Beschreibung:

DODGSON, CHARLES LUTWIDGE ("Lewis Carroll"). Autograph letter signed ("C.L. Dodgson") to Mrs. Charles Henry Olive Daniel (wife of the proprietor of the Daniel Press), Christ Church, Oxford, 11 March 1895. 3 pages, oblong 8vo, in gray-black ink on two sheets, slight fold creases , but in very good condition. REGARDING A PERFORMANCE OF A DRAMATIZED "ALICE IN WONDERLAND" "...As to your wish that I should give my 'approval' of your performance of a dramatized 'Alice,' for the benefit of the S. Thomas Schools [the parish schools of St. Thomas the Martyr, Oxford, under the patronage of Christ Church], well, you certainly put me rather into a 'fix' there, as the Americans would say. I had better tell you exactly how the matter stands. Long ago I made up my mind that I do not approve of that mode of getting money for charitable objects (I mean, by 'that mode,' the getting people to give to the object by offering them some advantage for themselves): and I have again & again declined to let it be said that 'it is done with the sanction of Mr. L.C.' [Lewis Carroll]. So I hope you will not be hurt at my doing so in this case. At the same time, I don't in the least want to prevent your doing as you think right, in the way of giving this entertainment: all I ask is, that it shall not be announced as done with my approval. I have 3 dramatized versions of 'Alice in Wonderland' -- one by Mr. Savile Clark, one by Mrs. Freiligrath-Kroeker, & one by Mrs. Burton Harrison. Would you like to see any of them...?" In the beginning of the letter Dodgson thanks the Daniels "for your kind gift of the 1st No. of the New Series of 'Oxford Memories' [issued by the Daniel Press in two numbers in 1895]. The 1st Vol. I have had whole-bound in morocco, as the only covering worthy to enclose so unique a treasure." (In 1881 Dodgson had contributed to the Daniel Press The Garland of Rachel , issued to commemorate the Daniels' daughter Rachel's first birthday.) About a third of the letter is published (from previous dealer and auction catalogue descriptions) in Letters , ed. M.N. Cohen & R.L. Green, pp. 1055-1056. See Letters , p. 1055, footnote 2, for accounts of a performance of Alice in Wonderland in June 1895 in Worcester College Gardens, Oxford, with Rachel Daniel as Alice: "'Permission had been sought and was given by the author [Dodgson]...Though he appeared to take no interest in the...production, he was sometimes seen shuffling about the rhododendrons during researsals...'"