1922 Rare 1stED - Alice's Adventures in Wonderland Illustrated by Gwynedd Hudson
An especially attractive example of the celebrated Gwynedd M. Hudson edition of Lewis Carroll’s classic, complete with all twelve richly colored plates and preserved in its striking original pictorial orange cloth.
Author: Lewis Carroll. Illustrated by Gwynedd M. Hudson.
Title: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.
Publisher: London: Hodder and Stoughton Limited, no date [1922].
Edition: First Edition illustrated by Gwynedd M. Hudson.
Language: Text in English.
Pages: 180 pages.
Size: 9.5 x 6.5 inches.
Binding: Very good original publisher’s orange cloth binding, strikingly lettered and decorated in black and orange to the upper board. The cover bears a wonderfully whimsical pictorial design of the Lobster and Mock Turtle beneath the prominently printed title, author, and illustrator, with corresponding black lettering to the spine. Rear board plain. The binding remains unusually bright and attractive, with only light rubbing, minor marks, and gentle wear to the spine ends and extremities, as shown. Hinges sound and binding firm. Protected in a removable mylar cover.
Content: Very good content, bright, tight and clean overall, with light age toning and occasional minor spotting or marks, principally to the preliminary leaves, as shown. Attractive pictorial endpapers and preliminaries printed in orange and black. An early ownership inscription, “Helen Maud Gibson,” appears within the decorative bookplate panel at the front. The plates are exceptionally fresh and retain strong, luminous color.
Illustrations: Complete with the wonderful color frontispiece and eleven additional full-page color plates, for a total of twelve illustrations by Gwynedd M. Hudson, together with numerous charming two-tone orange-and-black and monochrome illustrations, decorative headings, ornaments, and character studies throughout.
Estimate: USD $300–450.
The book: First published in 1865, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland is one of the defining works of imaginative literature, following young Alice through a dreamlike world populated by the White Rabbit, Caterpillar, Cheshire Cat, Mad Hatter, Queen of Hearts, and an unforgettable procession of logical impossibilities. Its extraordinary combination of fantasy, satire, wordplay, and mathematical absurdity transformed children’s literature and has never ceased to inspire artists and readers.
This 1922 Hodder and Stoughton edition is particularly admired for Gwynedd M. Hudson’s distinctive interpretation of Wonderland. Her elegant Alice and richly imagined settings belong to the great flowering of British gift-book illustration in the early twentieth century. Complete copies retaining all twelve color plates and their original decorative cloth are increasingly desirable.
The author: Lewis Carroll (1832–1898), the pen name of Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, was an English writer, mathematician, logician, photographer, and Anglican deacon. His Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and its sequel, Through the Looking-Glass, established him as one of the most original figures in English literature, combining linguistic ingenuity, sophisticated logic, and surreal imagination in works that appeal equally to children and adults.
The illustrator: Gwynedd M. Hudson (c. 1881–1935) was a British illustrator best remembered today for her highly distinctive interpretations of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Peter Pan. Working during the golden age of illustrated gift books, Hudson developed an elegant, decorative style characterized by delicate line, sophisticated composition, and richly atmospheric color. Her twelve full-page illustrations for Alice rank among the most beautiful interpretations of Carroll’s Wonderland produced in the twentieth century.