Alice in Wonderland Collector Joel Birenbaum Interview

Joel Birenbaum has been collecting Alice in Wonderland related items since 1978. He is a past president of the Lewis Carroll Society of North America and founder of the Alice in Wonderland Collectors Network. Recently, I spoke with Joel about his remarkable Alice ephemera.

ephemera: When did your passion for Lewis Carroll's Alice ephemera begin?

Birenbaum: I began collecting Alice in Wonderland illustrated books in 1978. It wasn't long after that I expanded to include books by or about Carroll, Alice parodies, and finally translations.

Several years later, I started collecting Alice stuff, such as figurines, art, plates, toby jugs, cookie jars.  You name it, I bought it. After a while, it got harder to find books I didn't have, so I was buying more stuff. I honestly don't remember when I started buying ephemera. It most likely started with postcards, advertisements, or some other illustrated medium. After all, it was the Alice character images that first attracted me to collecting.

Now I collect Alice related articles and ads from newspapers and magazines, playbills, posters, catalogs, product packaging, paper plates, cups, and napkins, wooden pencils, matchbooks, soap, and a plethora of other things. Just when you think you've seen it all something pops up that you never even imagined in your wildest Wonderland dream. Recently, I saw a set of Alice cane heads circa 1890... made out of cheese! I don't know about you, but that is beyond my realm of comprehension...and no, I didn't buy them.

A better question is why do I collect ephemera? One answer is the Mt. Everestone--because it's there. I spend so much time looking for Alice memorabilia that it is inevitable that I come across Alice ephemera. I bought some small Alice collections that contained ephemera, and I wasn't exactly going to throw it out. Eventually, I found the ephemeral items as interesting as the rest of my collection. It enhanced my appreciation for the influence that the Alice books had on so many people for so many years.

Collecting Alice in the popular culture has become the new focus of my collecting activities. A good example is advertising. You would be surprised by the range of products that have used Alice as a vehicle to reach the general public. A short list includes finance, alcoholic beverages, electronics, appliances, textiles, food, transportation, and even advertising itself--that's advertising for advertising. People don't realize how often Alice references occur in their everyday lives...until you mention it to them. Once they are made aware, they are amazed at how prevalent it is in our culture.

One other thing I should mention is the competitive aspect of collecting. Collectors all say they simply collect for their own enjoyment, but most, if not all, have a streak of competitiveness in them. How can a collector compete with someone who has significantly moreresources? They can't, at least not when it comes to rare books, photos, letters, and the like. Ah, when it comes to ephemera, it's a whole other ballgame. Money is much less critical in this arena. It is time and effort that win the day here. Now, some may say that they are not interested in collecting something as mundane as ephemera, but I prefer to think this is a case of sour grapes, and I'm sure somewhere someone is collecting sour grapes, too.

ephemera: How do you overcome the challenges of being an Alice collector?

Birenbaum: The obstacles to collecting ephemera are fewer than they were fifteen years ago. When I started collecting, the mantra was, 'it's too late to start a Carroll collection, because the best things are gone and the prices are too high.' Well, since the Internet, the prices have come down and the accessibility has gone up. After almost 30 years of serious collecting, I see more new things in a month than I used to see in years. There are quite a few Alice collectors out there, so there is a great deal of competition. This is something I realized years ago and instead of sitting around and whining about it, I decided to do something. I created the Alice in Wonderland Collectors Network. The idea was to have a forum where collectors could share information and sell or swap duplicate items.

I always buy duplicate Alice items when I find them at a reasonable price. I know that more collectors will be starting their collections every year, so there will always be a market. This is a win/win situation, the novice collector is happy to find the items and I can offset some of the cost of my own addiction, I mean collection. I wish more people  had done this when I was starting out.

ephemera: What are your favorite items? How do they inspire you?

Birenbaum: I'm afraid my ego must come to the forefront here, because my favorite item is an article in the Chicago Tribune about my finding a likely inspiration for Carroll's Cheshire Cat while on a trip to Croft. Whether or not this was the inspiration for the Cheshire Cat is not critically important. What is important is that the story hit the wire services in a day and appeared in unbelievably diverse magazines, newspapers, and radio shows. This proves that Lewis Carroll is still a literary and pop culture icon. It also shows that there are still discoveries to be made. All of which makes me believe that people will be collecting Carrolliana for years to come, which these days is one of the few signs of intelligent life on Earth.

Other favorite items are also of a personal nature. The bookplate of the Lewis Carroll Society of North America Maxine Schaefer Memorial Fund is a prime example. This bookplate is placed in Alice books that are given to children at readings. It is a reminder of a dear friend and a symbol of a great cause. Then there is the more whimsical Hippy Dippy Cheshire Cat patch that a coworker gave me off  his wife's old jeans. It always brings a smile. Guinness used Alice in their advertising for decades and their pamphlets are of the highest quality. I hesitate to call these ephemera. I am fond of the set of Gerald King stamp covers made for the Chicago APEX show, because of their local flavor. Items like the Betty Boop in Wonderland sticker have crossover appeal to collectors of cartoons, stickers, Betty Boop, as well as Alice in Wonderland. Little items like boxes, pins, matchbooks and bottlecaps abound. Individual items may be insignificant, in and of themselves, but the enormous scope of the collection is a monument to Lewis Carroll's impact on society.

I actually feel that I am now collecting collectors. I
collect them as friends, I collect catalogs of their exhibitions, and items from their collections. To have items that were once in a well known collection is a true joy to me, as it links me to them in an almost spiritual way. I have grown to feel that collections and the collectors that put them  together are complementary to the subject being collected. This could be the ego creeping in again, but I don't think so. Carroll collectors are family.

ephemera: What's your advice to achieving success as a collector?

Birenbaum: To be a successful collector, make sure you are happy doing it. If it becomes more like work, step back and take a breath, then return to the endeavor only when you are refreshed. It's okay to get upset because you made a mistake and bought something that was way overpriced or
passed on something that was a great find. Of course if you make a habit of it, maybe the collecting world is not for you. At any rate don't dwell on it. Learn and go on. Make sure you make time to revisit your collection and reap the joy in it. Sometimes the hunt is all consuming. Probably the best way to enjoy your collection is to show it off to those who will appreciate it, but I recomend that you also reflect on it in private. Sometimes the best collectable hunting is in your own home. You would be surprised on how much you can forget that you have.

ephemer: What resources do you recommend?

Birenbaum: I use the Internet almost exclusively to search for collectables. I also network with fellow collectors and we look for stuff for each other. We mostly share information on new items and probably are more selfish about older artifacts, but that is still mutually advantageous. I find
that storing and documenting ephemera is harder than other collectables. It feels like such a burden to document individually every piece of paper that I have. Isn't it easier to say one volume of entertainment ephemera, one volume of newspaper articles, etc.? Unfortunately that is rather vague and not very helpful when you are trying to locate something specific.

I have established an Alice in Wonderland Collectors Network on squirl.info. I only started this project on Oct. 29, 2006, so it is still in its infancy. I can't help but say it will be the best Alice collector resource.

ephemera: It's been a pleasure talking with you, Joel. Your collection is amazing, and your knowledge of the subject is breathtaking. Thank you for sharing your passion for Alice collecting with us.