Description

INSCRIBED BY LEWIS CARROLL: HIS GAME OF LOGIC, 1887, WITH SCARCE CARD AND MARKERS

CARROLL, Lewis. The Game of Logic. London and New York: Macmillan, 1887. Small octavo, original giltstamped red cloth, black endpapers. Housed in a custom clamshell box.

First published edition of Carroll’s game, presentation copy, inscribed on half title: “S. Andrews  from the Author, May 31 / 87.”

This game, designed for children, attempts to make formal deductive logic clear by diagrams, symbols, counters, and plain words, illustrated by countless examples and tests and Carroll’s characteristic humor. “The native acuteness and ingenuity of [Carroll’s] intellect led him to devote much attention to formal logic, in whose intricate puzzles he delighted, and he almost seemed to have convinced himself that it was an engine for the discovery of new truth, instead of a means of detecting error—that more could be got out of the premises than was put into them” (DNB). The recipient, Septimus Andrews, was a Christ Church contemporary of Carroll’s. This first published edition was preceded only by an extremely small private printing in 1886 that Carroll suppressed. Williams & Madan 170. With accompanying envelope dated 1887 containing card diagram and nine counters tipped in at front of book. With two pages of advertisements for other Carroll works. Bookplate of the Library of the Oblates of St. Charles, centered at St. Mary of the Angels Catholic Church in Bayswater, London.

Interior fine; inner paper hinge expertly repaired. A bit of toning to spine and light soiling to covers of near-fine cloth. A fine presentation copy of a Carroll classic, scarce with all the game pieces.