Inspired by a performance of scenes from Alice in Wonderland performed in Japan by a cast of English-speaking children in 1890, New York socialite Emily Prime Delafield (1840-1909) wrote her own dramatized version of Alice. It was originally performed at the Waldorf Hotel in March 1897 as a benefit for the Society of Decorative Arts, an organization devoted to artistic training and for the exhibition and sale of artwork created by women.
Published by Dodd, Mead & Co. in 1898, this book is a high-end production; it was printed at Boston’s Merrymount Press under the leadership of renowned typographer Daniel Berkeley Updike (1860-1941). This evocative wood block cover illustration was designed by Bertram Goodhue (1869-1924); he became a prominent architect who later formed a business partnership with Ralph Adams Cram.
~ Laura Wasowicz, Curator of Children’s Literature
