PBA Galleries

[10], 192 pp. Half-title. Frontispiece and wood-engraved illustrations after John Tenniel. 7½x5, later half red morocco & cloth, spine tooled in gilt, raised bands, top edge gilt, original front cover cloth bound in at rear. First Edition, second issue. One of 1000 copies with the cancel title.

Carroll published Alice in Wonderland with Macmillan in London in 1865. However, John Tenniel was deeply dissatisfied with the printing of the illustrations and convinced Carroll to suppress the book at his own expense. Only about 20 copies of this 1865 Macmillan first issue survive, most in institutional collections. Rather than discard the remaining sheets they were sold to D. Appleton in New York and 1000 new title pages were printed and tipped in. Tenniel agreed that the illustrations would be passable for an American audience. Thus the present is the first issue to the public of the text--one of the most important children's books ever written. This copy has the B in "By" above and slightly to the right of the T in "Tenniel" on title page and no hyphen in "Rabbit Hole" on contents page. With partially eradicated signature of Sarah E. Barney to half-title; bookplate of Nicholas Frederic Brady to front pastedown, with oval leather label of the Brick Row Book Shop below it.