "Saki" [H. H. Munro], ill. F does feel that Sheppard is trying not—surely the pelican with a bill

C. Gould) , New Adventures ofAlice a bit too hard with the CarroUian- full of ink is a reference to Pelikan

(orig. 1917: John Rae, ill. by the style twists of logic and grammar. fountain pens?

author) , Rollo in Emblemland (orig. (To his credit, I've never encoun- Despite the many clever and

1902: John Kendrick Bangs and tered a CarroUian pastiche that interesting ideas in this book, it

Charles Raymond Macauley, ill. C. didn't.) unfortunately did not hold my

R. Macauley) , and a single volume Instead ofjoining a deck of interest for much more than a containing both Gladys in Gram- cards to play croquet with hedge- chapter at a time. Brownell's line

marland (orig. c. 1897: Audrey hogs and flamingoes, or becoming illustrations are a bit clunky, as

Mayhew Allen, ill. "Claudine") and a pawn on a massive chessboard, well. I suspect that, true to the au- Alice in Grammarland (orig. 1923: in Wonderland Revisited Alice and thor's stated intention, this book

Louise Franklin Bache, ill. Henry the characters she encounters act would be much more amusing to Clarence Pitz) as the pieces of various games, in- read aloud to a child.

In preparation are Eileen 's cluding bridge, euchre, darts, fox Adventures in Wordland (orig. 1920: and geese, mah^ong, and snakes Alice in Verse: The Lost Zillah K, Macdonald, ill. Stuart and ladders. The Red Queen ap- Wonderland Hay), Davy and the Goblin (orig. pears several times to play croquet Rhymes of T. Holden, illustrated 1884: Charles E. Carryl, ill. E. B. and draughts, a group of morris J. Bensell), Alice in Plunderland (orig. dancers plays nine men's mor- by AndrewJohnson Candleshoe Books, 2009 1910: "Loris Carllew," ill. Linton ris, and Alice caddies for the Red Jehne), and some portmanteaux King. New characters include a ISBN 978-0982508992 of shorter pieces written between talking tree, the Jack of Diamonds, Reviewed by Hayley Rushing 1878 and today a keeps track gameskeeper who Don't let the tide fool you. Alice in And more translations. And of the games but then turns into Verse: The Lost Rhymes of Wonderland, more. At the rate Evertype is a goat, and aggressive geese that by J. T Holden, is not a volume going, perhaps we can look for- want to eat Alice, dragons that of Carroll's forgotten poetry. ward to the Universal Carroll Li- don't, and a snake that does. And Rather it is Holden's experiment in a course, the leads brary being completed decade of none of paths in exploring his own childhood or two! to where Alice wants to go! imagination, sparked by the tales When asked what he thinks Many of the games mentioned his grandfather once told him of his progress far, in the as about so Michael book, such bridge and mythical, lost poetry that shed light replied, in Irish, "7w5 maith, leath na mah-jong, may be unfamiliar to a on the mysteries of Wonderland. hoibre" ("Well is begun half done"). child reader, and many use names Holden's Lost Rhymes, illustrated terms to and unfamiliar Ameri- by Chicago-based artist Andrew can readers, such as draughts Johnson, is a volume of nineteen Wonderland Revisited, and the (checkers) and snakes and ladders CarroUian-style poems that are Games Alice Played There (chutes and ladders). But Shep- actually a quite convincing pas- Keith Sheppard, illustrated pard's introduction kindly in- tiche, befitting the misleading title. by Cynthia Brownell a the cludes paragraph on most of The poems are more akin to fan Evertype, 2009 games, giving enough of an over- fiction than traditional pastiche as ISBN 978-194808343 view of each to allow the reader to they follow Alice's journey through Reviewd by Sarah Adams-Kiddy understand what is happening in Wonderland and Looking-Glass the action and "get" any jokes that One night after going to bed, Land, because they fill in blanks Alice wakes up to find her bed has might otherwise be missed. rather than create new adventures Speaking ofjokes, Sheppard turned into a small boat, bobbing for her As if taking cues from along a river on a warm summer's plays with words, grammar, logic, the many movie adaptations that day. The dog rowing the bed/ and numbers, as did Carroll. Ana- combine the two books, the poems grammatic appear, and sev- boat is only the first of the many poems travel through both Wonderland

46 —

and Looking-Glass, starting (as (as when Alice wildly hurtles down your knowledge of, inter alia, his- always) with the rabbit-hole and the rabbit-hole in the Burton torical personages, Victorian Eng- ending with the trial over the tarts, film). In terms of imaginative style, land, and things Indian (though with smatterings of tea parties, I particularly love the Hatter's I must say I got that last one via caterpillars, Tweedles, and live bulging, tumorous, turban-like hat Kipling). Rather than spoil your flowers mixed in. Indeed, unlike and the White Rabbit's long, gaunt fun by enumerating these finds, I other modern retellings, Holden's face and haunted eyes, for who will instead reassure you that, far Lost Rhymes must follow the origi- hasn't felt haunted by lateness? from being a superficial show of nal story, for while the rhymes are With such grim artwork, it's cleverness, these visual jokes serve clever and the meter is fun to read fitting that the author's upcom- the artist's larger purpose of tak-

(especially aloud), they're not ing book is O the Dark Things You 'II ing us deeper into the world of the much for autonomous storytelling; See!, again illustrated byJohnson, Snark. This great depth (perhaps

they don't carry the story on their which is an ominous parody of Dr. so great as to be a chasm . . . and own, but merely remind us of what Seuss's Oh The Places You 'II Go!, set so can we say that these illustra- we already know. to hit the shelves in March, ac- tions are abysmal, in a good way?) In terms of imitative style, the cording to Holden's page on Ama- results from the fact that these clever rhymes are very CarroUian, zon, though Candleshoe Books' images and ideas bring along with my current favorite being "elocu- site says it'll be May. Holden has them the entirety of the worlds tion" and "execution" during the also reported in interviews that he they come from, and from the trial scene, where Holden writes. has more rhyming poetry books in necessity of active participation by

Whilst Hare and Hatter plied the works, Bedtime Tales for Naughty the reader. You are creating depth the Mouse Children and Gothic Tales for the by being there yourself. With soothing elocution. Wicked Soul, though their release Of the many devices at work in There rose a voice in bold dissent dates are yet to be determined. these illustrations, one that re- ally drives their functioning is the To halt the execution... constant play between realism and Also, the incorporation of what Snark: The Hunting of the staginess. Scenes dissolve back and Martin Gardner called a "figured" An Agony in Eight Fits forth between a theater setdng and poem, recited here at the tea- Lewis Carroll, illustrated a (strange and dreamy) realism. party, is an excellent nod to the by Mahendra Singh Characters are sometimes them- Mouse's Tale, though without the Melville House, 2010 selves and sometimes performing; pun. The meter varies by poem, ISBN 978-1935554240 they are figures in a theater, in a creating an individual tone for Reviewed by Stephanie Lovett shadowbox, in an 11-circuit laby- every piece, which was a surprise rinth, in a picture within a picture. If like what for me. I'd expected solely the you would to know before This play-fulness emphasizes the iambic quatrains that are typical of you are getting you order storytelling process and invites us a of Singh's new Carroll's poems (mosdy parodies copy Mahendra to see the characters as more than of popular poetry of the time); The Hunting of The Snark, imagine themselves as exemplars, meta- if were — instead, though the tone remains the results Edward Gorey Magritte phors, personae for the ages. distincdy CarroUian, each poem to draw a dream Rene had about Hieronymus Bosch. Like the Beaver and the has a unique vitality that helps cre- the Snark Entertaining provocative, Butcher, the story of and ate a dynamic whole. and illustrations walk hand in Singh's pen-and-ink these Johnson's spooky illustrations deadpan hand, each filling our heads with "engravings" a style that pays are striking and oddly morose in — Tenniel and Holiday ideas through its own particular smudged blacks and grays. More homage to means. Your attention to Mahen- conjure a variety of sources, not scary than odd, the art seems typi- dra Singh's work will be amply so much to illustrate the text as to cal of the "Alice is the new black" Snark repaid; you will learn more about trend of the modern, Goth-fashion create a parallel text, a visual a book you thought you knew, and joining the verbal Snark. Alice. Rather than curiously pon- you may even weep with delight. at "spot the reference" dering as she leisurely descends Winning is readers the rabbit-hole, Alice looks genu- always gratifying, and will hugely enjoy the walk-ons inely terrified as she falls with what Alice characters, allusions to appears to be a speed that would by Dodgson's photography and mi- likely impede introverted thought lieu, joyful plunderings of surreal-

