Alice and the Graceful White Rabbit is a thorough, fun, and mostly faithful retelling of Lewis Carroll’s classic tale. But Carroll’s Victorian language and all references to British culture are gone. Written in contemporary English, this new version embeds, with varying degrees of subtlety, several hundred references to the songs and artists that make up the history of rock and roll (ponder the title for a moment!) from the 1950s through 2015. The book was written by the ever delightful, very punny John Langdon, but its Kickstarter campaign sadly fell short of its goal. He writes:
“Now, before I close this project down completely, I’d like to offer all of you an opportunity to purchase a signed and inscribed copy of the readers’ edition of Alice and the Graceful White Rabbit at a very reasonable price. The price will depend on how many of you want to buy a copy, but it will not exceed $15, including shipping, and could be less. It’s a 6” x 9”, 189-page softcover book. Unfortunately, there are no illustrations. I will be creating a new front cover.
“I will wait until the end of April to see how many requests I get before I place my order with the printer. My cost will depend on how many I order. Once I’ve placed the order I can let you know what the price of your copy will be, and I’ll ask for your payment at that point. And I’ll have a projected delivery date, as well.”
Any fan of wordplay (and/or rock’n’roll) would be delighted with this book. Will Shortz himself called it “amusing.”
Contact John at wordplay@johnLangdon.net.
