Something Else that Happened on July 4th

 

July 4 (F) Atkinson brought over to my rooms some friends of his, a Mrs and Miss Peters, of whom I took photographs, and who afterwards looked over my album and staid [sic] to lunch. They then went off to the Museum, and Duckworth and I made an expedition up to Godstow with the three Liddells [Alice and her two sisters]; we had tea on the bank there, and did not reach Ch. Ch. [Christ Church] again till quarter past eight, when we took them on to my rooms to see my collections of micro-photographs, and restored them to the Deanery just before nine.

[On which occasion I told them the fairy-tale of “Alice’s Adventures Under Ground,” which I undertook to write out for Alice, and which is now finished (as to the text) though the pictures are not yet nearly done.  February 10, 1863]

[nor yet. March 12, 1864]

[“Alice’s Hour in Elfland”? June 9, 1864]

[“Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland”? June 28]

From Charles Dodgson’s (aka Lewis Carroll) diary entry of July 4, 1862 with notes he came back and added later as he was working on the book. (From volume 4 of the Lewis Carroll Society’s edition annotated by Edward Wakeling.)

 

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Gilles Bachelet’s MRS. WHITE RABBIT

In case you don’t know me, I’m a Carrollian; that means, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass are beloved books of mine. This blog is named after this obsession and the shrinking Alices in the banner are ones I drew long ago in my days as an aspiring illustrator. (More can be seen here.) I speak, write, do, and seek out all things Alice all the time. My current WiP is centered around the real story behind the fictional ones. And because of this obsession I’m always eager to see new interpretations of Carroll’s characters, setting, and words. Sadly, too many miss hugely (Tim Burton’s Alice films are the latest travesties), but some really capture Carroll’s wit in unique and original ways. Such a one is French book creator Gilles Bachelet in his delightful oversized picture book, Mrs. White Rabbit.  I picked up a copy of this several years ago in Germany and was over-the-top excited when publisher Anita Eerdmans told me that Eerdmans was bringing it out in the US.

The text is Mrs. White Rabbit’s tired, frustrated, teeth-clenched, and hilariously dry diary entries. These are wittily brought to life in illustrations large and small. There’s her oldest Beatrix who, after considering a wide variety of occupations, has decided she wants to be a supermodel and is spending all her time on the scale. A double page spread shows the worried mother’s 100 different recipes for carrots with the sad note: “nothing will do.” Alice makes an appearance (we see the poor woman vacuuming around her huge foot) and Mr. White Rabbit suggests hiring her as a babysitter. “Another one of his brilliant ideas? Who wants their children looked after by someone who doesn’t know how to stay a reasonable size?”

Poor, poor Mrs. White Rabbit whose husband is far too busy at the palace to help. She sadly writes : “My life is quite different from what I once dreamed about.  I would have loved to be a writer. To invent stories full of marvelous places and extraordinary characters. But how could I find inspiration in my dull everyday life?”  Of course, the illustrations show both the mundane and the marvelous.

This book is wonderful to look at — the illustrations are full of references to the original book as well as full of other wry tweaks playing off the text. There are great easter eggs through out; for example, I’m guessing the twins Gibert and George are a reference to the real-life artist pair. While those who know the original story will delight in this clever take, those who don’t will also enjoy the detail art and understandably grumpy view of this fairy tale rabbit spouse.

At the end, while Mr. White Rabbit rushes to fix things with his wife — the final image does not suggest he is successful. Perhaps in the sequel — Mrs. White Rabbit Runs Away?— we could see her having some of those fun adventures she dreamed of!