ism 's vast iconography, and a myr- iad ofjokes that ring the bells of

47 ^ absolutely no specifics, citations, their estrangement, "who knows The Real Alice in Wonderland: or provenance for any of it, or to going forward what other creative A Role Modelfor the Ages claim that Lewis Carroll was less projects Alice might have inspired C. M. Rubin with Gabriella Rubin than wholly responsible for his him to create?" And yet collectors AuthorHouse, 2010 book. The author makes the claim have entire rooms filled with his ISBN 978-1449081317 here that, after Dodgson stopped later works. Why is it so difficult to spending time with the Liddells, credit Lewis Carroll with creativ- Reviewed by Ray Kiddy he and Alice Liddell corresponded ity? A poem may be inspired by a I was prepared to be unimpressed in secret, and that Alice's advocacy flower, but we don't suggest that with The Real Alice in Wonderland, was necessary for the publication the flower lobbied for the poem but I was pleasantly surprised. Not oi Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. to be published and sent letters to impressed, mind you, but I found I am not sure how one would go the editor about it. that it does have a bit to say. The about providing corroboration for This book could have been completist will want to own this, of these goings-on. The author does better, and more informative. It course, but most Carrollians may not even attempt it, so where does is good for what it is and as far as want to read through the book one go with this? it goes, but more diligence and before buying it. It could be an This book does speak about the effort might have made it a more approachable book for the rela- middle part of Alice Liddell 's life, important one. tive of a collector, someone who which is often overlooked. Alice vaguely wonders what all the fuss usually shows up in our conscious- is about and does not need to be Alice's Adventures in Wonderland ness either as the young girl on very rigorous about getting an the river Thames, or as the older Lewis Carroll, illustrated answer. Plus, I have a soft spot for by Nancy Wiley woman who had to sell her manu- my relatives who scrapbook. And script and who later came to New Wiley O'Brien if this book seems very much like York to be honored at Columbia Workspace, Inc., 2009 a scrapbook, its origins, indeed, ISBN 978-0615294926 University. The middle of her life are a project the author's daugh- as Alice Hargreaves is much less Reviewed by Ray Kiddy ter Gabriella did in high school. familiar to most people, and it is Nancy Wiley has done an admi- Just as a scrapbook can record the to her as she good see a picture of rable job illustrating Alice's Adven- details of a day, perhaps a child's for life, a wife, was much of her tures in Wonderland with dolls, dolls first day at school, and make it mother, and, even an artist. What that she rightly calls "sculptural." interesting, so this book records one does mostly see is a picture, Obviously, certain tableaux are an "incredible journey" described and another picture, and a mirror going to be more fun to do, but on the book flap as encompass- image of the picture to fit on the ing London, Oxford, Lyndhurst, she executes different sculptures

facing page. . . . But most of Alice's for all of the "Tenniel 42" Guildford, and Llandudno. This almost story has been better documented, and adds many extras. These in- is a small geographical span for just as we have other books (such clude Dodgson reading in a chair, an "incredible journey," but of as Linda Sunshine's) that collect the boat ride on the Thames, the course, one does not have to go to art about Lewis Carroll and Alice raven and the writing desk, many the ends of the earth to find some- from many sources. There may be versions of Father William, and thing exotic or interesting, and new information here, but if that more than a few Crustacea and the British Isles do pack rather a is so, it will have to be republished other sea creatures. Of course, cats lot into a small space. If you enjoy with citations and sources to be and pigs and grins and teacups a lighthearted visual presentation, credible. abound. I cannot decide which is something perhaps akin to a web- Yet again Alice is presented as my favorite figure. There is some- log in book form, and if you can the true source of the creativity or thing to appeal to every Carrol- overlook text being overwritten by the stories in Lewis Carroll's most lian, whether it be the frustrated ornate clusters of roses that oc- famous work. Of course, at first expressions of the card soldiers, cupy a rather large space in each glance we see this puckish young the three-masted-ship hat of the corner of many pages, or the use girl, fetchingly posed, an artist in Duchess at the Queen's party, the of public-domain clip art, you will her own right, and then we see sleeping Gryphon, the dancing enjoy the visual effect that this Reverend Dodgson, a church- lobsters, or all of the different at- book achieves. and, even worse, a teacher man titudes on display at the trial. A Carrollian who wants to take of mathematics. Which of these Reinterpretations of Alice often this book seriously will probably figures lighthearted, seems which try to shock, but Wiley's figures be frustrated. This is the not the creative, which clever? The au- do not stoop to that. Neither are first book to claim to present new thor even suggests here that, after information, and then provide they twee. They are childlike, with

48 a

some fluffiness evident in most of nently, in spite of his own chess pawn had captured normally. The the creatures portrayed. But they creation. Through the Looking-Glass. en passant capture must be done are also complex. Some of the Is he featured in mystery stories? on the very next turn, or the right scenes might have become self-car- Yes indeed—^you only have to think to do so is lost. Such a move is the icatures, but Wiley's faces are ex- of works by Peter Lovesey, John only occasion in chess in which a pressive, and her use of cloth, hair, Dickson Carr, Donald Thomas, piece captures but does not move and body positioning makes them and many others. Science fiction? to the square of the captured piece. amusing in a straightforward way, Of course; think ofJose Farmer The latter exception is not while also layered with suggested and the rest. But chess stories? unimportant to the way the mean- meanings. For exmaple, the house Strangely less so. Yes, there are a ing of "en passant" plays out in of the White Rabbit looks like a few; perhaps one could mention the story. Without completely traditional dollhouse, with its side Massimo Bontempelli's The Chess Set giving away the whole plot and wall cut away. It seems an obvi- in the Mirror, but Katherine Neville conclusion, one can say that ous effect when you are working has changed the chess landscape Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, John with dolls, but I cannot remember with her engaging, multilevel short Ruskin, Prince Leopold, Dean a drawing that sliced the house story "En Passant." The tide refers Henry George Liddell, and of open in this way. The use of the to a move in chess, a sort of penalty course Alice Pleasance Liddell dollhouse almost seems to show or compensatory maneuver on the are all ensnared in a situation— Wiley laughing at herself. Yes, it part of a pawn, which—^when it has chess match, actually—at Alice's is a doll's house, but it also works advanced to the second rank—can contrivance, in the garden of the to illustrate the story very well, be captured, in a peculiar way, by deanery of Christ Church. Each and she is not afraid to use it. The a pawn on the fifth rank. Here is character is represented by a chess

