Lewis Carroll's real name was Charles Lutwidge Dodgson and he was born, the son of a country clergyman, on January 27 1832. As a young boy he gave signs of the tastes, the bent of mind, that came out so clearly in later life. He made pets of snails and frogs; he was constantly inventing games for his brothers and sisters; he built a small theatre with dolls as the actors, moving them around the stage by means of strings; he performed tricks of magic dressed in a brown wig and long white robe; he started a home magazine for which he wrote poems and plays, illustrating them himself with his own comical and spirited drawings.

After some years at a private school he went to the famous school at Rugby and then, at 18, entered the Oxford College, Christ Church. There he spent the rest of his life as a lecturer in mathematics. For the next fifty years he led a sort of double life. As the Rev. C. L. Dodgson (he had become a clergyman) was teaching  mathematics and writing textbooks, Lewis Carroll was writing verses for comic papers and stories for children. (For a more detailed coverage of his life, follow this text link).

Charles Lutwidge Dodgeson... click on the image to load a larger version.

He was always very careful to insist that C.L. Dodgson and Lewis Carroll were not one in the same. He made his pen name very ingeniously out of his real Christian names. Lutwidge is an old German form of Lewis, and Charles in Latin is Carolus; so transposing Charles Lutwidge, he arrived at Lewis Carroll.

Edith, Lorina and Alice

The Head of his college, Dr. Liddell, Dean of Christ Church had three young daughters of whom Charles Dodgson became very fond. These three little girls he used to take on the river at Oxford, rowing to picnic spots on the banks of the Thames, and telling stories while they rested. According to Alice Liddell, the beginning of Alice In Wonderland was told "one summer afternoon when the sun was so burning that we had landed in the meadows down the river, deserting the boat to take refuge in the only bit of shade to be found, which was under a new-made hayrick".

That memorable river expedition took place on July 4th, 1862. It was not until three years later that Alice in Wonderland was published. Lewis Carroll had promised to write out the story for Alice Liddell, without any idea of its being printed for other readers. But he happened to show the manuscript to his friend, George MacDonald and MacDonald urged him to send it to a publisher.

The book was published, with illustrations by John Tenniel in the summer of 1965, and on July 4, exactly three years after it had been first told to the three young girls under the hayrick. Alice Liddell received the first presentation copy of the Adventures of her namesake. The book was an instant success. Of it and its sequal, Through the Looking Glass, more than 120,000 copies were sold in the first twenty years.

By all accounts Dodgson had a grave, rather sad face; a quiet, shy manner; a slight stammer in his speech. But beneath that outer reserve was a spirit of fun. He would entertain children fanastic stories; set them riddles to solve. When he travelled he'd fill his pockets with ingenious puzzles of his own invention to amuse any child he might meet on the railway train. And he'd write long, delightful letters to his young friends, full of fun and nonsense.

He died from pneumonia on January 14, 1898. His gravestone bears first his full name, Rev Charles Lutwidge Dodgson; underneath it is the name by which thousands who have never heard the other, know and love him: Lewis Carroll.

Lewis Carroll was born on 27 January 1832 in the small English village of Daresbury in Cheshire... as in "Cheshire Cat". There were eleven children in the family, Charles was the eldest of three sons. He had seven sisters. His father was called Charles, His mother was Frances Jane Lutwidge.

Click on the picture to load a larger version.

He said, "I go my ways and when I find a mountain-rill I set it in a blaze..."
"So either way I'll get into the garden and I don't care what happens".

Charles Dodgeson aged about 24, a photograph attributed to Reginald Southey taken in 1856.
Click on the image to load a much larger version.

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