ALICE’S ADVENTURES: In Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass; [scarce first hardcover edition].
London: Allan Wingate, (1954). First edition in hardback. Preceded by a 1946 softcover edition published in Stockholm. The horrors Peake witnessed as a war correspondent at the end of World War II are said to have influenced the surreal illustrations herein (Vanessa Thorpe, “Mervyn Peake’s Queen of Hearts,” The Observer, April 3, 2010). They are certainly less whimsical and more foreboding than one might expect. 8vo gilt-stamped blue cloth boards; 264 pages. Near fine to fine with only barest toning to gilt at spine and light offsets to endpapers (from dust jacket); in very good or better, age-tanned dust jacket with minimal edge wear. Judging from the few copies we’ve seen, the dust jacket tanning is endemic to this title. Scarce, especially so in jacket.
Item #72783
Price: $450.00