59 Fun Facts About Alice in Wonderland

In what year was Alice's Adventures in Wonderland first published?

Macmillan published Alice's Adventures in Wonderland in 1865; the first print run of 2,000 was withdrawn in July and a reprinted edition reached shops in November.

What was Lewis Carroll's real name?

Charles Lutwidge Dodgson made 'Lewis Carroll' by Latinising his first two names to Carolus Ludovicus, anglicising them and swapping the order.

On what date did the famous 'golden afternoon' boat trip take place, when the story was first told?

On 4 July 1862 Carroll rowed the three Liddell sisters from Folly Bridge up the Thames to Godstow for a picnic, improvising the tale on the way.

How old was Alice Liddell on the boat trip where she first heard the story?

Alice Liddell, born 4 May 1852, was 10; her sisters Lorina and Edith were 13 and 8, and Alice asked Carroll to write the story down.

What was the title of the handwritten manuscript Carroll gave the Liddell girl in 1864?

Alice's Adventures Under Ground, which Carroll illustrated himself, was given to Alice on 26 November 1864, dedicated 'A Christmas Gift to a Dear Child in Memory of a Summer's Day'.

Who drew the 42 illustrations in the original edition?

John Tenniel, chief cartoonist for Punch, drew the 42 illustrations, engraved on wood by the Dalziel brothers; he went on to illustrate the sequel, Through the Looking-Glass, as well.

What is the White Rabbit carrying when Alice first spots him?

The White Rabbit pulls a pocket watch from his waistcoat and mutters that he is late; in the Disney film he gets the song 'I'm Late' about it.

What is written on the bottle Alice finds after falling down the rabbit hole?

The 'Drink me' bottle shrinks Alice to ten inches high, while a cake labelled 'Eat me' does the opposite, growing her to a tremendous size.

What is the Caterpillar doing when Alice meets him?

Alice finds the Caterpillar sitting on a mushroom smoking a long hookah; he tells her one side of the mushroom will make her grow and the other shrink.

Whose baby turns into a piglet in Alice's arms?

The Duchess tosses her baby to Alice; it turns into a pig, and Alice lets it trot off, reasoning it would have made a dreadfully ugly child but a rather handsome pig.

What does the Cheshire Cat leave behind when it disappears?

The phrase 'grinning like a Cheshire cat' predates the book, and one theory ties it to Cheshire cheese moulded in the shape of a smiling cat.

Which three characters are at the tea party when Alice arrives?

The Hatter, the March Hare and the Dormouse are stuck at a perpetual six o'clock tea, so they keep shifting round the table as the dishes get used up.

What is the Hatter's unanswerable riddle?

'Why is a raven like a writing desk?' was meant to have no answer, though Carroll's 1896 preface offered one: it can produce a few notes, though they are very flat.

What price tag does the Hatter wear in his hat in the Tenniel illustrations?

That is ten shillings and sixpence. Carroll never actually calls him the 'Mad' Hatter in the text.

What is the likely origin of the phrase 'mad as a hatter'?

Mercury was used to make felt hats, and hat making was the main trade in Stockport near where Carroll grew up.

What are the 'balls' in the Queen's croquet game?

Live hedgehogs are the balls, flamingos serve as mallets and the card soldiers bend over to make the hoops, so the hedgehogs keep crawling away.

What crime is the Knave of Hearts accused of at the trial?

The Knave is tried for stealing the Queen's tarts, following the old nursery rhyme; Alice's outburst that they are 'nothing but a pack of cards' ends the dream.

Why are the gardeners painting the roses red?

The Queen of Hearts hates white roses, so the cards are frantically fixing their error before she arrives.

What do the Gryphon and Mock Turtle dance for Alice?

The Lobster Quadrille is a seaside dance with lobsters as partners; the Gryphon and Mock Turtle solemnly dance it round Alice while singing 'Will you walk a little faster'.

What is the Mock Turtle's 'Turtle Soup' a parody of?

The original was 'Star of the Evening, Beautiful Star'; Carroll built the book from private jokes for the family.

Which character in the Caucus-Race is a caricature of Carroll himself?

