Illustration by Dutch artist, Henriette Willebeek Le Mair ,"Miss Waterlow to Bed" from "A Gallery of Chidlren", by A.A. Milne, pulished in 1925 {source}
by Lewis Carroll
A Mother's breast: Safe refuge from her childish fears, From childish troubles, childish tears, Mists that enshroud her dawning years! see how in sleep she seems to sing A voiceless psalm—an offering Raised, to the glory of her King In Love: for Love is Rest. A Darling's kiss: Dearest of all the signs that fleet From lips that lovingly repeat Again, again, the message sweet! Full to the brim with girlish glee, A child, a very child is she, Whose dream of heaven is still to be At Home: for Home is Bliss.
"A Nursery Darling" is a poem Carroll composed for the picture book version of the Alice in Wonderland stories, The Nursery Alice, first published in 1890 (I just ordered two copies from Amazon - one for my son, an avid fan of Alice and Lewis Carroll, and one for my new grandson's library.) From Michael Everson's introduction:
Lewis Carroll published "Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland" in 1865 and "Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There" in 1872. In the entry in his diary for 15 February 1881 he records: “I wrote to Macmillan to suggest a new idea: a ‘Nursery Edition’ of Alice with pictures printed in.” On 20th February 1889, some eight years later, after much preparation and negotiation with both publisher and illustrator, the text was at last ready. The illustrator was John Tenniel, who coloured twenty of his original illustrations in “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” for this “Nursery Edition”.
The Nursery Alice original cover
The story itself is intended for pre-school children “aged from Nought to Five”. Running to just under 7,000 words, it is considerably shorter than both "Alice’s Adventures under Ground" (15,500 words) and "Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland" (27,500 words). Much of the narrative consists of the author’s addressing the young listener, explaining the story by reference to the illustrations. The effect is rather charming, particularly where Carroll pokes fun at features in Tenniel’s illustrations. These were quite skilfully and attractively coloured. Interestingly, Tenniel coloured Alice’s dress yellow with a blue trim and white apron, whereas nowadays most artists colour the dress in blue and white only. (In Nick Willing’s 1999 film Alice in Wonderland, Tina Majorino’s Alice wore a yellow dress.)
In order to produce this volume, the original edition was scanned; the paper, being more than 120 years old, has darkened somewhat. The images have not been doctored, however, except that the border surrounding the illustrations has been removed. This edition also contains Carroll’s introductory poem “A Nursery Darling”, his 1890 Preface, and, as appendices, his “Easter Greetings” and “Christmas Greetings” to children. These were also published in the 1868 printed edition of Alice’s Adventures under Ground.
If you read my February 2nd post last year, you may remember that hedgehogs have everything to do with what we Americans call "Groundhog Day" and the simultaneously occurring Christian celebration of "Candlemas" (last year's post is HERE).
Paper sculpture by Canadian artist, Calvin Nicholls [photo source here]
This year, I thought it would be fun to remind you of some famous literary hedgehogs. As you will see, they show up quite often in British children's literature...
Hedgehogs were an intricate part of Alice's game of croquet: "Get to your places!" shouted the Queen in a voice of thunder... and the game began. Alice thought she had never seen such a curious croquet-ground in her life; it was all ridges and furrows; the balls were live hedgehogs, the mallets live flamingoes, and the soldiers had to double themselves up and to stand on their hands and feet, to make the arches.
illustration by Sir John Tenniel from Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865)
The chief difficulty Alice found at first was in managing her flamingo: she succeeded in getting its body tucked away, comfortably enough, under her arm, with its legs hanging down, but generally, just as she had got its neck nicely straightened out, and was going to give the hedgehog a blow with its head, it would twist itself round and look up in her face, with such a puzzled expression that she could not help bursting out laughing: and when she had got its head down, and was going to begin again, it was very provoking to find that the hedgehog had unrolled itself, and was in the act of crawling away: besides all this, there was generally a ridge or furrow in the way wherever she wanted to send the hedgehog to, and, as the doubled-up soldiers were always getting up and walking off to other parts of the ground, Alice soon came to the conclusion that it was a very difficult game indeed.
