Q: Hello, I recently picked up these two volumes for my wife. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland was written in 1899 to 1902, I think. Through The Looking Glass was written in 1899. Both editions are described as being in Very Good condition. Could you give me some information on these two books? Are they worth anything? I bought them both because I thought they were nicely done. I know my wife will love them as she is a high school English teacher. I wanted to do something different this year for Christmas. Thank you for your time.

A: You have two very nice books. The first editions were published in 1866 and 1871. Your books, of course, are later reprints.
The Alice book is from the Vademecum Series and was published in 1899. The Through the looking Glass book was published in 1902 as part of the Beauxarts Series. Both books originally came in labeled boxes.

Although they are not the most collectible of the Altemus reprints (those books have illustrated covers), their contents are the same. Clearly they are in great shape and have a very nice appearance in their own right.

Value is difficult to determine. The reason is that although the books are quite common, because of the Alice interest, they occasionally sell for decent dollars. I have seen them sell for $5 and I have seen them sell for $50. Rarely should they go for more than that because they are so easy to find.