Anyone for Lanrick?

“Curiouser and Curiouser: The Games and Mind Games of Lewis Carroll,” an interactive exhibition of Lewis Carroll’s games and puzzles opens today at The Rare Book & Manuscript Library at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Library.

From the Library:

The exhibition is drawn largely from the Flodden Heron Collection of Lewis Carroll materials in The Rare Book & Manuscript Library. Flodden W. Heron was an American bibliographer and collector of rare materials on Lewis Carroll. While this exhibition primarily coheres around Carroll’s fascination with puzzles and games, the items also reflect Heron’s own interests in the author, particularly Carroll’s penchant for play and the nature of his relationship with Alice Liddell Hargreaves, the little girl for whom “Alice in Wonderland/”was first written and dedicated.

The University of Illinois owns Carroll’s own chess and backgammon board–two pastimes he combined into an entirely original game called “Lanrick.” Carroll preferred games of skill and logic over those of chance. His games sought to instruct, but never at the expense of amusement.

The Curiouser and Curiouser exhibition includes special “game tables” where visitors can try some of Carroll’s puzzles and games, including Lanrick. Exhibition visitors can also try “mirror writing”–one of Carroll’s favorite forms of correspondence. Children are encouraged to attend the five-week exhibition.

The exhibition concludes on March 5 with a Mad Hatter Tea Party for Young People.

“Curiouser and Curiouser: The Games and Mind Games of Lewis Carroll” at The University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign Library, 1408 W. Gregory Dr., Urbana, IL. from 2 February to March 5, 2010