American author/artist Jan Brett's Picture Books: Have you noticed who's wearing The Hat? Hedgie also shows up in Jan's books The Mitten, and Hedgie's Surprise. Her website has some easy instructions on "How to Draw a Hedgehog".
Hedgehogs often show up in the Redwall Series by Brian Jacques: These prickly beasts come from all walks of life, from warriors to cooks to riverbeasts. They are typically easy-going and friendly, though a few have been known to become eccentric or insane in old age. Many Hedgehogs come from a clan or tribe, such as the Dillypins or Waterhogs, and it is traditional (though not exclusive) for the cellarkeeper of Redwall Abbey to be a hedgehog. [source: Redwall Wiki]
Note: British author Brian Jacques died last year on February 5th. His wonderful series was a family favorite. To read my short tribute, click here.
Hedgehogs can do laundry. Well, at least Beatrix Potter's "Mrs. Tiggywinkle" could. (She is probably my favorite hedgehog.)
Water Color Artist, Valerie Greeley... I'll leave you with this cute little hedgehog, by Valerie Greeley. You can buy the print here from her Etsy shop, Acornmoon. The print is a reproduction of a water color illustration from her children's book, Down the Lane. Another picture book by Valerie featuring hedgehogs is Field Animals. (Both books - though currently out of print - are available on Amazon.)
I’ve been invited by the amazing Pandora Poikilos to post on “The Book that Most Inspired Me” Blog-A-Licious Blog Tour. Join us in the hop that connects bloggers of all genres, backgrounds and locations and share with us all the book that inspires you the most too! For me, without a doubt it is Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.
One Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, aka Lewis Carroll, born in England in 1842, wrote a book for Alice Liddell, the daughter of the head of Christ Church. He'd often told her the story of the girl plunging down the rabbit hole, and she asked him to please, please, please write it down for her.
Who can forget his spectacular characters: the Mad Hatter, the Red Queen, the March Hare, the Rock Lobster, the Caterpillar with his hookah and the sleepy dormouse? Alice’s entry into the eensy, weensy door that gained her entry into a magical world inspired not only my imagination, but seemingly many authors who designed similar magic portals in their novels: the wardrobe of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, The Magic Treehouse series, and the list goes on. Who can forget Carroll's wondrous inventions such as the “Drink Me” bottle, or events like the Mad Tea Party, where the guests simply moved ‘round the table when their teacups became dirty?
“A bright idea came into Alice's head. `Is that the reason so many tea-things are put out here?' she asked.
`Yes, that's it,' said the Hatter with a sigh: `it's always tea-time, and we've no time to wash the things between whiles.'
`Then you keep moving round, I suppose?' said Alice.
`Exactly so,' said the Hatter: `as the things get used up.'
`But what happens when you come to the beginning again?' Alice ventured to ask.
`Suppose we change the subject!' the March Hare interrupted.”
And who can forget the Gryphon teaching Alice the lines,
“'Tis the voice of the Lobster; I heard him declare,
You have baked me too brown, I must sugar my hair."
As a duck with its eyelids, so he with his nose, trims his belt and his buttons, and turns out his toes.”
Even the great Russian novelist, Nabokov was inspired by the wordplay and logic games of Carroll. Read Nabokov’s Pale Fire and this is quite evident. It is is a fictional 99-line poem being edited and critiqued by an ineffectual, pompous fictional editor. Nabokov's abundance of wordplay and hilarious absurdity is an obvious mirror to Carroll’s work.
The “curiouser and curiouser” Lewis Carroll also gave me the
courage to know that I could do two things at once:
be a serious visual artist and author. The man was
multitalented. Not only the author of brilliant children’s
literature, he was a math professor at Oxford, an author of logic
and math textbooks as well as political essays. He was
also a respected photographer. He even coined
words. Chortle, a nonsense word in his poem Jabberwocky,
which was a combination of snort and chuckle, eventually
made it into the dictionary! He even drew the original
illustrations, which one can see at the
British Museum (see image above).
Whenever and whatever I write, I think of Lewis Carroll;
his unbounded imagination and his joy in playing with
