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Charles Lutwidge Dodgson

Born 27 January 1832(1832-01-27)
Daresbury, Cheshire, England
Died 14 January 1898 (aged 65)
Guildford, Surrey, England
Pen name Lewis Carroll
Occupation Author, Mathematician, Anglican Clergyman, Photographer, Logician
Nationality British
Genres Children's literature, Fantasy literature, Poetry
Notable work(s) Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Through the Looking-Glass, "The Hunting of the Snark", "Jabberwocky"

The Reverend Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (IPA: /ˈdɒdsən/) (27 January 1832 – 14 January 1898), better known by the pen name Lewis Carroll (/ˈkærəl/), was an English author, mathematician, logician, Anglican clergyman and photographer. Events 98 - Trajan becomes Roman Emperor after the death of Nerva. Year 1832 ( MDCCCXXXII) was a Leap year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian Daresbury is a small rural Village, Civil parish and ward in the unitary authority of Halton and part of the Ceremonial Cheshire (or archaically the County of Chester) is a county in North West England. England is a Country which is part of the United Kingdom. Its inhabitants account for more than 83% of the total UK population whilst its mainland Events 1129 - Formal approval of the Order of the Templar at the Council of Troyes. Year 1898 ( MDCCCXCVIII) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common Guildford ( IPA /ˈgɪlfəd/ is the County town of Surrey, England, as well as the seat for the borough of Guildford and the Surrey is a county in the South East of England and is one of the Home Counties. England is a Country which is part of the United Kingdom. Its inhabitants account for more than 83% of the total UK population whilst its mainland A pen name, nom de plume, or literary double, is a Pseudonym adopted by an Author or their publishers to conceal their identity Employment is a Contract between two parties, one being the employer and the other being the employee. An author is defined both as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created Mathematics is the body of Knowledge and Academic discipline that studies such concepts as Quantity, Structure, Space and Anglicanism is a tradition of Christian faith Churches in this tradition either have historical connections to the Church of England or have similar beliefs A cleric ( Ancient Greek κληρικός - klērikos clergyman (pl Photography (fә'tɒgrәfi or fә'tɑːgrәfi (from Greek φωτο and γραφία is the process and Art of recording pictures by means of capturing Logic is the study of the principles of valid demonstration and Inference. Nationality is a relationship between a Person and their State of Origin, Culture, association Affiliation and/or Loyalty The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK or Britain,is a Sovereign state located A literary genre is a category of literary composition Genres may be determined by Literary technique, tone, Content, or even (as in the case of fiction Children's literature is an age category of literature written for published for or marketed to Children roughly through age 12 Fantasy literature is Fantasy in written form Historically speaking the majority of fantasy works have been literature Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865 is a novel written by English author Charles Lutwidge Dodgson better known under the Pseudonym Lewis Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There ( 1871) is a work of Children's literature by Lewis Carroll (Charles Lutwidge Dodgson " The Hunting of the Snark (An Agony in 8 Fits " is a nonsense Poem written by Lewis Carroll (Charles Lutwidge Dodgson in 1874 when he was 42 years " Jabberwocky " is a Poem of Nonsense verse written by Lewis Carroll, originally featured as a part of his novel Through the Looking-Glass Events 98 - Trajan becomes Roman Emperor after the death of Nerva. Year 1832 ( MDCCCXXXII) was a Leap year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian Events 1129 - Formal approval of the Order of the Templar at the Council of Troyes. Year 1898 ( MDCCCXCVIII) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common A pen name, nom de plume, or literary double, is a Pseudonym adopted by an Author or their publishers to conceal their identity England is a Country which is part of the United Kingdom. Its inhabitants account for more than 83% of the total UK population whilst its mainland An author is defined both as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created Mathematics is the body of Knowledge and Academic discipline that studies such concepts as Quantity, Structure, Space and Logic is the study of the principles of valid demonstration and Inference. Anglicanism is a tradition of Christian faith Churches in this tradition either have historical connections to the Church of England or have similar beliefs A cleric ( Ancient Greek κληρικός - klērikos clergyman (pl A photographer is a person who takes a Photograph using a Camera.

