Mark Burstein (born 1950) is an author, book editor and expert on the works of Lewis Carroll. [1] He is a lifelong Carrollian and has been a key figure in the Lewis Carroll Society of North America (LCSNA). [2]
Mark Burstein (born 1950) is an author, book editor and expert on the works of Lewis Carroll. [1] He is a lifelong Carrollian and has been a key figure in the Lewis Carroll Society of North America (LCSNA). [2]
Burstein's father, Sandor G. Burstein, inspired him with a love for the works of Lewis Carroll at an early age. [3] He has served the Lewis Carroll Society of North America (LCSNA) as its president, publications chair, [4] and longtime editor of its magazine, Knight Letter. [5] In 1979 he and Sandor founded The West Coast Chapter of LCSNA, Mark serving as its first and only president. [2] [6]
Burstein has written, edited, or made contributions to over twenty books by or about Lewis Carroll. [3] He was the editor and art director of the deluxe 150th Anniversary Edition of Martin Gardner's The Annotated Alice (W. W. Norton, 2015), and of the first trade edition of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland illustrated by Salvador Dalí (Princeton, 2015). [7] He is the series editor of The Complete Pamphlets of Lewis Carroll Volumes V and VI (LCSNA/University of Virginia Press, 2015, 2020). His books have been translated into Chinese, Japanese, French, Korean, and Spanish.
Burstein continues to build the collection of Carrollian memorabilia begun by his father, Sandor. [8] [9] He owns over two thousand editions of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass [6] in 140 languages, [10] [11] and around two thousand additional books by or about Lewis Carroll. [12] [1]
Burstein is a longtime admirer of fellow Carrollian and Scientific American columnist Martin Gardner. [13] In 2011 he created and edited A Bouquet for the Gardener: Martin Gardner Remembered (LCSNA, 2011), with contributions from other Gardner aficionados including Raymond Smullyan, Douglas Hofstadter and David Singmaster. [12] In 2015 he edited the aforementioned anniversary edition of Gardner's Annotated Alice. [7]
In April 2022 he gave two talks at the 14th Gathering 4 Gardner; first a featured presentation titled What IS It about Alice? [3] and then a talk about the many occurrences of Lewis Carroll in Gardner's "Mathematical Games" column titled A Literary Englishman and the Scientific American: Lewis Carroll’s Appearances in ‘Mathematical Games'. [3]
Burstein is a connoisseur and collector in the field of the American comic strip, particularly Pogo , and the Underground Comix of the 1960s and 70s. His books include Much Ado: The POGOfenokee Trivia Book (Eclipse Books, 1988), Alice in Comicland, [14] and Dave Sheridan: Life with Dealer McDope, The Leather Nun , and The Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers (Fantagraphics Underground, 2018). [15]
Burstein got a BA at the University of California, Santa Cruz (UCSC) in 1972. [16] A longtime supernumerary with the San Francisco Opera, he lives in Petaluma, California, surrounded by a huge collection of Carrollian memorabilia. [9] He is married to Llisa Demetrios, granddaughter of both Charles Eames and Virginia Lee Burton. They have two children, Martin and Sonja.
Sir John Tenniel was an English illustrator, graphic humourist and political cartoonist prominent in the second half of the 19th century. An alumnus of the Royal Academy of Arts in London, he was knighted for artistic achievements in 1893, the first such honour ever bestowed on an illustrator or cartoonist.
"Jabberwocky" is a nonsense poem written by Lewis Carroll about the killing of a creature named "the Jabberwock". It was included in his 1871 novel Through the Looking-Glass, the sequel to Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865). The book tells of Alice's adventures within the back-to-front world of the Looking-Glass world.
Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There is a novel published on 27 December 1871 by Lewis Carroll, a mathematics lecturer at Christ Church, University of Oxford, and the sequel to Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865). Alice again enters a fantastical world, this time by climbing through a mirror into the world that she can see beyond it. There she finds that, just like a reflection, everything is reversed, including logic.
The Annotated Alice is a 1960 book by Martin Gardner incorporating the text of Lewis Carroll's major tales, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865) and Through the Looking-Glass (1871), as well as the original illustrations by John Tenniel. It has extensive annotations explaining the contemporary references, mathematical concepts, word play, and Victorian traditions featured in the two books.
