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Lewis Carroll

 
Lewis Carroll

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Lewis Carroll



 
 
Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (27 January 1832 – 14 January 1898), better known by the pen name
Pen name

A pen name, nom de plume, or literary double, is a pseudonym adopted by an author. A pen name may be used to make the author's name more distinctive, to disguise his or her gender, to distance an author from some or all of his or her works, to protect the author from retribution for his or her writings, or for any of a number of...
 Lewis Carroll , was an English
England

native_name =|conventional_long_name = England|common_name = England|image_flag = Flag of England.svg|image_coat = England COA.svg|symbol_type = Royal Coat of Arms...
 author
Author

An author is defined both as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created....
, mathematician
Mathematics

Mathematics is the study of quantity, structure, space, change, and related topics of pattern and form. Mathematicians seek out patterns whether found in numbers, space, natural science, computers, imaginary abstractions, or elsewhere....
, logic
Logic

Logic is the study of the principles of valid demonstration and inference. Logic is a branch of philosophy, a part of the classical Trivium . The word derives from Greek language ?????? , fem....
ian, Anglican deacon
Deacon

Deacon is a role in the Christianity that is generally associated with service of some kind, but which varies among theological and denominational traditions....
 and photographer
Photographer

A photographer is a person who takes a photograph using a camera. A professional photographer uses photography to make a living whilst an amateur photographer does not earn a living and typically takes photographs for pleasure and to record an event, place or person for future enjoyment....
.

His most famous writings are Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is a novel written by England author Charles Lutwidge Dodgson under the pseudonym Lewis Carroll. It tells the story of a girl named Alice who falls down a Rabbit hole into a fantasy world populated by peculiar and anthropomorphic creatures....
 and its sequel Through the Looking-Glass
Through the Looking-Glass

Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There is a work of children's literature by Lewis Carroll , generally categorized as literary nonsense....
 as well as the poems "The Hunting of the Snark
The Hunting of the Snark

The Hunting of the Snark is a Literary nonsense poem written by Lewis Carroll in 1874, when he was 42 years old. It describes "with infinite humor the impossible voyage of an improbable crew to find an inconceivable creature"....
" and "Jabberwocky
Jabberwocky

"Jabberwocky" is a poem of nonsense verse written by Lewis Carroll, originally featured as a part of his novel Through the Looking-Glass . It is considered by many to be one of the greatest literary nonsense poems written in the English language....
", all considered to be within the genre of literary nonsense
Literary nonsense

Literary nonsense refers to a style or motif in literature that plays with the conventions of language and the rules of logic and reason via sensical and non-sensical elements....
.

His facility at word play
Word play

Word play is a literary technique in which the words that are used become the main subject of the work. Puns, phonetic mix-ups such as spoonerisms, obscure words and meanings, clever rhetorical excursions, oddly formed sentences, and telling character names are common examples of word play....
, logic
Logic

Logic is the study of the principles of valid demonstration and inference. Logic is a branch of philosophy, a part of the classical Trivium . The word derives from Greek language ?????? , fem....
, and fantasy
Fantasy

Fantasy is a genre that uses magic and other supernatural forms as a primary element of Plot , Theme , and/or Setting . Fantasy is generally distinguished from science fiction and horror by the expectation that it steers clear of technological and macabre themes, respectively, though there is a great deal of overlap between the three ....
 has delighted audiences ranging from children to the literary elite, and beyond this his work has become embedded deeply in modern culture, directly influencing many artists.

There are societies dedicated to the enjoyment and promotion of his works and the investigation of his life in many parts of the world including United States
United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
, Japan
Japan

Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, People's Republic of China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south....
, the United Kingdom
United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom , the UK or Britain,is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe....
, and New Zealand
New Zealand

New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses , and numerous Islands of New Zealand, most notably Stewart Island/Rakiura and the Chatham Islands....
.

son's family was predominantly northern English
England

native_name =|conventional_long_name = England|common_name = England|image_flag = Flag of England.svg|image_coat = England COA.svg|symbol_type = Royal Coat of Arms...
, with Irish
Ireland

Ireland is the List of islands by area in Europe, and the twentieth-largest island in the world. It lies to the north-west of continental Europe and is surrounded by hundreds of islands and islet....
 connections.






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Quotations


Give any message from me to Amy that you think will be most likely to surprise her.

To Gaynor Simpson, 27 December 1873

I have said it thrice;What I tell you three times is true.

The Hunting of the Snark: Fit the first: The Landing

Other maps are such shapes, with their islands and capes!But weve got our brave captain to thank(So the crew would protest) that hes bought us the best -A perfect and absolute blank!.

Ibid: Fit the second: The Bellman's Speech

But the principal failing occurred in the sailing,And the Bellman, perplexed and distressed,Said he had hoped, at least, when the wind blew due EastThat the ship would not travel due West!

Ibid

You may seek it with thimbles - and seek it with care;You may hunt it with forks and hope;You may threaten its life with a railway-share;You may charm it with smiles and soap -.

Ibid: Fit the third: The Baker's Tale

In the midst of the word he was trying to say,In the midst of his laughter and glee,He had softly and suddenly vanished away -For the Snark was a Boojum, you see.

Ibid: Fit the eighth: The Vanishing





Encyclopedia


Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (27 January 1832 – 14 January 1898), better known by the pen name
Pen name

A pen name, nom de plume, or literary double, is a pseudonym adopted by an author. A pen name may be used to make the author's name more distinctive, to disguise his or her gender, to distance an author from some or all of his or her works, to protect the author from retribution for his or her writings, or for any of a number of...
 Lewis Carroll , was an English
England

native_name =|conventional_long_name = England|common_name = England|image_flag = Flag of England.svg|image_coat = England COA.svg|symbol_type = Royal Coat of Arms...
 author
Author

An author is defined both as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created....
, mathematician
Mathematics

Mathematics is the study of quantity, structure, space, change, and related topics of pattern and form. Mathematicians seek out patterns whether found in numbers, space, natural science, computers, imaginary abstractions, or elsewhere....
, logic
Logic

Logic is the study of the principles of valid demonstration and inference. Logic is a branch of philosophy, a part of the classical Trivium . The word derives from Greek language ?????? , fem....
ian, Anglican deacon
Deacon

Deacon is a role in the Christianity that is generally associated with service of some kind, but which varies among theological and denominational traditions....
 and photographer
Photographer

A photographer is a person who takes a photograph using a camera. A professional photographer uses photography to make a living whilst an amateur photographer does not earn a living and typically takes photographs for pleasure and to record an event, place or person for future enjoyment....
.