The Dodo is Carroll himself: he had a stammer and reputedly introduced himself as 'Do-do-Dodgson'; the Lory and the Eaglet stand for Lorina and Edith Liddell.

What are the names of the three sisters in the Dormouse's story?

They are the three Liddell girls in disguise: Elsie for L.C. (Lorina Charlotte), Lacie is an anagram of Alice, and Tillie was Edith's family nickname.

Alice's recitation 'How doth the little crocodile' parodies which poem?

'How doth the little crocodile' parodies Isaac Watts's moralising 'Against Idleness and Mischief' (1715), which begins 'How doth the little busy bee improve each shining hour'.

Which British Prime Minister may be the inspiration for Bill the Lizard's name?

Tenniel drew several Looking-Glass characters to resemble Disraeli too, including the 'Man in White Paper' on the train.

How much did Carroll's own copy of the 1865 first edition sell for at auction in 1998?

Carroll's own copy of the withdrawn 1865 printing sold at Christie's New York for $1.54 million in December 1998, a record then for a children's book; about 22 copies of that printing survive.

In what year was the sequel, Through the Looking-Glass, published?

Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There was published by Macmillan in December 1871, though its title page is dated 1872.

What game provides the structure of Through the Looking-Glass?

The book is structured as a chess game: Alice starts as a white pawn, and the Red Queen tells her she can become a queen by reaching the eighth square.

How can Alice read the poem 'Jabberwocky' when she first finds it?

Everything on the other side of the glass is reversed, including the printing in the books.

Which character explains the nonsense words of 'Jabberwocky' to Alice?

Humpty Dumpty glosses the first verse for Alice, calling words like 'slithy' portmanteaus with 'two meanings packed up into one word', a term that stuck.

What kind of sword slays the Jabberwock in the poem?

'And through and through the vorpal blade went snicker-snack!' The Bandersnatch is the frumious one.

Which pair of characters recite 'The Walrus and the Carpenter' to Alice?

Tweedledum and Tweedledee recite the poem; in Disney's 1951 film J. Pat O'Malley voiced both twins as well as the Walrus and the Carpenter.

What is unusual about the White Queen's memory in Through the Looking-Glass?

The White Queen remembers things before they happen — 'That's the effect of living backwards,' she explains — and screams before she pricks her finger on her brooch.

What was 'The Wasp in a Wig'?

Tenniel told Carroll a wasp in a wig was 'altogether beyond the appliances of art', and the roughly 1,400 words were dropped.

How old does Alice say she is in Through the Looking-Glass?

That matched Alice Liddell's age on 4 November, her 'half-birthday', when the story is set.

What was Carroll's day job at Christ Church, Oxford?

Dodgson was Mathematical Lecturer at Christ Church from 1855 to 1881; scholar Melanie Bayley argues Wonderland partly satirises the abstract new mathematics of the mid-1800s.

Alice Liddell's father Henry held what position at Oxford?

Henry Liddell was Dean of Christ Church from 1855 to 1891 and co-author of the Liddell and Scott Greek-English Lexicon; Carroll watched the children in the deanery garden from the library window.

Where was Charles Dodgson born in 1832?

Dodgson was born at the parsonage in Daresbury, Cheshire, where his father was curate; All Saints' Church there has a memorial window of Wonderland characters, unveiled in the 1930s.

Whom did Alice Liddell marry in 1880?

Alice married Reginald Hargreaves, a Hampshire cricketer and landowner, at Westminster Abbey in September 1880; two of their three sons were killed in the First World War.

Who voiced Alice in Disney's 1951 animated film?

Kathryn Beaumont, a British-born child actress, voiced Alice and also served as the live-action reference model; she went on to voice Wendy in Peter Pan (1953).

Which comedian voiced the Mad Hatter in Disney's 1951 film?

Ed Wynn, the vaudeville comic known as 'The Perfect Fool', voiced the Mad Hatter; Jerry Colonna was the March Hare.

What celebration is under way at the tea party in the Disney film?

The Hatter and March Hare are celebrating an unbirthday — everyone has 364 a year — in 'The Unbirthday Song'; the term comes from Humpty Dumpty in Through the Looking-Glass.

How did Disney's 1951 Alice in Wonderland do at the box office on first release?

