Alice in Wonderland 150 San Francisco at the Book Club of CA

Executive Director, Jennifer Sims 

Mark Burstein, Guest Lecturer and Curator Alice at 150  

The current exhibition (May 18-features fine press books from the Collection of Mark and Sandor Burstein (3500 volumes)  curated by Mark Burstein.  Some of these include a version illustrated by Arthur Rackham; a limited edition bearing the illuminations of Salvador Dali (1969), a Black Sun Press volume with pictures by Marie  Laurencin (1930) and an incredible art book by the Cheshire Cat Press (1988, 1998)  handtypeset on handmade paper with find bindings by Eleanor Ramsey.   Burstein  tells us:   Alice in Wonderland has been translated into 170 languages.  There was a showcase with a pad and pencil for viewers to guess the languages!  There are 700 editions in English, 11 feature films, including one by Thomas Edison in 1910, and a Walt Disney cartoon, in 1951, a version with Peter Sellers in 1966, another version with Tim Burton in 2010 which grossed a billion dollars.    There are 350 comic books in which Alice is featured including Superman, and Alice in comic land.  and Punch cartoons.   There are a host of chorales, musicals and operas.  The story passed into public domain in 1907.  The closest analogue in terms of sales and popularity is "Le Petit Prince".  

Lewis Carroll wrote 60,000 letters in his lifetime.  He goes into the psyche, dreams,  Illustrators include Arthur Rackham(which was my favorite in the exhibition), Max Ernst, Salvador Dali(this edition is being published  as Alice in Wonderland:  Dodgson, Dali and the Fourth Dimension (PUP, fall 2015) with Burstein , and not to forget  Beatrix Potter.  This fall Annotated Alice:  The 150th anniversary Deluxe Edition (W.W.Norton, fall, 2015) an annotated Alice is being released for the 150th anniversary by Norton.   Mark Burstein has served as Art Director and Editor and contributor for both editions.  

Alice Hargreaves came to the Columbia University celebration in NYC.  I recall reading about this in the NYT.   The 150th dates from the first Macmillan edition To find out more about the celebration:  www.Alice150.com   Exhibits will be held at the Morgan Library NYU and then end at the Rosenbach in Philadelphia.  A conference will be held in NYC in the fall.  The Grolier Club/Oak Knoll is bringing out a new edition in the fall, Alice in a World of Wonderlands:  The Translations of Lewis Carroll's Masterpiece with a bibliography that lists over 7500 editions and more than 1000 published illustrators in languages other than English.

The author had his heroine question all adult authority.  The book is about humor, the true ways of the world, playfulness and madness. There are 60 biographies about Lewis Carroll and his famous Alice.  Later he added the Cheshire cat to his version of the story, which he told to a small girl and she said, why don't you write it down, so we can read it again...or words to that effect and so he did. He self published and kept all the rights.    He was interested in polymathematics, symbolic thetory and game theory.    There is a Lewis Carroll Society of North America. There are also societies in  Burstein  is the president and has served as chairman of the publication committee, as editor of its magazine, "Knight Letter"; as series editor of the Pamphlets of Lewis Carroll; vice president and president.   Sandor, his father is the former president.  His father married his mother, when she was an actress, playing the role of Alice.  He devoted his life to Alice.  He has amassed this amazing collection.  His home is in Petaluma.