Beschreibung:

DODGSON, Charles Lutwidge ("Lewis Carroll"). Alice's Adventures Under Ground. Being a facsimile of the original ms. book afterwards developed into "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" . London: Macmillan, 1886. 8 o (186 x 124 mm). Illustrations by the author. Original red gilt-stamped cloth, spine gilt-lettered, g.e., binder's ticket Burn & Co. on rear pastedown (some wear at extremities, spine dulled, hinges cracked). RARE PUBLISHER'S PRE-PUBLICATION BINDING SPECIMEN, with the price given on the title-page as "Three Shillings" (afterwards "Four Shillings" in the published version), also the facsimile ms. verses at p. [53] are misnumbered "2-2" which eventually was corrected to become "1-2". The title-leaf is blank on verso, without the Richard Clay imprint which appears in the published version. Apart from the title-page, no other letterpress leaves are included, and the facsimile text ends at page 80 (the remaining leaves blank to fill out the binding). This binding specimen was apparently produced prior to the completion of the plates for making the facsimile (which were greatly delayed due to problems with the zincographer and eventually required legal action to resolve, see Letters , pp. 647-48). In a letter to Macmillan (13 September 1886) Dodgson writes: "Have you any idea as to the cover of Alice's Adventures Under Ground ? The book will be about the thickness of the Snark . I assume that it must be red cloth and gilt edges, to match the other Alices . But we cannot have medallions: my drawings are too bad for that. So my idea is to have the title printed in gilt, in some fanciful way, on one side, no gold lines, and the back and the other side left without device..." [followed by a drawing by Dodgson of his binding design] (See Lewis Carroll and the House of Macmillan , pp. 205-07). The present binding specimen conforms partly to Dodgson's suggestion of a rear cover without ornament, but it does have ruled borders (gilt on front and in blind on rear). The back cover of the published version has a triple gilt-ruled border surrounding a central gilt device of the Mock Turtle. We know Dodgson received a specimen copy of The Game of Logic in early December 1886 (op. cit., p. 216) to allay his concerns over the binder's alignment of the margins (a pre-publication problem shared with Alice's Adventures Under Ground ), and it seems probable that this specimen was used for similar purposes. On December 17, 1886 Dodgson received his bound copy of Alice's Aventures Under Ground and was "much pleased." However his concerns over its binding (which may have indeed prompted the present specimen) reappear in a later letter to Macmillan from January 23, 1887: "A letter, which I received from Messrs. Burn & Co., on the 20th, about Alice Under Ground , contains a sentence I do not like at all . It is this: 'it (the book) was bound in a very great hurry.'... I have laid it down, as a fixed principle, that I will give the public (profit or no profit) the best article I can: I consider that any 'very great hurry' involves very serious risk of the article not being the best I can give: and I shall be really much obliged if you will take measures to prevent any such hurry on future occasions. Believe me..." ( Lewis Carroll and the House of Macmillan , p. 220). VERY RARE AND POSSIBLY UNIQUE. Not noted in Williams-Madan-Green-Crutch, or any other standard references.