“Alice and Her Intended Audience” at the Lewis Carroll Society of North America

This past Saturday I was privileged to present “Alice and Her Intended Audience” at the Fall Meeting of the Lewis Carroll Society of North America along with three former students. After giving an overview of my teaching approach to the book — consisting of reading aloud, games, poetry recitations, tea parties, caucus races, and more — I turned the floor over to the students. First Jake, now in 7th grade, read his “Chaper 5 1/2: House of the Rabbits.” He explain that he had wanted to explore Carroll’s language in his own way. The result is a brilliant and unique creation; he begins by making the White Rabbit a female, provides generaous adventure, and some elegant original poetry as well. I hope the story can be published in total one day (perhaps in the Knight Letter?) for all to see. He was followed by 5th graders Zach and Katalin who described their favorite parts of the unit from last year (mostly playing croquet and the caucus race) and then performed their part of last year’s radio play. The three were the hit of the meeting!

For those in attendance and others interested here are a few links:

• I showed a couple of student book trailers. You can see them and more here: Student Alice in Wonderland Book Trailers.
• I also shared a few imaginary letters student had written. You can see them all here: Student Letters to Carroll and his Characters.
• Finally, Zach and Katalin performed the opening of last year’s class’s radio play. You can listen to all if it here: An Alice in Wonderland Radio Play.

Lewis Carroll Society of North America’s Fall Meeting

The LCSNA will be holding its fall meeting at NYU’s Bobst Library on Saturday, October 15th. With some former students (two 5th graders and a 7th grader), I will doing a presentation on “Alice and her Intended Audience of Children Today.” The children will give their perspectives of their experiences with the book while in my 4th grade class. Then the 5th graders will do a live performance of their section of last year’s class’s radio play while the 7th grader will read an additional chapter he wrote for the book the year he was in my class, explaining just what inspired him. The other presentations look great too. From the LCSNA website:

The exciting Fall 2016 meeting will take place at the Washington Square campus of New York University (home of the Berol Collection of Lewis Carroll, and the LCSNA archives) on October 15th. Fales Library director Marvin Taylor will speak about the exhibition they mounted in the Bobst as part of the Alice150 festivities, “‘Go Ask Alice’: Alice, Wonderland, and Popular Culture.” Monica Edinger, keeper of the well-regarded blog “Educating Alice,” and some of her students will give us a presentation about her use of Alice in her elementary classroom. Matt Demakos will speak about his research concerning “The Walrus and the Carpenter.” Children’s Literature specialist Dr. Jan Susina will give a talk tentatively titled “Alice in the Academy: The Alice Books in the College Curriculum,” Dana Walrath will talk on her illustrated novel Aliceheimers and her use of Alice in making sense of the world of Alzheimer’s. Read the full agenda for details.

Celebrating White Rabbits

It was 152 years ago yesterday that the Reverend Charles Dodgson, aka Lewis Carroll, first told his tale of Alice. Since then its elements have been reinterpreted in innumerable ways, one being Jefferson Airplane’s druggy anthem “White Rabbit.”  I was a teen the year it came out —1967— and not a fan. That misunderstanding of my favorite book from childhood as something that was the result of its creator’s use of drugs annoyed me then and still today. But I have to admit that I’ve mellowed about the song itself, especially when I see inventive covers for it.

The Jefferson Airplane’s original

Pink’s (Thanks Michael Sims!)

Amanda Palmer’s

In the Classroom: The Alice in Wonderland Radio Play

One of my favorite books is Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Every year I read aloud the book with my 4th graders reading along from my large collection of illustrated editions. Along the way the children join the chorus of the songs, participate in a caucus race, and play a spot of croquet. Most years we end with a project and this year it was a radio play. My initial thought was to do a sort of audio book, but when I mentioned it to a colleague she said, “a radio play, of course” and I was immediately hooked.

First I found a 1937 script using language directly from the book and adapted it for my class. (I cut it way, way, WAY down and adjusted it so we had different scenes, each with its own narrator. Each scene was 2-3 minutes with the whole play under 20 minutes in total.) Then I introduced the concept to them. One of the most important element that would make this different from an all-cast audio book was sound effects and so I found a couple of fun videos that gave a sense of this. The children worked enthusiastically in groups to prepare and did a fabulous job. Not only are their sound effects inventive and clever, but they went beyond what I expected with their voices and accents. Indeed the whole thing is a delight. One of the thing I like so much about it is how well the children’s performances show their deep understanding and appreciation of the book itself. I like to think Lewis Carroll would approve.

