Alice's Adventures Under Ground
Edition: New Dover Edition
Publisher: Dover Publications
Published: 1965
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Format: Paperback
Number of pages: 95
Copyright date: 1965
Description: As is generally known, Alice's adventures were "born on a golden afternoon" in July 1862, when the Rev. Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (better known as Lewis Carroll) took the three small daughters of Dean Liddell of Christ Church, Oxford, on a boating trip up the Isis. Carroll delighted the three children by relating Alice's adventures, and eventually promised his favorite among the three, Alice Liddell, to write the story down for her. 

At Christmas 1864 Alice Liddell received a remarkable present from Lewis Carroll: a white vellum-bound book, in Which the story of "Alice's Adventures under Ground" was carefully printed in Carroll's hand, with many illustrations drawn by Carroll himself, giving his conceptions of the White Rabbit, Alice herself, the Gryphon, the "drink me" episode, the caterpillar on the mushroom, "Father William," the trial of the Knave of Hearts, and other familiar persons and scenes. 

This manuscript was the original version of the Alice story (apart from what. ever lost earlier notes may once have existed), and it is very different from the book "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" that we all know. Carroll apparently would not consent to publishing "Alice's Adventures under Ground" until 1886, at which time he supervised a facsimile edition of the Liddell manuscript for publication by Macmillan of London. This edition is now a very rare book. As for the manuscript itself, it has had a noteworthy history. After passing through several hands, it became available for sale in New York in 1948. It was purchased for $50,000, and presented to the British Museum, where it now remains. 

This present Dover edition of this unique book is much the closest approximation that has ever been made to Carroll's manuscript. It has been pre- pared from new photographs made from the manuscript, and the title page and dedication page, which Carroll colored elaborately, have been reproduced in their original colors on the front and rear covers of this book. To make the edition complete, material has been included from Carroll's 1886 book edition, including his introduction and postscript, dedicatory verse, and period advertising. Mr. Martin Gardner, one of the world's foremost authorities on Lewis Carroll and author of "The Annotated Alice," has provided a new introduction. 

Complete, unabridged reproduction of the original manuscript, with additional material from the Macmillan 1886 edition. Introduction by Martin Gardner. .T1482 Paperbound $1.00 128 pp. 5% x 81/2.
--back cover
Notes: Facsimile of the author's manuscript book; with additional material from the facsimile ed. of 1886.