Add MS 46700

Public Domain.

According to a note in Dodgson''s diary ( Add. MS. 54343, f. 15b ) the story first took its shape during a river trip up the Thames to Godstow on 4 July 1862 ( for doubts about the validity of this date see Derek Hudson, Lewis Carroll, 1954, pp. 129-130 ) in company with the Rev. Robinson Duckworth ( afterwards Canon and Sub-Dean of Westminster ) and three daughters of the Rev. H. G. Liddell, Dean of Christ Church, Oxford, viz. Lorina Charlotte (b. 1849), Alice Pleasance (b. 1852) and Edith Mary ( b. 1854 ). Dodgson invented the story to enliven the journey, and all the participants appear in it as characters, Dodgson as the Dodo, Duckworth as the Duck, Lorina as the Lory, Edith as the Eaglet, and Alice as herself. Duckworth many years later ( apparently in 1898, just after Dodgson''s death ) recalled that when the party returned to the Deanery, Alice asked Dodgson to write out the story for her, and that he sat up nearly the whole night doing so ( The Lewis Carroll Picture Book, ed. S. D. Collingwood, 1899, p. 360). This cannot be taken literally, for Dodgson''s diary makes no mention of it, and in fact records that on the following day, 5 July 1862, whilst on a train journey to London, he wrote out the ''headings'' of the story (Add. MS. 54344, f. 2). These ''headings'' cannot have been more than rough notes, for on 6 Aug. 1862, on another river trip to Godstow with the Liddells, he records ''I had to go on with my interminable fairy-tale of "Alice''s Adventures"'' (Add. MS. 54343, f. 25), while opposite the diary entry for 13 Nov. 1862 (Add. MS. 54343, f. 39b) is the note ''Began writing the fairy-tale for Alice, which I told them July 4, going to Godstow - I hope to finish it by Xmas''. This may explain the ''Christmas Gift'' of the subtitle. But in fact not even the writing of the text was completed by Christmas 1862: according to the record in Dodgson''s diary ( Add. MS. 54344, f. 2 ) the text was ''finished before Feb. 10 1863'', but he had still to draw the illustrations, for which spaces had been left in the text. Cf. the above-mentioned diary entry opposite 4 July 1862 (Add. MS. 54343, f. 15b): ''on which occasion I told them the fairy-tale of "Alice''s Adventures Under Ground", which I undertook to write out for Alice and which is now finished ( as to the text ) though the pictures are not yet nearly done- Feb. 10 1863, nor yet-Mar. 12 1864''. The illustrations gave Dodgson immense trouble, and it was not until 13 Sept. 1864 that he could record ''pictures in MS. finished'' (Add. MS. 54344, f. 2). There was a further interval, presumably for the volume to be bound, before it was ''finally sent to Alice Nov. 26 1864'' (ibid.). Alice Liddell''s own recollection (in 1931) that production of the manuscript occupied ''several years'' ( The Cornhill Magazine, lxxiii, 1932, p. 8) is thus not very wide of the mark. It has sometimes been stated that the present MS. is not identical with that which Dodgson describes as having finished, as to the text, before 10 Feb. 1863 ( cf., e.g., Harvard Library Bulletin, x, 1956, pp. 307-308). Indeed, in the introduction by Martin Gardner to the Dover Publications facsimile of 1965 (see below) it is stated that the ''first manuscript'' i.e. that finished in Feb. 1863 ''was probably destroyed by Carroll in 1864 when he prepared a more elaborate hand-printed copy with thirty-seven pictures drawn by himself. We cannot be sure, but it seems likely that this second manuscript differed in many respects from the first''. No evidence is given for these assertions, and neither the above-quoted entry in the diary for 4 July 1862 nor the table drawn up by Dodgson detailing all the stages in the production of Alice''s Adventures Under Ground and Alice in Wonderland (Add. MS. 54344, ff. 1b-2) gives any indication that more than one MS. of the former ever existed. In the advertisement pages at the end of, e.g., The Nursery Alice, 1889, the advertisement for the 1886 facsimile of the MS. carries the statement that the manuscript was ''begun, July 1862; finished, Feb. 1863; first published, in facsimile, in 1886''. These details would be pointless unless they all referred to the MS. reproduced in facsimile, i.e. the present MS.; and since this statement was issued during Dodgson''s lifetime and must have been made on his authority it is conclusive. Long before the finished MS. was sent to Alice Liddell, Dodgson had decided to publish the story. His diary records on 9 May 1863: ''Heard from Mrs MacDonald wife of George MacDonald, the poet and novelist about "Alice''s Adventures Under Ground", which I had lent them to read, and which they wish me to publish'' (Add. MS. 54344, f. 76). According to other accounts Henry Kingsley, brother of Charles Kingsley, and Robinson Duckworth also urged Dodgson to publish. But the story was clearly too short to make even a small book, and Dodgson set to work to expand it to more than double its length. No details have survived of the process of rewriting, and even the manuscript as sent to the printer no longer exists. The chequered history of the publication of Alice''s Adventures in Wonderland, as Dodgson named the expanded version, culminating in the abortive first edition of 1865, withdrawn because of the unsatisfactory quality of the printing, and the second (definitive) edition of 1866, has often been told, cf. W. H. Bond, ''The Publication of Alice''s Adventures in Wonderland'', Harvard Library Bulletin, x, 1956, pp. 306-324; R. L. Green, The Lewis Carroll Handbook, 1962, pp. 27-34. The relationship between Alice''s Adventures Under Ground and Alice''s Adventures in Wonderland is best shown in tabular form. In the following table the sections of Alice''s Adventures in Wonderland which are either completely new or are greatly expanded versions of the corresponding portions of Alice''s Adventures Under Ground are distinguished by being printed in italics:

