I’ve collected copies of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland for nine years. I was going through a phase of reading a lot of classic literature (Pride and Prejudice, A Tale of Two Cities, The Great Gatsby, etc.) and Alice stood out to me. I revisited her often; rereading excerpts, watching different adaptations, reading background information on Lewis Carrol and the creation of the story. I loved the whimsy and how the story was absurd for the sake of being absurd.
I’m not as captivated by her as I once was, but I still do one thing to keep her in my life. Over the years, I’ve collected about 15 volumes of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland or related material. It ranges from vintage children’s editions to Barnes and Nobel releases to collectors pieces. Most of them I’ve acquired used but a few have been gifts. I love each of them for different reasons but if I had to narrow down my favorites, it’d be these three.
Like most of my copies, this one came from a used bookstore. It’s the first one I bought and it’s the copy that introduced me to Wonderland. I adore the cover art by Milo Winter and would happily add a print of it to my Alice art collection.
While this copy is used (and worn), I didn’t acquire it from a store. I stumbled upon it while digging through a box in my parent’s garage. In the inside cover is my aunt’s 10-year-old handwriting scrawling her childhood address and the year. Being a family heirloom, it can’t help but be one of my favorites.
This one was another used bookstore find and it was my first true collectors piece. I found it in a little shop in Nashville, Indiana. The store had recently attained some rare copies from a collectors estate. Being a poor student at the time, this was the only one I could afford. It’s bound in genuine leather and I rarely take it out of the protective paper wrapping it. While it isn’t the most expensive in my collection now, it’s one of the ones most valuable to me.
Last but not least, a little bonus. I found this one, you guessed it, at a used bookstore. It was made by a company called “The Bookbox Company” but it seems that they’re no longer in business and their website is down. I love hidey holes and secret compartments so I jumped for joy when I found this.