The Blog of the LCSNA

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Charles Dodgson's typewriter, pictured in Charlie Lovett's home
Charles Dodgson's typewriter, pictured in Charlie Lovett's home

Welcome to the LCSNA’s blog, where you can read regular updates about Lewis Carroll’s influence on all aspects of life.  Please keep in mind that these posts are informational only; we do not endorse any link, statement or product cited below unless we specifically state that within the post. Also, the bloggers do not speak for the LCSNA as a whole. We hope you’ll visit often to review the posts and add comments. Subscribe to blog notifications below.

To submit items for our blog, please email us at blogmaster@lewiscarroll.org.

The Blog of the LCSNA

Astonishing Illustrators VI

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Once again, we have chosen nine new (or new to us) editions that reflect the infinite creativity of illustrators and book designers and makers, acknowledging Alice’s capacity to do so. The tenth one is an acknowledgment of a Looking-Glass companion to a Wonderland we previously featured.


We would also like to invite Instragrammarians to visit the pages of @SemperLuxus, where there is more detail and many more images from these works, and all to visit “Never Enough Alice Books,” which has a lot of information about and pictures of 900+ books and is searchable and sortable.


Past posts:
Astonishing Illustrators I
Astonishing Illustrators II
Astonishing Illustrators III
Astonishing Illustrators IV
Astonishing Illustrators V

An extraordinary example of the bookmaker’s art can be found in Summa Editorial’s sumptuous Alicia en el Pais de las Maravillas featuring the astonishingly creative etchings of Irene Bogo. Visit the site; there’s not much more to say here. A true knockout!

Argentine artist Alfredo Sábat chose to populate the characters of Alicia en el Pais de Las
Maravillas (Accenture, 2015,
ISBN 978-9872327866) with movie stars, such as Abbott and Costello as the Gryphon and Mock Turtle or Bette Davis as an Elizabethan Queen of Hearts. Miss Shirley Temple is Alice herself. A video can be found on YouTube.

Nathalie Novi’s poignant illustrations, some monochrome in blue, some full color, to Alice au pays des Merveilles (Tibert Editions, 2024, ISBN 979-1096739196) are sweetly charming without ever becoming cloying. Copies can be ordered from the publisher.

Andrey Gennadiev’s deliciously stylized monochrome illustrations for the small-format Аня в Стране Чудес (AW in the Nabokov translation) were published by Detskaja Literatura in 1989. In 2020, the publishing house Andrea released a thick, large (7 × 8.5 in), hugely expanded bilingual version, with scads of new Gennadiev art, rich in wildly luminous colors. ISBN 978-5447297008.

This limited edition is an
intriguing publication, as it contains both Under Ground and Wonderland, stitched together into a single dos-à-dos volume, inside an eyecatching box. Brazilian artist Zansky’s vibrant colors make the viewer think of the psychedelic swirls caused by hallucinogenic mushrooms or the groovy world of Austin Powers. The publisher’s site has all you need to know.

Brazilian artist Caroline
Murta’s “Nightmare Edition” of Alice no País das Maravilhas e Através do Espelho combines elements of horror, gothic, and the grotesque. Drawing heavily on gestalt and German expressionism and obsession with death and mourning, this edition is definitely not kiddie fare. Wish, 2024,
ISBN 978-6588218969.

Kristina Vetoshkina’s Алиса в Стране Чудес в стиле Сальвадора Дали (AW in the style of Salvador Dalí) is both a board book for very young children and a visual delight for adults as well. Published by VoiceBook in 2020, ISBN 978-5907237155.

Porto, Portugal’s Livraria Lello, often called “the most beautiful bookstore in the world,” has produced a somewhat child-friendly adaptation with illustrations by Sandra Sofia Santos. Versions are in English, Spanish, and Portuguese. Available from the publisher.

Korean illustrator Lee Woo-il’s wild take on 이상한 나라의 앨리스 (AW) reminds one of everything from Yellow Submarine to edgy animation, with Dalí, Steadman, and Daumier thrown in. Very audacious. ISBN 978-89-5709-140-1.

