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Cassady Lewis Carroll Collection

About this Collection

The Cassady Lewis Carroll Collection consists of publications, correspondence, and other materials by and related to Lewis Carroll and come from the Cassady (G. Edward, M.D. and Margaret Elizabeth, R.N.) Lewis Carroll collection. The collection continues to grow as Dr. Cassady donates additional material.

San Francisco pediatrician George Cassady loved the Alice in Wonderland books so much that he read them to his sons at bedtime and incorporated Alice quotes into his lectures at medical conferences. In 2000, he gave his extensive collection of vintage books and spin-off items to his alma mater, USC, and funded the creation of an Alice symposium with the Huntington Library in 2006 with a promise to keep adding to the book collection. The collection currently contains almost 1,700 titles, including first editions of the 1865-66 Alice's Adventures and its sequel Through the Looking Glass. In addition to these and a facsimile of Carroll's manuscript, there are foreign language and illustrated editions of the Alice books. Illustrated editions include works with 19th century black and white etchings and 20th century illustrations inspired by animation techniques. Stage adaptations, film versions, Victorian-era playing cards and pop-up books for the very young are included in the collection. Some illustrators are famous in their own right, like Salvador Dali, Barry Moser and Ralph Steadman. Critical works on Lewis Carroll are included, as well as collector’s editions of Carroll’s other books. A portion of the Lewis Carroll Collection is housed in the Horton Reading Room, Room 209, Doheny Memorial Library.

View this collection on the contributor's website.

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