ALICE IN WONDERLAND DAY
ALICE IN WONDERLAND DAY
July 4, 2016
Alice in Wonderland the most popular and most widely translated children’s book was written by Reverend Charles Dodgson, a mathematics tutor at Christ Church, Oxford. On 4 July 1862, Charles Dodgson took Alice Liddell and her sisters, Lorina and Edith, children of the Dean of the college for a boating in River Thames from Folly Bridge in Oxford.
To entertain the children he told them a story about a little girl, sitting bored by a riverbank, who finds herself tumbling down a rabbit hole into a topsy-turvy world called Wonderland. The story made the children so happy that Alice requested Charles Dodgson to write it down for her.
The story with the title ‘Alice’s Adventures Under Ground’ was Written in sepia-coloured ink and including 37 pen and ink illustrations (and a coloured title page) the manuscript was presented to Alice as an early Christmas present on 26 November 1864.
In 1865 the manuscript was published as Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland under the pen name Lewis Carroll with illustrations by Sir John Tenniel. The manuscript was with Alice Liddell until 1928 when she was forced to sell it to pay death duties after the death of her husband. It was sold at auction to an American dealer Dr Rosenbach who in turn sold it to another person by name Eldridge Johnson. After Johnson’s death in 1946 the manuscript was again sold at auction to a group who donated it to the British Museum.
Alice in Wonderland became the most widely translated children’s book ever written with editions even in Esperanto and shorthand.
Material source: www.bl.uk/www.storymuseum.org.uk
Image credit: http://www.bl.uk;
