The Blog of the LCSNA
Two posts by Jim Korkis in the Cartoon Research blog might be of historical interest: “The Disney ‘Alice in Wonderland’ Never Made” and “Aldous Huxley’s Version of the Disney ‘Alice’.”
But if your taste is more towards animations that actually were made (and within the last few months at that!), try Wonder Land, a film by Rico Schwartzberg, illustrated by Christopher Carroll.
This conference, organized by Dr Franziska Kohlt, will take place on the 4th and 5th of November. Hosted by the University of York (UK), all talks and associated events will be held fully online. Contributions will be a mixture of traditional academic papers and alternative formats. Confirmed speakers thus far include Charlie Lovett and Diane Waggoner.
“The Looking-Glass itself will be the focal point of the conference. Aiming to explore the significance of the mirror in literature, science, theology, art and other fields, it will explore any facets of this concept that were relevant to ideas that shaped Carroll’s work, or, which have since been integral to its interpretation at different points in time.
“We particularly also invite reflections from practitioners, including creators of adaptations of the text, professionals in translation, museum studies, librarians, fashion, as well as from performers and interpreters, authors, poets and illustrators.”
Contributions for a new Companion to Through the Looking Glass, to be published with Peter Lang (Oxford) in 2022, will be sought after the conference.
Here’s their website and the call for papers. Questions? Email Dr Kohlt.
The Rev. Ivor Davies (1923-2005), vicar of Hay-on-Wye, had lifelong interests in both chess and the works of Lewis Carroll. His scholarly musings on the subject have been published in journals such as The Anglo-Welsh Review, Jabberwocky, and Theologia Cambrensis. Fortunately, the organization he founded in 1967, the Clergy Correspondence Chess Club, has recently republished his Carrollian chess essays in a booklet entitled The Chess Player’s Alice. Copies (£3.50 = $5) can be obtained by emailing the Rev. Bruce Carlin.
An all-day online symposium with many speakers, including illustrator Chris Riddell and Dr Kiera Vaclavik, will be held on Friday, April 30 in association with the V&A’s Alice: Curiouser and Curiouser exhibit, opening March 27. It will be 10 am to 5 pm GMT, but as your ticket “includes seven days’ access, you will be able to take the time to absorb it all, with on-demand video recordings of all sessions and additional resources, plus discussion spaces to share your perspective and further your understanding with like-minded learners from across the globe.”
More details, including the program(me) and ticket orders can be found here.
In this Zoom talk from the V&A, Simon Sladen explores the many adaptations of Carroll’s tale, from 1886’s inaugural stage production to 2020’s Alice in Streamingland created during lockdown. Key films will also be considered as he seeks to analyze the books’ enduring legacy and significant relationship with the performing arts.
Simon Sladen is Senior Curator of Modern and Contemporary Performance at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. He is a member of the curatorial team for the V&A’s Alice: Curiouser and Curiouser and co-edited the accompanying publication.
The talk will be this Thursday, February 18, at 7:30 pm GMT (11:30 am PST, 2:30 pm EST). Click here for more information and to book (free) tickets.
The ever inventive Adriana Peliano, a fine artist and founder of the Lewis Carroll Society of Brazil, has authored Alice and the 7 Keys, an enchanting “Pharmacopeia of Creativity” that accompanies readers on a journey, exploring their creativity by means of games, magical elixirs, and her resplendent collages.
You can read more about it on her blog, which also contains a video inspired by it, and undoubtedly will wish to purchase it from Amazon.
A Portuguese version will be out in the near future.
Dr. Edward Guiliano, one of the longtime editors of the Dickens Studies Annual: Essays on Victorian Fiction (DSA), has issued a call for scholarly essays on Through the Looking-Glass in honor of the sesquicentennial in 2022. They will be published in the Spring and Fall issues of DSA.*
The manuscript submission window is from April 2021 to April 2022. Submissions should conform with established DSA guidelines and broad critical approaches. To submit a manuscript, please visit here. Queries to the editors may be addressed here.
In addition, authors of accepted essays on TTLG 150 will be given the opportunity to present their ideas at one of our 2022 semi-annual conferences or monthly Zoom programs. Those who choose to present will receive a $500 honorarium.
* Yes, they are aware that the magazine is semi-annual, despite the title.
Katia is a talented artist, born in Italy and currently living in the U.K. Her Alice’s alphabet came out in 2014 as a limited edition of hand-screen-printed sets of illustrations, greeting cards, and a coloring book. Her work has been presented to the Lewis Carroll Society (UK) and exhibited at Alice Day in Oxford and Cambridge. She contributed to the donation of a sizable Carroll collection to the Story Museum in Oxford.
On a visit to California last year she was struck by the realization that the twelve chapters of Looking-Glass would make excellent inspirations for the twelve months of the year, and has crafted a gorgeous calendar for 2021. The images are black-and-white, surreal, dense, and the more you know about Looking-Glass the more you can see in them!
Calendars are £10 plus packing and postage and are available from her by email. At some point later this year the images will become available as single prints and stationery.
No, this is not about the famed novel by the “other” 19th-century Charles D., but to announce the biography of Charles L. Dodgson’s youngest brother, Edwin. The illustrious Edward Wakeling, in collaboration with Caroline Luke, granddaughter of their brother Skeffington and co-executor of the C. L. Dodgson estate, has written The Life of Edwin Dodgson: Brother of Lewis Carroll and Missionary to the South Atlantic Islands (Choir Press, 2020). ISBN-13 : 978-1789631470. Support your local bookstore by ordering it through one of them!
It is described thusly:
This is the first biographical account in book form of the Rev. Edwin Heron Dodgson (1846-1918). Sources include the important family archive, from which much new information has been researched and incorporated.
After a short time working for the General Post Office in London, Edwin Dodgson became a missionary with the Society for the Propagation of the Gospels, and after a short spell in Zanzibar, spent much of his time on the remote islands in the Atlantic Ocean, principally Tristan da Cunha. During his time there, tragedy struck the island, wiping out most of the male inhabitants. Edwin, with help from his brother, set about organizing an evacuation of the island, which proved unsuccessful due to the reluctance of some of the remaining islanders.
This book is illustrated with material in the family archive and from the photographic work of Lewis Carroll.
In addition to Nicole Claveloux’s fabulous Looking-Glass announced recently, we have for your viewing pleasure:
A new Russian translation of Wonderland by Oleg Gorbushin features illustrations by 13 contemporary Russian artists. You can see a short video about it here. The book is $41 and postage to the U.S. is $26. (A set of 53 stickers is an additional $4.) To order it, email Irina. (As of this writing, bank transfer is the only payment option, but she is working on establishing a PayPal account.)
Valeria Docampo, an artist born in Buenos Aires and now living in France, has produced a truly charming Wonderland, available in French (Alice Jeunesse, ISBN: 978-2874264399), Dutch (Eenhoorn, ISBN: 978-9462915275), and Italian (Terra, ISBN: 978-8861896475). A video of the book can be watched here. The French edition can be ordered through the Albertine bookshop.
French artist Aurélie Castex’s humorous and cartoon-like (in the best sense!) take on Wonderland is great fun. The oversize hardcover is full of playful cut-outs and other designs making for a magical adventure. A new translation, by Patrice Salsa, is another plus. You can view sample pages here. ISBN 978-2812303500.
A portfolio, limited edition of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland with new illustrations by Alp Ozberker has been produced by George and Linda Cassady to support Carroll scholarship in connection with the Cassady Collection at USC. You can view the illustrations here. A folio book (105 unbound pages in an archival box) is $150; the art portfolio (24 pages in archival box, sans text) is $100. Email Linda.