Queen is, of course, shouting, but a more technical definition drawn figure: Dodgson a knight, Liddell being a card, she has an upside- from the Wikipedia entry: a bishop, Ruskin a rook ("What down face on the front of her En passant (from the French: else?" one might ask), and Alice, dress. Again, a simple effect, but in passing) ... is a special form of of course, a pawn and then a the differing expressions make it capture made immediately after a queen. This Alice is not the little more than just a simple trick. player moves a pawn two squares girl of Wonderland but a young

When I spoke with Nancy Wiley forward from its starting position, woman of twenty-one, who simply at the Philadelphia meeting this and an opposing pawn could have wishes to "live an ordinary, simple past spring, she did not seem to captured it as if it had moved life, as others did, a life of sched- be ready to attempt Through the only one square forward. In this ules and rules and plans, a life

Looking-Glass, but I hope she con- situation, the opposing pawn may with a husband and children." At siders it. Some of the darker ele- capture the pawn as if taking it "as the end of the chess match, Alice ments of that story will be a chal- it passes" through the first square. is freed from a captured state, lenge, but that is why I hope she The resulting position is the same captured en passant, in which she will do it. Her dolls are complex as if the pawn had only moved one was almost imprisoned forever. Or enough to model the ambiguities square forward and the opposing was she? Corpus Christi College, and darkness in that story, and perhaps by poetic license or for the characters would not be flat some other reason, has become cutouts. I very much look forward Corpus Christie; otherwise, Kath- to her vision of the Jabberwock in erine Neville proves herself here a particular. master of technique.

jW HSi "En Passant" The Place ofLewis Carroll

Katherine Neville, in in Children 's Literature Masters of Technique, edited Jan Susina by Howard Goldowsky, Roudedge, 2010 Boston: Mongoose Press, 2010 ISBN 978-0415936293

286 pp., ISBN 978-0970148262 Reviewed by Clare Imholtz

Reviewed by August A. Imholtz, Jr. Jan Susina explores the central- Chess fiction, a genre that of ity of Lewis Carroll to children's course has its own Library of Con- literature from many angles, chap- gress subject heading, is not an ter by chapter unveiling multiple area in which Charles Lutwidge Alices: inter alia, a book for adults, Dodgson has figured too promi- a book for children, a book for

49 .

upper-middle-class children, and The first, wonderful chapter on Edward Salmon establishes a book that has found its way discusses Carroll's often over- indubitably that Carroll cared very (with Carroll's blessing during his looked juvenilia and highlights much about his public image. lifetime) into every niche market, some little known aspects of it, Chapter Six, a detailed look from biscuit tins to multimedia relating the author's youthful at The Nursery Alice, is particularly games. He also examines Carroll's writing practices to his adult work. rewarding, and is a good example letters, photography, and late Readers will enjoy the samples of Susina's ability throughout this novel, Sylvie and Bruno. Susina provides. Chapter Two book to thoroughly examine and Susina, a professor of literature demonstrates that Wonderland synthesize not only the critical at Illinois State University, has was a part of the already flourish- evidence but the textual and para- read widely and deeply on Lewis ing tradition of the literary fairy textual evidence, and to see fresh Carroll, children's literature in tale. Here Susina examines and connections between different general, and Victorian mores. He responds to the arguments of facets of Carroll's writing. Chapter guides us like a sensible, though critics such as Ruth Berman and Seven examines the photograph never stodgy, uncle through the John Goldthwaite. Chapter Three of Alice Liddell as The Beggar-Maid, pitfalls of Alice scholarship, but considers Carroll's obsession with setting it firmly within both the so- also presents lively new insights letters, arguing that it is in letters cial context of the period and the and throws welcome light into the that the two seemingly distinctive development of art photography, comers, all in lucid and accessible personalities of Carroll and Dodg- such as O. G. Rej lander's work, prose. He makes no bones about son are trulyjoined. Susina pres- which Carroll much admired. one issue: Some recent scholar- ents his own solution to the raven Chapter Eight focuses on class ship is "surprisingly ugly." Susina and writing-desk riddle, a solution issues, contrasting Carroll's lack of defends Carroll as "a proper Vic- based on Carroll's letter writing. novelistic concern about poor chil- torian," and the victim of a double He also suggests, incorrectly I dren with other popular writers of standard when compared to certain believe (given what we know about the time, such as Charles Kingsley of his contemporaries (e.g., Hawar- the 1863 break with the Liddells, and the now virtually unknown den and Cameron) whose photos which he never mentions in this Hesba Stretton, \^hose Jessica's First of children are every bit as open very nonbiographical tome), that Prayer sold vastly more copies in its to sexual interpretation. He also the handwritten manuscript of day than did Wonderland. addresses other common misper- Under Ground can be viewed as a Chapter Nine discusses Sylvie ceptions. For example, he does "love letter" to Alice Liddell. and Bruno both as a self-revelatory not totally accept the theory, now a Chapter Four covers the "Alice text and an example of Carroll's truism, that Carroll revolutionized industry" and the rise of chil- desire to write for both children children's literature, though he dren's consumer culture, which and adults. In Chapter Ten we grants that Wonderland did move are, in fact, major themes of this are back to marketing, and in the genre away from didacticism book. Carroll's interest in Alice particular the role of book jackets and toward entertainment. repackagings was notable, but is and other paratextual materials. At times, Susina may be too perhaps slightly overstated here. Susina deconstructs the design of accepting of time-honored views For example, I don't believe that fourteen Alice paperback covers of Carroll. He mentions, but Carroll was actively involved with, and dust jackets, but unfortu- does not challenge, Carroll's dis- beyond giving permission for, E. nately, illustrations of them are sembling claim in the Preface to Stanley Leathes's Alice in Wonder- not included. (The handsome, Sylvie and Bruno Concluded that he land Birthday Book (1884). Nor restrained cover of Susina's own did not read reviews, despite the should he be credited or blamed book, we can note here, authorita- ample evidence in his letters that for the Looking-Glass Biscuit Tin tively conveys that this is a serious Carroll—like virtually every other nor those ivory-carved Wonderland book about a fun and imagina- author in history—^was very inter- and Looking-Glass figure parasol tive topic.) Continuing the same ested in reviews of his books. Su- handles. theme. Chapter Eleven moves us sina also repeats the chestnut that Chapter Five presents an inci- along to explore how Wonderland Carroll was painfully shy, the Alice sive analysis of Carroll's interest in has been transformed by technol- books being a way to transform his imitators, and his own anxiety ogy. It is one of the most trans- himself from Dodgson to Carroll. lest he himself be accused of hav- lated texts into hypertext (perhaps

ing imitated other authors. Susina because it jumps from place to also notes that in some cases imi- place itself) tations of Carroll appear to have influenced his own later work. A long analysis of Carroll's attacks