His most famous writings are Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and its sequel Through the Looking-Glass as well as the poems "The Hunting of the Snark" and "Jabberwocky", all considered to be within the genre of literary nonsense. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865 is a novel written by English author Charles Lutwidge Dodgson better known under the Pseudonym Lewis Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There ( 1871) is a work of Children's literature by Lewis Carroll (Charles Lutwidge Dodgson " The Hunting of the Snark (An Agony in 8 Fits " is a nonsense Poem written by Lewis Carroll (Charles Lutwidge Dodgson in 1874 when he was 42 years " Jabberwocky " is a Poem of Nonsense verse written by Lewis Carroll, originally featured as a part of his novel Through the Looking-Glass Literary nonsense refers to a genre of Literature, whether Poetry or Prose, that plays with conventions of language and logic through a careful balance

His facility at word play, logic, and fantasy has delighted audiences ranging from children to the literary elite, and beyond this his work has become embedded deeply in modern culture, directly influencing many artists. Word play is a Literary technique in which the nature of the words that are used become the main subject of the work Logic is the study of the principles of valid demonstration and Inference. Fantasy is a Genre that uses magic and other Supernatural forms as a primary element of plot, theme, and/or setting

There are societies dedicated to the enjoyment and promotion of his works and the investigation of his life in many parts of the world including North America, Japan, the United Kingdom, and New Zealand. For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Japan topics. The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK or Britain,is a Sovereign state located New Zealand is an Island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses (the North Island and the South Island

Contents

Early life

Antecedents

Dodgson's family was predominantly northern English, with Irish connections. England is a Country which is part of the United Kingdom. Its inhabitants account for more than 83% of the total UK population whilst its mainland Ireland (pronounced /ˈaɾlənd/ Éire) is the third largest island in Europe, and the twentieth-largest island in the world Conservative and High Church Anglican, most of Dodgson's ancestors were army officers or Church of England clergymen. " High Church " relates to Ecclesiology and Liturgy in Anglican theology and practice Anglicanism is a tradition of Christian faith Churches in this tradition either have historical connections to the Church of England or have similar beliefs The British Army is the land armed forces branch of the British Armed Forces. The Church of England is the officially established Christian church in England, the Mother Church of the worldwide Anglican His great-grandfather, also Charles Dodgson, had risen through the ranks of the church to become a bishop. His grandfather, another Charles, had been an army captain, killed in action in 1803 when his two sons were hardly more than babies. An army (from Latin Armata "act of arming" via Old French armée) in the broadest sense is the land-based Armed forces Please see " Captain " for other versions of this rank Captain is a rank in the British armed forces that is used in the Army, Royal Navy His mother's name was Frances Jane Lutwidge.

The elder of these sons — yet another Charles — was Carroll's father. He reverted to the other family business and took holy orders. In a general sense the term Holy Orders refers to those in the Christian religion who have been ordained in Apostolic Succession. He went to Rugby School, and thence to Christ Church, Oxford. Rugby School, located in the town of Rugby, Warwickshire, is a Co-educational Boarding school and one of the oldest public schools Not to be confused with Christchurch, a city in New Zealand. Christ Church (Ædes Christi the temple or house of Christ and thus sometimes known as He was mathematically gifted and won a double first degree, which could have been the prelude to a brilliant academic career. Mathematics is the body of Knowledge and Academic discipline that studies such concepts as Quantity, Structure, Space and Instead he married his first cousin in 1827 and retired into obscurity as a country parson [1] Young Charles' father was an active and highly conservative clergyman of the Anglican church who involved himself, sometimes influentially, in the intense religious disputes that were dividing the Anglican church. In the pre- Reformation church a parson was the priest of an independent Parish church, that is a parish church not under the control of a larger ecclesiastical or He was High Church, inclining to Anglo-Catholicism, an admirer of Newman and the Tractarian movement, and he did his best to instill such views in his children. The terms Anglo-Catholic and Anglo-Catholicism (or sometimes possibly incorrectly High Church &mdashsee below describe people Family John Henry Newman was born in London and was the eldest son of John Newman (d The Oxford Movement or Tractarianism was an affiliation of High Church Anglicans, most of whom were members of the University of Oxford, who sought Young Charles, however, was to develop an ambiguous relationship with his father's values and with the Anglican church as a whole. [2]