To learn more about the project and listen to the radio play itself please go here.

Lewis Carroll’s Caucus Race

As we in the US await the results of the Iowa caucuses, here’s a look at Lewis Carroll’s take on caucuses. (First part inked and illustrated by moi):

and were quite dry again, the Dodo suddenly called out ‘The race is over!’ and they all crowded round it, panting, and asking, ‘But who has won?’

This question the Dodo could not answer without a great deal of thought, and it sat for a long time with one finger pressed upon its forehead (the position in which you usually see Shakespeare, in the pictures of him), while the rest waited in silence. At last the Dodo said, ‘everybody has won, and all must have prizes.’

‘But who is to give the prizes?’ quite a chorus of voices asked.

‘Why, she, of course,’ said the Dodo, pointing to Alice with one finger; and the whole party at once crowded round her, calling out in a confused way, ‘Prizes! Prizes!’

Alice had no idea what to do, and in despair she put her hand in her pocket, and pulled out a box of comfits, (luckily the salt water had not got into it), and handed them round as prizes. There was exactly one a-piece all round.

‘But she must have a prize herself, you know,’ said the Mouse.

‘Of course,’ the Dodo replied very gravely. ‘What else have you got in your pocket?’ he went on, turning to Alice.

‘Only a thimble,’ said Alice sadly.

‘Hand it over here,’ said the Dodo.
Then they all crowded round her once more, while the Dodo solemnly presented the thimble, saying ‘We beg your acceptance of this elegant thimble’; and, when it had finished this short speech, they all cheered.

Alice thought the whole thing very absurd, but they all looked so grave that she did not dare to laugh; and, as she could not think of anything to say, she simply bowed, and took the thimble, looking as solemn as she could.

If want to see more of my Alice illustrations go here.

One More Alice Panel

Hope some of you around NYC this Saturday stop by NYPL’s main branch (the one with the lions) to listen to Dana Sheridan of Princeton’s Cotsen Library moderate a conversation all about Alice with me and illustrators Charles Santore and Robert Sabuda.  Should be fun!  All the details are here.

A Week with Alice

This past week, here in NYC, there were a myriad of celebrations for the 150th anniversary of the publication of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. I attended a number of them.

On Monday I was honored to be part of a remarkable panel at the New York Library for the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center. Moderated by Charlie Lovett, my fellow panelists were David Del Tredici, Liz Swados, Steve Massa, Elizabeth Carena, and Robert Sabuda. It was a starry-eyed evening for me to be with these distinguished artists. We listened to an excerpt from David’s “In Memory of a Summer Day (part one of Child Alice)” which won the Pulitzer Prize and listened to him answer Charlie’s thoughtful questions about its creation and reception. From Liz we heard stories about her delightful musical, Alice at the Palace with her young star, Meryl Streep and listened to a piece of it. Steve, a cast member in Eve la Gallienne‘s 1982 Broadway production of Alice in Wonderland, had a terrific collection of anecdotes to share.  Elizabeth, cast member of the immersive theatrical experience, Then She Fell…, gave us insight into that production.  Robert spoke of how experiencing his pop-up Alice has much in common with other theatrical experiences. I too spoke of how teaching and reading aloud Alice in the classroom is a performance.  Charlie, a Carroll expert, was a fabulous moderator, making for a terrific evening indeed.

In the course of the week there were Alice150 events all over the city. I attended those on Friday and Saturday at the NYIT. What a pleasure it was to meet up with old friends and new, some of whom I hadn’t seen since my magical week at Christ Church in 1998. Some highlights from those two days:

Dr. Edward Guilliano, president of the NYIT, did a delightful presentation on why Alice in NYC. Turns out there are more connections than I realized.