50 — —

In the final chapter, Jon Sci- 978-5-353-0388-7), published last eszka's "well-intentioned" but year by the same press—is from Through the Looking —Glass "wrong-headed" and "exceed- so many of the Russian books, and What Alice Found There ingly strange" book Walt Dis- including Alice translations, of the Lewis Carroll, illustrated ney's Alice in Wonderland (Disney Soviet years of the 1950s and later. by Gavin L. O'Keefe Press, 2008) —comes in for heavy The paper is good, and the type Ramble House criticism because, Susina says, it is clear, well spaced, and very read- ISBN 978-1-60543-432-2 based on the wrong pictures (Mary able. The illustrations, of which ISBN 978-1-65043-432-9 Blair's rather than Tenniel's) and there are some 96 (42 of them Reviewed by Andrew Ogus omits the conversations. full-page illustrations) are all in It must be difficult to resist the Because the chapters of Su- color—again a marked departure urge to outdo Lewis Carroll's sina's book originally appeared from the Alices of the Soviet era. imagination when illustrating his separately ("have accumulated Not as simplistic as Greg Hildeb- books. In this simple edition of over time"), they are sometimes randt's or as threateningly adult Looking-Glass, the wasp-waisted repetitive; the book would have as Barry Moser's, the illustrations Red Queen literally, though merci- benefited from more editing. This, are gently playful, of the sort that fully briefly, makes Alice an actual as well as the inadequate index would appeal to young readers, Pawn. Unlike the other White which has huge gaps and does not who were of course the main au- Pawns that appear in the back- follow standard practices—may dience for Lewis Carroll's Alice ground of another illustration, reflect publishing economics (as books from the very beginning. she has retained her human head. does the sky-high price of this vol- Especially charming are the il- Some charming ideas: like Mer- ume, enough to pick up a couple lustrations of the Red Queen with cury, the elephants have winged of nice Alices). The meager index her chess figure accoutrements, feet, and the Rocking-horse-fly's is a true shame in a book so rich including a scepter consisting of a hind legs become his own rockers. in detail and broad in thought. fireplace poker with a chess king The curling ribbons and chains There also are a few small errors fixed at the tip like a finial (p. 29); that recur throughout are a pleas- of fact. For example, Blackburn the contrasting pair of a dapper ant touch, but the skeletons and and White used Wilfred Dodgson's Walrus in a red coat and striped skulls are not, nor is the literal abridgment of Sylvie, not one of morning trousers, surely from interpretation of Humpty Dump- their own devising, in Logical Non- beyond the North Sea, and a very ty's suggestions for Alice's face. sense, and Wonderland went out of Russian-looking but unusually thin The bewildering array of sizes and copyright in 1907, not 1911. But Carpenter (pp. 56-57); and the shapes in the illustrations makes these are of minor concern in this crow from Chapter Four making for an inconsistent layout. A para- most informative, enlightening, off with the White Queen's shawl graph of type brilliantly reversing and highly recommended book, in his long beak at the begin- to white out of the black crow is an important addition to the ning of Chapter Five (pp. 66-67). sadly marred by not bleeding off literature for general Carrollian Humpty Dumpy is portrayed the page. One wishes for a similar readers as well as academics. with a most bemused grin and a use of imagination and greater face suggestive of one of the late skill throughout. Roman emperors, as he perches Alisa V Zazerkale on a folded chessboard (of the ^ Lewis Carroll, translated by in pieces are stored sort which the Alice Nina M. Demurova, illustrated when not in play), instead of being 11th Hour Ensemble, by Maxim Mitrofanov shown balanced on his usual dull Theatre of Yugen Moscow: Rosman, 2010 wall (p. 80). Mitrofanov sometimes San Francisco, September 9-19 ISBN 978-5-353-04505-2 follows Tenniel, with modification, Reviewed byJames Welsch Reviewed by August A. Imholtz, Jr. but more often departs from him called Alice with some charming results. The A new theater piece This is a beautifully printed new acrostic nicely at the Theatre of Yugen in San Russian edition of Through the concluding poem, ran from September 9 in its Russian text (no Francisco Looking-Glass illustrated by Maxim worked out through 19, directed and "imag- Mitrofanov and translated by mean feat) , is framed with little ined" by Allison Combs. As a work Nina Demurova, who adds an figures from the story, chess pieces of "movement theatre," it's about afterword on the problems of included, and the half-visible head 60% interpretive dance and 40% translating Alice into Russian. of Dinah at the bottom of the page dialogue, easily juggling different And how delightfully different looking up to see what she started. genres of theater with different this book—like Mitrofanov's ear- types of music (from techno to lier Alisa V Stranye Chudes (ISBN:

51 folk rock) , and varying levels of her through the mind-and-body- is always a lot less clever than Car- seriousness and silliness. changing adventures of Wonder- roll's original. For some reason, Alice, in her traditional blue land, loosely inspired by Carroll's their amazing Cheshire Cat, very outfit but played by a leggy adult book. (While Alice is exploring feline and Kabuki-ish, sticks closer actor/ dancer (Megan Trout), is al- the corridor, before it really gets to Carroll's words, and is conse- ready exhausted on the stage when going, the child behind me de- quently much more powerful. the audience is let in the theater. clares "This is upsetting because After Alice has gone native,

("Is that Alice?" asks a young girl it's boring.") Growing, shrinking, becoming one of the weird savages behind me, Alice having already falling, mushrooms, being stuck in herself, a new square peg (named silendy begun her opening num- a house, scary forests, and all man- Lewis) also finds himself lost in ber while an usher noisily hobbles ner of psychedelic abstractions Wonderland. Lewis's unhappy past her to turn off a loud fan, are created by the weird tribe with anal-lretentiveness makes us real- and the audience settles in.) This their flexible interlocking limbs, ize what Wonderland is to these Alice starts out with grown-up in extremely creative ways. Only folks: everything "other" in Ameri- anxieties, obsessive-compulsively using their bodies, they show us a can society. Their Wonderland counting numbers, and reassur- caterpillar sitting on a mushroom, is part hippie, part hipster, part ing herself repeatedly, "okay, okay, and when he sucks on his hookah Burning Man, part mushroom okay." In contrast to the wildness (one of their fingers) , the whole trip, totally gay, multicultural, and she's about to encounter, we real- mushroom inhales and exhales. sexy. It has games with no rules, ize that her troubled state of mind It's most fun during the wild self-examination, community, at the beginning is her supposed dance numbers with their very humor, and, of course, lots of normalcy. cool choreography; it drags a little dancing and singing. It's also dirty.

Then, instead of a white rabbit, during the dialogue, which, as in Uptight Lewis rejects it outright, she is shaken from her routine by so many Wonderland adaptations, and even Alice eventually wakes a single playing card falling from up. But she's definitely dirtier than the sky. A tribe of five strange before her trip to Wonderland. savages in rags starts to tease her ("Is she dripping sweat?" asks the and mess with her mind, taking child behind me.)