His most famous writings are Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is a novel written by England author Charles Lutwidge Dodgson under the pseudonym Lewis Carroll. It tells the story of a girl named Alice who falls down a Rabbit hole into a fantasy world populated by peculiar and anthropomorphic creatures....
 and its sequel Through the Looking-Glass
Through the Looking-Glass

Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There is a work of children's literature by Lewis Carroll , generally categorized as literary nonsense....
 as well as the poems "The Hunting of the Snark
The Hunting of the Snark

The Hunting of the Snark is a Literary nonsense poem written by Lewis Carroll in 1874, when he was 42 years old. It describes "with infinite humor the impossible voyage of an improbable crew to find an inconceivable creature"....
" and "Jabberwocky
Jabberwocky

"Jabberwocky" is a poem of nonsense verse written by Lewis Carroll, originally featured as a part of his novel Through the Looking-Glass . It is considered by many to be one of the greatest literary nonsense poems written in the English language....
", all considered to be within the genre of literary nonsense
Literary nonsense

Literary nonsense refers to a style or motif in literature that plays with the conventions of language and the rules of logic and reason via sensical and non-sensical elements....
.

His facility at word play
Word play

Word play is a literary technique in which the words that are used become the main subject of the work. Puns, phonetic mix-ups such as spoonerisms, obscure words and meanings, clever rhetorical excursions, oddly formed sentences, and telling character names are common examples of word play....
, logic
Logic

Logic is the study of the principles of valid demonstration and inference. Logic is a branch of philosophy, a part of the classical Trivium . The word derives from Greek language ?????? , fem....
, and fantasy
Fantasy

Fantasy is a genre that uses magic and other supernatural forms as a primary element of Plot , Theme , and/or Setting . Fantasy is generally distinguished from science fiction and horror by the expectation that it steers clear of technological and macabre themes, respectively, though there is a great deal of overlap between the three ....
 has delighted audiences ranging from children to the literary elite, and beyond this his work has become embedded deeply in modern culture, directly influencing many artists.

There are societies dedicated to the enjoyment and promotion of his works and the investigation of his life in many parts of the world including United States
United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
, Japan
Japan

Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, People's Republic of China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south....
, the United Kingdom
United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom , the UK or Britain,is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe....
, and New Zealand
New Zealand

New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses , and numerous Islands of New Zealand, most notably Stewart Island/Rakiura and the Chatham Islands....
.

Early life


Antecedents

Dodgson's family was predominantly northern English
England

native_name =|conventional_long_name = England|common_name = England|image_flag = Flag of England.svg|image_coat = England COA.svg|symbol_type = Royal Coat of Arms...
, with Irish
Ireland

Ireland is the List of islands by area in Europe, and the twentieth-largest island in the world. It lies to the north-west of continental Europe and is surrounded by hundreds of islands and islet....
 connections. Conservative and High Church
High church

"High Church" relates to ecclesiology and liturgy in Anglican theology and practice. Although used by several Protestant Christian denominations, the term has traditionally been associated with the Anglican tradition in particular....
 Anglican
Anglicanism

Anglicanism is a tradition of Christianity faith. Churches in this tradition either have historical connections to the Church of England or have similar beliefs, worship and church structures....
, most of Dodgson's ancestors were army
British Army

The British Army is the Army branch of the British Armed Forces. It came into being with the unification of the Kingdoms of Kingdom of England and Kingdom of Scotland into the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707....
 officers or Church of England
Church of England

The Church of England is the State religion Christianity Ecclesia in England, the Mother Church of the worldwide Anglican Communion and the oldest among the communion's thirty-eight independent national and regional churches....
 clergymen. His great-grandfather, also Charles Dodgson, had risen through the ranks of the church to become a bishop. His grandfather, another Charles, had been an army
Army

An army , in the broadest sense, is the land-based armed forces of a nation. It may also include other branches of the military such as an air force....
 captain
Captain (British Army and Royal Marines)

File:UK-Army-OF2.gifCaptain is a junior officer rank of the British Army and Royal Marines. It ranks above Lieutenant and below Major and has a NATO ranking code of OF-2....
, killed in action in 1803 when his two sons were hardly more than babies. His mother's name was Frances Jane Lutwidge.

The elder of these sons — yet another Charles — was Carroll's father. He reverted to the other family business and took holy orders
Holy Orders

Historically, the word "order" designated an established civil body or corporation with a hierarchy, and :wikt:ordinatio meant legal incorporation into an ordo....
. He went to Rugby School
Rugby School

Rugby School, located in the town of Rugby, Warwickshire, Warwickshire, is regarded as one of the UK's leading co-educational boarding school and is one of the oldest public school in England....
, and thence to Christ Church, Oxford
Christ Church, Oxford

Christ Church , is one of the largest Colleges of the University of Oxford of the University of Oxford in England. As well as being a college, Christ Church is also the cathedral church of the diocese of Oxford, namely Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford....
. He was mathematically
Mathematics

Mathematics is the study of quantity, structure, space, change, and related topics of pattern and form. Mathematicians seek out patterns whether found in numbers, space, natural science, computers, imaginary abstractions, or elsewhere....
 gifted and won a double first degree, which could have been the prelude to a brilliant academic career. Instead he married his first cousin in 1827 and became a country parson
Parson

In the pre-Protestant Reformation church, a parson was the priest of an independent parish church, that is, a parish church not under the control of a larger ecclesiastical or monastic organisation....
.

Young Charles' father was an active and highly conservative clergyman of the Anglican church who involved himself, sometimes influentially, in the intense religious disputes that were dividing the Anglican church. He was High Church, inclining to Anglo-Catholicism
Anglo-Catholicism

The terms Anglo-Catholic and Anglo-Catholicism describe people, beliefs and practices within Anglicanism that affirm the Catholic, rather than Protestantism, heritage and identity of the Anglican churches....
, an admirer of Newman and the Tractarian movement, and he did his best to instill such views in his children. Young Charles, however, was to develop an ambiguous relationship with his father's values and with the Anglican church as a whole.

Young Charles

Dodgson was born in the little parsonage of Daresbury
Daresbury

Daresbury is a small rural village, civil parish and Ward in the unitary authority of Halton and part of the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England....
 in Cheshire
Cheshire

Cheshire is a Counties of England in North West England. The county town, and the location of the county council, is the City status in the United Kingdom of Chester, although Cheshire's largest town in terms of area and population is Warrington....
, the oldest boy but already the third child of the four-and-a-half year old marriage. Eight more were to follow. When Charles was 11, his father was given the living
Benefice

Originally a benefice was a gift of land for life as a reward for services rendered. The word comes from the Latin language noun beneficium, meaning "benefit"....
 of Croft-on-Tees
Croft-on-Tees

Croft-on-Tees is a village in the Richmondshire district of North Yorkshire, England. South of Darlington, it stands on the opposite side of the River Tees from Hurworth-on-Tees and is situated on the A167 road....
 in north Yorkshire
Yorkshire

Yorkshire is a Historic counties of England of northern England and the largest in Great Britain. Because of its great size, over time functions were increasingly undertaken by its subdivisions, which have been subject to History of local government in Yorkshire....
, and the whole family moved to the spacious Rectory. This remained their home for the next twenty-five years.

