BIOGRAPHY OF LEWIS CARROLL
Lewis Carroll, is the pseudonym of Charles Lutwidge
Dodgson, who was born January 27, 1832, in Daresbury in
England and died January 14, 1898 in England.
He was a mathematician, photographer, and novelist,
especially remembered for Alice’s Adventures in
Wonderland (1865) and its sequel, Through the Looking-
Glass (1871). He also wrote the famous poem The Hunting of
the Snark in 1876.
Early life
He was the eldest son and third child in a family of seven girls and four boys. His mother was
Frances Jane Lutwidge. His father was the Reverent Charles Dodgson, a perpetual curate (a
member of the clergy) from 1827 until 1843, when he became rector of Croft in Yorkshire—a post
he held for the rest of his life.
The Dodgson children, living as they did in an isolated country village, had few friends outside the
family but, like many other families in similar circumstances, found little difficulty in entertaining
themselves. Charles showed a great aptitude for inventing games to amuse them.
With the move to Croft when he was 12 came the beginning of the “Rectory Magazines,” to which
all the family were supposed to contribute. In fact, Charles wrote his first published poems and
short stories at this time.
Meanwhile, he attended public school, which he disliked, principally because of his shyness,
although he was also subjected to a certain amount of bullying; he also endured several illnesses,
one of which left him deaf in one ear. His early academic career veered between high promise and
irresistible distraction. He did not always work hard, but was exceptionally gifted, and
achievement came easily to him.
Dodgson had an ambition to be an artist
Between 1854 and 1856, his work appeared in the national publications The Comic Times and The
Train, as well as smaller magazines. Most of this output was humorous, sometimes satirical.
Dodgson is also to be remembered as a fine photographer. But in 1880 Dodgson abandoned
his hobby altogether, feeling that it was taking up too much time that might be better spent.
In March 1856, he published his first piece of work, a poem called « Solitude," under the name
that would make him famous, « Lewis Carroll ».
He was also the author of a fair number of books on mathematics.
At the University of Oxford
At the University of Oxford, Charles excelled in his mathematical and classical studies. In 1854,
when he was 22 years old, he gained a first in mathematical Finals—coming out at the head of the
class—and proceeded to a bachelor of arts degree. He was made a “Master of the House” and a
senior student the following year and was appointed lecturer in mathematics (the equivalent of
today’s tutor), a post he resigned in 1881.
Origins and publication of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland
During his time at the University of Oxford, Lewis Carroll befriended Alice Liddell, the
daughter of the dean of Christ Church. According to Liddell, Carroll told her and her siblings
fantastic stories and fairy tales, including Alice’s Adventures Underground (an early oral version
of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland). It is often supposed that
Liddell herself inspired the character of Alice…
Dodgson wrote down the story more or less as he told them, and
added to it several extra adventures that had been told on other
occasions, as well as time spent and picnics spent with his friends as
inspiration.
He illustrated it with his own distinctive drawings and gave the
finished product to his friend Alice Liddell, with no thought of
hearing of it again.
But the novelist Henry Kingsley, while visiting the deanery, picked it
up from the drawing-room table, read it, and urged Mrs. Liddell to
persuade the author to publish it. Dodgson, honestly surprised,
consulted his friend George Macdonald, author of some of the
best children’s stories of the period. Macdonald took it home to be
read to his children, and his son Greville, aged six, declared that he
“wished there were 60,000 volumes of it!”
Accordingly, Dodgson revised it for publication. At the publisher’s
suggestion he got an introduction to John Tenniel,
the Punch magazine cartoonist, whom he commissioned to make
illustrations to his specification.
The book was published as Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland in
1865. (The first edition was withdrawn because of bad printing, and
only about 21 copies survive—one of the rare books of the 19th
century—and the reprint was ready for publication by Christmas of
the same year, though dated 1866.)
The book was a slow but steadily increasing success, and by the
following year Dodgson was already considering a sequel to it, based
on further stories told to the Liddells. The result was Through the
Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There (dated 1872; actually published December 1871), a
work as good as, or better than, its predecessor.
By the time of Dodgson’s death, Alice (taking the two volumes as a single artistic triumph) had
become the most popular children’s book in England: by the time of his centenary in 1932 it was
one of the most popular and perhaps the most famous in the world.
There is no answer to the mystery of Alice’s success. The book is not an allegory; it has no hidden
meaning or message, either religious, political, or psychological, as some have tried to prove; and
its only undertones are some touches of gentle satire
Where does the pseudonym Lewis Carroll come from ?
Dodgson arrived at this pen name by taking his own names Charles
Lutwidge, translating them into Latin as Carolus Ludovicus, then reversing
and retranslating them into English.
Later years
In 1876, Dodgson produced his next great work, The Hunting of
the Snark, a fantastical "nonsense" poem, exploring the
adventures of a bizarre crew of nine tradesmen and one beaver,
who set off to find the snark.
In 1895, 30 years after the publication of his masterpieces,
Carroll attempted a comeback, producing a two-volume tale of
the fairy siblings Sylvie and Bruno. Carroll entwines two plots
set in two alternative worlds, one set in rural England and the
other in the fairytale kingdoms of Elfland, Outland, and others. The fairytale world satirizes
English society, and more specifically the world of academia. Sylvie and Bruno came out in two
volumes and is considered a lesser work, although it has remained in print for over a century.
Dodgson had a creative mind and invented games for children and objects !
His existence remained little changed over the last twenty years of his life, despite his growing
wealth and fame. He continued to teach until 1881. Public appearances included attending
the West End musical Alice in Wonderland (the first major live production of his Alice books) at
the Prince of Wales Theatre on 30 December 1886.
Dodgson died of pneumonia following influenza on 14 January 1898 at
his sisters' home, in Guildford, England. He was two weeks away from
turning 66 years old. His funeral was held at the nearby St Mary's
Church. His body was buried at the Mount Cemetery in Guildford.