(Special bonus tenth): Since Pavel Pepperstein’s AW was reviewed in our last Illustrators post, we can just say that his companion Алиса в Зазеркалье (LG, V-A-C Press, 2024) is now available and well worth it! ISBN 978-5-907183-76-6.

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LCSNA-Published Definitive New Carroll Bibliography Now Available!

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Charles L. Dodgson (Lewis Carroll) A Bibliography of Works Published in His Lifetime by LCSNA member and former president Charlie Lovett is now available for order from the University of Virginia Press!

Charles L. Dodgson (Lewis Carroll) A Bibliography of Works Published in His Lifetime by LCSNA member and former president Charlie Lovett is now available for order at a members’ discount from the University of Virginia Press.

The first major new bibliographical study of Lewis Carroll’s works in nearly half a century, this book is not just an updating of the 1979 Lewis Carroll Handbook, but an entirely new study organized along traditional bibliographical lines. Charlie includes a significant amount of material new to Carroll bibliography, including items discovered in recent years, descriptions of proof copies and reprints, detailed descriptions of contributions to periodicals, and much more. With over 250 illustrations and more than 600 primary and hundreds of secondary entries, this book is sure to become an indispensable companion for collectors, dealers, librarians, scholars, and enthusiasts.

Edward Guiliano, author or editor of seven books on Lewis Carroll, founding member and past president of the Lewis Carroll Society of North America writes: “Meticulously compiled, checked, and rechecked against more primary sources than were previously known, this comprehensive bibliography of the works of Lewis Carroll published during his lifetime is certain to be a standard reference for Carroll scholars and collectors for decades to come. Lovett, a renowned Carroll author and collector, has used modern digital research techniques and bibliographical standards to give us the definitive guide to all the works published by the author of the Alice books, as well as many new details on the nineteenth-century history in print of some of the world’s most inexhaustible tales and their extraordinary creator.”

LCSNA members can expect to see a generous 25% off discount code in their inboxes very soon, just in time for holiday shopping. And don’t forget, this is the second book published by the LCSNA this year! Lewis Carroll Collections & Collectors, by the aforementioned Edward Guiliano, also makes a great gift for the Carrollian in your life.

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The Annotated Song of the White Knight!

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We’ve got some exciting news about an exciting member premium that is incredibly exciting!

Was that too many excitings? Not a chance!

In Through the Looking-Glass, when Alice meets the fumbling White Knight, he volunteers to sing her a song that is sometimes referred to as “The Aged Aged Man,” or “A-Sitting on a Gate,” “Haddock’s Eyes,” “I’ll Tell Thee Everything I Can,” or other titles.  Now available to LCSNA members is Matthew Demakos’  The Annotated Song of the White Knight: Errant Illuminations on Lewis Carroll’s Farcical Ode, an extended and profusely illustrated book that explicates the origins of the verses and analysis of the text, and examines Carroll’s amendments made from the earlier 1856 version. For the first time, this book discusses the White Knight’s false claim that “the tune’s my own invention,” describing instead how the melody mirrors real life. In addition to the five chapters of the book, there are appendices covering the illustrations of the poem by John Tenniel and many others, and even the Guinness parodies! The complete 96-page PDF is available for download by Lewis Carroll Society of North America (LCSNA) members only. For those who are not yet members of the LCSNA, now would be a great time to join!

Matthew Demakos is a Carrollian scholar and longtime LCSNA member who has been writing about the life and works of Lewis Carroll for over twenty years. His catalogue also contains many important publications on John Tenniel.

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Lewis Carroll Collections and Collectors Now Available!

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“This is a handsomely produced and profusely illustrated volume that is sure to be of interest to other Carrollians, bibliophiles, and anyone interested in what makes collectors tick and their collections hum.” Arnold Hirshon, President, Lewis Carroll Society of North America

We are very pleased to announce the latest publication from the Lewis Carroll Society of North America and the University of Virginia Press, Lewis Carroll Collections & Collectors. This book, authored by LCSNA past President Edward Guiliano, is truly the first of its kind! Edward delves into the history and culture of collecting the works of Lewis Carroll, as well as the worldwide industry of items and art based on Carroll’s works in popular culture. He profiles ten large, major private collections from around the world, chronicling the story of each collection and and its collector. We have a feeling many of those collectors will be familiar faces to LCSNA members and friends! This gorgeous tome comes complete with color illustrations of treasures from the profiled collections. If that’s not enough to entice you, just take a look at the dustjacket!

