The Game of Logic
London and New York: Macmillan and Co., 1887. 19x13cm: [xii], 96, [4]pp. First Edition, Second Issue [First Published], after the very rare private issue. Publisher’s bright red cloth-covered boards with gilt titling to front and spine, accompanied with the publisher-issued envelope (dated 1887) containing the game board and nine (five gray and four red) original playing pieces. There are some extant copies with the original envelope from the rejected 1886 issue, although envelopes and game boards dated 1887 are noted as being scarcer. Corners gently nudged, with some fraying and chipping to spine ends. Spine panel darkened. Internally clean and bright, with just occasional spotting to preliminaries. Short closed tear to fore edge of front free endpaper. Scattered spotting to game envelope with small tear to edge. Tongue of envelope detached, but retained within. Game board and pieces well preserved. A Very Good complete copy of Carroll’s typically mischievous and educational logic game.
Originally published in 1886, the first copies of this unusual game did not meet Carroll’s standard and were condemned by him before public issue, although he did order fifty copies bound for his own use. Interestingly, in a letter to Macmillan, Carroll requested that the 500 copies already printed be sent to the United States, explaining “they will do very well for the Americans, who ought not to be very particular as to quality, as they insist on having books for very cheap… I would rather that these Oxford copies were not sold in England at all… They must not begin to be sold in America until the English edition is ready.”
This particular copy includes a small stamped and addressed envelope into which the nine game pieces have been placed for safekeeping. This additional envelope, dated 1887, is addressed to the Rev. Sherman of St. Peter’s School in York. St. Peter’s School bears the distinction of being one of the oldest schools in the world, and was the school attended by several members of the Donkin family, including the uncle of Alice Jane Donkin who is considered not only to have been partly an inspiration for the character of Carroll’s Alice, but also later married Carrol’s brother Wilfred. York and Yorkshire in general was a region very familiar to Carroll, his father having been Rector of St. Peter’s Church in Croft, North Yorkshire, for over a decade in Carroll’s youth.
Williams, Madan, and Green 193; 196.
Price: $1,400.00
Item #10625