About the author: Lewis Carroll
Charles
Lutwidge Dodgson was a teacher of
mathematics at Oxford and a deacon of the Anglican Church. Some colleagues knew
him as a somewhat reclusive “stammerer”, but he was generally seen as a devout
scholar; one dean said he was "pure in heart." To readers all over
the world, he became renowned as Lewis Carroll, the author of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.
Charles Dodgson was born in 1832 in Daresbury, a village in northwest England, the third child of Charles Dodgson, an Anglican clergyman, and his wife, Frances. As the household grew to include 11 children, Charles did not lack for company. He told his brothers and sisters stories, made up games and wrote magazines with them, later in life, he really enjoyed entertaining children, and they loved him in return.
After enrolling at Oxford in 1850, at age 18, Dodgson became a "senior student” at the university's College of Christ Church. According to college rules, senior students had to be ordained as priests and take a vow of celibacy; Dodgson evaded the ordination rule and lived at the college unmarried, until his death in 1898, less than two weeks before his 66th birthday.
Like many Victorian bachelors, he became a sort of uncle to his friends' children, making up stories and games and taking them on short trips; the role ensured him a warm welcome in many homes. In 1855, Dean Henry Liddell arrived at Christ Church with his wife, Lorina, their son, Harry and daughters Lorina, Alice and Edith. Before long, Dodgson struck up a friendship with Harry, then nine.
Dodgson particularly liked to pack a picnic lunch and take the Liddell children boating on the Thames, with adult friends or family to share in the rowing. On a July afternoon in 1862, he took the three Liddell sisters on a stretch of the river between Oxford and Godstow and told them the story that would become Alice. Alice Liddell, then 10, was delighted that the main character bore her name and asked Dodgson to write down the story. In 1864, he did gave Alice a present: a bound manuscript titled Alice's Adventures Underground.
The next year an expanded version of the story was published as a book, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. It quickly made the name "Lewis Carroll" famous. He retired from teaching mathematics in 1881. While visiting some of his sisters in Guildford, just outside London, in 1898, he became ill. He died there of pneumonia on January 14 of that year.
Other Literary Works:
Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There
The Hunting of the Snark
Sylvie and Bruno
Works Cited:
Woolf, Jenny. "Unusual Suspect." Smithsonian 41.1 (2010): 84-94. Academic Search Premier. Web. 16 Jan. 2014.
Charles Dodgson was born in 1832 in Daresbury, a village in northwest England, the third child of Charles Dodgson, an Anglican clergyman, and his wife, Frances. As the household grew to include 11 children, Charles did not lack for company. He told his brothers and sisters stories, made up games and wrote magazines with them, later in life, he really enjoyed entertaining children, and they loved him in return.
After enrolling at Oxford in 1850, at age 18, Dodgson became a "senior student” at the university's College of Christ Church. According to college rules, senior students had to be ordained as priests and take a vow of celibacy; Dodgson evaded the ordination rule and lived at the college unmarried, until his death in 1898, less than two weeks before his 66th birthday.
Like many Victorian bachelors, he became a sort of uncle to his friends' children, making up stories and games and taking them on short trips; the role ensured him a warm welcome in many homes. In 1855, Dean Henry Liddell arrived at Christ Church with his wife, Lorina, their son, Harry and daughters Lorina, Alice and Edith. Before long, Dodgson struck up a friendship with Harry, then nine.
Dodgson particularly liked to pack a picnic lunch and take the Liddell children boating on the Thames, with adult friends or family to share in the rowing. On a July afternoon in 1862, he took the three Liddell sisters on a stretch of the river between Oxford and Godstow and told them the story that would become Alice. Alice Liddell, then 10, was delighted that the main character bore her name and asked Dodgson to write down the story. In 1864, he did gave Alice a present: a bound manuscript titled Alice's Adventures Underground.
The next year an expanded version of the story was published as a book, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. It quickly made the name "Lewis Carroll" famous. He retired from teaching mathematics in 1881. While visiting some of his sisters in Guildford, just outside London, in 1898, he became ill. He died there of pneumonia on January 14 of that year.
Other Literary Works:
Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There
The Hunting of the Snark
Sylvie and Bruno
Works Cited:
Woolf, Jenny. "Unusual Suspect." Smithsonian 41.1 (2010): 84-94. Academic Search Premier. Web. 16 Jan. 2014.