Edward does not leave out smaller specialized collections and also includes a comprehensive introduction to the history and characteristics of collecting Carrolliana. Not just for Carroll enthusiasts, this volume is sure to appeal to rare book connoisseurs and all kinds of memorabilia collectors as well. From the author himself: “I’m not a Carroll collector, but I wanted to know and celebrate the stories and holdings of the many great collectors I’ve come to admire in the LCSNA. And as Alice notes, ‘what’s the use of a book without pictures or conversations in it,’ so I’ve included plenty of both.”

LCSNA members can look forward to a generous discount code being delivered to their inboxes very soon for Lewis Carroll Collections & Collectors. And stay tuned for news of another LCSNA book release next month! It’s a very prolific autumn here at the Lewis Carroll Society of North America.

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Astonishing Illustrators V

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A note from the blogger: first, the title. Rather than continuing to add initial synonyms or repetitive phrases for “more,” I’ve decided to simply number them. Four similar posts have come before (links below), so this is V. I would also like to say something about my criteria for selection: it being an “outlier” is by far the most important. There are many editions out there with “cutesy,” colorful pictures aimed at children that are tiresome to collectors; these posts are about the edgy, unusual, different. I prefer that they be of recent vintage, but that’s not an absolute. I must have a physical copy to examine. Accessibility is desirable, but not a deal breaker. This time, there’s a bonus tenth one, as we showed Adriana Peliano’s Wonderland last time, but wanted the world to know there’s also a Looking-Glass now.

Les Aventures d’Alice au Pays des Merveilles (AW) comes in a bilingual French & English edition with wildly idiosyncratic images by Sandrine Domaine (L’Oxalide, 2014, ISBN 978-2-916881-98-0). Easy to find, wonderful imagery: what’s not to like?

Алиса в Стране Чудес и Зазеркалье (AW/LG) in Russian (Niburt, 2017, ISBN 978-5-716406-48-3) is illustrated in a truly playful and funny way by Dmitry Trubin. Available from the artist.

Attraverso lo Specchio (LG) in Italian (Nuages, 2004, ISBN 88-86178-32-8) features the sumptuous, spectacular engravings of Leonardo Cemak.

Алиса в Стране Чудес (AW in the Nabokov Russian translation, Moscow Textbooks, 2008, ISBN 978-5-89577-129-7) with Anna Yudina’s supremely evocative art was released to schools and libraries but not to bookstores, and is well worth hunting down. She also created the visual layout, fonts, typography, and decorations, earning an IBBY award for illustration in 2010.

不思議の国のアリス と 鏡の国のアリス (AW/LG) in a box set (Aki Shobo, 2015, ISBN 978-4-7505-1428-4) features the hilarious cartoon-y drawings of Maki Sasaki, one of Japan’s premier illustrators, picture book writers, and manga artists. Also available as individual volumes from Amazon.jp.

While randomly perusing my Russian library, I came across Приключения Алисы в Стране Чудес и Алиса в Зазеркалье (AW/LG, Middle-Uralysk, 1987, no ISBN) with the spectacularly innovative and intricate drawings by N. V. Tikhonova. Truly stunning!

Giovani Giannini’s twenty-one full-page, highly detailed drypoint engravings for a signed and numbered fine-press edition of Les Aventures d’Alice au Pays des Merveilles (AW in French, Michel de L’Ormeraie, 1976, no ISBN) are slyly humorous, quite unusual, eccentric, and splendidly rendered.

不思議の国のアリス ビジュアルファンBOOK (AW: Visual Fan Book, Mynavi, 2015, ISBN 978-4-8399-5513-7 contains the text of AW in both Japanese and English, many notes and essays in Japanese, and illustrations by thirty-two different popular artists, all of whom incorporate photographs of the pretty model Midori Fukusawa in their work. Available on Amazon.

