--- title: You Can Buy This Extremely Rare Alice in Wonderland for Around $2 Million description: It’s one of just 22 known copies after Lewis Carroll tried to have the whole run destroyed authors: - name: Denver Nicks url: https://money.com/author/denver-nicks/ at_money_since: 2015 articles: 60 covers: - Lifestyle - Banking - Business - Career Advice - Credit Cards - Economy and Politics - Housing - Identity Theft - Insurance - Investing - Loans - Personal Finance - Pets - Retirement - Shopping - Taxes social: - https://x.com/DenverNicks - https://plus.google.com/105122198911201917932 former_staff: true published: '2016-05-31T22:13:43.000Z' modified: '2016-05-31T22:13:43.000Z' section: Lifestyle tags: - Alice in Wonderland - Art - Auction - Books - Christie's - lewis carroll - Literature - Oxford - pubdesk word_count: 236 canonical: https://money.com/alice-in-wonderland-first-edition-auction/ type: Article source: structured-blocks --- > **Disclosure:** We research all brands listed and may earn a fee from our partners. Research and financial considerations may influence how brands are displayed. Not all brands are included. [Learn more](https://money.com/page/disclaimer/). ![Alice in Wonderland](https://img.money.com/2016/05/gettyimages-128610684.jpg) *Alice in Wonderland* aficionados—those with deep pockets, anyway—have a [unique](https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/may/30/alice-in-wonderland-first-edition-christies-auction) opportunity to own an extremely rare piece of history: one of just 22 remaining copies of the classic novel’s first print run. The first edition is set to go on auction at Christie’s in New York in June for an estimated $2 million to $3 million, the Guardian reports. The 1865 first printing of Lewis Carroll’s classic tale produced 2,000 copies, but the illustrator, “entirely dissatisfied with the printing of the pictures,” demanded that the book be reprinted entirely. Carroll conceded and ordered that the 2,000 copies be sold as waste paper. Carroll himself absorbed the financial hit of reprinting the run. The Guardian reports that the author wrote in his diary that “if a second 2,000 could be sold it would cost £300 and bring in £500, thus squaring accounts: any other further sale would be a gain. But that I can hardly hope for.” *Alice in Wonderland,* of course, went on to become one of the most widely known and beloved children’s stories in the Western canon. (The same can't be said of its most recent incarnation, *[Alice Through the Looking Glass](http://www.wsj.com/articles/alice-through-the-looking-glass-bombs-at-the-box-office-1464637964),* which opened Memorial Day weekend to lousy reviews.) The edition going on auction was reportedly given as a gift by Carroll to a colleague at Oxford, who gave it to his daughter, who later sold it at auction in 1925. \[[The Guardian](https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/may/30/alice-in-wonderland-first-edition-christies-auction)\] ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "@id": "https://money.com/alice-in-wonderland-first-edition-auction/#breadcrumb", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://money.com" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Lifestyle", "item": "https://money.com/lifestyle/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Art and Culture", "item": "https://money.com/art-and-culture/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "You Can Buy This Extremely Rare Alice in Wonderland for Around $2 Million" } ] }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://money.com/#website", "url": "https://money.com", "name": "Money", "publisher": { "@id": "https://money.com/#organization" } }, { "@type": "WebPage", "@id": "https://money.com/alice-in-wonderland-first-edition-auction/#webpage", "url": "https://money.com/alice-in-wonderland-first-edition-auction/", "name": "You Can Buy This Extremely Rare Alice in Wonderland for Around $2 Million", "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://money.com/#website" }, "datePublished": "2016-05-31T22:13:43.000Z", "mainEntity": { "@id": "https://money.com/alice-in-wonderland-first-edition-auction/" }, "inLanguage": "en-US", "breadcrumb": { "@id": "https://money.com/alice-in-wonderland-first-edition-auction/#breadcrumb" }, "dateModified": "2016-05-31T22:13:43.000Z" }, { "@type": "Article", "headline": "You Can Buy This Extremely Rare Alice in Wonderland for Around $2 Million", "articleSection": "Lifestyle", "image": [ { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://img.money.com/2016/05/gettyimages-128610684.jpg", "width": 4900, "height": 3676, "caption": "Alice in Wonderland" } ], "author": [ { "@type": "Person", "name": "Denver Nicks", "url": "https://money.com/author/denver-nicks/", "@id": "https://money.com/author/denver-nicks/#author", "image": "https://img.money.com/2012/09/09_1165862081.jpg?quality=85&w=640&h=640&crop=1", "sameAs": [ "https://x.com/DenverNicks", "https://plus.google.com/105122198911201917932" ] } ], "publisher": "https://money.com/#organization", "datePublished": "2016-05-31T22:13:43.000Z", "description": "It’s one of just 22 known copies after Lewis Carroll tried to have the whole run destroyed", "abstract": "It’s one of just 22 known copies after Lewis Carroll tried to have the whole run destroyed", "@id": "https://money.com/alice-in-wonderland-first-edition-auction/", "inLanguage": "en-US", "dateModified": "2016-05-31T22:13:43.000Z", "wordCount": 236, "keywords": [ "Alice in Wonderland", "Art", "Auction", "Books", "Christie's", "lewis carroll", "Literature", "Oxford", "pubdesk" ], "about": [ { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Lifestyle", "sameAs": [ "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lifestyle" ] }, { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Contents/Culture and the arts", "sameAs": [ "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Contents/Culture_and_the_arts" ] } ] } ] } ```