I love Gordon Robinson’s illustrations of Alice in wonderland. This post is dedicated to the Linenette booklet, published circa 1930’s by Sam’l Gabriel sons and co. Lewis Carroll isnt even credited in this one, which is outrageous. The text is like Alice after biting one end of the mushroom, which means its shrunk to an inch sized, two and a half worth of pages, which is also outrageous. Let’s all take a moment to be totally enraged by all this, and then proceed to the illustrations.
While G. Robinson isn’t properly credited, his signature can be found here and there throughout the book, and mainly on the cover, in a beautiful art nouveau style. Check it out:
Alas, I’m not finding anything about Gordon Robinson. This is not his main Alice in Wonderland edition though. There one’s from 1916ish. I thought I had one of his earlier Alice’s, but for the time being, we’ll settle of this little beauty.
Half of the illustrations are beautifully illustrated and colored, in a joyful, vibrant way, and than the other, are done with 2 colors, and are somewhat poor looking.
I’ll place the booklet’s illustration in order of appearance, since it’s a 8 page thing, you’d expect to have some sensible order, but no! For some reason it’s a bit messed up, you’ll see. Let’s dive into the book:
Booklet cover with Alice and the Duchess. Do you see G. Robinson’s signature there?
Alice chasing the White Rabbit. Some illustrations are full of color, and others, like this one, are in black and orange. Saving on ink much?
Alice and the Caterpillar. So what, if this chapter is way down the line, let’s all just have fun and place it on the 2nd page. 
Alice and the mouse, swimming in the pool of tears
Alice and the Cheshire cat
Pig and pepper. Alice, the Duchess and baby, cook, and cat.
A Mad tea party
Alice and the pig baby
The Who-Stole-The-tarts trail
Alice and the angry Queen of Hearts. Yes, this should be placed a couple of pages back, but hey, even Lewis Carroll isn’t credited on this one, so, let’s not be too strict here.
~ the end ~
Gordon Robinson – Vibrant Alice
Being disrespectful to the author, illustrator, and the story in one tiny book? Now that’s a jackpot. Hopefully the next edition will be like Alice after eating the growing side of the mushroom, normal sized, but with a bit elongated neck from many illustrations on the pages :).
🙂 Dear Karol! so nice to get your comments. Yes! very disrespectful. So many antique Alice editions lack mention of the illustrator, but this one went above and beyond. Still, it has a lot of charm.
I have what is probably a later edition of the No.433 Gabriel Linenette Alice with a, what shall we say, “sappier” illustration of Alice by R. A. Burley. Same ugly orange and black illus in text but I love the Robinson illustrations for Alice’s intelligence and for the outrageous characters. Author also not credited. Must have been an international copywrite problem.
Thank you Suzanne!
I like your website. These Linette booklets do have a lot of charm.
I’ll contact you about the copy you have., I’d be happy to buy it.
Yonatan
I just purchased a boxed set of Fairyland Favorites #200 Published by Samuel Gabriel Sons & Company and the 7 books are numbered from #427 through 433 on the back of each book. I found a shorter series with numbers in the mid-500’s and they were dated 1939. Then I found a couple of isolated books in the 400 series and the books were dated in the listing (not on the books) as from the 20’s. So, I as my set includes the Alice in Wonderland book you feature above, I would date it to the 1920’s not 1930’s. I was struck. as you were, by the disorganization of the illustrations to the text as well as the lack of attribution of the Alice in Wonderland story to its actual author. The illustrator WAS given a reasonable not as it appears on every cover so that did seem sufficient. These reminded me of the Little Golden Books that proliferated in the 1950’s and were sold in markets (that puts them into a lesser category than “bookstore” books. I know they were there as I really annoyed my mom for BEGGING to buy one every time we entered the market. She usually broke down! Now I am speaking only from memory (and that might be faulty) but they didn’t always give proper credit to authors either and it seems to be a “TYPE” of book. The Bobbsey Twin books listed Hope as the author but I think (again, this is a memory….maybe not accurate….that Hope was a name on the book but they might have been written by any one of a bunch of authors working on them. So, things were a bit loosey-goosey in the past. I think the Gabriel Fairytale Books just purchased have an above average level of skill in their version of each fairy tale and the illustrator (Gordon Robinson) was excellent. These qualities make me very happy to have found these 7 books (3 more unrelated books were in the box, too but I am only speaking about the fairy stories) and, they are luckily quite new-looking for their age. They were donated to a thrift store near me and I paid $60 for them and the research included by the store put the online price at $75.00. Thought these comments might be of interest to you. I found YOUR comments interesting. Cate
Hi Cate,
Thank you for your wonderful message. You nagging your Mom for a new Golden Book is a fantastic memory, thank you for sharing. I guess it was an accepted conduct back in the day, to print books without bothering to creditthe autoher and the illustrator. All the best, Yonatan
P.S. I should have checked my comments for mistakes before posting, but to correct one comment “The illustrator WAS give a reasonable not……” (not should have been NOD). Also, I did not purchase any of the other Gabriel books mentioned in trying to date MY purchase…..they all were for sale online, but just for further comparison. Cate