Загадочный Гость (Mysterious Guest, Nigma, 2020, ISBN 978-5-4335-0762-3) is a collection of Carroll’s poetry, both Alice and otherwise, translated into Russian. Evgeny Antonenkov’s charmingly witty illustrations are enough reason to have this book. Obtainable through Ruslania.

Adriana Peliano’s “reimagining,” a delightful, nearly wordless, romp through Wonderland, was in our last post. She is a brilliant AI artist, and the journey is light and lovely, symbolic and surreal. Now her companion LG is available: You can get a signed hardcover (English or Portuguese) for US$30 by emailing her. A Kindle edition is forthcoming.

Astonishing Illustrators IV
Astonishing Illustrators III
Astonishing Illustrators II
Astonishing Illustrators I

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More Nine More Astonishing New Illustrators

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As my posts Nine Astonishing New Illustrators, Nine More Astonishing New Illustrators, and Yet Nine More Astonishing New Illustrators have received much welcome in the Carroll-collector community, I felt it was time to do another. Once again I thank Instagrammers @semperluxus, @neverenoughalicebooks, and @chimerainwonderland for finding many of them!

Adriana Peliano’s “reimagining” is a delightful, nearly wordless, romp through Wonderland. She is a brilliant AI artist, and the journey is light and lovely, symbolic and surreal. You can get a signed hardcover (US$35) by emailing her or a Kindle edition.

Pavel Pepperstein’s idiosyncratic and gloriously oversize (12 × 15 inches; 30 × 38 cm) Алиса в Стране Чудес (AW) came out from V–A–C Press in 2020. His playful gestures break through common sense, mixing Russian traditional icons, avant-garde Russian art, and images from Western pop culture. ISBN 978-5907183070.

SNL’s Festrunk Brothers’ “wild and crazy” are the most appropriate adjectives for a large-format Алиса в Стране Чудес и в Зазеркалье (AW & LG) illustrated by Nikolaj Vatagin (Krasnyj Parokhod, 2015). With lightly excerpted texts, the artist’s imagination takes off with eccentric drawings and photographs of his sculptures in a kaleidoscope of inventiveness. Warning: completely un-PC, with nudity and racial stereotypes. Currently available from Ruslania in Finland. ISBN 978-5914870642

Kent David Kelly has more than 130 books to his credit; several are editions of Carroll’s books (his Snark is out and Looking-Glass is in the works). This volume is large, thick (230 pages), lavishly illustrated with 145 AI-generated images, and ends with with pages of notes called “secrets,” incorporating biographical and Victorian data, not to mention, it must be said, his own imagination. ISBN 979-8388826787, available from Amazon.

Martina Peluso’s lighthearted, Botero-esque illustrations to AW first came out in 2017 in a large hardback “Illustrated Classics” edition by publisher Miles Kelly (978-1786176769). With LG added and reformatted into a small “Mini Classic,” it is now available in Russian (978-5041062316) from Amazon in English (978-1786176769)

David Esslemont’s fine-press Jabberwocky came out in an edition of forty copies in 2020. The linocuts are mostly color “reduction linocuts,” i.e., printed from the same block cut several times. The calligraphic text was drawn with a broad-nibbed pen on linoleum blocks that when printed render the letters in reverse, just as Alice found them. The images are stunning and the box it comes in contains a mirrored sheet so one can read the text. Sort of.

Illustrator Minji Kim’s small two-volume set from Indigo, 2014, in Korean (AW 978-89-92632-12-6, LG 978-89-92632-98-0) showcases her lovely, delicate art, often with unusual perspectives. Wonderland (978-8992632799) is also available in English.

The text of Alice’s Adventures on the London Underground is pretty much like every other pastiche you’ve ever read, but the engraved illustrations were truly stunning. It’s available as a trade paperback and also in a deluxe boxed edition with twelve signed etchings from Blackwell’s in the UK.