During the earlier times in his life, young Dodgson was educated at home. His "reading lists" preserved in the family testify to a precocious intellect: at the age of seven the child was reading The Pilgrim's Progress
The Pilgrim's Progress

The Pilgrim's Progress from This World to That Which Is to Come by John Bunyan is a Christian allegory. It is regarded as one of the most significant works of English literature, has been translated into more than 200 languages, and has never been out of print....
. He also suffered from a stammer
Stammer

Stammer may refer to stuttering or:People* Notker of St Gall "Notker the Stammerer" * Louis the Stammerer * Kay Stammers , British tennis player...
 — a condition shared by his siblings — that often influenced his social life throughout his years. At twelve he was sent away to a small private school at nearby Richmond
Richmond, North Yorkshire

Richmond is a market town on the River Swale in North Yorkshire, England and is the administrative centre of the district of Richmondshire. Situated on the edge of the Yorkshire Dales National Park, it is a popular tourist destination, with a total population of 8970....
, where he appears to have been happy and settled. But in 1846, young Dodgson moved on to Rugby School
Rugby School

Rugby School, located in the town of Rugby, Warwickshire, Warwickshire, is regarded as one of the UK's leading co-educational boarding school and is one of the oldest public school in England....
, where he was evidently less happy, for as he wrote some years after leaving the place:

I cannot say ... that any earthly considerations would induce me to go through my three years again ... I can honestly say that if I could have been ... secure from annoyance at night, the hardships of the daily life would have been comparative trifles to bear.

Scholastically, though, he excelled with apparent ease. "I have not had a more promising boy his age since I came to Rugby" observed R.B. Mayor, the Mathematics master.

Oxford

He left Rugby at the end of 1849 and, after an interval that remains unexplained, went on in January 1851 to Oxford
University of Oxford

The University of Oxford , located in the city of Oxford, Oxfordshire, England, is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation in the English-speaking world....
, attending his father's old college, Christ Church
Christ Church, Oxford

Christ Church , is one of the largest Colleges of the University of Oxford of the University of Oxford in England. As well as being a college, Christ Church is also the cathedral church of the diocese of Oxford, namely Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford....
. He had only been at Oxford two days when he received a summons home. His mother had died of "inflammation of the brain
Brain

The brain is the center of the nervous system in all vertebrate, and most invertebrate, animals. Some primitive animals such as cnidarian and echinoderm have a decentralized nervous system without a brain, while sponges lack any nervous system at all....
" — perhaps meningitis
Meningitis

Meningitis is a medical condition caused by inflammation of the protective membranes covering the brain and spinal cord, known collectively as the meninges....
 or a stroke
Stroke

A stroke is the rapidly developing loss of brain function due to a disturbance in the blood supply to the brain. According to the National Stroke Association, a "stroke" occurs when a blood clot blocks and artery or a blood vessel breaks, interrupting blood flow to an area of the brain....
 — at the age of forty-seven.

His early academic career veered between high-octane promise and irresistible distraction. He may not always have worked hard, but he was exceptionally gifted and achievement came easily to him. In 1852 he received a First
First Degree

First Degree was a 9 part drama series made by BBC Wales which aired in 2002. The series followed the lives, trials and tribulations of students in the fictional Bay College, one of several hi-tech media schools owned and run by an enigmatic entrepreneur based in Sacramento, California known only as The Founder....
 in Honour Moderations and was shortly thereafter nominated to a Studentship
Studentship

A studentship is similar to a scholarship but involves summer work on a research project. The financial amount paid to the recipient is normally tax-free, but the recipient is required to fulfill work requirements....
, by his father's old friend Canon Edward Pusey. However, a little later he failed an important scholarship through his self-confessed inability to apply himself to study. Even so, his talent as a mathematician
Mathematician

A mathematician is a person whose primary area of study and/or research is the field of mathematics....
 won him the Christ Church Mathematical Lectureship, which he continued to hold for the next twenty-six years. The income was good, but the work bored him. Many of his pupils were older and richer than he was, and almost all of them were uninterested. However, despite early unhappiness, Dodgson was to remain at Christ Church, in various capacities, until his death.

Character and appearance


Physical appearance

The young adult Charles Dodgson was about six feet tall, slender and deemed attractive, with curling brown hair and blue or grey eyes (depending on the account). He was described in later life as somewhat asymmetrical
Asymmetry

Asymmetry is the absence of, or a violation of, a symmetry....
, and as carrying himself rather stiffly and awkwardly, though this may be on account of a knee injury sustained in middle age. As a very young child, he suffered a fever that left him deaf in one ear. At the age of seventeen, he suffered a severe attack of whooping cough
Pertussis

Pertussis, also known as the whooping cough, is a highly contagious disease caused by the bacterium Bordetella pertussis; it derived its name from the"whooping" sound made from the exhalation of air during a cough.; a similar, milder disease is caused by Bordetella parapertussis....
, which was probably responsible for his chronically weak chest in later life. Another defect he carried into adulthood was what he referred to as his "hesitation", a stammer
Stuttering

Stuttering, also known as stammering in the United Kingdom, is a speech disorder in which the flow of Speech communication is disrupted by involuntary repetitions and prolongations of sounds, syllables, words or phrases, and involuntary silent pauses or blocks in which the stutterer is unable to produce sounds....
 he acquired in early childhood and which plagued him throughout his life.

Stammer

The stammer has always been a potent part of the conceptions
Legend

A legend is a narrative of human actions that are perceived both by teller and listeners to take place within human history and to possess certain qualities that give the tale verisimilitude ....
 of Dodgson; it is part of the belief that he stammered only in adult company and was free and fluent with children, but there is no evidence to support this idea. Many children of his acquaintance remembered the stammer while many adults failed to notice it. Dodgson himself seems to have been far more acutely aware of it than most people he met; it is said he caricature
Caricature

A caricature is either a portrait that exaggerates or distorts the essence of a person or thing to create an easily identifiable visual likeness, or in literature, a description of a person using exaggeration of some characteristics and oversimplification of others....
d himself as the Dodo
Dodo (Alice's Adventures in Wonderland)

The Dodo is a fictional character appearing in Chapters 2 and 3 of the book Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll . The Dodo is a caricature of the author....
 in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, referring to his difficulty in pronouncing his last name, but this is one of the many "facts" oft-repeated, for which no firsthand evidence remains. He did indeed refer to himself as the dodo, but that this was a reference to his stammer is simply speculation.

Personality

Although Dodgson's stammer troubled him, it was never so debilitating that it prevented him from applying his other personal qualities to do well in society. At a time when people commonly devised their own amusements and when singing and recitation were required social skills, the young Dodgson was well-equipped to be an engaging entertainer. He could sing tolerably well and was not afraid to do so before an audience. He was adept at mimicry and storytelling, and was, reputedly, quite good at charades
Charades

Charades or charade is a word game guessing game. In the form most played today, it is an acting game in which one player acts out a word or phrase, often by pantomime similar-sounding words, and the other players guess the word or phrase....
.

