Centenary Edition Prepared by The Committee of the Lewis Carroll Society

Through the Looking Glass is now a hundred years old. Many think it the best thing Lewis Carroll ever wrote ; perhaps less spontaneous than Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, but more perfectly conceived. and even more dazzling in its ideas.

Many artists have tried their hand at Alice books, with varying success, but few have been able to break with the Tenniel tradition. Images of the Alice story have obsessed Ralph Steadman for many years. He illustrated Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, which in 1972 was awarded the Francis Williams Memorial bequest for the best illustrated book of the previous five years. The set of drawings he has now done for Through the Looking Glass is his most extraordinary and original achievement so far.

Steadman takes the commonly accepted view that the White Knight is Carroll himself, escorting little Alice through the wood until she waves goodbye, and passes on to become a queen. It is a symbol of her growing up and discontinuing the friendship which had been so important in his life. Steadman's White Knight unmistakably resembles the familiar photograph of Carroll himself.