Alice''s Adventures Under Ground

Alice''s Adventures in Wonderland

Chapter I (ff. 2-13)

Chapter I

Chapter II

Down the Rabbit-hole

The Pool of Tears

Chapter II (ff. 13b-24)

Chapter III

Chapter IV

A Caucus-Race (new)

A Long Tale

The Rabbit sends in a little Bill

Chapter III (ff. 24b-35)

Chapter IV

Chapter V

Chapter VI

Chapter VII

Alice and the Puppy

Advice from a Caterpillar

Pig and Pepper (new)

A Mad Tea-Party (new)

Alice and the Door in the Tree

Chapter IV (ff. 35b-46b)

Chapter VIII

Chapter IX

Chapter IX

Chapter X

Chapter XI

Chapter XII

Conclusion

The Queen''s Croquet-Ground

The Cheshire Cat appears (new)

Alice and the Duchess (new)

The Mock-Turtle''s Story greatly expanded

The Lobster Quadrille greatly expanded

Who stole the Tarts? greatly expanded

Alice''s Evidence greatly expanded

( largely rewritten)

It will be seen that while Alice''s Adventures Under Ground is broken up into only four chapters, each of considerable length and without titles, Alice''s Adventures in Wonderland is divided into twelve much shorter chapters, with titles. The relative length of the two works also remains to be considered. Although some material from Alice''s Adventures Under Ground was omitted, the balance is overwhelmingly on the side of expansion, particularly in the latter part of the story. Up to the conclusion of ''Advice from a Caterpillar'' the two works did not differ very substantially in length - 9,854 words in Alice''s Adventures Under Ground as against 10,796 in Alice in Wonderland (1865 edition) - but from this point onwards the process of expansion is very marked. Another 2,861 words were all that were required to round off Alice''s Adventures Under Ground, whereas the remainder of Alice in Wonderland contains 15,415 words, or considerably more than half the book. It follows that the commonly accepted figures for the total length of the two stories, as quoted in, e.g., S. H. Williams and F. Madan, Handbook of the Literature of C. L. Dodgson, 1931, p. 109, and repeated in the revised edition, R. L. Green, The Lewis Carroll Handbook, 1962, p. 133, viz. 18,000 and 35,000 words respectively, are far from accurate, the true totals being 12,715 and 26,211. The present MS. has never been set up in type, but has been reproduced several times in facsimile, first as Alice''s Adventures Under Ground. Being a facsimile of the original MS. book afterwards developed into Alice''s Adventures in Wonderland, by Lewis Carroll, London, Macmillan & Co., 1886. For the history of this production see S. D. Collingwood, Life and Letters of Lewis Carroll, 1898, pp. 236-237, 256-258, and R. L. Green, The Lewis Carroll Handbook, pp. 132-135. Reproduction was by photozincography, on a scale of about four-fifths original size. Dodgson, in consultation with Alice Liddell (now Mrs Reginald Hargreaves) decided against reproducing the photograph of Alice at the end of the manuscript (see below). He therefore rewrote the last three words of the text (''happy summer days'' ) on a separate sheet of paper ( now f. 47 ), followed by the words ''THE END'', and this was placed over the photograph of Alice while the manuscript was being photographed. This facsimile edition was reprinted by the Macmillan Co. of New York in 1932. Another facsimile was privately produced whilst the manuscript was in America, for Eldridge R. Johnson (according to Harvard Library Bulletin, x, 1956, p. 309). This is an extremely exact replica, the same size as the original, and even reproducing the original binding and gilt edges (copy in the British Library, press-mark MS. Facs. 652). Another original-size facsimile of American origin, with reproduction in colour of the decoration, is that issued by Panda Prints, Inc., New York, in 1951 (?). A facsimile made by the xerox process, on a scale about one-ninth larger than the original, and with an introduction by Dr Luther H. Evans, was published by University Microfilms, Inc., in 1964. In 1965 Dover Publications, Inc., of New York, issued a facsimile in original size, with the title page and presentation page reproduced in colour on the covers; this facsimile includes additional printed material taken from the 1886 facsimile, and an introduction ( pp. v-xi ) by Martin Gardner. Paper; ff. i + 48. 