I knew Alethea Kontis’s YA fairy tale novels such as Enchanted, but had forgotten that she also had penned an Alice ABC. Her talk on how the book came to be was energetic and entertaining. (I suspect it was also fun for her to be in town for both Alice150 and NewYorkComicCon:)

Seeing a piece of Canadian foley artist Andy Malcolm’s (one of my 1998 Christ Church buddies) work-in-progress documentary, “There’s Something About Alice.”  Some of the parts we saw were filmed in Oxford during the 2012 celebration of the story’s telling, complete with a recreation of the boat trip. It was fun to see the familiar Oxford settings.

The Lewis Carroll societies are all full of amazing collectors. It was great fun to hear from Joel Birnbaum (mastermind behind Alice150 as he came up with the ideas years ago and is to be congratulated on its success), Matt Crandall, Alan Tannenbaum, Mark Burstein, Dayna Nuhn, and Clare Imholtz. I was especially taken by Alan’s pinball machines, Dayna’s advertising images, and Clare’s yearbooks.

Kiera Vaclavik did a fascinating talk on “Alice, Always in Fashion” looking at her changes and influences over the years. Kiera’s the curator of the V & A’s “The Alice Look” exhibit, up till November 1. Not being able to go in person, I was glad to get a taste from Kiera.

Friday ended for me (as there was more, but I was beat and had to go home) with Leonard Marcus‘s erudite talk on Alice’s literary influences, with a special focus on Norton Juster’s The Phantom Tollbooth.  I believe Leonard will be covering some of this in his IBBY talk this coming weekend — attendees are in for a treat!

Saturday morning I was back bright and early for a morning on Alice and the theater beginning with Charlie Lovett. Charlie is the curator of the Alice Live! and his talk provided us with highlights from the exhibit. For those like me who had been on or listening to the Lincoln Center panel on Monday, it was especially fascinating. And then we had another chance to see it at the reception that evening. The exhibit is really remarkable and I highly recommend seeing it.

Actor Andrew Sellon then gave us a peek into his process in creating his one-man show, Through a Looking Glass, Darkly. I was fortunate enough to see two earlier versions of the show (though not the one he performed this past week at Columbia) and found his talk completely fascinating.

Our theatrical morning ended with Daniel Rover Singer telling us about the journey he is still taking with his play, “A Perfect Likeness” an imagined encounter between Carroll and Charles Dickens. (Dan was an other of my Christ Church buddies and this was the first time we’d seen each other since then.) My fingers are crossed for new and exciting things for Dan with this seemingly (we saw a few clips from a California production) entertaining play.

Saturday afternoon focused on illustration.  This started with a fascinating overview of Alice illustrators by scholar Arnold Hirshon (whose son has done a clever photographic-centeric Alice in Manhattan). We heard from Wendy Ice about a gorgeous forthcoming Alice book by illustrator David Delamare, learned about Alice in Brazil via Nilce Pereira, saw a fascinating reworking of Alice in the Neopolitan style through the eyes of Stefania Tondo and Lello Esposito, and were delighted by Adriana Peliano‘s (another 1998 Christ Church alum) presentation complete with 150 Alices falling down the rabbit hole.

The day ended for me at a lovely reception at the Alice Live! exhibit. That was the end of my formal Alice150 week, but for many others there was another Sunday’s Alice Palooza! at NYU. It was fantastic and I can’t thank all those who worked so hard for years to make it happen, among others Joel Birnbaum, Stephanie Lovett, Charlie Lovett, Mark Burstein, and Alan Tannenbaum. Bravo to all of you and everyone else behind the scenes for this fabulous week.

Who’s Alice

The panel I’m on tonight at Lincoln Center has altered a bit in a mind-blowing way. Now my fellow-panelists are:

David Del Tredici (composer), Liz Swados (creator of Broadway’s Alice at the Palace), Elizabeth Cerena (performer and managing driector of Then She Fell), Steve Massa (film historian and cast member of Eve le Galliane’s Alice in Wonderland), and Robert Sabuda (pop-up book artist). Lewis Carroll scholar and author, Charlie Lovett, will moderate.

Again, it is at the New York Public Library at Lincoln Center at 6PM. Tickets (free) can be reserved here.