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Lewis Carroll

Lewis Carroll, the pen name creator and author of Alice's Adventures In Wonderland, was born on January 27, 1832 as Charles Lutwidge Dodgson.

THE EARLY YEARS:

STUTTERING & STAMMERING, bUT GIFTED

In his early years, young Charles suffered from a stutter that influenced his social life throughout his life. Although the stammer troubled him — even obsessed him sometimes — it was never bad enough to stop him from using his other qualities to do well in society. He was well-equipped as an engaging entertainer, being particularly good at mimicry and storytelling.

But, as a child, Dodgson was also mathematically gifted like his clergyman father. He read widely, wrote amusing pamphlets for his siblings and dazzled his teachers.  And, some of his later interest in logic, time and puzzles were already apparent in his youth pamphlets and letters.

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.

THE ADULT YEARS:

AN EFFECTIVE, BUT FRUSTRATED TEACHER

LOOKING FOR MORE IN LIFE

Charles was educated at Rugby and Oxford, and in 1855 he became a lecturer in mathematics at Christ Church College, Oxford. Then, starting in 1858 Dodgson prepared himself for Holy Orders, attending Cuddleston Theological College until his ordination as a deacon in December 1861. While he once intended to become a priest, he never pursued the theological road further, probably because of his academic and writing career.

During these early years, Dodgson developed what would become a lifelong fascination with geometry and algebraic determinants.  In 1860 he published his first of two mathematical textbooks and, by February 1861, he had completed another and started work on four more.

The teacher income at Oxford was good, but the work bored him. Something was still missing in Charles' life - it lacked direction, purpose, and something he could be passionate about. So, to find his purpose in life and make his mark on the world, he decided to reach back to his childhood experiences to do something he remembered being particularly good at - storytelling.

But first, in 1856, he took up the new art form of photography, soon excelling at the art. He even toyed with the idea of making a living out of it. [Picture here on an album of his photography is one of his many photographic images of Alice Liddell taken in 1858. Alice, as is explained below, is the daughter of the Dean of his College, and is thought by some to be the inspiration for his most famous artistic creation.]   

'LEWIS CARROLL' BECOMES HIS CREATIVE OUTLET

That same year, Charles also tried out his wings as a writer by writing and publishing a little romantic poem called Solitude, written under the name of 'Lewis Carroll' - a name that would make him famous. The pseudonym was a play on his real name: Lewis being the English form of Ludovicus which was the Latin for Lutwidge; and Carroll being the English version of Carolus which was Latin for Charles.

Also in 1856, a new Dean, Henry Liddell, arrived at Christ Church College, bringing with him his wife and three young children -- Ina, Edith and Alice Liddell. It is from the latter that Dodgson is said to have derived his little heroine, Alice. However, he later denied that his Alice was based on any real child.

'ALICE' BRINGS HIM FAME & FORTUNE

On a July 4, 1862 outing with the Liddell family, Dodgson told the outline of a story to the children that eventually became his largest commercial success. At the urging of Mrs. Liddell, he developed the story into a manuscript and in 1863, presented it to the publisher, Macmillan, who liked it immediately. After considering several alternative titles, the work was published in 1865 as Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, under the Lewis Carroll pen name.

Alice is a story of a girl named Alice who falls down a rabbit-hole into a fantasy realm populated by talking playing cards and human-like creatures. While it is filled with satirical allusions to Dodgson's friends and to social issues of the day, it also presents lessons British school children were expected to learn ... such as the need to find and have a direction for one's life ... as Charles, himself, had finally done.

The overwhelming commercial success of the 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 sometimes unwanted attention. He also began earning quite substantial sums of money, but didn't use this income to abandon his seemingly disliked teaching post at Christ Church. Over the remaining twenty years of his life, Dodgson continued to teach at Christ Church until his death in 1898 of pneumonia at age sixty-five.

DISNEY MAKES 'ALICE'

A PART OF WORLDWIDE POP CULTURE

Walt Disney's animated cinematic feature, Alice in Wonderland, helped Charles Dodgson's Alice become embedded in worldwide pop culture as a pretty little girl in a white pinafore and blue dress. And, it made icons of the Cheshire Cat, the White Rabbit, the Mad Hatter, and the Caterpillar.

Who knows? Did the Cat also give its advice about needing to find direction in life to Alice's artistic creator Charles Dodgson ... as well as to all of us?