Dodgson was also quite socially ambitious and anxious to make his mark on the world as a writer or an artist. In the interim between his early published writing and the success of the Alice books, he began to move in the Pre-Raphaelite social circle. His scholastic career may well have been intended as something of a stop-gap on the way to other more exciting achievements. He first met John Ruskin
John Ruskin

John Ruskin was a British art critic and social thought, also remembered as an author, poet and artist. His essays on art and architecture were extremely influential in the Victorian era and Edwardian period eras....
 in 1857 and became friendly with him. He developed a close relationship with Dante Gabriel Rossetti
Dante Gabriel Rossetti

Dante Gabriel Rossetti was an English poet, illustrator, Painting and translator....
 and his family, and also knew William Holman Hunt
William Holman Hunt

William Holman Hunt Order of Merit was a British painter, and one of the founders of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood....
, John Everett Millais
John Everett Millais

Sir John Everett Millais, 1st Baronet, Royal Academy was an English Painting and illustrator and one of the founders of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood....
, and Arthur Hughes
Arthur Hughes (artist)

Arthur Hughes , was an England painter and illustrator associated with the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood....
 among other artists. He also knew the fairy-tale author George MacDonald
George MacDonald

George MacDonald was a Scotland author, poet, and Christian minister.Though no longer well known, his works have inspired admiration in such notables as W....
 well — it was the enthusiastic reception of Alice by the young MacDonald children that convinced him to submit the work for publication.

Dodgson the artist


The author

From a young age, Dodgson wrote poetry and short stories
Short story

The short story refers to a work of fiction that is usually written in prose, usually in narrative format. This format or medium tends to be more pointed than longer works of fiction, such as novellas and novels or books....
, both contributing heavily to the family magazine Mischmasch
Mischmasch

Mischmasch was a periodical that Lewis Carroll wrote and illustrated for the amusement of his family from 1855 to 1862. It is notable for containing the earliest version of the poem "Jabberwocky", which Carroll would later expand and publish in Through the Looking Glass....
 and later sending them to various magazines, enjoying moderate success. Between 1854 and 1856, his work appeared in the national publications, The Comic Times and The Train, as well as smaller magazines like the Whitby Gazette
Whitby Gazette

The Whitby Gazette is an English provincial newspaper published in Whitby, North Yorkshire.It was founded 6 January 1854 by Ralph Horne, a local printer, bookseller, stationer, bookbinder, paperhanger and shipowner, who was also a member of the Whitby Literary and Philosophical Society....
 and the Oxford Critic. Most of this output was humorous, sometimes satirical
Satire

Satire is often strictly defined as a literary genre; although, in practice, it is also found in the graphic arts and performing arts. In satire, human or individual vices, follies, abuses, or shortcomings are held up to censure by means of ridicule, derision, burlesque, irony, or other methods, ideally with the intent to bring about improv...
, but his standards and ambitions were exacting. "I do not think I have yet written anything worthy of real publication (in which I do not include the Whitby Gazette or the Oxonian Advertiser), but I do not despair of doing so some day", he wrote in July 1855.

In 1856 he published his first piece of work under the name that would make him famous. A romantic poem called "Solitude" appeared in The Train under the authorship of "Lewis Carroll". This pseudonym
Pseudonym

A pseudonym, , is a fictitious alternative to a person's legal name. In some cases, pseudonyms are adopted because it is part of a cultural or organizational tradition, as in the case of Religious names used by members of some religious orders and "cadre names" used by Communist party leaders such as Leon Trotsky and Joseph Stalin....
 was a play on his real name; Lewis was the anglicised form of Ludovicus, which was the Latin
Latin

Latin is an Italic language, historically spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Through the Military history of the Roman Empire, Latin spread throughout the Mediterranean and a large part of Europe....
 for Lutwidge, and Carroll being an anglicised version of Carolus, the Latin for Charles.

Alice
Alice Par John Tenniel 30
In the same year, 1856, a new Dean, Henry Liddell
Henry Liddell

Henry George Liddell was List of Vice-Chancellors of the University of Oxford, Dean of Christ Church, Oxford, headmaster of Westminster School, author of A History of Rome , and co-author of the monumental work A Greek-English Lexicon, which is still used by students of Greek....
, arrived at Christ Church
Christ Church, Oxford

Christ Church , is one of the largest Colleges of the University of Oxford of the University of Oxford in England. As well as being a college, Christ Church is also the cathedral church of the diocese of Oxford, namely Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford....
, bringing with him his young family, all of whom would figure largely in Dodgson's life and, over the following years, greatly influence his writing career. Dodgson became close friends with Liddell's wife, Lorina, and their children, particularly the three sisters: Lorina, Edith and Alice Liddell. He was for many years widely assumed to have derived his own "Alice" from Alice Liddell
Alice Liddell

Alice Pleasance Liddell was the inspiration for the children's classic Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll. Her surname Liddell is ...
. This was given some apparent substance by the fact the acrostic
Acrostic

An acrostic is a poem or other writing in an alphabetic writing system, in which the first letter, syllable or word of each line, paragraph or other recurring feature in the text spells out another message....
 poem at the end of Through the Looking Glass spells out her name, and that there are many superficial references to her hidden in the text of both books. Dodgson himself, however, repeatedly denied in later life that his "little heroine" was based on any real child, and frequently dedicated his works to girls of his acquaintance, adding their names in acrostic poems at the beginning of the text. Gertrude Chataway's name appears in this form at the beginning of The Hunting of the Snark
The Hunting of the Snark

The Hunting of the Snark is a Literary nonsense poem written by Lewis Carroll in 1874, when he was 42 years old. It describes "with infinite humor the impossible voyage of an improbable crew to find an inconceivable creature"....
, and no one has ever suggested this means any of the characters in the narrative are based on her.

Though information is scarce (Dodgson's diaries for the years 1858–1862 are missing), it does seem clear that his friendship with the Liddell family was an important part of his life in the late 1850s, and he grew into the habit of taking the children (first the boy, Harry, and later the three girls) on rowing trips to nearby Nuneham Courtenay
Nuneham Courtenay

Nuneham Courtenay is a village in Oxfordshire, England. It lies about five miles south-east of Oxford.In the 1760s Simon Harcourt, 1st Earl Harcourt demolished the old village in order to create a landscaped park around Nuneham House his Palladian architecture built in 1756....
 or Godstow
Godstow

Godstow is to the west of the River Thames opposite Lower Wolvercote north of Port Meadow at Oxford in England, approximately three miles distant from the city centre....
.

It was on one such expedition, on 4 July 1862, that Dodgson invented the outline of the story that eventually became his first and largest commercial success. Having told the story and been begged by Alice Liddell to write it down, Dodgson eventually (after much delay) presented her with a handwritten, illustrated manuscript entitled Alice's Adventures Under Ground in November 1864.