Young Charles

Dodgson was born in the little parsonage of Daresbury in Cheshire, the oldest boy but already the third child of the four-and-a-half year old marriage. Depending on denomination, local custom and the status of the minister the Building inhabited (or formerly inhabited by the leader of a local Christian church can Daresbury is a small rural Village, Civil parish and ward in the unitary authority of Halton and part of the Ceremonial Cheshire (or archaically the County of Chester) is a county in North West England. Eight more were to follow and, remarkably for the time, all of them — seven girls and four boys (including Edwin H. Dodgson) — survived into adulthood. Edwin Heron Dodgson ( 30 June, 1846 &ndash 3 January, 1918) a clergyman in the Church of England, was the youngest brother of When Charles was 11, his father was given the living of Croft-on-Tees in north Yorkshire, and the whole family moved to the spacious Rectory. Croft-on-Tees is a village in the Richmondshire district of North Yorkshire, England. Yorkshire is a historic county of Northern England and the largest in Great Britain. This remained their home for the next twenty-five years.

During the earlier times in his life, young Dodgson was educated at home. His "reading lists" preserved in the family testify to a precocious intellect: at the age of seven the child was reading The Pilgrim's Progress. The Pilgrim's Progress from This World to That Which Is to Come by John Bunyan (published February 1678) is a Christian Allegory He also suffered from a stammer — a condition shared by his siblings — that often influenced his social life throughout his years. Stammer may refer to Stuttering or People Notker of St Gall "Notker the Stammerer" (840-912 Louis the Stammerer At twelve he was sent away to a small private school at nearby Richmond, where he appears to have been happy and settled. Richmond is a Market town on the River Swale in North Yorkshire, England and is the administrative centre of the district of Richmondshire But in 1846, young Dodgson moved on to Rugby School, where he was evidently less happy, for as he wrote some years after leaving the place:

I cannot say . Rugby School, located in the town of Rugby, Warwickshire, is a Co-educational Boarding school and one of the oldest public schools . . that any earthly considerations would induce me to go through my three years again . . . I can honestly say that if I could have been . . . secure from annoyance at night, the hardships of the daily life would have been comparative trifles to bear. [3]

Scholastically, though, he excelled with apparent ease. "I have not had a more promising boy his age since I came to Rugby" observed R. B. Mayor, the Mathematics master. [3]

Oxford

He left Rugby at the end of 1849 and, after an interval that remains unexplained, went on in January 1851 to Oxford, attending his father's old college, Christ Church. The University of Oxford (informally "Oxford University" or simply "Oxford" located in the city of Oxford, Oxfordshire, England is the Not to be confused with Christchurch, a city in New Zealand. Christ Church (Ædes Christi the temple or house of Christ and thus sometimes known as He had only been at Oxford two days when he received a summons home. His mother had died of "inflammation of the brain" — perhaps meningitis or a stroke — at the age of forty-seven. The brain is the center of the Nervous system in animals All Vertebrates and the majority of Invertebrates have a brain Meningitis is Inflammation of the protective membranes covering the Brain and Spinal cord, known collectively as the Meninges. A stroke is the rapidly developing loss of brain functions due to a disturbance in the blood vessels supplying blood to the brain [1]

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. In 1852 he received a first in Honour Moderations, and shortly after he was nominated to a Studentship, by his father's old friend Canon Edward Pusey. A studentship is similar to a Scholarship but involves summer work on a research project Edward Bouverie Pusey ( 22 August 1800 - 16 September, 1882) was an English churchman and Regius Professor of Hebrew However, a little later he failed an important scholarship through his self-confessed inability to apply himself to study. Even so, his talent as a mathematician won him the Christ Church Mathematical Lectureship, which he continued to hold for the next twenty-six years. A mathematician is a person whose primary area of study and research is the field of Mathematics. The income was good, but the work bored him. Many of his pupils were older and richer than he was, and almost all of them were uninterested. However, despite early unhappiness, Dodgson was to remain at Christ Church, in various capacities, until his death. [4]