52 ARTS (Sr" ILLUSTRATION The British Library www.delicious.com/lcsna/klSS+art owns the archive of It was inevitable that a connection Mervyn Peake's Alice W- between the Tea Party moveme^ lustrations, which were and the Mad Tea Party (both on display at the West- which were all over the zeitgei ern Bank Library in t> on*eshonaen /,^ 2010) would be utilized in poHt' London from June 30 cartoons, and a few high-profile to September 29, 2010. ones should be mentioned. Dr The British Guardian

Friedman's illustration in the April (April 4, 2010) ran 12 issue of the Nation (for Richard an article by Vanessa Kim's article "The Mad Tea Party") Thorpe about Peake's chose Sarah Palin as the Hare, surreal Alice art and Glenn Beck as the Hatter, and some "previously un- Rush Limbaugh in the distance as Abelardo Morell were shown from seen private letters," called "How the Cheshire Cat. Edward Sorel's May 7 to June 25. the devastation caused by war stylish illustration in the May 2010 The Tinman Gallery in Spokane, came to inspire an artist's dark im- Vanity Fair (for Richard Linge- WA, hosted an "Alice in Wonder- ages of Alice." man's article "The Maddest of land Invitational" from July 30 to Also in London, Wonderland Mad Tea Parties") went with Lim- August 21, 2010. Over thirty local Gallery's "Alice Underground Art baugh as Humpty Dumpty, Palin as artists provided original pieces Collection," a preview collection Bill O'Riley a pink-frocked Alice, based on AAFW. by artists Paul Skellett and Pokey as the Hare, and again Beck as Under the web page heading Pola, was on display October 20 the Hatter with a Fox News label "Tributes and Parodies," artist Jus- and 21. As the London Evening on his hat. And is that supposed tin Hillgrove presents an array of Standard reported, "The collection to be John McCain as the jowly original cartoon-gothic paintings includes 12 brand new and never and consternated Caterpillar? The of tea parties, Cheshire Cats, and seen before mixed media images, Economist put theirs on their cover: Jabberwocks. The acrylic paintings mounted in hand made, hand Palin now as a Kalashnikov-wield- are also available as prints, t-shirts, painted baroque frames, a signa- ing Alice, Limbaugh as the Hare, and jigsaws from linked websites. ture of both artists." and a weeping Beck's hat tag now Kit Carson, jeweler to the stars and reading "Nonsense 24/7." Garry creator of a popular and almost Trudeau also made the joke in ARTICLES 6r'ACADEMIA affordable line of Alice pendants, his April 1, 2010, Doonesbury strip, www.delicious.coin/lcsna/kl85 appeared at an exhibition of his when Zonker tells a teabagger, +articles-academia work held at the Craft in America "I thought I saw a Mad Hatter," The New Kwifea' contained many Study Center in Los Angeles on and gets the reply, "Different tea curious references to our man and June 19, 2010. Carson discussed party. That's Uncle Sam." Alice was his work during this Carrollian his artistic inspirations, which elsewhere politicized in a cartoon bonanza year. Anthony Gottlieb's include cowboys, art nouveau, by Tom Meyer in the San Francisco article "Win or Lose: No voting desert animals, dragonflies, and, Chronicle on July 25, with a canna- system is flawless. But some are of course, Lewis Carroll. bis-smoking caterpillar discussing less democratic than others" (July California's Prop 19 with an obese 26, 2010) gave Dodgson praise for Alice. considering voting systems that are more fair than, for instance, This year the Silver Eye Center the U.S.'s current winner-take-all for Photography in Pittsburgh, method, and even brought the PA, exhibited two digital photo Liddell family into the discussion. artists inspired by Alice. "These article about the Strange Adventures: The Art of Rebecca Mead's play Gatz (September 2010) Maggie Taylor" ran from May 14 27, included a nice quip from one of to August 21 and included digital the director's colleagues in r*? Alice images that illustrate the hard-to- adaptations: "Every experimental find Modernbook Editions' AATW director has to go through an Alice (2008). Photo montages based in Wonderland thing, andJohn was on Tenniel's AA/W illustrations by very lucky to have gotten his out very early." Over in the classical

53 music department in the August 9 has autosummarized the 100 most online. The manuscript contains

issue, Alex Ross used the word "ga- downloaded copyright-free books. the depressing disclaimer that it lumphs" to describe pianist Lang Ten years ago we did the same was rejected by publishers in the Lang's Chopin interpretation. Even with AAm^ (XL 63:20). U.S. and U.K. in 2003, and that a containing one of their famously ambiguous Issue 48 (Fall 2010) of Bitch Maga- book research very saying similar to his was later released cartoons had Tweedledum zine, "The Make-Believe Issue," to Alice, "If it's all right, I prefer included "Alice in Adaptation- by one of those publishers. He is the name Dave." After some e-mails Land—How wanderer Alice be- making the manuscript available to the blog discussing what the joke came warrior Alice, and why." In online to "protect the authorship [his] ideas." meant, Clare Imholtz posed the the well-written article, Kristina of classic question, "But is it funny?" Aikens made the interesting point Leigh Van Valen, whom the New An ad for whiskey in Harper's that Carroll's curious Alice is more York Times called an "Evolutionary Magazine (May 2010, pp. 42-43) of a feminist icon than Burton's Revolutionary" in their obituary featured an excerpt from Lewis Alice, who puts on armor, kills the on October 30, died on October Carroll's rare text "Feeding the Jabberwock, and seeks to colonize 16 this year at age 76. His most

Mind," first published in the same China. famous hypothesis, which explains

magazine in May 1906. The April 2010 edition of The why some organisms develop two sexes, after the In conjunction with the release of Lion and the Unicorn (Volume 34, was named Red Queen from TTLG. See "The Red her biography The Mystery ofLewis Number 2) contained two book Principle" in 55:11. Carroll (St Martin's Press, 2010), reviews that mentioned Lewis Car- Queen AL Jenny Woolf also published a great roll. Anne Lundin reviewed Marah Speaking of Looking-Glass, Book article in the April 2010 Smithson- Gubar's Artful Dodgers: Reconceiving and Magazine Collector for Decem-

ian, "Lewis Carroll's Shifting Repu- the Golden Age of Children's Literature ber 2010 has named it one of tation: Why has popular opinion (Oxford University Press, 2009), the Top 50 Funniest Books of All of the author of Alice's Adventures and Dorothy Clark reviewed Jan Time, listed chronologically at #6 in Wonderland undergone such a Susina's The Place of Lewis Carroll between The Life of SamuelJohnson dramatic reversal?" We enjoyed in Children's Literature (Routledge, and Three Men in a Boat. This must

the letter to the editor published 2010). Clark described the latter mean TTLG is at least fifty spots later from a lawyer in California: book as "a rich analysis that inte- ahead of AAIW'in the official rank-

"As an attorney, I think [the ar- grates a prodigious understand- ings of funniest books. Perhaps

ticle] did a good job of document- ing of Carrollian scholarship and the comedinati are still puzzling ing the modern-day habit ofjudg- cultural history." See our review over the Hatter's riddle?

