The Game of Logic
London: Macmillan and Co., 1887.
Second (first published) edition. A presentation copy, inscribed by Lewis Carroll on the half-title page "R. Brodie from the Author Mar./87". It is likely that the dedicatee of this copy, R. Brodie, was part of the extended family of Benjamin Collins Brodie, 2nd Baronet, professor of chemistry at Oxford and a colleague of Carroll's. Two of Brodie's children were photographed by Carroll in 1860. The 2nd Baronet was immortalized in Carroll's 1864 acrostic poem "Examination Statute" in the line: "B is for Brodie, who swears by the gases." [xii], 96, [4]pp. Bound in publisher's red cloth, gilt to spine and front board. With game card and five of the nine counters present, original printed envelope tipped in at rear at the recto of rear free endpaper. Very Good with darkening to spine and loss at ends, soiling and bubbling to cloth, rear inner hinge exposed and fragile. Light foxing to prelims. Game envelope with a diagonal tear across the front, game card with one short closed tear. The first, suppressed edition was printed by E. Baxter at Oxford, but it failed to meet the author's approbation and the physical sheets were refused in late December, 1886. The second edition was speedily printed by Clay and Sons; Carroll's own copy reached him on February 22, 1887. The game itself has been described "as a game for children of ordinary capacity, a failure," as the complexities of it outstripped the probable attention span of its intended audience. Williams, Madam and Green 193, 196.
Price: $6,800