Character and appearance

Physical appearance

The young adult Charles Dodgson was about six feet tall, slender and handsome, with curling brown hair and blue or grey eyes (depending on the account). He was described in later life as somewhat asymmetrical, and as carrying himself rather stiffly and awkwardly, though this may be on account of a knee injury sustained in middle age. Asymmetry is the absence of or a violation of a Symmetry. In organisms Due to how cells divide in Organisms asymmetry in organisms is As a very young child, he suffered a fever that left him deaf in one ear. At the age of seventeen, he suffered a severe attack of whooping cough, which was probably responsible for his chronically weak chest in later life. Pertussis, also known as whooping cough, is a highly contagious Disease caused by the Bacterium Bordetella pertussis; it derived its Another defect he carried into adulthood was what he referred to as his "hesitation", a stammer he acquired in early childhood and which plagued him throughout his life. [5]

Stammer

The stammer has always been a potent part of the conceptions of Dodgson; it is part of the belief that he stammered only in adult company and was free and fluent with children, but there is no evidence to support this idea. A legend ( Latin, legenda, "things to be read" is a Narrative of human actions that are perceived both by teller and listeners to [6] Many children of his acquaintance remembered the stammer while many adults failed to notice it. Dodgson himself seems to have been far more acutely aware of it than most people he met; it is said he caricatured himself as the Dodo in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, referring to his difficulty in pronouncing his last name, but this is one of the many "facts" oft-repeated, for which no firsthand evidence remains. A caricature is either a Portrait that exaggerates or distorts the essence of a person or thing to create an easily identifiable visual likeness or in literature a description The Dodo is a fictional character appearing in Chapters 2 and 3 of the book Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll (Charles Lutwidge Dodgson He did indeed refer to himself as the dodo, but that this was a reference to his stammer is simply speculation[7]

Personality

Although Dodgson's stammer troubled him, it was never so debilitating that it prevented him from applying his other personal qualities to do well in society. At a time when people commonly devised their own amusements and when singing and recitation were required social skills, the young Dodgson was well-equipped to be an engaging entertainer. He could sing tolerably well and was not afraid to do so before an audience. He was adept at mimicry and storytelling, and was, reputedly, quite good at charades. Charades or charade (ʃəˈradz shə-rahdz or /ʃəˈre(ɪdz/ shə-raidz) is a word Guessing game. [5]

Dodgson was also quite socially ambitious and anxious to make his mark on the world as a writer or an artist. In the interim between his early published writing and the success of the Alice books, he began to move in the Pre-Raphaelite social circle. The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (also known as the Pre-Raphaelites) was a group of English painters Poets, and critics founded in 1848 by His scholastic career may well have been intended as something of a stop-gap on the way to other more exciting achievements. He first met John Ruskin in 1857 and became friendly with him. John Ruskin (8 February 1819 &ndash 20 January 1900 is best known for his work as an Art critic, sage writer, and Social critic, but is remembered He developed a close relationship with Dante Gabriel Rossetti and his family, and also knew William Holman Hunt, John Everett Millais, and Arthur Hughes among other artists. Dante Gabriel Rossetti (12 May 1828 – 9 April 1882 was an English poet Illustrator, painter and Translator. William Holman Hunt (b 2 April 1827 in Cheapside, London &ndash d Sir John Everett Millais 1st Baronet, PRA ( June 8, 1829 &ndash August 13, 1896) was an English painter Arthur Hughes ( 27 January 1831 &ndash 23 December 1915) was an English painter and illustrator associated with the Pre-Raphaelite He also knew the fairy-tale author George MacDonald well — it was the enthusiastic reception of Alice by the young MacDonald children that convinced him to submit the work for publication[5][8]. George MacDonald ( 10 December 1824 &mdash 18 September 1905) was a Scottish author poet and Christian minister