ing or casting spurious allegations on p. 49. hearsay ir based on and innuendoes. Both poems in the September BOOKS [. . .] Dodgson, unfortunately, can- 2010 edition oi Asimov's Science not defend himself, to www.delicious.com/lcsna/klSS+books and smear Fiction used AA/Wthemes as their A few copies of Burton in Under- his reputation in such a manner is central metaphors. "The Now We land: Carrollian Reviews, collected unpardonable' (emphasis added). Almost Inhabit" by Roger Dutcher and edited by Clare Imholtz and On May 30, 2010, LCSNA member and Robert Frazier used the Byron Sewell (Force 5 Press: Hur- Dr. Francine Abeles gave a paper Cheshire Cat and Alice's changing ricane, WV), a 28-page booklet on the early development of quasi- size "as images of changeable reali- published in an edition of 42 determinants at Concordia Uni- ties," and LCSNA member Ruth copies, are available from Byron versity. Although not specifically Berman's poem "Egg Protection" Sewell, P.O. Box 425, Hurricane on Dodgson, the paper included (mistakenly called "Egg Produc- WV 25526, for $5.00 each post- a discussion of his condensation tion" in the table of contents) paid. This privately published method as an algorithm for com- used "the pigeon's opinion of booklet includes reviews of and puting them. long-necked Alice as a predatory reflections on Tim Burton's Alice Niraj Chokshi, writing for serpent as the opinion of birds in the in Wonderland by thirty members general regarding humans." Atlantic online (July 31, 2010) used of the LCSNA. TTLG to demonstrate the inadver- Sen Wong's unpublished manu- For those who like their cook- tently poetic capacities of Micro- script, "Hijacking Alice: Under- books macabre and strikingly soft Word's autosummarize fea- ground Logic and Mirror-Image illustrated. Recipefor Murder: Fright- ture. ("Alice asked. Alice laughed. Language," described as "a chap- fully Good Food Inspired by Fiction Alice laughed. Alice pleaded. Alice ter-by-chapter interpretation of by Esterelle Payany (Flammarion, explained.") He was inspired by the logico-philosophical ideas" in ISBN 978-2080301642) will be new media artist Jason Huff, who the Alice books, is now available

54 perfect. Thirty-two literary villains, II: Mad Hatter #1 was written by An impressive 66 "Celebration of including the Queen of Hearts, Landry Quinn Walker and drawn Mind" parties were organized by inspire sinister recipes. Three little by Keith Giffen. The consolidated Gathering4Gardner, to honor the pigs in a blanket accompanied by Joker's Asylum: Volume II (ISBN 978- CarroUian giant Martin Gardner

Brutus 's Caesar salad? Yum. 1401229801) will be published in (October 21, 1914-May 22, 2010) One of the fanciest computer- January 2011. on what would have been his 96th birthday this year. animated trailers for a book we've Volume 1 of a new zine from The website g4g-com.org used ever seen is for French illustra- Oakland and Berkeley writers. The Google maps tor Benjamin Lacombe's pop-up Benevolent Otherhood, contains a to help people find the celebra- tion nearest them, children's stories (including A/e'c^) nonsense poem by S. Sandrigon from Buenos Aires to Aurangabad, India. called R etait unefois. It's available mentioning Tweedledee and Twee- And from French publisher Seuil, and dledum. The poem, "Sacred Mas- @g4g-com was always a-twitter with updates on the preparations. is also being published in Italian as sacre," took some inspiration from Cera Una Volta. Jon A. Lindseth's article \n_KL 83, What would Dickens blog? There Campfire Graphic Novels, a pub- "A Tale of Two Tweedles." have been rumors that serializa- lishing house out of New Delhi, The opening of AA/Wwas featured tion, which flourished in the Victo- India, released an AA/Was part of in magazine ads for "100 Classic rian era, will be burbling back into their large and expanding series of Books" for Nintendo DS. That's the mainstream because of the way digest in comic versions of classics, myths, right, you can now read Lewis Car- people media the post- blogging age. In the vanguard, a biographies, and originals. The roll's classic book on your small graphic novel called Namesake is adaptation ($9.99, 72 pages, full portable gaming device. being serialized on the Web every color) is by Lewis Helfand, with Inevitably, a graphic novelization Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. art by Rajesh Nagulakonda (who of Burton's Alice in Wonderland was their Its creator, Isabelle Melan^on, has previously illustrated released this summer by Disney Arc, The Time Machine, promises that Alice and other Joan of and and Boom Studios, with stylish art Lewis Carroll characters will fea- Oliver Twist). Campfire 's mission by the suavely monikered Massi- ture prominently. "" Namesake is the statement: "It is night-time in the miliano Narcisco. story of Emma Crewe, a woman forest. A campfire is crackling, and Los Angeles author Mel Gilden re- the storytelling has begun. In the who discovers she can visit other leased his middle-grade children's warm, cheerful radiance of the worlds. She finds out that these book TheJabberwock Came Whiffling places already fan- campfire, the storyteller's audi- are she knows— directly as an e-book for the Ama- tasy and fairy lands made famous ence is captivated. Inspired by this zon Kindle ($3.99). In the story, enduring relationship between a through the spoken word, litera- Albert finds himself in the Tulgey ture, cinema." campfire and gripping storytell- and Wood amongst borogoves, snarks, ing, we bring you four series of At the other end of the webcomics Alice, et al., on a quest to slay the ." Campfire Graphic Novels. . A spectrum is a series called Here We title's monster. noble cause, but isn't reading Come A-Carrollinghy Doctor Ran- Another self-published novel comic books by firelight a bit hard new domness at Webcomics Nation. It in the endless catalogues of on the eyes? found seems inspired by David Rees's style Amazon.com has the amusing title cut-and-paste strips {My The Folio Society has published of Web New Straight out ofLewis Carroll's Trash Technique Is Unstoppable and a facsimile of the original manu- Fighting Can: A Jonathan Tollhausler Adven- Get Your War On) , except that it uses script oi Alice's Adventures under ture, by Michael J. Rumpf (ISBN Tenniel's illustrations as the stock Ground. The print run will be 978-0615398082, $15.99). images to which irreverent text limited to 3,750 hand-numbered Lewis bubbles are added. copies, each clad in goatskin and Our spies have found several in Clev- gold and priced at $179.95. Carroll references Barbara Geoff Martin from the UK Lewis erly 's 2008 mystery novel Folly du Carroll Society has a new website Safely confined in Arkham Asy- Jour (ISBN 978-1569475133). Mr. called Lewis Carroll 1st Editions. It lum, the Joker has plenty of time Dodgson, a cafe named LeLapin contains many pictures and ex- to recount scurrilous stories of Bat- Blanc, the Red Queen, Alice, and panding encyclopedic information man's greatest enemies. That's the a hole into Wonderland all make on the subject. premise of DC Qormc\ Joker's Asy- cameos. lum, a series of month-long weekly NewsBiscuit, an online Onion- "one-shots," which in August esque gazette with the motto ." featured the Mad Hatter, a creepy, CYBERSPACE "the news before it happens. . buck-toothed weirdo obsessed with www.delicious.com/lcsna/ published an article titled "Mad Hatter, Elected to Con- hats, tea, 2ir\d Alxct. Joker's Asylum kl85+articles-acadeinia Dormouse

55 gress in Tea Party Landslide" on If you like to talk about cabbages Clarissa Cestari, Carlos Garaicoa,

November 3. Taking the joke to and kings with your meal before and Vivienne Koorland.

