Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.

New York: Appleton, 1866. 1st American edition / Ist edition, second issue.. Hardcover. Very good. In 1865 Macmillan printed this book in England and recalled it because John Tenniel, the illustrator considered the printing of the illustrations unsatisfactory. After consulting with Tenniel, Lewis Carroll authorized Macmillan to sell 1,952 bound copies to Appleton in New York with a new title page replacing Macmillan with D. Appleton and dated 1866. The new title page was tipped onto the excised stub of the Macmillan 1865 edition. Top edge and fore edge gilt. A few small waterspots on the front cover. The half title page has some writing on it and the (truncated) lower fore edge corner has had a professional repair of the lower fore edge corner not affection the text. Spine a little darkened otherwise a tight copy. Michael Hancher, author of The Tenniel Illustrations to the "Alice" Books was in the shop this summer and examined our copy of this book. There is a census of the extant copies of the 1866 Appleton Alice as announced by John Lindseth in PBSA some time ago that is still a work in progress. He goes on to say, "Extant copies of what has become known as "The Appleton Alice" have turned out to become quite elusive. The British Library is the only institutional holder found in the UK. Some seventy institutional holders are found in the United States and Canada and one in Switzerland. Fewer than twenty private holders have been identified. Our copy may add one to that small number. In his note Lindseth distinguishes four different states of the text, which apparently have no priority. Hancher goes on in his email to write, "I also attach two pages from the new chapter about "Printing" in the revised edition of my Tenniel book. Apparently the image quality for the illustrations of the suppressed Macmillan printing of 1865 (which got recycled as the Appleton edition of 1866) varies from copy to copy and image to image, depending on how much ink leaked through from the printing on the other side of a particular leaf. Tenniel must have been given - and rejected - one of the worse copies. Had he been given your copy he might not have balked." (Inventory #: 9027868)