Spineless Classics Alice

Spineless Classics poster of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.

According to their website, Spineless Classics are ‘complete, legible texts of classic books in one poster’. It really is clearly legible, although probably not the easiest reading experience. Certainly not recommended for the bath…

It contains the full text, with Alice peeping behind the curtain in the hall of doors, and with a tumble of hearts and clubs and spades and diamonds behind her.

I like the fact that the ‘Mouse’s Tale’ keeps its original type-setting.

This was my Christmas present, but you can get it on Amazon.

Alice in Dreamland

Alice in Dreamland by Seymour Lyman.

Published by Lyman & Curtiss, 1882.

First edition. 4to. Paper covers, all a bit tatty and very fragile. I’m scared to take it out of its protective bag, but I think I really ought to scan the whole thing before it disintegrates…

I can’t find out anything about this one-this is what the listing on abebooks said:

There are fourteen pages within including six full page color plates (one double page) for this imaginative story in verse that takes Alice around the world. This title not in Lovett; not in Library of Congress; and not listed in oclc. In fact, lc only shows one entry for this publisher and it seems likely that the Seymour Lyman author is also the Lyman of the publisher. They also seemed to have published a few games around the same time (circa 1882) so probably they were a short-lived enterprise that did some interesting work and then went on with their lives? All in all, probably an unrecorded Alice parody that is really fun.

Bought from Jo Ann Reisler Ltd via abebooks.

Alice and the Space Telescope

Alice and the Space Telescope by Malcolm Longair, with forward by Nobel Prizewinner Riccardo Giacconi. Published by The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1989.

4to hardcover with dustjacket. First edition.

ISBN: 0-8018-2831-7

The book explains and discusses some of the things going on in astrophysics from the time of the launch of the Hubble telescope, and yet still manages to be funny at the same time.

It makes me think of The Big Bang Theory. I wonder what Sheldon would make of it?

There’s also a rewrite of Jabberwocky, which is always good value… even if the scansion is a little off…

Twas brillig and the slithy toves/Brought plans of telescopes fair to see./ The Jabberwock, he clapped his hands/And said, ‘That’s just for me.

Loads of pictures- some of Tenniel’s, various graphs and scientific diagrams, and photos.

Available via amazon: Alice and the Space Telescope, but mine was a present. Thanks Iain!

alice in thunderland

Alice in Thunderland: A Feminist Fairytale by Maeve Kelly. Published 1993 by Attic. ?First edition paperback? ISBN: 1-85594-081-7

Cover illustration by Trina Mahon.

Alice (a native of Harmony land) travels through Thunderland, run by the memblies. They rule over the femblies, who don’t ask questions, and believe that too much thinking makes your brain turn to feathers…

My copy has a biro dedication on first page, and also a bookcrossing label inside as it was a gift from a bookcrossing friend. Thanks, Esther!

I do love the front cover with the Alice in DMs. Good choice for tromping about in an alternative world, I reckon.

Available on amazon: Alice in Thunderland (Fairytales for Feminists)

New Adventures of “Alice”

New Adventures of “Alice” by John Rae. Illustrated by the author.

Published by P.F. Volland Company, 1917.

Hardback, first edition.

Another book imagining what Lewis Carroll might have written had he continued his “Alice” stories. This book contains 14 new chapters with illustrations inspired by Tenniel.

Betty falls asleep after reading Mother Goose, and finds a book containing the new adventures of Alice. The characters are drawn from the Nursery Rhymes that Betty has been reading…

It was a sleepy, spring-time Sunday afternoon.

Alice was lying on the grass near the garden-house reading

Mother Goose Rhymes to her kittens who were tumbling about

near her in the slanting yellow sunshine. (She often pretended the kittens were small children.) Just now she was reading “Ding Dong Bell, Pussy’s in the Well.”

“I’m sure you’ll like this one and it may prove a warning to you,” she said.

Mine is a slightly tatty copy, so was rather cheaper than the one currently for sale via abebooks for over £200….

