For 150 years, Alice in Wonderland has been capturing imaginations across the world, inspiring numerous works of art, music and literature. Now a young Brisbane couple has captured the imagination of audiences around the world with their crowdfunding campaign selling two limited editions of the famous story, clocking over $85,000 in sales in just 20 days.

Steven Burke and his fiancee Angela Nielsen, are grinning like a pair of cheshire cats at the response, which has seen sales flooding in on their Kickstarter campaig from every corner of the globe, who recognise the purchase as a priceless collector’s item keepsake during a milestone anniversary.

Burke, aged 29 years and Nielsen, aged 24 years who live in Marsden, Brisbane spent six months painstakingly recreating the limited reproductions of the original manuscript “Alice’s Adventures Under Ground” under a license they negotiated with the British Library.

“Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland is one of the most cherished children’s stories of all time,” says Burke who lost everything in the 2011 Brisbane floods, and who spent three to four hours a night over a six month period enhancing every letter of the original manuscript on Photoshop.

“It is arguably one of the most significant and influential novels in history. Generations of us have grown up with the surreal world down the rabbit hole filled with whimsical characters like the Mad Hatter, the Mock Turtle, The White Rabbit and the Cheshire Cat. Knowing it was celebrating its 150th year of being published, we just had to restore it to its former glory and recapture the world’s imagination with this timeless story!” he says.

The handmade manuscript on offer through the crowdfunding platform provides an insightful journey into the origins of the enchanting tale including 37 illustrations by Lewis Carroll’s own hand, showcasing his remarkable imagination and artistic talent.

“Not long after his friends had read this little book, they convinced him it must be published. The story was expanded, edited, and illustrated by a professional artist John Tenniel, and released 150 years ago as the story we all know “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland,” says Burke.

Both editions on offer on the crowdfunding campaign – a premium edition and a limited edition come with a Certificate of Authenticity, and as the first ‘stretch goal’ of $50,000 has been achieved, all purchasers will also receive pair of white cotton gloves.

If the couple clock over $100,000 before the campaign deadline of Thu, Oct 8 2015 6:00 PM Qld time, they’re promising a companion book that describes the history of the manuscript will be included with all orders. If the pair exceed $150,000 they’re promising a mad tea party in a Brisbane park as their official launch.

The pair also have the licence to continue to sell the book through bookstores in Australia, and online post the campaign, however this will be at a higher price than the pre-orders on Kickstarter.

See more at: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/39045970/150th-anniversary-edition-alices-adventures-under or the website: https://alicesadventure.com/.

Media interested in arranging an interview or photos should contact Yvette Adams or Chelsea Heaney on 0488 335585 or pr@www.thecreativecollective.com.au.