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Hi! My name is
Ruthann Logsdon Zaroff. I live in Belleville, Michigan, with my husband, my
son, a big dog named Manda, and a gray cat named Midsummer Night's Dream
("Midi" for short!). The photographs above are of my son at about
the time he first read the Alice books, and of me at about the time
I first read them. We are both devoted Alice fans. (My son has his own web
site, if you are interested – Teddy the Wonderboy.) I have read the Alice
books many times over the years. Every time I read them, I discover things I
never noticed before. There is a richness and depth in the Alice
books that I have never found elsewhere. The character with whom I
identify in the books is Alice, mostly because when I first read the books I
was about as old as Alice was when she fell down the rabbit hole, and one of
my older sisters used to read to me, just like Alice's sister read to her. I own many copies of the Alice
books; one is more than 100 years old! Many artists have created
illustrations to accompany the books, but my favorites are by Sir John
Tenniel, the artist that Lewis Carroll himself hired to illustrate them. (The
pictures you see throughout my web site are by Tenniel.) Lewis Carroll
illustrated his first handwritten version of Alice's Adventures in
Wonderland (called Alice's Adventures Underground—a gift he
made for the real Alice), but later realized that if his book were to become
successful, he would have to hire an artist. Tenniel used Carroll's sketches
as a basis for his work, but his Alice was drawn using a model rather than
the real Alice. Alice in Wonderland has always been my favorite book.
It has everything a good book should have: interesting characters, great
adventure, and puzzles. My son first read Alice in Wonderland when
he was six years old. Now he is eight and recently read it again. He agrees
that it gets better the more you read it! If you have not yet read Alice's
Adventures in Wonderland or Through the Looking-Glass, please
do—I think you will love them! If you want to learn more
about Alice in Wonderland or Lewis Carroll (especially about what everything
in the book means), I recommend the following books: The Annotated Alice by Martin Gardner, published by
Wings Books, 1960. More Annotated Alice by Martin Gardner, published by
Random House, 1990. Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll (Norton Critical
Edition, Donald J. Gray, editor) published by W.W. Norton and Company, 1992. Lewis Carroll: A Biography by Morton N. Cohen, published by
Vintage Books, 1996. You should also visit the
Lewis Carroll Society of North America's web site, where you will find many
scholarly works on Carroll and the Alice books, and much more. http://www.lewiscarroll.org/.
I am a member of this
organization, and find them a very valuable resource! |