Before this, the family of friend and mentor George MacDonald
George MacDonald

George MacDonald was a Scotland author, poet, and Christian minister.Though no longer well known, his works have inspired admiration in such notables as W....
 read Dodgson's incomplete manuscript, and the enthusiasm of the MacDonald children encouraged Dodgson to seek publication. In 1863, he had taken the unfinished manuscript to Macmillan the publisher, who liked it immediately. After the possible alternative titles Alice Among the Fairies and Alice's Golden Hour were rejected, the work was finally published as Alice's Adventures in Wonderland
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is a novel written by England author Charles Lutwidge Dodgson under the pseudonym Lewis Carroll. It tells the story of a girl named Alice who falls down a Rabbit hole into a fantasy world populated by peculiar and anthropomorphic creatures....
 in 1865 under the Lewis Carroll pen name, which Dodgson had first used some nine years earlier. The illustrations this time were by Sir John Tenniel
John Tenniel

Sir John Tenniel was an England illustrator.He drew many topical cartoons and caricatures for Punch magazine in the late 19th century, including the iconic dropping the pilot, but is best remembered today for his illustrations in Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass....
; Dodgson evidently thought that a published book would need the skills of a professional artist.

The overwhelming commercial success of the first Alice book changed Dodgson's life in many ways. The fame of his alter ego "Lewis Carroll" soon spread around the world. He was inundated with fan mail and with sometimes unwanted attention. Indeed, according to one popular story that Dodgson denied decades later, Queen Victoria herself enjoyed Alice In Wonderland so much that she suggested he dedicate his next book to her, and was accordingly presented with his next work, a scholarly volume entitled An Elementary Treatise on Determinants. He also began earning quite substantial sums of money. However, he didn't use this income as a means of abandoning his seemingly disliked post at Christ Church.

In 1872, a sequel — Through the Looking-Glass And What Alice Found There
Through the Looking-Glass

Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There is a work of children's literature by Lewis Carroll , generally categorized as literary nonsense....
 — was published. Its somewhat darker mood possibly reflects the changes in Dodgson's life. His father had recently died (1868), plunging him into a depression that would last some years.

The Hunting of the Snark
In 1876, Dodgson produced his last great work, The Hunting of the Snark
The Hunting of the Snark

The Hunting of the Snark is a Literary nonsense poem written by Lewis Carroll in 1874, when he was 42 years old. It describes "with infinite humor the impossible voyage of an improbable crew to find an inconceivable creature"....
, a fantastical "nonsense" poem, exploring the adventures of a bizarre crew of variously inadequate beings, and one beaver, who set off to find the eponymous creature. The painter Dante Gabriel Rossetti
Dante Gabriel Rossetti

Dante Gabriel Rossetti was an English poet, illustrator, Painting and translator....
 reputedly became convinced the poem was about him.

The photographer

Alice Liddell 2
In 1856, Dodgson took up the new art form of photography
Photography

Photography is the process, activity and art of creating still or moving by recording radiation on a sensitive medium, such as a photographic film, or an ....
, first under the influence of his uncle Skeffington Lutwidge, and later his Oxford friend Reginald Southey
Reginald Southey

Reginald Southey was an England physician.Southey was a nephew of Romantic poet Robert Southey, and the fifth son of medical doctor Henry Herbert Southey....
.

He soon excelled at the art and became a well-known gentleman-photographer, and he seems even to have toyed with the idea of making a living out of it in his very early years.

A recent study by Roger Taylor and Edward Wakeling exhaustively lists every surviving print, and Taylor calculates that just over fifty percent of his surviving work depicts young girls, though this may be a highly distorted figure as approximately 60% of his original photographic portfolio is now missing, so any firm conclusions are difficult. Dodgson also made many studies of men, women, male children and landscapes; his subjects also include skeletons, dolls, dogs, statues and paintings, and trees. His 'controversial' studies of nude children were long presumed lost, but six have since surfaced, five of which have been published.

Effie&john
He also found photography to be a useful entrée into higher social circles. During the most productive part of his career, he made portraits of notable sitters such as John Everett Millais
John Everett Millais

Sir John Everett Millais, 1st Baronet, Royal Academy was an English Painting and illustrator and one of the founders of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood....
, Ellen Terry
Ellen Terry

Dame Ellen Terry, Order of the British Empire was an English people stage actor. Terry became the leading Shakespearean actress in Britain....
, Dante Gabriel Rossetti
Dante Gabriel Rossetti

Dante Gabriel Rossetti was an English poet, illustrator, Painting and translator....
, Julia Margaret Cameron
Julia Margaret Cameron

Julia Margaret Cameron was a United Kingdom photographer. She became known for her portraits of celebrities of the time, and for King Arthur and similar legendary themed pictures....
, Michael Faraday
Michael Faraday

Michael Faraday, Fellow of the Royal Society was an English chemist and physicist who contributed to the fields of electromagnetism and electrochemistry....
 and Alfred, Lord Tennyson.

Dodgson abruptly ceased photography in 1880. Over 24 years, he had completely mastered the medium, set up his own studio on the roof of Tom Quad, and created around 3,000 images. Fewer than 1,000 have survived time and deliberate destruction. His reasons for abandoning photography remain uncertain.

With the advent of Modernism
Modernism

Modernism, in its broadest definition, is modern thought, character, or practice. More specifically, the term describes both a set of cultural tendencies and an array of associated cultural movements, originally arising from wide-scale and far-reaching changes to Western culture in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century....
 tastes changed, and his photography was forgotten from around 1920 until the 1960s. He is now considered by many to be one of the very best Victorian photographers, and is certainly the one who has had the most influence on modern art photographers
Fine art photography

File:The Steerage 1907 Stieglitz.jpgFine art photography refers to photographs that are created to fulfill the creative vision of the artist. Fine art photography stands in contrast to photojournalism and commercial photography....
.

The inventor

To promote letter writing, Dodgson invented The Wonderland Postage-Stamp Case in 1889. This was a cloth-backed folder with twelve slots, two marked for inserting the then most commonly used 1d. stamp, and one each for the other current denominations to 1s. The folder was then put into a slip case decorated with a picture of Alice on the front and the Cheshire Cat
Cheshire Cat

The Cheshire Cat is a List of fictional cats appearing in Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Alice first encounters it at Duchess 's house in her kitchen, and then later outside on the branches of a tree, where it appears and disappears at will, engaging Alice in amusing but sometimes vexing conversation....
 on the back. All could be conveniently carried in a pocket or purse. When issued it also included a copy of Carroll's pamphletted lecture, Eight or Nine Wise Words About Letter-Writing.

Another invention is a writing tablet called the Nyctograph for use at night that allowed for note-taking in the dark; thus eliminating the trouble of getting out of bed and striking a light when one wakes with an idea. The device consisted of a gridded card with sixteen squares and system of symbols representing an alphabet of Dodgson's design.

