Alice's Adventures under Ground
by Lewis Carroll

A Christmas Gift to a Dear Child in Memory of a Summer Day

A limited edition facsimile edition of the original 1864 manuscript charmingly illustrated and hand-lettered throughout by the author.

Alice, The White Rabbit, the King and Queen of Hearts, the Mock Turtle... every one of these characters, known and loved by five generations of children of all ages, was born on 'a golden afternoon' in July 1862.

On that afternoon, Lewis Carroll - the Rev. Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, Lecturer in Mathematics at Christ Church, Oxford - and a fellow don the Rev. Robinson Duckworth, took three little girls on a boating trip. The girls were the daughters of another friend, Henry Liddell, Dean of Christ Church.

Though Lewis Carroll was a shy, retiring man, he was always at ease in the company of children; and relaxed, he would exercise his remarkably inventive imagination for their entertainment. On this occasion, as the small party drifted along the Isis, he began to weave a story around one of his young guests: ten year old Alice Liddell. Inventing the plot as he went along, Carroll imparted to his captive audience the story of Alice and The White Rabbit.

Two years later, Alice Liddell received as a Christmas present from Lewis Carroll a morocco-bound book: Alice's Adventures under Ground. This manuscript, considered by most experts to be the second version of that story begun on a summer's day on the river, was beautifully handwritten and illustrated by Carroll himself. Presented to Britain by a 'Group of Well-Wishers in the United States of America', the book can be seen today in the Department of Manuscripts at the British Library.

Now, Genesis Publications, with the kind permission of the Dodgson Estate, has produced a strictly limited facsimile edition of Alice's Adventures under Ground. An unabridged reproduction of the Lewis Carroll manuscript, printed in the original colour and sepia on fine, antique-laid paper, complete even to the oval photograph of Alice Liddell, the book is bound in half green morocco leather and enclosed in an attractive slip-case. A delightful volume, it will be in every sense a valuable addition to your bookshelves.

Number of pages: 128 approx. Page size: 200mm x 120mm

The edition is limited to 500 numbered copies.

ISBN: 0 904351 11 4 [add. MS 46700 - British Library]
Price: £275 plus shipping