1937 First Platt Color Ed. - Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass
An unusually bright 1937 First Edition of this large-format children’s adaptation of Lewis Carroll’s two Alice classics, profusely illustrated in colour after John Tenniel and featuring striking full-page artwork by Ninon MacKnight.
Author: Lewis Carroll. Illustrated by Ninon MacKnight, with colour illustrations after the original designs of John Tenniel.
Title: Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass: Adapted for Little Folks from the Original Story.
Publisher: New York: The Platt & Munk Co., Inc., 1937.
Edition: First Edition of this Platt & Munk illustrated adaptation.
Language: English.
Pages: 59 pages, plus publisher’s advertisement.
Size: 10 x 8 inches.
Binding: Very good original orange cloth-backed pictorial binding, with a large colour illustration to the front board and black lettering to the spine. Only light age and shelf wear; binding firm and remarkably attractive. Protected in a removable mylar cover.
Content: Very good content, clean and well preserved, with only occasional light age toning or minor spotting.
Illustrations: Profusely illustrated in full colour throughout, with two striking full-page colour illustrations by Ninon MacKnight and numerous colour illustrations based on the original designs of Sir John Tenniel.
Estimate: USD 150–175.
The book:
This charming large-format edition presents shortened versions of both Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass, specially “adapted for little folks” while retaining Carroll’s best-known characters and episodes. The White Rabbit, Caterpillar, Cheshire Cat, Mad Hatter, Queen of Hearts, Tweedledum and Tweedledee, and the fantastic inhabitants of the Looking-Glass world all appear in a generously illustrated format designed for younger readers.
Published by Platt & Munk in 1937, this was the first edition of this particular illustrated adaptation. The visual treatment is especially appealing: the familiar imagery of John Tenniel is translated into bright period colour illustrations, while Ninon MacKnight contributes two much larger compositions, including the memorable tea-party scene used as the pictorial front cover and frontispiece.
The illustrators:
Sir John Tenniel’s illustrations for Lewis Carroll’s Alice books rank among the most recognizable images in nineteenth-century children’s literature. His visual interpretations of the White Rabbit, Mad Hatter, Cheshire Cat and Queen of Hearts became inseparable from Carroll’s stories and provided the basis for the numerous colour illustrations throughout this edition.
Ninon MacKnight brings a distinctly 1930s storybook sensibility to the volume with her large full-colour compositions. Her theatrical treatment of the tea party and Looking-Glass banquet gives this edition a particularly lively character and makes the pictorial binding especially attractive for collectors of vintage Alice editions and illustrated children’s books.