Among the games he devised outside of logic, croquet, billiards and those played on a chess board, there are a number of word games, including an early version of what today is known as Scrabble
Scrabble

Scrabble is a word game in which two to four players score points by forming words from individual lettered tiles on a game board marked with a 15-by-15 grid....
. He also appears to have invented, or at least certainly popularised, the Word Ladder
Word ladder

Word Ladder is a word game invented by Lewis Carroll, the author of books such as Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass....
 (or "doublet" as it was known at first); a form of brain-teaser that is still popular today: the game of changing one word into another by altering one letter at a time, each successive change always resulting in a genuine word. For instance, CAT is transformed into DOG by the following steps: CAT, COT, DOT, DOG.

Other items include a rule for finding the day of the week for any date; a means for justifying right margins on a typewriter; a steering device for a velociam (a type of tricycle); new systems of parliamentary representation; more nearly fair elimination rules for tennis tournaments; a new sort of postal money order; rules for reckoning postage; rules for a win in betting; rules for dividing a number by various divisors; a cardboard scale for the college common room he worked in later in life, which, held next to a glass, insured the right amount of liqueur for the price paid; a double sided adhesive strip for things like the fastening of envelopes or mounting things in books; a device for helping a bedridden invalid to read from a book placed sideways; and at least two ciphers.

The later years

Over the remaining twenty years of his life, throughout his growing wealth and fame, his existence remained little changed. He continued to teach at Christ Church until 1881, and remained in residence there until his death. His last novel, the two-volume Sylvie and Bruno
Sylvie and Bruno

Sylvie and Bruno, first published in 1889, and its 1893 second volume Sylvie and Bruno Concluded form the last novel by Lewis Carroll published during his lifetime....
, was published in 1889 and 1893 respectively. Its extraordinary convolutions and apparent confusion baffled most readers and it achieved little success. It does contain an extremely concise account of three-valued logic when Bruno counts "about a thousand and four" pigs because he is certain about the four but estimates the remainder. In three-valued logic, unknown plus four = unknown (see Null (SQL)
Null (SQL)

Null is a special marker used in SQL to indicate that a data value does not exist in the database. Introduced by the creator of the Relational model database model, Edgar F....
).

The only occasion on which (as far as is known) he travelled abroad was a trip to Russia
Russia

Russia , or the Russian Federation , is a list of countries spanning more than one continent country extending over much of northern Eurasia....
 in 1867, which he recounts in his "Russian Journal" which was first commercially published in 1935.

He died on 14 January 1898 at his sisters' home, "The Chestnuts" in Guildford
Guildford

Guildford is the county town of Surrey, England, as well as the seat for the Guildford and the administrative headquarters of the South East England region....
, of pneumonia following influenza. He was 2 weeks away from turning 66 years old. He is buried in Guildford at the Mount Cemetery
Mount Cemetery

Mount Cemetery is a cemetery in Guildford, Surrey, England.Two particularly famous people have been laid to rest in Mount Cemetery:* Edward Carpenter, the gay socialist poet and activist...
.

Controversies and mysteries


The priesthood

Dodgson had been groomed for the ordained ministry in the Anglican Church from a very early age and was expected, as a condition of his residency at Christ Church, to take holy orders
Holy Orders

Historically, the word "order" designated an established civil body or corporation with a hierarchy, and :wikt:ordinatio meant legal incorporation into an ordo....
 within four years of obtaining his master's degree. However, he evidently became reluctant to do this. He delayed the process for some time but eventually took deacon's orders on 22 December 1861. But when the time came a year later to progress to priestly orders, Dodgson appealed to the dean for permission not to proceed. This was against college rules, and initially Dean Liddell told him he would have to consult the college ruling body, which would almost undoubtedly have resulted in his being expelled. However, for unknown reasons, Dean Liddell changed his mind overnight and permitted Dodgson to remain at the college, in defiance of the rules. Uniquely amongst Senior Students of his time Dodgson never became a priest.

There is currently no conclusive evidence about why Dodgson rejected the priesthood. Some have suggested his stammer made him reluctant to take the step, because he was afraid of having to preach. Wilson quotes letters by Dodgson describing difficulty in reading lessons and prayers rather than preaching in his own words. But Dodgson did indeed preach in later life, even though not in priests orders, so it seems unlikely his impediment was a major factor affecting his choice.. Wilson also points out that the then Bishop of Oxford
Bishop of Oxford

The Bishop of Oxford is the diocesan bishop of the Church of England Diocese of Oxford in the Province of Canterbury; his seat is at Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford....
, Samuel Wilberforce
Samuel Wilberforce

Samuel Wilberforce was an England bishop in the Church of England, third son of William Wilberforce. Known as "Soapy Sam", Wilberforce was one of the greatest public speakers of his day....
, who ordained Dodgson, had strong views against members of the clergy going to the theatre, one of Dodgson's great interests. Others have suggested that he was having serious doubts about the Anglican church. It is known that he was interested in minority forms of Christianity (he was an admirer of FD Maurice
Frederick Maurice

John Frederick Denison Maurice, often known as F. D. Maurice was an England theology and socialism....
) and "alternative" religions (theosophy
Theosophy

Theosophy is a doctrine of religious philosophy and metaphysics originating with Madame Blavatsky . In this context, theosophy holds that all religions are attempts by the "Mahatma" to help humanity in evolving to greater perfection, and that each religion therefore has a portion of the truth....
). Dodgson became deeply troubled by an unexplained sense of sin and guilt at this time (the early 1860s), and frequently expressed the view in his diaries that he was a "vile and worthless" sinner, unworthy of the priesthood., and this sense of sin and unworthiness may well have had an impact on his decision to abandon the priesthood.

There is currently no certain explanation of why he rejected the priesthood, or why he was, at this time in his life, assailed by a sense of guilt and sin.

The missing diaries

At least four complete volumes and around seven pages of text are missing from Dodgson's 13 diaries. The loss of the volumes remains unexplained; the pages have been deliberately removed by an unknown hand. Most scholars assume the diary material was removed by family members in the interests of preserving the family name, but this has not been proven. All of the missing material, with the exception of a single page, is believed to date from the period between 1853 (when Dodgson was 22) and 1863 (when he was 32).

Many theories have been put forward to explain the missing material. A popular explanation for one particular missing page (27 June 1863) is that it might have been torn out to conceal the belief that Dodgson had proposed marriage on that day to the 11-year old Alice Liddell. However, there has never been any evidence to suggest this was so, and a paper that came to light in the Dodgson family archive in 1996 alleges some evidence to the contrary.