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is an 1865 English children's novel by Lewis Carroll, a mathematics don at the University of Oxford. It details the story of a girl named Alice who falls through a rabbit hole into a fantasy world of anthropomorphic creatures. It is seen as an example of the literary nonsense genre. The artist John Tenniel provided 42 wood-engraved illustrations for the book.
Alice is a fictional character and the main protagonist of Lewis Carroll's children's novel Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865) and its sequel, Through the Looking-Glass (1871). A child in the mid-Victorian era, Alice unintentionally goes on an underground adventure after falling down a rabbit hole into Wonderland; in the sequel, she steps through a mirror into an alternative world.
Alice Pleasance Hargreaves was an English woman who, in her childhood, was an acquaintance and photography subject of Lewis Carroll. One of the stories he told her during a boating trip became the classic 1865 children's novel Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. She shared her name with "Alice", the story's protagonist, but scholars disagree about the extent to which the character was based upon her.
The March Hare is a character most famous for appearing in the tea party scene in Lewis Carroll's 1865 book Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.
A New Alice in the Old Wonderland is a fantasy novel written by Anna M. Richards, illustrated by Anna M. Richards Jr., and published in 1895 by J. B. Lippincott of Philadelphia. According to Carolyn Sigler, it is one of the more important "Alice imitations", or novels inspired by Lewis Carroll's Alice books.
The Lewis Carroll Society of North America (LCSNA) is a learned, not-for-profit organization dedicated to furthering interest in the life and works of the Rev. Charles L. Dodgson, known to the world as Lewis Carroll, through its publications, and by providing a forum for speakers and scholars, and helping collectors, students, and other Carroll enthusiasts connect with each other.
Hugh Haughton is an academic, author, editor and specialist in Irish literature and the literature of nonsense.
"How Doth the Little Crocodile" is a poem by Lewis Carroll that appears in chapter 2 of his 1865 novel Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Alice recites it while attempting to recall "Against Idleness and Mischief" by Isaac Watts. It describes a crafty crocodile that lures fish into its mouth with a welcoming smile.
The Red Queen is a fictional character and the main antagonist in Lewis Carroll's fantasy 1871 novel Through the Looking-Glass. She is often confused with the Queen of Hearts from the previous book Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865), although the two are very different.
Alice from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is one of the most iconic figures to emerge from 19th century children's literature, and one who is instantly recognized by her attire. Although many artists have depicted Alice in many different ways, the original illustrations by John Tenniel have become iconic through their subsequent repetition in most published editions and film adaptations.
"You Are Old, Father William" is a poem by Lewis Carroll that appears in his 1865 book Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. It is recited by Alice in Chapter 5, "Advice from a Caterpillar". Alice informs the Caterpillar that she has previously tried to repeat "How Doth the Little Busy Bee" and has had it all come wrong as "How Doth the Little Crocodile". The Caterpillar asks her to repeat "You Are Old, Father William", and she recites it.
Pat is a fictional character in Lewis Carroll’s 1865 book Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. He appears in the chapter "The Rabbit Sends in a Little Bill." He works for the White Rabbit like his friend Bill the Lizard. Carroll never gives any description of the character other than being a gardener, and his species has been widely debated, with evidence showing he is likely to be a monkey or a guinea pig.
Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, better known by his pen name Lewis Carroll, was an English author, poet, mathematician, photographer and reluctant Anglican deacon. His most notable works are Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865) and its sequel Through the Looking-Glass (1871). He was noted for his facility with word play, logic, and fantasy. His poems Jabberwocky (1871) and The Hunting of the Snark (1876) are classified in the genre of literary nonsense. Some of Alice's nonsensical wonderland logic reflects his published work on mathematical logic.
In a publishing career spanning 80 years (1930–2010), popular mathematics and science writer Martin Gardner (1914–2010) authored or edited over 100 books and countless articles, columns and reviews.
There are more than 100 illustrators of English-language editions of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865) and Through the Looking-Glass (1871), with many other artists for non-English language editions. The illustrator for the original editions was John Tenniel, whose illustrations for Alice and Looking Glass are among the best known illustrations ever published.
Charlie Lovett is an American novelist, podcast producer, children's playwright and expert on the works and life of Lewis Carroll. He has the world's largest collection of Carollean memorabilia and was twice president of the Lewis Carroll Society of North America.