190 mm. x 123 mm. 1862-1864. Bound in very dark green morocco covers, with gilt title, in rectangular frame, on front cover, ''Alice''s Adventures Under Ground''. All edges gilt (except f. 47, which was added to the MS. in 1885, see above). The MS. has been re-backed, apparently whilst in America, and the leaves separated and mounted individually on guards, thus increasing the width of the volume by some 8 mm. (in the 1928 sale-cat. the dimensions are given as 7 ³/₈ in. x 4 ½ in.). The original make-up of the quires cannot now be determined. No watermarks (except f. 47). A small portion of the original spine has survived, let into the present back. Title page (f. 1) and presentation page (f. lb) in Gothic lettering with floral decoration in colours. Chapter headings in Gothic lettering in red and black, with arabesques. Illustrated with 37 pen-and-ink drawings by Dodgson; only one contains any colour, the portrait of the Queen of Hearts on f. 45b, in which the hearts are coloured red. At the end of the text (f. 46b) is a pen-and-ink portrait (head and shoulders) of Alice Liddell; Dodgson was clearly dissatisfied with this, and pasted over it a print, cut to an oval shape, of a photograph of Alice Liddell taken in 1859 ( for an untrimmed print of this photograph see The Lewis Carroll Centenary in London, 1932, plate II). The photograph (f. 47) has now been separated from the original pen-and-ink drawing. The MS. was offered for sale, as the property of Mrs Alice Pleasance Hargreaves, at Sotheby''s, 3 Apr. 1928, lot 319. Included in the lot were six letters from Dodgson to Mrs Hargreaves relating to the 1886 facsimile. At the sale, for an account of which see The Times, 4 Apr. 1928, the MS. was purchased, for £ 15,400, by Dr A. S. W. Rosenbach (cf. pencil note on f. i: ''Original Autograph Manuscript of "Alice''s Adventures under Ground" purchased by me in London, April 3, 1928. A. S. W. Rosenbach'' ). About six months later the MS. (with the accompanying letters) was sold to Eldridge Reeves Johnson, of Moorestown, New Jersey, U.S.A. Whilst in America the MS. was widely exhibited, e.g. in the Lewis Carroll Centenary Exhibition at Columbia University, New York, in 1932 (cf. the published Catalogue ). See also R. W. G. Vail, A Christmas Gift to a Dear Child, New York Public Library, 1928 (copy in the Department of Manuscripts, Departmental Pamphlets, vol. xlv, no. 646). After the death of Eldridge R. Johnson (15 Nov. 1945) the MS. was offered for sale at the Parke- Bernet Galleries, New York, on 3 Apr. 1946, as lot 51. Dr Luther H. Evans, Librarian of Congress, conceived the idea of purchasing the MS. for presentation as a gift to the British nation ''as a measure of cultural reparation'' and in recognition of the part played by the nation during the early part of the Second World War, and commissioned Dr Rosenbach to bid for the MS., which he secured for $50,000. Dr Luther Evans financed the purchase with the aid of an anonymous body of American subscribers, and presented the MS. to the British Museum in person on 13 Nov. 1948; cf. The Times, 15 Nov. 1948; Times Literary Supplement, 20 Nov. 1948, p. 660; and the preface by Dr Luther Evans to the University Microfilms facsimile. The letters of Dodgson sold with the MS. in 1928 appeared in the same sale at the Parke-Bernet Galleries, but as separate lots (lots 42 - 47). Presented by Dr Luther H. Evans, Librarian of Congress, and an anonymous body of American subscribers.

Fiction: ''Alice''s Adventures Under Ground'', by Rev. C. L. Dodgson (''Lewis Carroll''): 1863-1864.: Autogr.

Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, alias ''Lewis Carroll''; author: ''Alice''s Adventures Under Ground'' written and illustrated by: 1863-1864.

Art. Illuminations and Drawings: ENGLISH. C. L. Dodgson: illustrations, etc., of ''Alice''s Adventures Under Ground'': 1863-1864.

includes:

• f.46b Art. Portraits: Alice Liddell: 1859.: Photogr.
• ff. 46b, 47 Alice Pleasance Liddell, afterwards Hargreaves; wife (1880) of R G Hargreaves; daughter of H G Liddell, Dean of Christ Church, Oxford: Portrait and photograph: 1859, 1864.