Boston: Lee and Shepard, 1869. 8vo. (12), 192 pp. Illustrated with a wood-engraved frontispiece and 41 vignette illustrations. Original pebbled purple cloth, stamped in gilt, spine faded; all edges gilt; dark brown endpapers.

A near-fine copy in original purple cloth of the first edition printed in America of one of the greatest children's books of all time.

This is the first authorized American edition of Dodgson's classic. The first edition was printed in an edition of 2,000 copies by the Clarendon Press in 1865, but the illustrator John Tenniel was unhappy with the quality of the printing of the illustrations and the whole edition was recalled, accounting for its great rarity. A second edition was then printed by a different printer with a title page dated 1866, and this became the first published edition in England.

Concurrently, an offer was made from America to buy the sheets of the remaining copies of the first edition. Neither Dodgson nor Tenniel were concerned about the American distribution and agreed to the deal, sending enough sheets of the recalled first edition for 1,952 copies to be issued by Appleton's, with a substitute title-page dated New York, 1866 (see lot 54). The copy here is often considered the first authorized edition printed in the United States.