Alice

Lewis Caroll is a pseudonym of Charles Lutwidge Dodgson who was born on 27th January, 1832, in Daresbury, Chesire. He was a man of diverse interests: mathematics, logic, photgraphy, art, theater, religion, medicine, and science; he created puzzles, clever games, and charming letters for children.

Lewis Caroll was educated at Richmond School in Yorkshire, Rugby School and Christ Church, Oxford. He went to Mr. Tates school at Richmond at age 12, his father having educated him until then. Carroll excelled in his studies and became the champion of the weak and small. He earned the reputation of a boy who knew how to use his fists in a righteous cause. After contributing with a story to the school magazine, Mr. Tate wrote to Mr. Dodgson that Charles had a very uncommon share of genius, and you may fairly anticipate for him a bright career. From Richmond, Carroll went to Rugby to further his education, and then on to Christ Church College, University of Oxford, his fathers college. According to the terms of the studentship, Carroll was to remain unmarried and proceed to holy orders. Several years later he was ordained a deacon, but he never proceeded to priests orders. Throughout his education, Carroll consistantly distinguished himself with honors, congratulations, and respect from his peers and mentors alike. He wrote: I am getting tired of being congratulated on various subjects; there seems to be no end of it. From 1855 to 1881 he was a mathematical lecturer at Oxford, where he was a somewhat eccentric and withdrawn character. He was the author of several mathematical treatises, including Euclid and His Modern Rivals (1879). Always a friend of children, particularly little girls, Carroll wrote thousands of letters to them, delightful flights of fantasy, many illustrated with little sketches. They have been collected and published as The Letters of Lewis Carroll (2 volumes, 1979) by Morton N. Cohen and Roger L. Green. Carroll gained an additional measure of fame as an amateur photographer. He became interested in photography in the infancy of this scientific art form. He was a man of infinite patience and one who paid attention to the smallest detail. These qualities were mandatory to be a photographer in the 1850s. He is considered one of the best amateur photographers of his time; he even invented the automatic camera.

Most of his camera portraits were of children in various costumes and poses, including nude studies; he also did portraits of adults, including the actress Ellen Terry and the poets Alfred, Lord Tennyson and Dante Gabriel Rossetti. Apparently because his posing of children was criticized, he abandoned photography in 1880. His most famous works are Alices Adventures in Wonderland (published in 1865) and the sequel Alice Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There (which appeared in 1871). The Alice stories, which have made the name Lewis Carroll famous throughout the world, and have been translated ...