The Lewis Carroll Centenary - 1932 - Work in Progress!

This section is still in the very early stages of development, but we have decided to make it available in spite of this!

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The Lewis Carroll Centenary - 1932

It was fortuitous that the centenary of the birth of Lewis Carroll came only a short while after the enormous publicity that attended the sale, in 1928, of the original manuscript of Alice’s Adventures Under Ground. The country was ready for a major assessment of his life and works. Falconer Madan had just completed his extensive revision of the Williams 1924 Bibliography of Lewis Carroll (published in 1931), Carroll collectors in England and the United States were very active, and willing to co-operate in a landmark celebration of the centenary.

The key events of the year were the two exhibitions – one in London (taking place at the premises of bookseller J. & E. Bumpus in Oxford Street) and the other at Columbia University, New York. New plays were commissioned, new editions of the Alice books published, including one produced by the Limited Editions Club of America – with plans for Alice Hargreves (neé Liddell), the original Alice, to sign every copy. Three editions, each claiming to be “The Centenary Edition”, were published.

Hollywood began to prepare the first major sound film of Alice in Wonderland (released in 1933).

Two permanent memorials were established – the memorial window at Daresbury and the White Rabbit statue at Llandudno. Memorial plaques were also installed at other places with Carroll connections.

The 1930’s saw children’s books begin to appeal to a mass audience, rather than simply being aimed at the middle and upper classes. This trend was mirrored in the huge number of editions of the Alice books that were produced at about this time – boosted by the publicity surrounding the Centenary.

A new interest began to be shown in the pre-Alice works of Lewis Carroll – his contributions to The Train and his juvenile home magazines are cases in point, both being published during 1932.

This section of Lewis Carroll Resources attempts to list details of everything that occurred connected with Lewis Carroll, both major and minor and includes events which took place after 1932, but which can be regarded as originating as part of the centenary celebrations.

This introduction is adapted from previously published text by Selwyn H. Goodacre, used with permission.