First Publication of the Diaries of Lewis Carroll: the Editor's Manuscript
Editor's Holograph Manuscript of THE DIARIES OF LEWIS CARROLL, NOW FIRST EDITED AND SUPPLEMENTED by ROGER LANCELYN GREEN. Vol. I: 1855-67 Vol. II: 1867-98.
Poulton-Lancelyn, Bebington, Wirral: 1951-1952; published by Cassel, 1953.
Price: $16,000.00
About the item
354 leaves, foliated [1-3], i-vi, 1-181, [1]; [1]-163. With numerous corrections, and occasional notes on rectos and margins. 1 vols. 4to. First Publication of the Diaries of Lewis Carroll: the Editor's Manuscript. Some minor wear at edges, and slight occasional soiling, but overall very good, and an impressively preserved manuscript in its entirety. Custom morocco-backed slipcase and chemise.
Item #222605
Before the publication of this work, the Diaries of Lewis Carroll had been largely unavailable after their temporary disappearance following the publication of Collingwood's THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF LEWIS CARROLL in 1898. When, at last, all but 4 (which were lost) of the original 13 volumes reappeared in a cellar, Dodgson's nieces and Executors of the estate commissioned Green to undertake the editing and publication of their uncle's diaries.
Green's book was the first publication of the diaries, and, until recently, it was all that has been available to scholars who were unable to consult the original manuscript (now in the British Library). Even though Green and the family made some deliberate omissions, it is the first major transcription of Lewis Carroll's famous Diaries to appear in print. As Green noted, "The fact that the Diaries have been inaccessible for the general critic, biographer and research student has led to the suggestion that they contain information about Lewis Carroll which his pious relations wish to keep from the world. That rumour can be now set at rest once and for all: they contain nothing whatsoever about Lewis Carroll that the world at large could not read." Green describes the editorial process and remarks "Thus family troubles were, naturally, entered into the Diaries, and family feeling has as naturally wished to keep those personal matters private."
The manuscript, closely written in Green's clear hand, contains numerous interesting notes and directions to the printer/ publisher which are not included in the published version, as for example this note on a separate leaf, dated Sept. 1951, at the end of Volume I:
"NOTE TO PUBLISHER. The next section of the Diary, from July 12 to Sept 13, 1867, was sold to Mr. M.L. Parish [sic] of Pine Valley, New Jersey, and privately printed for him in an edition of sixty-six copies with the title TOUR IN 1867 BY C.L. DODGSON. It was published in 1935 ... [as part of] THE RUSSIAN JOURNAL AND OTHER SELECTIONS ... by E.P. Dutton and Co. New York. If desired, this can be included in the present book as Chapter VIII of Volume One ... it is felt by the Editor and Miss Dodgson that the decision whether to include this extra material must be left to the Publisher. R.L.G. Sept: 1951"
