Tenniel's Version

By the end of 1863, the Rev. Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (under the pen name Lewis Carroll) had found a publisher for his “Alice’s Adventures Under Ground” manuscript, the London firm of Macmillan. He now set about revising and preparing the text.

The illustrations caused him considerable anguish. With publication in mind, he set out to find a professional illustrator and was introduced to John Tenniel. (In September 1864, Dodgson did complete a set of his own illustrations for the manuscript that he had written for Alice Liddell as a Christmas gift, but these were not published until 1886.)

Tenniel agreed in April to illustrate the book. Dodgson now rewrote and expanded the story (from 12,715 words to 26,211 words), adding such memorable scenes as The Mad Tea Party and Alice’s encounter with the Cheshire Cat. The title also changed permanently to Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.

Tenniel relied on his excellent memory and an excellent imagination to create his images. He did not draw from life. Carroll wrote that:

 Mr. Tenniel has resolutely refused to use a model and declared that he no more needed one than I should need a multiplication table to work out a mathematical problem.

 Each Alice illustration is signed Tenniel and Dalziel; George and Edward Dalziel were the leading commercial wood engravers. Their task was to cut away the part of the design to appear white on the page. When this was done, the block was inked and a proof print taken.

The first book was published by Macmillan in 1865 with black-and-white illustrations by Tenniel and they have become an inseparable part of the book.

Forty-six years later, Macmillan commissioned Victorian artist Harry G. Theaker (1873-1954) to create eight colour plates from Tenniel’s black-and-white line drawings. These were first published in 1911, three years before Tenniel’s death. These were the pictures that established the familiar image of Alice in her lilac dress and striped stockings.

In 1995, Macmillan had another artist, Diz Wallis, colour all the illustrations to create the first full-length, full-colour version of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland with Tenniel’s drawings. In both instances, the artist’s coloured proofs were taken from Tenniel’s original wood blocks, so their colouring remains faithful to Tenniel’s original drawings.

His legacy lives on.