Story of Alice in Wonderland

Alice was written in 1865, Charles Dodgson (Lewis Carroll) was on a short trip on the river Thames in London with his friend Reverend Robinson Duckworth and three young girls. The girls were:
lLorina Charlotte Liddell (aged 13, born 1849)
lAlice Pleasance Liddell (aged 10, born 1852)
lEdith Mary Liddell (aged 8, born 1853)

The girls, daughters of Henry George Liddell, the vice-chancellor of Oxford University and Dean of Christ Church, accompanied the author on a short trip that started at Folly Bridge near Oxford and ended five miles away in the village of Godstow. To while away time he told the girls a story that, not so coincidentally, featured a bored little girl named Alice who goes looking for an adventure.

The girls loved it, and Alice Liddell asked him to write it down for her. After a lengthy delay— over two years — he eventually did so and on 26 November 1864,  gave Alice the handwritten manuscript of Alice's Adventures Under Ground, with illustrations by Dodgson himself. Some speculate there was an earlier version that was destroyed later by him when he printed a more elaborate copy by hand, but there is no known evidence to support this.

But before Alice received her copy, Dodgson was already preparing it for publication and was expanding the 15,500-word original to 27,500 words, most notably adding the episodes about the Cheshire Cat and the Mad Tea-Party. In 1865, Dodgson's tale was published as Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by ‘Lewis Carroll’ with illustrations by John Tenniel. The first print run of 2,000 was held back because Tenniel objected to the print quality.

A new edition, released in December of the same year, but carrying an 1866 date, was quickly printed. As it turned out, the original edition was sold with Dodgson's permission to the New York publishing house of Appleton.

The entire print run sold out quickly. Alice was a publishing sensation, loved by children and adults alike. Among its first avid readers were Queen Victoria and the young Oscar Wilde. The book has never been out of print. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland has been translated into 125 languages. There have now been over a hundred editions of the book, as well as countless adaptations in other media, especially theatre and film.

The book is commonly referred to by the abbreviated title Alice in Wonderland, an alternative title popularised by the numerous stage, film and television adaptations of the story produced over the years. Some printings of this title contain both Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and its sequel Through the Looking-Glass, and, What Alice Found There.