Maxim Mitrofanov first illustrated Wonderland and Looking-Glass for Rosmen in 2010. Both books contained the full text and gorgeous, detailed colored illustrations on each page (his LG was reviewed in KL 85:51). Now, over a decade later, Mitrofanov revisits the Alice books, this time for AST in abridged retellings with ingenious, sumptuous 3D pop-ups. From Ruslania: Алиса в стране чудес (AW) 978-5171105334; Алиса в Зазеркалье (LG) 978-5171229870.

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At Long Last, Alice in a World of Wonderlands, The Sequel!

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Alice in a World of Wonderlands: the English-Language Editions of the Four Alice Books Published Worldwide is now available in both the standard print edition and e-book versions!

This new two-volume set was edited by Jon A. Lindseth (who in 2015 edited the companion Alice in a World of Wonderlands: the Translations of Lewis Carroll’s Masterpiece) and Arnold Hirshon (the current President of the Lewis Carroll Society of North America).

Volume One (535 pages) explores Alice’s world through eleven essays written by major scholars and collectors from around the world. The volume covers (1) the publishing and textual history of the books, (2) the history of illustrated editions created by thousands of artist (including a detailed analysis that includes over 550 images, most in color) and (3) personal histories of contributors as to how and why they became interested in the study of works by Lewis Carroll.

Volume Two (463 pages) contains extensive checklist entries of 4,400 different editions of the four books published in English, and a statistical analysis and indexes of both the publisher and illustration histories.

The print edition for Volume One is $102.99 (ISBN 9781626132528) and for Volume Two is $42.99 (ISBN 9781626132580). Both volumes and e-book versions are available from Amazon and from Barnes and Noble. E-book versions for the two volumes are also available from Apple, Smashwords, and Google Play (coming soon). E-book Volume One costs $29.99, and E-book Volume Two is $15.99.

There is a Deluxe Edition that is limited and numbered with only 100 2-volume sets produced. Further information about all of the editions, and purchasing information for the Deluxe Edition, is available at ATBOSH Media.

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Yet Nine More Astonishing New Illustrators

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As my posts Nine Astonishing New Illustrators and Nine More Astonishing New Illustrators have received much welcome in the Carroll-collector community, I felt it was time to do another. Once again I thank Instagrammers @semperluxus, @neverenoughalicebooks, and @chimerainwonderland for finding them!

The first, and by far the largest (16.5 x 12 inches, 42 x 30 cm) is this lushly illustrated Italian one by Francesco Corli. The art was taken from a series of 50 paintings (all shown full-page in a suite at the back of the book) done for an exhibition at the Cart Gallery in Rome in May. Although signed and limited to 100 copies, it is quite reasonably priced and obtainable from the Gallery here.

Although the only text is a one-page summary, Les Aventures d’Alice au Pays des Merveilles contains Sébastien Orsini’s exquisite paper cut-outs in a single, folded 67-inch (170 cm) sheet (Lirabelle, 2015) ISBN: 978-2358781398. Be sure to order the paperback version; otherwise you will be led astray.

Enzo Venezia’s geometrical and wildly amusing, colorful pictures accompany a retelling (also by Venezia and from Alice’s POV) of the tale in rhymes and nursery-rhymes in a large square (12 in, 30 cm) format (Piuma Editions, 2020, ISBN 978-8897443230). A unique approach, and a true delight from end to end.

A Chinese version of both Wonderland (爱丽丝漫游奇境) and Looking-glass (Jiangsu Phoenix Literature and Art Publishing, 2022) is illustrated by Gu Rui En in a very, well, pretty manner. The translation is also said to be new and interesting. I’ll save you the trouble: you can get it on Amazon.

Jessica Cioffi, under the nom de plume “Loputyn,” has produced a number of very lovely drawings in a muted pastel palette (although a few somewhat arbitrary skulls, eyeballs, and sharp teeth are woven in). It is available in both Italian (Rebelle, 2022, ISBN 978-8894559088) and Russian (Алиса в стране чудес, Mann-Ivanov-Ferber, 2023, ISBN 978-5002140879).

