Sir John Tenniel: Alice’s White Knight
Literary Criticism Biography Art History Victorian Studies Illustration & Graphic Arts Collectibles & Antiques Alice in Wonderland Studies
First-edition copies of Rodney Engen’s “Sir John Tenniel: Alice’s White Knight” (Lund Humphries, 1991) have become the holy-grail reference for collectors of Alice in Wonderland art and Victorian illustration. This 234-page hardback is the only full-scale biography ever devoted to Tenniel, the taciturn Punch cartoonist whose 92 drawings for Lewis Carroll created the visual DNA of Wonderland. Because later printings omitted the original dust-jacket artwork and substituted cheaper paper, a clean first-issue like this—complete with its unclipped jacket—already outnumbers signed copies of Alice itself on the market, making it both scarce and investment-grade.
Inside, Engen had unprecedented access to Tenniel’s family papers, the Punch archives, and the original woodblocks, so the book doubles as a high-resolution gallery: many of the 150+ illustrations are reproduced from the artist’s own proofs, showing deleted details that never reached the published books. Readers discover how Tenniel’s political cartoons for Punch shaped the Mad Hatter and why the White Knight is a self-portrait of the aging illustrator. The oversized 10” × 7.6” format and heavy matte stock showcase the subtle tonal work that gets lost in modern reprints, while Engen’s narrative keeps the pace lively for both scholars and curious Alice fans.
For collectors, the copy on offer is the desirable first impression—no ex-library markings, no inscriptions, just crisp, unmarked pages and a bright dust jacket with only minor shelf scuffing. At 28 oz and nearly an inch thick, it feels as substantial as the classic volumes it celebrates, yet remains the definitive gateway reference for anyone building a Wonderland, Victorian satire, or Golden-Age illustration library.
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