THE COMPLETE WORKS OF LEWIS CARROLL - With an Introduction by Alexander Woollcott (First printing of this Nonesuch Press edition)

First printing of this Nonesuch Press edition, with many illustrations by John Tenniel. ***Very good in pale-red buckram boards with bevelled edges, and gilt titles and decoration to the spine and front board. The boards are clean and unmarked, but there is quite a lot of fading to the spine. The gilt is still quite bright on the spine, and very bright on the front board. Head and tail of spine slightly creased, Corners sharp. Page block edges have some sporadic foxing. No reading lean to the binding. Spine tight. Internally near fine, with no inscriptions or annotations. Some browning at the guters of the endpapers and sporadic foxing, but no foxing to the interior pages. Pages clean. No creases or tears, even though the paper used is incredibly thin India paper. ***No dustwrapper. ***1165 pages. 196mm x 125mm. ***Contents: Introduction by Alexander Woollcott; I. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland; II. Through the Looking-Glass; III. Sylvie and Bruno; IV. Sylvie and Bruno Concluded; V. Verse - The Hunting of the Snark, Early Verse; Puzzles from Wonderland; Prologues to Plays; Phantasmagoria; College Rhymes and Notes by an Oxford Chiel; Acrostics, Inscriptions, and Other Verse; Three Sunsets and Other Poems; VI. Stories; VII. A Miscellany; Index of First Lines of Verse; Chronological Table. ***'Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (27 Jan 1832 - 14 Jan 1898), better known by his pen name Lewis Carroll, was an English author, poet, mathematician, photographer and reluctant Anglican deacon. His most notable works are "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" (1865) and its sequel "Through the Looking-Glass" (1871), some of the most important examples of Victorian literature. He was noted for his facility with word play, logic, and fantasy. His poems "Jabberwocky" (1871) and "The Hunting of the Snark" (1876) are classified in the genre of literary nonsense. Some of Alice's nonsensical wonderland logic reflects his published work on mathematical logic. Carroll came from a family of high-church Anglicans, and pursued his clerical training at Christ Church, Oxford, where he lived for most of his life as a scholar, teacher and (necessarily for his academic fellowship at the time) Anglican deacon. Alice Liddell - a daughter of Henry Liddell, the Dean of Christ Church - is widely identified as the original inspiration for Alice in Wonderland, though Carroll had always denied this. An avid puzzler, Carroll created the word ladder puzzle, which he called "Doublets" and published in his weekly column for Vanity Fair magazine between 1879 and 1881. In 1982 a memorial stone to Carroll was unveiled at Poets' Corner in Westminster Abbey. There are societies in many parts of the world dedicated to the enjoyment and promotion of his works.' (Wiki) ***A first edition, first printing of this Nonesuch Press edition of the Complete Works of Lewis Carroll, with many beautiful illustrations by John Tenniel within the text, and in very nice collectable condition. A great edition for the Carroll enthusiast being a collection of all his published literary works, including the Verses and Puzzles. ***For all our books, postage is charged at cost, allowing for packaging: any shipping rates indicated on ABE are an average only: we will reduce the P & P charge where appropriate - please contact us for postal rates for heavier books and sets etc. …