Estate Sale: Alice in Wonderland collection for sale, including books, tea sets, dolls, collectibles, jewelry, and ephemera. Saturday, April 19, 9am – 4pm; 5806 Ruddy Duck Ct., in Stockton, California. More than 2,000 non-Alice books, plus furniture, framed artwork, china, clothes, and some antiques. This is the collection of the late Carolyn Buck, a long time Carroll/Alice collector. Most of the Alice books are from the last 30 years, but there are some older books as well. There are many Carroll biographies, including Life and Letters by Collingwood. Translations in German, French, Spanish, Greek ,and Slovenian, including a Slovenian translation of the Nursery Alice are up for sale. Halcyon and Kingsley enamel boxes plus ornaments, hand painted tee shirts, stamps, and much more. Address questions to Claudia Buck at buckpage@sbcglobal.net.
The Blog of the LCSNA
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The Blog of the LCSNA
S&B Bib
Also known as, “AN ANNOTATED INTERNATIONAL BIBLIOGRAPHY OF LEWIS CARROLL’S SYLVIE AND BRUNO BOOKS” by Byron Sewell and Clare Imholtz. New Castle and London: Oak Knoll Press and the British Library, 2008. 4to, cloth. 274 pages.
Now available is this comprehensive bibliography of over 1,000 entries listing all known editions of Lewis Carroll’s Sylvie & Bruno books, their translations into foreign languages, excerpts from them, the appearance of their poems in anthologies, critical articles and studies, parodies, and much more. This book establishes for the first time the full bibliographic record of these long-neglected works by Carroll, including several little-known bibliographic rarities.
This descriptive bibliography will introduce many of its readers to the important techniques of the novels, with their multiple and shifting levels of reality, and the delightful nonsense of the Mad Gardener’s Song and other poems in the books. The bibliography includes a 30-page scholarly essay by Anne Clark Amor, one of Britain’s foremost Carroll scholars, as well as a complete list of the recipients of Lewis Carroll’s presentations of the two books, compiled by Carroll scholar Edward Wakeling.
In identifying the riches to be found in the bibliographic outlands of Carroll’s Sylvie & Bruno books, Sewell and Imholtz have demonstrated that there has been far greater interest in them than has generally been recognized. The bibliography reveals the many literary and cultural figures who have commented on, disparaged, imitated, parodied, quoted or in some other way drawn upon the Sylvie books, including: T.S. Eliot, Harold Bloom, Jorge Luis Borges, G.K. Chesterton, James Joyce, Ogden Nash, Elizabeth Sewell and Evelyn Waugh, among others. The extent and thoroughness of the bibliography is in no small part due to the wonderful cooperation the bibliographers received from collectors and scholars in Great Britain, Japan, Russia, Finland, France, the United States and elsewhere.
“The range and extent of the work is indeed impressive, and the volume is bound to become a cornerstone of Lewis Carroll scholarship. ” —Professor Morton Cohen
Available from Oak Knoll Press. 20% off to LCSNA members. www.oakknoll.com/detail.php?d_booknr=94203
Opera Alice
Unsuk Chin’s opera, Alice in Wonderland, first performed at the Bayerischen Staatoper (Bavarian State Opera) in Munich last year, is now available on DVD. Even if you are not a fan of opera, the costumes and sets are very intriguing and unusual. www.euroarts.com/artikel/dvd/?id=007241_chin_alice_in_wonderland_nicht
Life imitates art, or something like that…
Portland Digital collage artist Kenneth Rougeau has an exhibit of his Wonderland-inspired works at the Quirks of Art Gallery (www.quirks-of-art.com) in Portland, Oregon, through April. His works can also be viewed and purchased at www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5177790.
(c) Kenneth Rougeau
The “Hugo Strikes Back!” website has an exhaustive, if not completely comprehensive listing of Alice illustrators at http://hugo-sb.wetpaint.com/page/Alice+Illustrations+other+than+Tenniel.
And people ask if Carroll was on drugs!
Never let it be said that you can’t make Alice mean whatever you want it to say (or is it say what you mean?)
