March 31, 2016 Library Hosts Events Honoring 150th Anniversary of “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland”

The Center for the Book in the Library of Congress and its Young Readers Center will sponsor two events to mark the 150th anniversary of the Lewis Carroll classic “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.”

On Friday, April 8, at 10:30 a.m., the Young Readers Center hosts a special “dress-up” story time featuring Carroll’s classic. All costumed children will be invited to join an “Alice parade” on the first two floors of the Thomas Jefferson Building. Inside the Young Readers Center, a display of several versions of the book, games and other artifacts will be on view during April. The center is located on the ground floor of the Thomas Jefferson Building, Room G29, 10 First St. S.E., Washington, D.C.

On Friday, April 15, at noon, the Center for the Book will present historian Leonard Marcus in a wide-ranging illustrated talk, “Lewis Carroll in the Mirror of Surrealism.” Marcus will show how Carroll’s “Alice” not only turned Victorian literature on its head but also inspired later generations of experimental artists and writers, from André Breton and Max Ernst to René Magritte and Leonora Carrington, to reimagine the world in arrestingly strange and provocative new ways. Part of the center’s Books & Beyond author series, the event will be held in Room LJ 119 of the Jefferson Building.

Both events are free and open to the public; no tickets are required.

Founded in 1800, the Library of Congress is the largest library in the world. The Library seeks to spark imagination and creativity and to further human understanding and wisdom by providing access to knowledge through its magnificent collections, programs, publications and exhibitions.

The Library’s Center for the Book, established by Congress in 1977 to “stimulate public interest in books and reading,” is a national force for reading and literacy promotion. A public-private partnership, it sponsors educational programs that reach readers of all ages through its affiliated state centers, collaborations with nonprofit reading-promotion partners and through the Young Readers Center and the Poetry and Literature Center at the Library of Congress. For more information, visit Read.gov.