THE ORIGINAL ALICE IN WONDERLAND

On 4 July 1862, the Reverend Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, an Oxford mathematician, entertained three young sisters on a river trip with a 'fairy tale' destined to become one of the most famous children's stories of all time. Its heroine Alice Liddell implored him to write it out for her, waiting two years for this beautiful volume with Dodgson's own charming illustrations, entitled 'Alice's Adventures Under Ground'. In 1866 a revised and expanded version, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, was published by Dodgson as 'Lewis Carroll'. Alice kept the manuscript until 1928 when it was sold to an American collector; in 1946 it was bought by a group of American well-wishers at auction and returned to Britain.

Additional MS 46700, f.18