wonderland circa 1903

The first-ever film version of Lewis Carroll's tale has recently been restored by the BFI National Archive from severely damaged materials. Made just 37 years after Lewis Carroll wrote his novel and eight years after the birth of cinema, the adaptation was directed by Cecil Hepworth and Percy Stow, and was based on Sir John Tenniel's original illustrations. In an act that was to echo more than 100 years later, Hepworth cast his wife as the Red Queen, and he himself appears as the Frog Footman. Even the Cheshire cat is played by a family pet.

With a running time of just 12 minutes (8 of which survive), Alice in Wonderland was the longest film produced in England at that time. Film archivists have been able to restore the film's original colours for the first time in over 100 years.

this weekend

Fun + games.

• Decasia
• a lover's quarrel with the world
• other bodies
• William Lehmbruck
• hot chocolate

And in other places, a tip for leading a charmed life. Happy weekend.

Fair Rosamund: photo of Annie Rogers (as Queen Eleanor) and Mary Jackson (as Fair Rosamund) by Charles Dodgson, a.k.a. Lewis Carroll.

much of a muchness

From the Billy Rose Theater Collection in the NYPL Digital Archive.

pool of tears

'I wish I hadn't cried so much!' said Alice, as she swam about, trying to find her way out. 'I shall be punished for it, now, I suppose, by being drowned in my own tears! That will be a queer thing, to be sure! However, everything is queer to-day.'

Kiki Smith: Pool of Tears 2 (After Lewis Carroll), 2000.

the original alice

Alice Pleasance Liddell, the original Alice, photographed by Charles Dodgson, a.k.a. Lewis Carroll.

1. In 1860.
2. Dressed as a beggar-maid from the story of Cophetua, 1858.
3. In 1859.
4. With her sisters, Edith and Lorina, 1859.
5. In spring, 1860.

in case you are interested

*
Open to all comers. March's book will be Cosmicomics. Meetings are always on the second Monday of the month at 7:00.

White rabbit found here.

“What a useful thing a pocket-map is!” I remarked.

“That’s another thing we’ve learned from your Nation,” said Mein Herr, “map-making. But we’ve carried it much further than you. What do you consider the largest map that would be really useful?”

“About six inches to the mile.”

“Only six inches!” exclaimed Mein Herr. “We very soon got to six yards to the mile. Then we tried a hundred yards to the mile. And then came the grandest idea of all! We actually made a map of the country, on the scale of a mile to the mile!”

“Have you used it much?” I enquired.

“It has never been spread out, yet,” said Mein Herr: “the farmers objected: they said it would cover the whole country, and shut out the sunlight! So we now use the country itself, as its own map, and I assure you it does nearly as well ..."

Lewis Carroll, Bruno and Sylvie Concluded