On first release in 1951 it was considered a failure, taking about $2.4 million against a $3 million budget and drawing mixed reviews; 1970s re-releases rebuilt its reputation.

Which silent-film star pitched Walt Disney a live-action-plus-animation Alice in 1933?

Mary Pickford proposed starring as a live-action Alice inside an animated Wonderland in 1933; Paramount's all-star live-action Alice that year ended the idea, and Disney's film came 18 years later.

Who directed the 2010 live-action Alice in Wonderland?

Tim Burton directed it, shooting the live action largely against green screen and casting his frequent collaborator Johnny Depp as the Hatter.

Who played Alice in the 2010 film?

Mia Wasikowska played a 19-year-old Alice Kingsleigh returning to the place she called Wonderland as a child; its inhabitants call it Underland.

Which actress played the Red Queen in the 2010 film, with her head digitally enlarged?

Helena Bonham Carter played the Red Queen with her head digitally enlarged to about three times its size; the character merges Carroll's Red Queen with the Queen of Hearts.

Which veteran horror actor voiced the Jabberwocky in the 2010 film?

Christopher Lee, 87 at the time, voiced the Jabberwocky's two lines; Alan Rickman voiced the Caterpillar, Absolem.

How much did the 2010 film gross worldwide?

Alice in Wonderland grossed about $1.025 billion worldwide, becoming only the sixth film to pass a billion dollars, a mark it reached in late May 2010.

Which two Academy Awards did the 2010 film win?

At the 2011 Oscars the film won Art Direction (Robert Stromberg and Karen O'Hara) and Costume Design (Colleen Atwood); it lost Visual Effects to Inception.

Which band recorded the 1967 hit 'White Rabbit', inspired by the Alice books?

Jefferson Airplane released 'White Rabbit' on Surrealistic Pillow in 1967; Grace Slick had written it in her previous band, the Great Society, and it reached No. 8 in the US.

Where in New York is the 1959 bronze Alice sculpture patterned on Tenniel's drawings?

José de Creeft's 1959 bronze stands beside Conservatory Water in Central Park, commissioned by George Delacorte; lines from 'Jabberwocky' are inscribed around its base.

Which 2010 film character is an amalgam of Carroll's Red Queen and Queen of Hearts?

Iracebeth of Crims, the Red Queen, merges Carroll's two queens; her sister Mirana, the White Queen, is played by Anne Hathaway.

Who directed the 2016 sequel, Alice Through the Looking Glass?

James Bobin directed it, with Wasikowska, Depp and Bonham Carter back and Sacha Baron Cohen added as Time.

Which clergyman rowed with Carroll and the Liddell sisters on the 1862 boat trip?

Robinson Duckworth, a Fellow of Trinity College, Oxford, rowed stroke while Carroll rowed bow on the trip; he appears as the Duck in the Caucus-Race.

What was the title of the shortened version Carroll published for young children in 1890?

The Nursery 'Alice' (1890) retold the story for children 'from nought to five', with twenty of Tenniel's pictures enlarged; Macmillan had issued a facsimile of the manuscript in 1886.

Alice's dress became fixed as blue in the popular mind after Harry Theaker coloured Tenniel's plates in which year?

Harry Theaker coloured sixteen of Tenniel's plates for Macmillan's 1911 edition, giving Alice the blue dress that Disney and most later illustrators kept.

The perception disorder named after Alice, distorting apparent size and distance, is also called what?

Alice in Wonderland syndrome is also called Todd's syndrome after British psychiatrist John Todd, who described it in 1955; symptoms such as micropsia are often linked to migraine or Epstein–Barr virus.

Which actor voiced the pink-and-purple-striped Cheshire Cat in Disney's 1951 film?

Sterling Holloway, later the voice of Winnie the Pooh, voiced the Cheshire Cat; Richard Haydn was the Caterpillar and Jerry Colonna the March Hare.

How much did Alice Liddell's original manuscript fetch when she sold it at Sotheby's in 1928?

The manuscript fetched £15,400 at Sotheby's in April 1928, nearly four times the £4,000 reserve; Alice sold it after her husband's death made Cuffnells too costly to keep.