it gets old, eat it, investigate the nth degree before you you might A la Bibliotheque Frontenac in article the The Walrus and the Carpenter the quoted Red Queen Montreal, as part of Festival litteraire and Mock Turtle, and referenced Oyster Bar in Seattle. According international de Montreal Metropolis the website, the restaurant the Lobster Quadrille. Illustrating to new bleu, there was an exhibit called article a picture of is "located at the South end of the was Johnny ''Alices et merveilles'' from April 21 Hatter with Republi- Seattle's Historic Ballard Avenue Depp's new through 25. The ''festival dans le the can House Majority Leader John in newly renovated Kolstrand festivaV featured many children's building," "will the Boehner's orange face photo- which be activities in addition to the library's shopped beneath the famous hat. perfect home for this rustic, light- collection of some of Carroll's filled, oyster haven." We hope letters. The 27th Annual Montreal every dining experience will also Antiquarian Book Fair, held at EVENTS, EXHIBITS, & PLACES include ruminations on innocence Concordia University on Septem- www.delicious.com/lcsna/ death. and ber 25 and 26, also had a Lewis kl85+events-exhibits-places There was an exhibit at the Veluws Carroll theme. Noted Carroll col- Please Ma 'am, is this New Zealand ? Museum Nairac in Barneveld, lector Luc Gauvreau opened the Alice really fallen right If had Netherlands, from June 12 event and displayed items from his the earth, the of through owners through October 30. It celebrated extensive collection. Larnach Castle, New Zealand's the looks of Alice, featuring many LCSNA member Sue Welsch dis- only casde, like to think she illustrations from Tenniel through played highlights from her Lewis might just have ended up in their Camille Rose Garcia. They also Carroll collection at the Incline garden. Since the 1930s, an in- claimed to have had "een bijzon- Village Public Library in Incline creasing number of Wonderland dere Aboriginal uitgave" (an Ab- Village, Nevada, on Lake Tahoe, touches have been added to the original special edition?) . In addition from November 3 until December 35-acre grounds, which are open to the art, visitors were invited to 30. Welsch, who used to teach daily to the public. make "a journey through Wonder- a class at Sierra Nevada College Oxford Storypods, creators of an land, where a number of themes called "The Logic and Literature AA/Waudiobook, held a com- and life-size figures are depicted. of Lewis Carroll," also delivered a petition for in yourself in the strange mir- nonsense poetry See talk at the library on December 18. the CarroUian vein. The winning rors, sliding into the perpetual tea Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert's poems, "Wishful Thinking" by party celebration with the Mad Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Ruth Smith and "The Ffrig of Hatter and the March Hare and Fear in Washington, DC, on Oc- Frogimar" by Hugh Timothy, have take a look at the animal room" tober 30, attracted a crowd about been professionally recorded by (translated from the Dutch using 250,000 strong, with many of the former LCSNA president Andrew Google Translate). postmodern protesters wielding Sellon and are available as a free Aliso in Or- The Mayor of Viejo witty, apolitical, and/or absurd download from the Oxford Story- ange County, CA, is happy to be signage. Riffling through the pods website. accused of living in an "Alice in archives, we found a few Carroll- Kathryn Beaumont, voice of both Wonderland" world. In his State related ones, including "Humpty Disney's Alice and Wendy from of the City address on October Dumpty Was Pushed!"; "We're All Peter Pan, appeared at the Walt 13, he declared, "Aliso w Won- MAD Here" beneath a picture of Disney Family Museum in San derland" before holding a staged Disney's 1951 Cheshire Cat; "Dodo Francisco on May 22, 2010, to conversation with a dubbed video Never Feared Anything (Now share her memories as a voice-over ofJohnny Depp as the Mad Hatter. Extinct)"; "The Mad Hatter Wants artist. The actress, who turned 72 City dignitaries then posed for pic- His Tea Party Back!" and "Don't this year, was recently heard in tures with Wonderland characters Believe Everything You Think!" the video game "Kingdom Hearts hired for the occasion. On November 15, the Leonard Birth by Sleep" as the voice of through From June 5 July 23, Joel Auction House in Sydney, Aus- "Kairi's will also Grandma." She there exhibition at was an Lon- tralia, attempted to sell a facsimile be introducing the special feature don's East Central Gallery called of Under Ground, along with what "Through the Keyhole: A Com- "Memoria Technica," with some was described as "part of a poem panion's Guide to Wonderland" in thematic connection to the about bats," written on a single the digital remastering of the 1951 memory device Carroll helped to sheet of paper in Carroll's unmis- film to be re-re-re-released in Feb- develop. The show featured art by takable scrawl. The sale was not ruary 2011.. David Adika, Zadok Ben-David, successful, but LCSNA-member

56 .

efforts to decipher the poem were. about the videogame version of prints were limited in number. Mr. Visit our blog Far-Flung Knight to Dante's Inferno) had a thirty-page Harrison's parry: 'He's pretty well

read the poem. spread about the special effects in known for fudging numbers.' . . . Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland. Ms. Tashlin wanted $10,000. Mr.

The article, "Down the Rabbit Harrison asked if she had taken a MOVIES 8c TELEVISION Hole" byJoe Fordham, featured httle blue pill, and offered $5,000. www.delicious.com/lcsna/ 33 color photographs, "many She politely declined and walked kl85+niovies-tv showing how scenes were staged away still clutching Alice in Wonder- Could this be the last time the and visually processed." land. 'I was hoping it would go the Knight Letter reports goth on other way, but I'm not surprised,' The Hunting of the Snark, 2l new film rocker Marilyn Manson's long- directed by Michael McNeff and she would tell a reporter later." We dreaded naughty Charles Dodgson narrated by the great Christopher recommend Ms. Tashlin pursue project? With necessary hesitation, other avenues to sell Dali Alice. Lee, is in post-production and set her perhaps yes? Phantasmagoria: The to be released in 2011 by Vorpal Visions ofLewis Carroll was to star Pictures. It's billed as an "adapta- ginger-haired 22-year-old model PERFORMING ARTS tion of Lewis Carol's (sic) The Lily Cole as the often-naked Alice www.delicious.com/lcsna/ Hunting of the Snark [using] cutting Liddell, alongside Tilda Swinton. klSS+performing-arts edge technology to successfully Manson was also psyched to an- In Chicago, a "crew of motley ec- capture the story's enchanting nounce that he was using "pos- centrics (including Alice)" hunted world on the big screen." So far, sibly illegal" editing techniques the Snark in the United States pre- information about this movie and to flash graphic images into the miere of a play called Boojum! Non- the mysterious McNeff himself has audience's subconscious. Now the sense, Truth, and Lewis Carroll. (We been about as difficult to research studio claims to have permanendy understand the "Nonsense" and as, well, a you-know-what. shelved the project after a leaked the "Lewis Carroll," but will with- It interest to that R-rated trailer repulsed YouTube may you know hold judgment on the "Truth.") there are many things called "Mal- viewers, and it is widely believed Described as "part existential ice in including a that this tantalizing movie will Wonderland," musical theater and part fantasy 1985 Elizabeth Taylor movie, a never see the light of day (unless, adventure story," it was created by 2009 Snoop Dogg hip-hop album as we think is possible, repressing Australian play-writing and com- (technically Malice Wonderland), it is all part of the plan) N posing team Martin Wesley-Smith and a "Malice in Wonderland Speaking of pornography, this and Peter Wesley-Smith (whose Adult Dark Goth" Halloween cos- was definitely a cash-cow year for identical last names are either tume. One Malice in Wonderland Alice in the adult film industry, an extraordinary coincidence, that to have fallen seems through or else a coincidence at all). with at least three major hardcore not the cracks, though, is a 2009 film Wonderlands. One of the more Co-presented by Caffeine Theatre with Maggie Grace (from Lost) and Vanguard, creative ones to date appeared to and Chicago Opera Danny Dyer, directed by Simon the ran 18 be Cal Vista's Alice starring Sunny show from November Fellows and released May 2010 at the Lane, set in a nightclub called through December 19, 2010, on DVD. In this "Modern Twist "The Hole." Chicago Department of Cultural on a Classic Tale," Grace's Alice Affairs Storefront Theater. In con- The DVD of Tim Burton's Alice in is an heiress living in London, junction with the show, Caffeine Wonderland W2LS released on June 1, the White Rabbit becomes Dyer's Theatre hosted"01d Father Wil- 2010. And if you hadn't heard, Dis- Cockney cab driver named Whitey, liam's Frabjous and Curious Poetry ney did quite well from this flick, and the tarts are prostitutes. Contest"; the winning poems were now their third biggest hit, behind In the July 4, 2010, New York Times, performed at the Lewis Carroll only that other Johnny Depp ve- there was an article on the History Coffeehouse in the Storefront hicle Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Channel television program "Pawn Theater on November 29. Man 's Chest and Toy Story 3. It cur- Stars," which is about a Las Vegas Snarks were also hunted in New rently is the sixth highest-grossing pawn shop. The article featured York at the Manhattan Repertory film of all time worldwide {Avatar, the following titillating anecdote: Theater's Fall Fest, September 16 Titanic, and The Lord of the Rings: "Shelby Tashlin of Las Vegas through 19, in an adaptation by The Return of the King complete walked to the counter clutching a Katie Dickinson. That production places one to five), and has earned boxed edition of Alice in Wonder- of The Hunting of the Snark prom- more than a billion dollars. land containing an etching and 12 ised "all the zaniness one can an- The magazine Cinefex, "the fine- lithographs by Salvador Dali. Ms. ticipate from Carroll's world." qualityjournal documenting Tashlin 's opening thrust: the Dali Atmos Theatre, a volunteer-run cinematic special effects" (not to theater company in San Francisco, be confused with Sinefex, which is 57 .

