CARROLL, Lewis

“Curiouser and curiouser.”

Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, is better known by his pseudonym Lewis Carroll.

Born in 1832, in Daresbury, Cheshire, Dodgson was educated at Rugby, before reading mathematics at Christ Church, Oxford. He remained in Oxford as a Mathematics professor and on 4th July, 1862 took the now famous river cruise with a group of friends, which included the three daughters of the Dean of Christ Church, Alice, Lorina and Edith Liddell. Dodgson entertained the Liddell children with a tale of Wonderland, which Alice Liddell begged him to commit to paper. He did this and added a few of his own illustrations. Before giving the book to Alice, Dodgson showed the the tale to several friends, including fantasy writer George MacDonald, who encouraged him to have the book published. In order to get the tale ready for publication it was enlarged and Punch illustrator, John Tenniel, was commissioned to do the drawings. Macmillan then printed around 2000 copies of the book in 1865, but both artist and author were unhappy with the poor quality printing and insisted it was reprinted before being published. Using a different printer the 1866 version is the first published edition. It has gone on to be considered one of the finest children's books ever written.

Besides the Alice books, he wrote many others including poems, pamphlets and articles. He was a skilled mathematician, logician and pioneering photographer and he invented a wealth of games and puzzles which are of great interest today. 

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