1923 First Edition illustrated by Edwin John Prittie - Alice in Wonderland

A particularly attractive 1923 first edition illustrated by Edwin John Prittie, combining his four evocative color plates with John Tenniel’s celebrated original illustrations throughout.

Author: Lewis Carroll.
Title: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass.
Publisher: Chicago, Philadelphia & Toronto: The John C. Winston Company, 1923.
Edition: First edition illustrated by Edwin John Prittie. Copyright 1923. Complete with eighty-nine illustrations by John Tenniel and four color plates by Edwin John Prittie.
Language: English.
Size: 8.5 x 6 inches.
Pages: 319 pages, followed by publisher’s advertisements.
Binding: Very good original publisher’s blue cloth binding, with gilt lettering to the spine and a large color pictorial onlay to the upper board depicting Alice and the White Rabbit. Binding remains bright, firm and attractive, with only light rubbing and minor signs of age and handling, as shown. Protected in a removable mylar cover. 
Content: Very good content throughout. Pages are clean and well preserved, with light age toning and occasional minor spotting consistent with age. The book remains tight and complete.
Illustrations: Profusely illustrated with eighty-nine of John Tenniel’s celebrated black-and-white illustrations throughout the text, together with four full-page color plates by Edwin John Prittie. The Prittie plates provide a particularly attractive early twentieth-century interpretation of Alice’s world, contrasting beautifully with Tenniel’s iconic Victorian imagery.

Estimate: USD 225–250

The book: A handsome first edition illustrated by Edwin John Prittie, bringing together Lewis Carroll’s two Alice classics, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There. First published in 1865 and 1871 respectively, the two books transformed children’s literature through their extraordinary combination of fantasy, wordplay, logic, satire, and dreamlike invention.

This 1923 Winston edition is especially appealing as the first edition to feature Edwin John Prittie’s distinctive color illustrations alongside John Tenniel’s original and now inseparable drawings. The four richly colored plates offer a romantic, early twentieth-century interpretation of Alice’s world, while the striking pictorial cover showing Alice and the White Rabbit gives the volume considerable decorative appeal. A highly attractive collectible edition of one of the most enduring works of nineteenth-century children’s literature.

The author: Lewis Carroll was the pen name of Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (1832–1898), an English mathematician, photographer, clergyman, and writer whose Alice books became landmarks of literary fantasy. Their peculiar blend of linguistic invention, nonsense, parody, logic, and unforgettable characters has influenced generations of writers, artists, filmmakers, and illustrators.

The illustrator: Edwin John Prittie (1879–1963) was an American illustrator particularly known for his work in children’s books during the early twentieth century. His colorful, romantic interpretation of Alice provides a distinctive complement to John Tenniel’s original Victorian drawings.