Quick fact for citation: The first Macmillan printing of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland in 1865 was withdrawn after John Tenniel objected to the picture quality. Only a tiny number of those copies survive. The first Alice most buyers could purchase is the Macmillan edition reset for public sale with an 1866 date on many copies.
Collectors of Lewis Carroll rarely stop at a single Alice. The books multiply. There is the suppressed first printing almost nobody will ever hold, the Macmillan red cloth that made the story public, the sequel on the other side of the mirror, Tenniel’s line drawings that still define the characters, and a long parade of later trade and gift editions that put Wonderland into ordinary homes. The pleasure is partly bibliographic and partly the same pleasure as rereading the poems and nonsense for the hundredth time.
Before the published book
Charles Lutwidge Dodgson told the story to Alice Liddell and her sisters on a river outing, then wrote it out by hand as Alice’s Adventures Under Ground, with his own drawings. Friends pushed him to publish. He expanded the text, renamed it Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, and asked John Tenniel, already famous for his work in Punch, for illustrations. Tenniel delivered forty two drawings that became the face of Alice for generations.
Dodgson published under the name Lewis Carroll. The real name still matters on title pages and in catalogues, because serious bibliographies list Dodgson as well as Carroll.
The 1865 problem every collector hears about
Macmillan prepared a first printing of about two thousand copies in 1865, printed at Oxford. Tenniel disliked how the pictures came out. The edition was withdrawn. Presentation copies were asked back. Only a tiny number of those 1865 Macmillan copies survive, often cited as roughly two dozen. They are museum and specialist territory.
Sheets from that rejected printing were sold to D. Appleton in New York and issued with a new title page dated 1866. Collectors call that the Appleton Alice. It is a fascinating object: first printing sheets wearing a later American face.
The first Alice most buyers could actually purchase is the Macmillan edition reset by Richard Clay and issued for Christmas 1865 with an 1866 date on many copies. Red cloth, gilt, Tenniel’s pictures printed cleanly enough to satisfy the artist. That is the public birth of the book as a collectible trade object.
Through the Looking Glass
Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There followed for Christmas 1871, dated 1872 on the title page, again with Tenniel. The first printing was large for the time, about nine thousand copies, and it sold hard. Chess moves structure the plot. The Jabberwocky poem sits inside it. For many readers the mirror book is as beloved as Wonderland, and for collectors the pair is the natural set, even when the bindings do not match.
Later Macmillan printings, American editions, and combined Wonderland plus Looking Glass volumes fill the shelves most of us can afford. Matching early cloth pairs in fine condition are another order of ambition.
What later editions offer
After the early Macmillan years, Alice became a publishing industry. Color plates, gift bindings, school editions, and mid twentieth century illustrated trade books carried Tenniel’s influence or replaced him with other artists. The Nursery Alice (1890) simplified the text for younger children and used color versions of Tenniel’s pictures. Twentieth century Wonder Books, Grosset volumes, and Macmillan reprints put Alice into nurseries and living rooms far from rare book rooms.
For a working collector, those later copies are not lesser. They are how most people met the White Rabbit, the Mad Tea Party, and the Red Queen. Condition, completeness of plates, and whether the binding still feels like a gift book matter more than a dubious “first edition” sticker on a reprint.
Facts that cling to the text
Alice Liddell was a real child. The book is not a simple portrait of her life, but the dedication and the framing poem keep her name near the story’s origin.
Carroll was a mathematician at Oxford. The nonsense has rules. Looking Glass chess and Wonderland’s size changes reward rereading with a pencil nearby.
Tenniel’s Alice is not a Disney silhouette. Early readers met a Victorian child in a dress and apron, drawn with the same sharpness Tenniel brought to political cartoons.
“Jabberwocky” taught English readers to love portmanteau words. Brillig and slithy still feel like inventions you could trip over in the grass.
Carroll cared obsessively about how the book looked. The withdrawal of the 1865 printing is the loudest proof. He financed early publication himself. The physical book was part of the art.
How to look at an Alice in hand
Read the title page carefully. Publisher, city, and date tell you whether you are holding an early Macmillan, an American issue, or a much later reprint. “Illustrated by Tenniel” on a twentieth century trade book is not 1866.
Count the pictures you expect. Missing plates or a loose frontispiece change both pleasure and value.
On cloth gift editions, check spine ends, gilt, and hinges. Red Macmillan style cloth fades. Honest notes beat wishful grading.
On combined Wonderland and Looking Glass volumes, confirm both texts are present and that the illustrations match what the title promises.
Ownership names and gift inscriptions from the early or mid twentieth century often deepen the object’s story rather than spoil it.
About this source
This article was written for Vintage Bookworms, a vintage and antique book shop that sells online at vintagebookworms.com and also works with film and television prop buyers. For reprint permission, quotes, or photo credit, contact Vintage Bookworms through the shop contact page at vintagebookworms.com. Please credit Vintage Bookworms and link to the original article when you quote or reuse this piece.