{"id":1902,"date":"2010-03-10T23:16:26","date_gmt":"2010-03-11T05:16:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/?p=1902"},"modified":"2010-03-18T15:48:58","modified_gmt":"2010-03-18T21:48:58","slug":"on-being-an-alice-fan-right-nowpart-two-electric-boogaloo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/?p=1902","title":{"rendered":"On Being an Alice<\/em> Fan Right Now,
Part Two: Electric Boogaloo"},"content":{"rendered":"

Well, I mentioned earlier<\/a><\/strong>, dear readers, that Chronicle Books was releasing a most lovely illustrated paperback edition of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland<\/em>, originally published (as hardcover) in 2000. This was back when I noted what a good time it is to be an Alice<\/em> fan. Due to the new Tim Burton film adaptation (which, no, I haven’t seen; it will likely be a DVD-watch for me), the lit-minded folks of the world are all AliceAliceAlice right about now. This is good for us geeky fans, who consider it one of our desert-island-type reads. <\/p>\n

{Pictured here is Gertrude Kay’s depiction of Wonderland, circa 1923.}<\/p>\n

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland: A Classic Illustrated Edition<\/strong><\/a><\/em> was compiled by Cooper Edens, who owns an impressive collection of rare and antique picture books, one of the largest in the world. Excuse me, but SWOON. ….Where was I? Right. Chronicle has released this 2010 paperback edition and did I mention it’s lovely? Edens explains in the preface how he chose with “great care and deep reverence” the illustrations in this edition. He adds:<\/p>\n

“<\/font>…there is no singular vision of Wonderland. In researching the visual history of {the book}, and the many different artists it has enchanted, I discovered that each artist focused on different elements of Lewis Carroll’s story…For me, <\/em>Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland is a book so incredibly faceted that its many secrets begin to shine only when these distinct interpretations are brought together.“<\/font><\/em><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

It’s with that mindset that he sets forth to re-visit Carroll’s tale with a variety of takes on the bizarro world that is Wonderland. Most of these are illustrations from the turn of the last century. No contemporary adaptations here (my three favorites being Helen Oxenbury’s<\/a><\/strong>, Lisbeth Zwerger’s<\/a><\/strong>, and Robert Sabuda’s<\/a><\/strong> — those are in no particular order, ’cause like hell could I rate those beautiful books). The art of Honor C. Appleton, Maria L. Kirk, Peter Newell<\/a><\/strong>, Charles Robinson<\/a><\/strong>, John Tenniel<\/a><\/strong>, Arthur Rackham<\/a><\/strong>, Besse Pease Guttman<\/a><\/strong>, and many more illustrators grace the pages.<\/p>\n

The below images are not taken from this title, but I couldn’t help but pull some vintage Alice<\/em> images for this post. If one were to be comprehensive about this, one could quite possibly write The World’s Longest Post. There are a lot of beautiful, old Alice<\/em> images. Here are just some…<\/p>\n

Enjoy. <\/p>\n


\n

Illustration by Marjorie Torrey<\/a><\/strong>, circa 1955<\/em><\/center><\/p>\n


\n

Illustration by Jessie Willcox Smith<\/a><\/strong>, circa 1923<\/em><\/center><\/p>\n


\n

Illustration from A.E. Jackson, circa 1915<\/em><\/center><\/p>\n


\n

Illustration from Arthur Rackham<\/strong><\/a>, circa 1907<\/em><\/center><\/p>\n


\n

Illustration from Gwynedd M. Hudson, circa 1922<\/em><\/center><\/p>\n


\n

Illustration by Bessie Pease Gutmann<\/a><\/strong>, circa 1907<\/em><\/center><\/p>\n


\n

The one and only Tenniel<\/strong><\/a>, circa 1865<\/em><\/center><\/p>\n

Note: The spirited force of nature that is Little Willow also covers this book today here<\/strong><\/a> at her blog. <\/p>\n

Ed. to Add: Kelly Fineman also covered it on Tuesday of this week<\/strong><\/a>. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Well, I mentioned earlier, dear readers, that Chronicle Books was releasing a most lovely illustrated paperback edition of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, originally published (as hardcover) in 2000. This was back when I noted what a good time it is to be an Alice fan. Due to the new Tim Burton film adaptation (which, no, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1902","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-picture-books"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1902","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1902"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1902\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1902"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1902"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1902"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}