The "Cut Pages in Diary" document
This paper, known as the , was compiled by various members of Carroll's family after his death. Part of it may have been written at the time the pages were destroyed, though this is unclear. The document offers a brief summary of two diary pages that are now missing, including the one for 27 June 1863. The summary for this page states that Mrs. Liddell told Dodgson there was gossip circulating about him and the Liddell family's governess
Governess

A governess is a female employee of a family who teaches children within their home. In contrast to a nanny or a babysitter, she concentrates on teaching children, not their physical needs....
, as well as about his relationship with "Ina", presumably Alice's older sister, Lorina Liddell. The "break" with the Liddell family that occurred soon after was presumably in response to this gossip. An alternate interpretation has been made regarding Carroll's rumored involvement with "Ina": Lorina was also the name of Alice Liddell's mother. What is deemed most crucial and surprising is that the document seems to imply Dodgson's break with the family was not connected with Alice at all. However, until a primary source is discovered, the events of 27 June 1863 remain inconclusive.

Migraine and epilepsy

In his diary for the year 1880 Dodgson recorded experiencing his first episode of migraine
Migraine

Migraine is a neurology syndrome characterized by altered bodily perceptions, headaches, and nausea. Physiologically, the migraine headache is a neurological condition more common to women than to men....
 with aura, describing very accurately the process of 'moving fortifications' that are a manifestation of the aura stage of the syndrome. Several people have suggested the odd experiences Alice undergoes in the stories may have been inspired by migraine-like symptoms. Indeed a condition, Alice in Wonderland Syndrome
Alice in Wonderland syndrome

Alice in Wonderland syndrome , also known as Todd's syndrome, is a disorienting neurological condition which affects human perception. Sufferers may experience micropsia, macropsia, and/or size distortion of other sensory modalities....
, has been named after it. Also known as micropsia
Micropsia

Micropsia is a neurological condition affecting human visual perception, in which objects appear smaller than normal, and the subject bigger. It is the reverse of macropsia....
 and macropsia
Macropsia

Macropsia is a neurological condition affecting human visual perception, in which objects appear larger than normal, and the subject smaller. It is the reverse of micropsia....
, it is a brain condition affecting the way objects are perceived by the mind. For example, an afflicted person may look at a larger object, like a basketball, and perceive it as if it were the size of a mouse.

Dodgson also suffered two attacks in which he lost consciousness. He was diagnosed by three different doctors; a Dr. Morshead, Dr. Brooks, and Dr. Stedman, believed the attack and a consequent attack to be an "epileptiform" seizure (initially thought to be fainting, but Brooks changed his mind). Some have concluded from this he was a lifetime sufferer from this condition, but there is no evidence of this in his diaries beyond the diagnosis of the two attacks already mentioned. Some authors, in particular Sadi Ranson
Sadi ranson

Sadi Ranson-Polizzotti is a British poet and author living in the United States who has published widely in the United States and in Europe. Although she has written for print publications, she is most widely known as a result of her prolific output online....
, have suggested Carroll may have suffered from temporal lobe epilepsy
Temporal lobe epilepsy

Temporal lobe epilepsy is a form of Focal seizures epilepsy, a chronic neurology condition characterized by recurrent seizures. While focal epilepsy accounts for about 50% of all epilepsy cases, the prevalence of temporal lobe epilepsy among these cases remains uncertain....
 in which consciousness is not always completely lost, but altered, and in which the symptoms mimic many of the same experiences as Alice in Wonderland. Note that Carroll had at least one incidence in which he suffered full loss of consciousness and awoke with a bloody nose, which he recorded in his diary and noted that the episode left him not feeling himself for "quite sometime afterward". This attack was diagnosed as possibly "epileptiform" and Carroll himself later wrote of his "seizures" in the same diary. It's worth noting that epilepsy runs in families, and Carroll had at least one other family member with epilepsy (also recorded in his diaries), and that speech hesitations, facial asymmetry, as well as some deafness are not uncommon in certain epilepsies. It is also recorded that several of Dodgson's siblings suffered from a speech hesitation, suggesting again that any existing neurological condition was within the family as reported in Interviews & Recollections, editor Morton N. Cohen.

Suggestions of paedophilia

Dodgson's friendships with young girls, together with his perceived lack of interest in romantic attachments to adult women, and psychological readings of his work—especially his photographs of nude or semi-nude girls—have all led to speculation that he was, in modern parlance, a paedophile. This possibility has underpinned numerous modern interpretations of his life and work, particularly Dennis Potter
Dennis Potter

Dennis Christopher George Potter was an England dramatist, best known for The Singing Detective. His widely acclaimed television dramas mixed fantasy and reality, the personal and the social....
's play Alice and his screenplay for the motion picture, Dreamchild
Dreamchild

Dreamchild is a 1985 in film drama film produced by Verity Lambert, film director by Gavin Millar and written by Dennis Potter. It stars Coral Browne, Ian Holm, Peter Gallagher, Nicola Cowper and Amelia Shankley and is a fictionalized account of Alice Liddell, the child who inspired Lewis Carroll's famous Alice in Wonderland stories...
, and a number of recent biographies, including Michael Bakewell
Michael Bakewell

Michael Bakewell is a United Kingdom television producer. He is best known for his work during the 1960s, when he was the first Head of Plays at the BBC after Sydney Newman divided the drama department into separate series, serials and plays divisions in 1963....
's Lewis Carroll: A Biography (1996), Donald Thomas's Lewis Carroll: A Portrait with Background (1996) and Morton N. Cohen
Morton N. Cohen

Morton N. Cohen , Professor Emeritus of the City University of New York, is an United States author and scholar, best known for his extensive studies of Charles Lutwidge Dodgson....
's Lewis Carroll: A Biography (1995). All of these works more or less unequivocally assume that Dodgson was a paedophile, albeit a repressed and celibate one.

Cohen claims Dodgson's "sexual energies sought unconventional outlets", and further writes:

Cohen notes that Dodgson "apparently convinced many of his friends that his attachment to the nude female child form was free of any eroticism", but adds that "later generations look beneath the surface" (p. 229).

Cohen and other biographers argue that Dodgson may have wanted to marry the 11-year old Alice Liddell and that this was the cause of the unexplained "break" with the family in June 1863. But there has never been significant evidence to support the idea, and the 1996 discovery of the "cut pages in diary document" (see above) might imply that the 1863 "break" had less to do with Alice, but was perhaps connected with rumors involving her older sister Lorina, or possibly their governess.

Some writers, e.g., Derek Hudson and Roger Lancelyn Green
Roger Lancelyn Green

Roger Lancelyn Green was a British biographer and children's writer. He was an Oxford academic who formed part of the Inklings literary discussion group along with C.S....
, who have fallen short of accepting Dodgson as a paedophile, have tended to concur that he had a passion for small female children and next to no interest in the adult world.

