The one who wrote Coraline, and co-wrote the book of Good Omens and made the TV show, also the Sandman comics writer and co-creator who made the Sandman TV show. Quite nice really.
I’m trying to understand the Thomas Y Crowell US editions of Alice in Wonderland/Through the Looking Glass from the 1890s. Jesse Bridgman illustrated them, imitating Tenniel and often copying Tenniel illustrations. Are they pirate editions or legitimate editions published with Carroll’s permission? Or a US/UK copyright grey area? The books would still have been in copyright in the UK (under the 1842 Copyright Act, they’d have been in copyright for 42 years). Crowell were a legit publisher (now part of Harper Collins) but I can’t imagine Carroll or Tenniel authorising this. Someone out there must have insight or knowledge… (And they were filed by Crowell with the Library of Congress for copyright purposes.)
(All Bridgman illustrations except the last one, which is the original Tenniel that Bridgman was copying.)
My guess would be the kind of US/UK copyright oddnesses that meant that Gilbert and Sullivan had to mount special productions of their plays to keep the US copyright.
Curiouser and Curiouser… Looking at the Crowell editions (I own one, and one is digitised on the library of congress site) I realised that about half the illustrations are stolen Tenniel illustrations.
I’ve also learned that the 1893 Crowell frontispieces (which don’t look much like Bridgman art to me) were the first time Alice was depicted as wearing her now iconic and pretty much universal blue dress (as opposed to the red or yellow dresses she wore in the UK).
Alice in Wonderland was written by English author Charles Lutwidge Dodgson under the pseudonym of Lewis Carroll. It was first published in 1865 and has been illustrated by many different artists. The most famous artist to lend his talents was that of Salvador Dalí.
He completed a total of thirteen illustrations, one for each chapter of the book, and one original signed etching in 4 colors as the frontpiece. This edition was published by New York’s Maecenas Press-Random House in 1969 and distributed as their book of the month. The volume went on to become one of the most sought after Dalí suites of all time.
