'What is the use of a book," thought Alice, "without pictures or conversations?" — Lewis Carroll

FroM: Collectors Quest

"In 1865, Reverend Charles Lutwidge Dodgson—better known by his nom de plume, Lewis Carroll—delighted readers with the topsy-turvy world of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. A first edition of this fantastical classic, one of 23 surviving copies, sits on the Newberry shelves. Why is this particular edition so rare? Because, and much to its illustrator’s chagrin, it is littered with unintended content. It contains 42 off-color drawings by Sir John Tenniel. Nearly 2,000 copies of the novel had been printed, and about 50 had been bound, when Tenniel objected to the quality of images. He instructed the publisher—Macmillan, working out of the Oxford University Press—to destroy the substandard copies.  

     Instead, they sold the prints to a U.S. publisher, Appleton, who bound and placed them in American bookshops."
— The Newberry Library Read more…

"Book aficionados are familiar with the recalled first printing of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, which occurred in 1865. Records state that after 2000 copies were printed by Macmillan at the Oxford University Press in the UK, illustrator John Tenniel decided that he was unhappy with how his drawings were reproduced, and all of these were recalled. While no one is certain how many copies actually made it out into the world, the number is generally believed to be in the single digits. So, despite what is regarded as inferior printing quality, this first 1865 edition ‘Alice’ has some fairly gargantuan asking prices. This copy on AbeBooks has an asking price that looks like someone just repeatedly punched the keyboard or asked their kid for the biggest number they could think of : $173,589.63.
     Keep in mind that this is for a copy with a torn page, stains and a loose spine."
— Colin David, Collectors Quest
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UPPER HAND; lower hand

A sample of Lewis Carroll's handwriting
(from: Wikimedia Commons)

"Like millions of other people who have spent the better part of the past decade tapping at a keyboard, swiping various screens, and staring into a monitor of one kind or another, my handwriting has slowly mutated into a vaguely familiar assemblage of sticks and circles that, on a good day, might be able to pass for a third grader's. And cursive? You'd be better off asking me to blindly draw a series of puzzling loops, not unlike the John Hancock of a certain Treasury secretary nominee. 'Let's face it: Cultivating fine handwriting is now an indulgence, a hobby for the minded, like knitting, or decoupage,' argues Julia Turner at Slate. 'Our children must learn to write in school — but they probably don't need to write that well.'

     There's evidence, however, that writing the old-fashioned way is really good for us. Here, in no particular order, are four ways handwriting is still helpful:"
— Chris Gayomali, The Week
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DIY or die...

Linotype "hot-press" metal cast printer (from: Brian Azevedo)

"The story of self-publishing is Jan Strnad, a 62-year-old educator hoping to retire in four years. To do so is going to require supplemental income, which he is currently earning from his self-published novels. In 2012, Jan made $11,406.31 from his work. That’s more than double what he made from the same book in the six months it was available from Kensington, a major publisher. He has since released a second work and now makes around $2,000 a month, even though you’ve never heard of him.

     Rachel Schurig has sold 100,000 e-books and made six figures last year. She is the story of self-publishing. Rick Gualtieri cleared over $25,000 in 2012 from his writing. He says it’s like getting a Christmas bonus every month. Amanda Brice is an intellectual property attorney for the federal government. In her spare time, she writes teen mysteries and adult romantic comedies. She averages $750 a month with her work.
     […] Of course, you’ll see articles lamenting the paucity of sales most self-published books enjoy, but there’s a problem with comparing average self-published sales with traditionally published books. In self-publishing, the slush pile is made available to readers. These comparisons between the two paths take the tip of one iceberg (the books that made it through the gauntlet and into bookstores) with an entire iceberg (all self-published books). It’s not a fair comparison."
— Hugh Howey, Salon
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"Self-publishing is the literary world’s version of masturbation, except the results are quite often less thrilling, and you usually end up with a mess. However, despite its reputation for producing amateur dreck or your crazy uncle’s genealogical findings, self-publishing has a long history that includes such luminaries as Marcel Proust and Lewis Carroll. As of late, the practice has been supercharged thanks to the Internet, which enables the production and promotion of a book by almost anyone. Since 2006, the number of self-published books, print and electronic, is up 287 percent – that’s more than 235,000 titles, according to Bowker, the company that handles ISBN numbers. In 2011 alone, nearly 150,000 print books were self-published."
— John Winters, Salon
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Illuminated

Source image from: oilpaintingsframes.com

"It’s curious how much of literature we are conditioned to consider unliterary. Few would contest the canonization of Bleak House, Vanity Fair, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, but these classics have something in common we may be prone to disregard: each was published with profuse illustrations, and in each case the author relied on the artwork not only to enhance the aesthetic appeal of the book but to add meaningfully to the story. […]

     I suspect that most fiction writers would instinctively agree that interacting with visual representations of a book in draft can help give shape to evanescent impressions or inspire new ideas. (In the most famous instance, F. Scott Fitzgerald 'wrote in' the image of T. J. Eckleburg’s haunting optometry billboard after seeing Francis Cugat’s dust-jacket design for The Great Gatsby) […]

Then there is the future of digital readers, which erode that largely theoretical firewall writers have installed to keep their work from the corrupting influence of film. E-readers allow you to read text, look at pictures, and watch videos on the same device; already, 'transmedia' books such as 2012’s The Silent History have appeared that combine all three elements into the reading experience. (E-readers will also relieve the strain of printing costs, one of the factors that have led publishing houses to discourage illustrations.)"
— Sam Sacks, The New Yorker
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"Is that a broomstick between your legs — or just a flamingo?"

"Alice trying to play croquet with a flamingo" from Lewis Carroll's
 Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865) original illustration:
John Tenniel  (from: Wikimedia Commons)

"Huddled together in the chill January wind, the players listened as a PPE fresher in a black cape read the rules of the game: a Quaffle through a hoop would score 10 points, capturing the Snitch would yield a bountiful 30, and under no circumstances was there to be any 'grabbing of broomsticks.' With that, they were off: two teams, with seven players each, racing round a playing field and trying to shoot a basketball through hula-hoops. [...]
     Known as Muggle Quidditch to those for whom JK Rowling's lexicon is as familiar as any entry in the dictionary, the game was adapted for non-wizards around seven years ago in the US, where it has since caught on and become a familiar pastime for students at some of the country's best-known institutions, including Yale, Harvard and Tufts (Wipfler's college). Instead of flying, players run with broomsticks between their legs, and instead of a golden ball with wings attached, the Snitch is a person dressed in yellow. Although tackling is frequent and being hit by a volleyball, or 'bludger,' is likely, the 'spirit of Quidditch' is encouraged. As one player for the University college team put it: 'If you're massive and there's a little person, don't run into them.'
— Lizzie Davies, The Guardian
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For a list of games found in works of fiction, go here...

Buy books by Lewis Carroll and
J. K. Rowling here...