In celebration of the 150th anniversary of the first commercial oil well in North America in 1858 at Oil Springs, Ontario, Canada, Victoria Playhouse Petrolia (VPP) is presenting “Alice in Oil Town,” April 7 to 13. “Alice in Oil Town” is a delightful romp that incorporates many of the well-known Alice characters with historical figures and events associated with the oil heritage of Lambton County. The Mad Hatter becomes a crazy oil driller, The Queen of Hearts is now the Queen of Derricks, the flowers in a lovely garden play a dangerous game of “Toss the Nitro,” and Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum can set you up with everything you need to start pumping oil. www.theobserver.ca/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=954151
www.victoriaplayhousepetrolia.com
Triple Shadow’s ALICE: END OF DAZE follows nine-year-old Alice, portrayed by an actress in her sixties, as she escapes into a fantastic, surreal wonderland where she meets some familiar — and occasionally sinister — humans and puppet characters such as Humpty Dumpty, Tweedledumb, and Tweedledee. ALICE: END OF DAZE explores the nature of time, visual perception and consciousness. Alice finds herself in a fast-paced world, venturing into places where past, present and future seemingly coexist. She encounters ancient Mayan beliefs under attack by Spanish missionaries, modern-day creationism, global warming theories, end-of-days scenarios, and a 19th-century photo shoot that turns into a harrowing wild-west firing squad taking aim directly at her head. At La Mama Experimental Theatre Club, the show runs from
April 24 to May 11: www.lamama.org.
What’s happening in Holland?
Ending this weekend is an exhibit at Kunstkerk Dordrecht (Dordrecht, the Netherlands), which includes Alice-inspired paintings by Sarah Yu Zeebroek, and a reading/performance of Manifestation Alice in Wonderland by Foundation de LuiaardVrouwe, followed by high tea. Tickets are still available. Visit http://www.meursam.nl/ (in Dutch or here in English) for more information, as well as to see a watercolor of Dordrecht by Dean Liddell.
Updates
If you were unable to attend the Gwinnett Ballet Theatre’s Alice (http://lcsna.blogspot.com/2008/03/upcoming-events.html), you can view a stunning selection of photos from the production and from “behind-the-scenes” taken by Richard Calmes: www.pbase.com/rcalmes/alice_performances.
And if you would like more information on the Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum’s Alice exhibit (opening April 25), there is now a direct link: www.lywam.org/exhibitions/index.cfm?room=upcomingexhibitions.
More controversy
Disney’s “It’s a Small World” ride is undergoing renovations, with every rumor and aspect seemingly designed to generate controversy: larger boats and deeper water to accommodate today’s larger Americans, the rainforest scene replaced by an American patriotic scene, Disney movie characters added into “culturally appropriate” scenes (Mulan into “China,” for example). Here at last is an addition that does seem somewhat appropriate, Alice and the White Rabbit added to “England” – but using Mary Blair’s designs. Since “Small World” was originally designed by Blair, these new figures will at least blend in. http://travel.latimes.com/daily-deal-blog/?p=1552.
Save Alice’s House!
I’ve neglected to mention that the Liddell family vacation home, Penmorfa, in Llandudno, Wales, is slated for demolition and redevelopment. Fortunately, the various Lewis Carroll societies and local historical societies have generated a lot of publicity in hopes of gaining historical status for the building, and a petition will be presented to the council and to the Welsh Assembly (www.northwalespioneer.co.uk/news/Petition-to-save-39Alice39house.3934904.jp). If you are interested in adding your pleas, you may send an email addressed to cynllun.plan@conwy.gov.uk with ref to applications for demolition of Penmorfa, no’s, 0/34325 and 0/34236, or a letter to The Chief Planning Officer, Civic Offices, Colwyn Bay, Conwy, LL29 8AR (U.K.).
Not certain who took this photo, but all (c) to him or her, and my thanks.
In the news
In response to Thursday’s (March 27) speech by President Bush, Senator Chuck Hagel had this to say on CNN: “I think this is another episode of Alice in Wonderland. What’s up is down, and what’s down is up.” The whole interview can be viewed here: http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/politics/2008/03/27/blitzer.hagel.interview.cnn?iref=videosearch