 |
 |
England's Portal
Famous Englishmen & English Women
Lewis Carroll
(Charles Lutwidge Dodgson)
|
|
|
|
|
|
Lewis Carroll, real name the reverend
Charles Lutwidge Dodgson wasn't just a wonderful writer, he was also a famous
photographer, mathematician, and illustrator. An archetypal Victorian, when he
published Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, he used invented a pen name by
translating his first two names into Latin; "Carolus Lodovicus", and then
changed it into "Lewis Carroll."
Dodgson was born at Daresbury, Cheshire, on January 27, 1832. His parents were
clergyman Charles and Frances Dodgson (nee Lutwidge). He was the oldest of 11
children.
|
|
|
|
|
At an early age to entertain himself and his family Charles began magic tricks,
marionette shows, drawings, poems, and stories written for homemade newspapers.
Charles was eleven when his family moved to Croft in North Yorkshire and, at the
age of twelve, was sent to Richmond School as a border.
He was taught at Richmond by James Tate who formed a good idea of Charles'
potential, especially in mathematics. On the 27th of January 1846 Charles was
enrolled at Rugby and stayed for three years.
He graduated with honours in mathematics at Christ Church, Oxford, in 1854.
During those years, Dodgson continued to write and compiled a scrapbook of his
best writings, called "Mischmasch". "Mischmasch" included a four line verse,
entitled "Stanza of Anglo-Saxon Poetry", that was to become the first verse of
his later nonsense poem "Jabberwocky". He was ordained a deacon in 1861. He
didn’t take further orders because he had a bad stammer and considered himself
"unfit" for parochial work. In 1855 two important events took place that had a
big effect on the rest of Dodgson's life. Henry Liddell arrived as the new Dean
at Christ Church and Dodgson was introduced to his children. Liddell had
previously been headmaster at Westminster School and was well known for his book
"A Greek-English Lexicon". He had a son, Harry, and three daughters: Lorina
Charlotte, Alice, and Edith. Dodgeson first came into contact with the Liddell
family in August 1855 through the Dean's niece, Fredrika Liddell.
He was charmed by the little girl and within a couple of days had sketched her.
Dodgson had first become interested in photography through his friend Reginald
Southey and his own uncle, Skeffington, during the summer vacation of 1855. He
went to London in March 1856 and purchased his own camera.
When Charles was young he wrote to entertain his brothers and sisters. He didn't
stop writing while he was in school. In 1860 Dodgson published his first two
mathematical textbooks and, by February 1861, had completed another and started
work on four more. He also contributed to the magazine "The Train".
Alice's adventures began on a boating trip on the Thames going to Godstow in the
summer of 1862. In August he made two more river trips with the Liddell children
and continued the Alice stories.
In 1865, Carroll achieved huge success with the publication of Alice’s
Adventures in Wonderland. Lewis Carroll wrote Alice’s Adventures under Ground
for Alice Liddell. Mrs. George MacDonald wanted Carroll to publish the book. In
June 1868 Dodgson's father died and by December he had moved the family from
Croft to a house, 'The Chestnuts', in Guildford . It was during this time that
he began to plan the follow-up to 'Alice'; 'Behind the Looking-Glass, and What
Alice Saw There' (later changed slightly to 'Through the Looking-Glass...').
In 1881 he gave up his Christ Church lectureship, planning to devote his time to
write mathematical books for children. By 1885 he had writing projects which
included seven books on logic or mathematics, two on games and puzzles and seven
others on other topics, one of which was Sylvie and Bruno. The Sylvie and Bruno
stories were published in 1889.
He died in 1898, on January 14th, 13 days before his 66th birthday.
Back to Famous Englishmen and Women.
