Monthly Archives: April 2015

The Wade Center owns over 2,400 volumes from the personal library of C.S. Lewis. Most of the books were acquired from Wroxton College in 1986, and others have been added from time to time from other donors or purchases. The books offer a unique look into the reading habits, imagination, and mind of Lewis himself, and many of them contain his handwritten notes and markings. Such annotations are a big research draw for Lewis scholars who are able to discern significant aspects of Lewis’s response to his reading; a valuable step beyond simply knowing which titles were on his shelf. Besides the markings, however, are the books themselves as physical artifacts. Observing the different bindings, seeing which ones are worn or barely touched, adds to the stories the volumes tell. In some cases Lewis mentions specific books in his writings, and it is always a thrill for Wade patrons…

Thanks to a generous donation by Professor Maria Nikolajeva, we now have over 150 versions of Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland in the Children’s Literature Collection. Many of these are foreign language editions, including Russian, Spanish, Croatian and Hebrew, as well as over 50 different English editions. The selection of covers above shows just a little of the range of languages and illustration styles on display in the collection.

Selection of Alice in Wonderland books in the Rare Books Collection

We have decided that some of the older and more valuable books in the collection would be best housed in the rare books collection. You can see a selection of these in the photo on the right. Any items which are in the rare books collection will be marked with a location of ‘Stack (Ask at desk)’ in the catalogue. Just speak to a member of staff and we…