"The Carroll Myth"

The accepted view of Dodgson's biography has been challenged recently by a group of scholars led by Hugues Lebailly
Hugues Lebailly

Hugues Lebailly is a France academic and Senior Lecturer in English Cultural Studies at the Sorbonne. He is known for his work on nineteenth-century English literature, particularly his studies of Lewis Carroll which, in combination with the work of Karoline Leach and others, have begun a reassessment of Carroll's life and personality....
 and Karoline Leach
Karoline Leach

Karoline Leach is a United Kingdom playwright and author, best known for her book In the Shadow of the Dreamchild , which re-examines the life of Lewis Carroll , the author of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland....
 and others who argue that Dodgson's diaries and letters reveal him to have been very different in many key aspects from the traditional image. Leach's book, In the Shadow of the Dreamchild
In the Shadow of the Dreamchild

In the Shadow of the Dreamchild: A New Understanding of Lewis Carroll is a book by United Kingdom author Karoline Leach that launched the concept of the "Carroll Myth"; the idea that many of the most famous aspects of Lewis Carroll's biography, including his supposed adoration of Alice Liddell, are more legend than fact....
, in particular has raised a considerable amount of controversy.

Lebailly has endeavoured to set Dodgson's child-photography within the "Victorian Child Cult", which perceived child-nudity as essentially an expression of innocence. Lebailly claims that studies of child nudes were mainstream and fashionable in Dodgson's time and that most photographers, including Oscar Gustave Rejlander
Oscar Gustave Rejlander

Oscar Gustave Rejlander was a pioneering Victorian Fine art photography....
 and Julia Margaret Cameron
Julia Margaret Cameron

Julia Margaret Cameron was a United Kingdom photographer. She became known for her portraits of celebrities of the time, and for King Arthur and similar legendary themed pictures....
, made them as a matter of course. Lebailly continues that child nudes even appeared on Victorian Christmas cards—implying a very different social and aesthetic assessment of such material. Lebailly concludes that it has been an error of Dodgson's biographers to view his child-photography with 20th or 21st century eyes, and to have presented it as some form of personal idiosyncrasy, when it was in fact a response to a prevalent aesthetic and philosophical movement of the time.

Leach posed a new analysis of Dodgson's sexuality. She argues that the allegations of paedophilia rose initially from a misunderstanding of Victorian morals, as well as the mistaken idea, fostered by Dodgson's various biographers, that he had no interest in adult women. She termed the traditional image of Dodgson "the Carroll Myth". She asserts his diaries show he was also keenly interested in adult women, married and single, and enjoyed several scandalous (by the social standards of his time) relationships with them. In later life many of those he described as "child-friends" were girls in their late teens and even twenties. She argues that suggestions of paedophilia evolved only many years after his death, when his well-meaning family had suppressed all evidence of his relationships with women in an effort to preserve his reputation, thus giving a false impression of a man interested only in little girls. Similarly, Leach traces the claim that many of Carroll's female friendships ended when the girls reached the age of 14 to a 1932 biography by Langford Reed, who Leach claims intended to suggest from this that Dodgson was a "pure man" untainted by sexual desire.

Sherry L. Ackerman argues that the Carroll Myth also extends to traditional, mainstream views of Carroll's spirituality. Ackerman proposes that Carroll, rather than being a conservative Victorian
Victorian era

The Victorian Era of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland was the period of Victoria of the United Kingdom reign from June 1837 to January 1901....
 Anglican, was actually a mystic. She links Carroll to the nineteenth century Neoplatonic Revival in Great Britain, as well as to accompanying trends of theosophy
Theosophy

Theosophy is a doctrine of religious philosophy and metaphysics originating with Madame Blavatsky . In this context, theosophy holds that all religions are attempts by the "Mahatma" to help humanity in evolving to greater perfection, and that each religion therefore has a portion of the truth....
 and spiritualism.

The concept of the Carroll Myth has been opposed by some leading Carroll scholars, in particular Morton Cohen
Morton Cohen

Morton Barnett Cohen is a former Australian politician, elected from 1965 to 1968 as a Liberal Party of Australia member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly, for the electoral district of Bligh....
 and Martin Gardner
Martin Gardner

Martin Gardner is a popular American mathematics and science writer specializing in recreational mathematics, but with interests encompassing magic , pseudoscience, literature , philosophy, scientific skepticism, and religion....
.

Works


See also

  • Dodgson condensation
    Dodgson condensation

    In mathematics, Dodgson condensation is a method of computing the determinants of square matrix. It is named for its inventor Charles Dodgson ....
  • Lewis Carroll identity
    Lewis Carroll identity

    The Lewis Carroll identity is an identity involving minor of a square matrix proved by Charles Dodgson , who used it in a method of numerical evaluation of matrix determinants called the Dodgson condensation....
  • Lewis Carroll Shelf Award
    Lewis Carroll Shelf Award

    The Lewis Carroll Shelf Award was given annually from 1958 to 1979 to books deemed to possess enough of the qualities of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll to enable them to sit on the same book shelf....
  • Lewis Carroll Society of North America
    Lewis Carroll Society of North America

    The Lewis Carroll Society of North America is a non-profit organization for the study of the works of Lewis Carroll. It publishes a newsletter, the Knight Letter. Its founder was Stan Marx....
  • Barbershop paradox
    Barbershop paradox

    The Barbershop Paradox was proposed by Lewis Carroll in a three-page essay entitled "A Logical Paradox" which appeared in the July 1894 issue of Mind ....
  • Jack the Ripper, Light-Hearted Friend
    Jack the Ripper, Light-Hearted Friend

    Jack the Ripper, Light-Hearted Friend is a 1996 book by Richard Wallace in which Wallace proposed a theory that British author Lewis Carroll, whose real name was Charles L....
    : deals with the unusual idea that Carroll may have been the Ripper.
  • Phantasmagoria: The Visions of Lewis Carroll
    Phantasmagoria: The Visions of Lewis Carroll

    Phantasmagoria: The Visions of Lewis Carroll is an upcoming fantasy horror film by Marilyn Manson with Geoffrey Cox and Anthony de Silva. It is directed by Marilyn Manson as part of his Celebritarian Corporation art movement, and is his directorial debut as a feature filmmaker....
    : An upcoming horror film based on the visions of Lewis Carroll, inspired, directed, and played by Marilyn Manson.
  • "Father William" which is a parody of Robert Southey's poem, "The Old Man’s Comforts and How He Gained Them".
  • RGS Worcester and The Alice Ottley School
    RGS Worcester and The Alice Ottley School

    See Royal Grammar School for the other schools with the name RGS.RGS Worcester and The Alice Ottley School is a coeducational, private, day school in Worcestershire, United Kingdom....
     - Miss Ottley, the first Headmistress of The Alice Ottley School, was a friend of Lewis Carroll, and as such, one of the school's houses
    RGS Worcester and The Alice Ottley School

    See Royal Grammar School for the other schools with the name RGS.RGS Worcester and The Alice Ottley School is a coeducational, private, day school in Worcestershire, United Kingdom....
     was named after him.


External links

  • background on the current controversy.
  • (selected colourised plates from his child photography)
  • at the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin
    University of Texas at Austin

    The University of Texas at Austin is a public university research university located in Austin, Texas, Texas, United States, and is the flagship#University campuses institution of University of Texas System....
  • A collection of articles by S. Ranson-Polizzotti and note of forthcoming book, summer, 2008.