Wondrous Land

Among my other interests documented on my website, I decided to dedicate a section to my fascination with all this Alice-related. "Alice" as in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and other things Lewis Carroll-ian.

I started collecting things related to Wonderland back in 1996, and since then have accumulated a few things (most of which are kept in the guest bedroom of my house -- known as the 'Alice Room' appropriately enough). By no means would I think I have the largest collection of such items, nor even the 'best' (by whatever metric one could use), but the collection is just a fascination which keeps my eyes wide for new additions.

And concerning 'additions'... er, I mean, 'editions', I'm not one who is obsessively tracking down first printings and such of Carroll's works. While I do have a few different editions of some of his writings, none is particularly valuable. Generally, though, if I see an old copy at a used bookstore which is cheap, I don't mind dropping a few bucks for a tattered copy of Looking Glass or such.

What really intrigues me is collecting non-book items which have Alice as their obvious inspiration. Carroll's characters have become quite pervasive in pop culture, and I love to collect such references. Many of the items are easily available to anyone, but some are harder to find, and some are, in fact, unique since they are of my own making (for example, check out my Alice Themed Puzzle Party.

To that end I list below various things that I have hoarded since the year of nineteen hundred ninety-six (this list also has a practical motivation: if anyone is ever inclined to obtain anything Alice-related for me -- perennial Christmas and birthday gifts they do make -- this list will show you what not to get me).

All photographs and text on this website are © Copyright (2002) to Eric Harshbarger unless otherwise noted.