CA, adapted AAIW for its ninth around their sale of "the long-lost Toy maker Funko has added season of "Theatre in the Woods." Wasp in the Wig letter" on May Alice, the Mad Hatter, the

The show was performed as part of 27 this year, and it paid off hand- Cheshire Cat, and the White a guided hike through a redwood somely: The letter sold for £51,240 Rabbit to its range of Wacky Wob- forest and ran every Saturday and (around $81,800)—the world re- bler bobble-heads. Remember to

Sunday in August and through cord for a Tenniel letter and well brake smoothly, or it really will

." September 19 in Woodside (a few over double the £20,000 estimate. be "off with their heads. . They

cities south of San Francisco). The But who bought it? also have a line of "Plush" soft toys, including adaptation was written by Brian If you weren't the lucky bidder, now a button-eyed Markley and directed by Amy you could craft your own more Alice, Mad Hatter, Cheshire Cat, Clare Tasker. affordable CarroUian correspon- and White Rabbit. All look accept- ably cuddly and just a little creepy. An update on Wonderland: The dence with Graphic 45 's "Hallow- Between $9 and $15 from Musical, from Jekyll df Hyde com- een in Wonderland" paper collec- Amazon.com. poser Frank Wildhorn: It's coming tion. The paper designs feature

to Broadway! After another run in "spooky" modifications of Tenn- Dollmasters is an online treasury

Tampa Bay in January 201 1, it will iel's illustrations, including becob- of artist-made toys for collectors move to New York City, and start webbed mushrooms and Tweedle and very, very good children. previews on March 21 at the Mar- twins jack-o'-lanterns. Recent additions to their catalog

quis Theatre. The "heartwarming Prospero Art's AA/Wembossed include two finely dressed Alice and spectacular" (heartwacular?) dolls, an "Alice and the Pink Fla- collector's tin is possibly the first new musical is about an adult mingo" hanging ornament, and tin ever to have its own promo- modern-day Alice who journeys tional YouTube video. The limited mechanical music boxes in which "to Wonderland and the Looking- Tweedledum and Tweedledee edition tin is sold as a package ei- Glass World where she must find ther with two decks of Alice playing dance to "Tea for Two" when her daughter, defeat the Queen cards, a jigsaw puzzle, or both. wound with a little key. ." and learn to follow her heart. . Classico San Francisco has created A husband-and-wife artistic duo, The Yale Dramatic Association collectively known as Cart Before a range of magnets, postcards, (Dramat) staged underclassman the Horse, creates "fine folk art" in and mugs using Angel Domin- Oren Stevens's new play Phantom- the form of quirky hand-painted guez's watercolor illustrations for wise, which weaves together the life posable figurines. "Cirque du the 1996 Artisan edition of AAIW of Alice Liddell with her fictional Wonderland," a cool commission (available only through resellers). adventures. It ran October 7-9 at featured on their website, includes Finally: Were you looking for a the Yale Repertory Theatre. Appar- a Mad Hatter strongman lifting place to buy life-sized cardboard endy, it is only the time in second teapot dumbbells and a Cheshire cutouts of Tim Burton's Alice, Hat- modem memory that Dramat has Cat acrobat standing on its head ter, Red Queen, and the Tweedles? produced a student-written work, (literally) Try Advanced Graphics, "The so, congratulations Mr. Stevens! The Victorian Trading Company Home of Cardboard People." The first American production of sells a variety of AA/Wthemed Checkmate Chess Sets sell five Ron Nicol's Beware theJabberwock Victoriana, including garden AAIW-xhemed chess sets. The was at the Playhouse Children's statues and jewelry. To this range crushed marble and resin pieces Theater in Belfast, Company ME, they have added theater-quality are made in England but can be in April, and the was subse- work costumes, including an elaborate purchased in dollars online. $157 quently staged at the Wean Per- Queen of Hearts gown, complete and up. forming Arts Center in Danbury, with hoop and tulle petticoat, Gump's of San Francisco went CT, in May. nonsensically The fun and, for around "Alice's $250, all-out on Alice-related gifts in and whole-family-friendly play has Blue Dress," a detailed replica of a this year's winter catalog. Two full been published by Baker's Plays, a Victorian girl's dress, available in pages of merchandise include subsidiary of Samuel French, Inc. three adult sizes. Glass ornaments, puzzles, and sofa

The Black Apple 's Paper Doll Primer cushions. THINGS by Emily Martin is a paperback www.delicious.com/lcsna/kl85+things book filled with paper dolls, paper clothes, and creative cut-and-play Bloomsbury Auctions generated projects, including a paper the- a considerable amount of hype ater. Alice is there too. (Potter Craft, ISBN 978-0307586568)

58 -

3i;iii^{UliUH1>Ji^lilfii»i}|)uM!liiU!HivN:;i:!t;-';;:;);;l Two extraordinary, and quite differ- ent, interpretations of "The Hunting "The method employed I would gl&dly explain, of the Snark. "Above: Thanks go to

While I have it so clear m my head, Oleg Lipchenkofor a preview of his not yet published interpretation; some If I had but the time and you had but the brain o/" Aw Wonderland illustrations can but much yet remains to be said. be seen in KL 80 (cover, article on pp. "In one moment I've sttn what has hitherto been 16-19). Left: A sampling ofMahen-

Enveloped In absolute mystery, dra Singh 's illustrations can also

And without extra charge I will give you at large be seen in KL 81 (cover, pp. 4, 37),

and his recent book is the subject a A Lesson In Natural History." of review on p. 47. \#