Lewis Carroll's book for Alice fetches $115K at auction

A rare copy of Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There that Lewis Carroll presented to the book's real-life inspiration has fetched $115,000 US at auction.

Published in 1871, the first-edition volume was inscribed to Alice Pleasance Liddell by Charles Dodgson, who wrote under the pen name Lewis Carroll. 

Its sale was the highlight of Wednesday's children's literature auction by Southern-California based Profiles in History.

The volume — a sequel to Alice's Adventures in Wonderland — was sold by retired National Football League player and children's literature collector Pat McInally, who called it "really exciting" to have found a book the author had given to the real Alice.

Liddell was the daughter of the dean at Christ Church, Oxford, where Dodgson worked as a professor.

McInally, the former Cincinnati Bengals star, said the goal of the auction — which featured a host of items from his collection — was so he could focus his efforts on books by A.A. Milne.

Another highlight of Wednesday's sale included Beatrix Potter's own copy of her book The Tale of Peter Rabbit, which sold for $92,000 US.

The auction also featured first-edition copies of several classics, including H.G. Wells's The Time Machine: An Invention, J.R.R. Tolkien's The Fellowship of the Ring, Kenneth Grahame's The Wind in the Willows, and J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter and the Philsopher's Stone.