DODGSON, Charles Lutwidge (''Lewis Carroll''). Christmas Greetings [from a Fairy to a Child.]. [London: Macmillan, 1884]. Small broadsheet (129 x 89 mm), printed on one side only.

DODGSON, Charles Lutwidge ("Lewis Carroll"). Christmas Greetings [from a Fairy to a Child.]. [London: Macmillan, 1884]. Small broadsheet (129 x 89 mm), printed on one side only.

First Separate Edition, PRESENTATION COPY, inscribed by the author at the top: "Dorothea Winterbotham, from Lewis Carroll. A memento of Xmas, 1889." Originally written in 1867, this short poem was first published in 1869, when it appeared in Phantasmagoria. This poem also appears as the final text on the last page of his 1886 facsimile, Alice's Adventures Under Ground (1886).

Dodgson only used his famous pseudonym in presentations to child-friends, as opposed to the usual "from the Author" inscription. Although he used the name of Lewis Carroll to avoid all personal publicity, Dodgson "broke his rule of disavowal often, usually with children whose friendships had ripened to the point where he wished to confide in them, to share a great secret with them, but sometimes even earlier, when he was in pursuit and he rightly assumed that the fame of the author of the Alice books would help to break the ice with the parents of likely candidates" (Cohen, p. 191). Williams-Madan-Green-Crutch 162.