1909 Scarce Binding - Alice Through the Looking-Glass by Bessie Pease Gutmann
Author: Lewis Carroll. Illustrated by Bessie Pease Gutmann.
Title: Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There.
Publisher: New York, Dodge Publishing Company, 1909.
Language: Text in English.
Size: 8 x 6 inches.
Pages: viii-185 pages.
Binding: Scarce, attractive, and very good light-blue cloth binding variant, with gilt-stamped title on the upper cover and spine, and a mounted colour illustration of Alice holding the crown. A variant much less commonly seen than the darker blue or decorated versions issued by Dodge (hinges fine, overall slightly worn and scuffed - as shown) under a protective removable mylar cover.
Content: Very good content (bright, tight and clean, rare light foxing or staining - as shown, charming 1923 gift inscription on the patterned endpapers - as shown).
Illustrations: Complete with all 10 color plates, including the frontispiece, each with strong color and printed caption below. Decorative green floral borders printed throughout the text. A beautifully illustrated Gutmann edition seldom found complete and in this binding.
Estimate: (USD $200– $300).
The book: This 1909 Dodge Publishing Company edition of Through the Looking-Glass is one of the most charming early 20th-century illustrated interpretations of Lewis Carroll’s sequel to Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. What sets this copy apart is its scarce light-blue cloth binding with mounted pictorial plate, a less frequently encountered state that collectors value for both its brightness and its aesthetic harmony with Bessie Pease Gutmann’s soft, dreamlike palette.
Inside, Gutmann’s ten color plates bring warmth and humanity to Carroll’s surreal, chess-like world: Alice running hand-in-hand with the Red Queen, drifting in the boat among reeds, or examining the golden crown. The green floral borders printed throughout lend the book a decorative unity, echoing the artistic approaches of contemporaneous gift-book illustrators from the Golden Age.
This edition holds particular appeal for collectors seeking Gutmann’s gentler, more sentimental interpretation of Alice, different from the Tenniel tradition yet deeply expressive and beloved.
The author: Lewis Carroll (Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, 1832–1898) remains one of the most inventive literary voices of the Victorian period. Through the Looking-Glass, first published in 1871, expands the universe of Wonderland into a chessboard world filled with mirror logic, poetic inversions, and unforgettable characters such as Humpty Dumpty, the White Knight, and the talking flowers. Carroll’s playful intellect, mathematical imagination, and lyrical nonsense converge here into one of literature’s most enduring dreamscapes.
The illustrator: Bessie Pease Gutmann (1876–1960) was one of America’s most cherished illustrators, celebrated for her tender portrayals of childhood. Her work in this edition is distinctive: unlike Tenniel’s sharp, satirical lines, Gutmann offers a softer, more emotional Alice, emphasizing innocence, curiosity, and the gentle wonder of the story’s dreamlike episodes.
Gutmann’s color plates—warmly textured and richly printed—have become highly collectible, not only among Carroll enthusiasts but among admirers of Golden Age children's illustration more broadly. This Dodge edition remains one of her finest contributions to classic literature.