Truly wacky and laugh-out-loud funny pictures by Laurent Grossat highlight this French edition (L’Autre Regard, 2020, ISBN 978-2490906284). The text is retold and the art is hysterical.

A psychedelically colored Korean edition called Alice in Wonderland Mobile Art Book (이상한 나라의 앨리스 모바일 아트북) contains amusing, highly stylized illustrations by Lady Duck and, at the back, an assemble-able mobile! ISBN 978-8998010614. Amazon shows it paired with another book, which is Anne of Green Gables, not Looking-Glass.

In her artbook Miracles from Alice (Чудеса от Алисы, Артбук, 2016), collagist/artist Alena Arsentieva (Алена Арсентьева) illustrates both Alice books and one image for the Snark. There is very little text, in Russian mainly, but an extract of The Snark appears in English. ISBN 978-5699885626.

Easton Press’s Deluxe Limited Edition features eight full-color and nine pencil illustrations by acclaimed Basque artist Arantza Sestayo, each hand-tipped into the book and protected by a translucent overlay. The book comes in a custom-crafted clothbound slipcase and is a stunning example of the bookmaker’s art, as well as featuring her finely rendered drawings. (Perhaps as a bonus or teaser, an image of Looking-Glass’s Queen Alice and the Jabberwock comes at the very end!)

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Alice in Cartoonland THIS FRIDAY

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Brian Sibley, president of the LCS(UK) and a most entertaining speaker, explores the comic universe of Carrollian cartoons, chronicling their history from the original illustrations for Alice’s Adventures Under Ground to the work of his modern-day counterparts in the worlds of comic books, animation, and video games.

The meeting will be via Zoom this Friday, September 8, from 6 to 8 pm in London, i.e., 10 am to noon Pacific Time, 1 to 3 pm Eastern Time. Details:

Meeting Link
Meeting ID: 895 4136 5946
Passcode: 255425

(Although we normally do not use this blog to publicize online presentations by the LCS[UK], as many of you know, Facebook, relying on AI in its infinite wisdom, has taken our site down over two weeks ago for the crime of “impersonating Lewis Carroll.” We’ve filed a complaint, but good grief!)

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A Wonderland of Wallpapers

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In “Judy Holliday’s Old Home in the Village Deserved a Renovation” in the Real Estate section of the New York Times on August 8, 2023, we learn that Jarrah Al-Buainain, a lawyer, found the 1,500-square-foot railroad-style apartment once belonging to the star of Born Yesterday in pretty bad shape. “As I was going in, there was more wallpaper, more wallpaper and more wallpaper,” Mr. Al-Buainain said. “It felt like Alice in Wonderland.” So he and his architect, Leah Solk, decided to renovate using wallpaper adapted from a furnishing fabric created by C. F. A. Voysey in 1930 (now held by the Victoria and Albert Museum), remastered and reworked by the House of Hackney, where it can be purchased. A photo of the entrance hall drew much Carrollian attention.

Over the years, there have been hundreds of Alice wallpapers. One that is particularly significant for me is this one (anonymous), as it was the wallpaper and bedding in the bedroom in which my father, Sandor, grew up. He became a renowned Carroll collector and scholar, not to mention a LCSNA president, and I’ve always wondered if it had somehow permeated his young brain and gotten into his DNA and that of his offspring.

One of the earliest wallpapers was designed by Tony Sarg (1880-1942), a well-known comic and children’s book artist who flourished in the early-to-mid 20th century.  Tenniel was clearly the inspiration for Sarg’s characters.  In addition to the wallpaper (a roll can be purchased here), which he designed for and was produced by the Thomas Strahan Company in the 1930s, Sarg also created Alice-related marionettes, a pop-up book (Tony Sarg’s Treasure Book: Rip van Winkle, Alice in Wonderland, and Treasure Island. New York: B. F. Jay & Co., 1942), and two Alice-related entries in Tony Sarg’s Alphabet (London: Bennn, 1926?). Sarg may be best known for designing the first flying balloons for the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parades from 1927 into the 1930s (but so far we have found any of Sarg’s balloons that were of Alice characters; the first Alice float was in 1948).

This is wallpaper for a dollhouse!

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