The Nursery Alice

＂I wrote to Macmillan to suggest a new idea: a ’Nursery Edition’ of Alice with picturesprinted in.＂
- Lewis Carroll’s diary, 15th February 1881

The Nursery Alice, originally published by Macmillan & Co. in 1890, was the very first colour edition of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. It was intended, wrote Carroll, ＂to be read by Children aged from Nought to Five. To be read? Nay, not so! Say rather to be thumbed, to be cooed over, to be dogs’-eared, to be rumpled, to be kissed . . .＂

With this new, younger readership in mind, Carroll rewrote Alice himself, simplifying and abridging the original text, while Sir John Tenniel redrew, enlarged and coloured twenty of his iconic illustrations (with Alice in a yellow dress to reflect the 1890s craze for yellow!). The resulting book is a delightfully engaging experience; readers prompted to interact not only with the story but also with the images and even the physical book itself, in a way that is thoroughly modern.

Gloriously reproduced by Macmillan, the original publishers of both Lewis Carroll’s Alice books, this edition retains every word of the original The Nursery Alice and restores the exquisite delicacy of Tenniel’s artwork - lost in reproductions across the decades - along with the delightful cover artwork by Emily Gertrude Thomson. This gem of a book is the perfect introduction to Alice, and a delight for child and adult readers alike.

Lewis Carroll was the pen-name of Charles Lutwidge Dodgson. Born in 1832, Dodgson was a mathematics tutor at Christ Church College, Oxford, where he met Alice Liddell, daughter of the dean, and inspiration for Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. The book and its sequel, Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There, have delighted children the world over for 150 years.

Sir John Tenniel, born in 1820, was already a renowned illustrator and political cartoonist when he was invited to produce illustrations for Alice. His exquisite engravings for the two Alice books are among the most iconic and best loved images in the world.