You can see the whole book online here, or buy a modern reprint, or find the original if you’re lucky…

Alice in Rankbustland/ Lost in the Bungle

Lost in the Bungle, with apologies to Lewis Carroll. With an introduction by the Hon. John C. Knox.

Author Edwin M. Otterbourg.

Published in 1933 by Country Life Press. 8vo, hardback black cloth stamped in gilt. No dustjacket.

This edition is titled as Lost in the Bungle but it includes the earlier Rankbustland (1923) as an appendix.

Edwin M. Otterbourg, a trial and appellate lawyer with had a particular interest in legal ethics, co-founded the firm of Otterbourg Steindler & Houston in New York City in 1909.

This is apparently “A satire on alleged abuses in the administration of the American Bankruptcy act”, but I’m not sure what that means…

All Us Through the Magnifying Glass

All Us Through the Magnifying Glass by B. Leslie Barker.

Tenniel illustrations.

Published in 1955, W. Ruddock & Sons Ltd.

This is a pre-publication copy as far as I can make out: there’s a note inside the front cover that says

‘Leslie from Leslie. not for publication until the executive permit 20.12.54′

Rather than a book, this is a pamphlet written as a tribute to the Philatelic Congress of Great Britain.

There’s even one of my favourite things- a Jabberwocky parody:

‘Twas Congress, and the quarter perfs
Did gyre and gimble on the gauge:
All braisil were the oeil de boeufs,
And bomba heads outrage

Alice’s name has been changed to Aniline, but several of the other characters are there. A fun little thing.

Illustrated by Joe McLaren

Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll: illustrated by Joe McLaren.

Published by Whites Books (Pocket Editions), 2010, hardcover book, embossed and with a black ribbon bookmark. First edition.

ISBN-13: 978-0956266828

Lovely little book, with wonderful illustrations, but it’s a shame that the band is glued to the inside front cover- I don’t want to remove it and damage the book, so I can’t scan in the whole cover…

Joe McLaren says on his website:

I was born in 1981, I live in Kent, I’m married, and I work as a freelance illustrator.

I graduated in 2003 from Brighton University (BA Hons Illustration First Class) and won a prize (University of Nagoya student show award~ first place).

I do lots of work for newspapers and magazines (most notably the Times and WIRED), and illustrate lots of book covers.

I can be contacted at joe_b_mclaren@hotmail.com

Available from Amazon: Alice in Wonderland (Pocket Classics)

“Read Me” Leaflet: Brighton reads Alice in Wonderland

Read me: Leaflet advertising the Brighton City read to celebrate Penguin’s 70th anniversary in 2005.

8 pages of quotes, information and trivia. I do like the Warholesque cover.

From the City-wide reading initiative website:

Going underground! Brighton and Hove burrows into the most curious book of the 19th century: Between March and May, The Word in collaboration with Brighton Festival and other local organizations, is encouraging the whole city to read the first children’s book with a crossover appeal to adults – Lewis Carroll’s Alice In Wonderland. Carroll was a frequent visitor to Brighton from 1864 to 1887, staying with his old Christ Church friend the Reverend Henry Barclay at 11 Sussex Square and, in 1887 he watched the stage version of Alice being performed at the Theatre Royal. He is said to have got inspiration for the rabbit hole from a small underground tunnel running down to the sea in Brighton.

Alec’s Adventures in Railwayland

Alec’s adventures in Railwayland by L. T. C. Rolt Published 1964 by Ian Allan (London).

Lionel Thomas Caswall Rolt (1910–1974) was the biographer of Isambard Kingdom Brunel and Thomas Telford. He was an enthusiast for both vintage cars and heritage railways.

This is a satirical look at Dr. Beeching’s reforms written as an Alice sequel.  A very sweet little pamphlet of a book, with illustrations by Margaret Calvert.

New characters include:

Alec- the adventurer

The Mad Porter

The Dip Tech

The Pro

The Graphon

The Icy King

Familiar characters include the Tweedles and the Dormouse.

46 pages, softback, stapled.
Sometimes available on amazon: Alec’s adventures in Railwayland