Swahili Alice

I've got a much more substantial post on its way, but I came across an oddity here, and thought I'd share it, since I've been putting quite a few Alice in Wonderland illustrations up here recently, as well as talking last week about John Tenniel.

The page linked to above shows a number of illustrations done for a 1940 Swahili version of Alice (printed in England), obviously based very heavily on the Tenniel originals. The page itself is in Russian, but I found that a PDF of the Swahili book, with all of the illustrations, is available free from the Internet Archive.

So, here's a brief look at Elisi Katika Nchi Ya Ajabu, with some of the Tenniel originals for reference. As always, click for legible versions.








I'm not sure who did the adapted illustrations: the only person credited in the book is an E. V. St Lo de Malet, who I assume is the translator: perhaps there's a Swahili reader out there who can enlighten me?

A Handful of Further Searles

Just a quick one here, as life away from the internet is using up all of my energy at the moment. I've been trying to get hold of a copy of the newish NYRB edition of Angus Wilson's Anglo-Saxon Attitudes, which uses a Sir John Tenniel illustration of the White Knight from Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There.



However, my usual enablers have been unable to get me a copy of this version, so I was happy to come across an old Penguin edition, with a cover by old favourite Ronald Searle.



Searle also did another Wilson cover I'd not seen before...



..and I also found two more of his Penguin designs I missed in the research for my earlier big Searle post.