Dodgson the artist

The author

From a young age, Dodgson wrote poetry and short stories, both contributing heavily to the family magazine Mischmasch and later sending them to various magazines, enjoying moderate success. The short story is a literary genre of Fictional Prose Narrative that tends to be more concise and to the point than longer works of fiction such Mischmasch was a Periodical that Lewis Carroll wrote and illustrated for the amusement of his family from 1855 to 1862. Between 1854 and 1856, his work appeared in the national publications, The Comic Times and The Train, as well as smaller magazines like the Whitby Gazette and the Oxford Critic. The Whitby Gazette is an English provincial Newspaper published in Whitby, North Yorkshire. Most of this output was humorous, sometimes satirical, but his standards and ambitions were exacting. Satire is often strictly defined as a literary genre or form; although in practice it is also found in the graphic and Performing arts In satire human "I do not think I have yet written anything worthy of real publication (in which I do not include the Whitby Gazette or the Oxonian Advertiser), but I do not despair of doing so some day", he wrote in July 1855[5].

In 1856 he published his first piece of work under the name that would make him famous. A romantic poem called "Solitude" appeared in The Train under the authorship of "Lewis Carroll". This pseudonym was a play on his real name; Lewis was the anglicised form of Ludovicus, which was the Latin for Lutwidge, and Carroll being an anglicised version of Carolus, the Latin for Charles[1]. A pseudonym is a fictitious alternative to a person's legal name (see Alias) Anglicisation or anglicization (see -ise vs -ize) is a process of conversion of verbal or written elements of any other language into a more comprehensible English Latin ( lingua Latīna, laˈtiːna is an Italic language, historically spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome.

Alice

"The chief difficulty Alice found at first was in managing her flamingo"
"The chief difficulty Alice found at first was in managing her flamingo"

In the same year, 1856, a new Dean, Henry Liddell, arrived at Christ Church, bringing with him his young family, all of whom would figure largely in Dodgson's life and, over the following years, greatly influence his writing career. Alice is a Fictional character in the books Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and its Sequel Through the Looking-Glass, Flamingos or flamingoes ( are gregarious Wading birds in the Genus Phoenicopterus and family Henry George Liddell ( February 6, 1811 – January 18, 1898) was Vice-Chancellor of Oxford University, Dean (1855-91 of Christ Not to be confused with Christchurch, a city in New Zealand. Christ Church (Ædes Christi the temple or house of Christ and thus sometimes known as Dodgson became close friends with Liddell's wife, Lorina, and their children, particularly the three sisters: Lorina, Edith and Alice Liddell. He was for many years widely assumed to have derived his own "Alice" from Alice Liddell. Alice Pleasance Liddell (May 4 1852 &ndash November 16 1934 was the inspiration for the children's classic Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll This was given some apparent substance by the fact the acrostic poem at the end of Through the Looking Glass spells out her name, and that there are many superficial references to her hidden in the text of both books. Dodgson himself, however, repeatedly denied in later life that his "little heroine" was based on any real child,[9] [10] and frequently dedicated his works to girls of his acquaintance and added their names in acrostic poems at the beginning of the text. Gertrude Chataway's name appears in this form at the beginning of The Hunting of the Snark, and no one has ever suggested this means any of the characters in the narrative are based on her[10]. " The Hunting of the Snark (An Agony in 8 Fits " is a nonsense Poem written by Lewis Carroll (Charles Lutwidge Dodgson in 1874 when he was 42 years

Though information is scarce (Dodgson's diaries for the years 1858–1862 are missing), it does seem clear that his friendship with the Liddell family was an important part of his life in the late 1850s, and he grew into the habit of taking the children (first the boy, Harry, and later the three girls) on rowing trips to nearby Nuneham Courtenay or Godstow[11] . Nuneham Courtenay is a Village in Oxfordshire, England. It lies about five miles (8 km south-east of Oxford. Godstow ( Oxfordshire, England) is to the west of the River Thames opposite Lower Wolvercote north of Port Meadow at Oxford

It was on one such expedition, on July 4, 1862, that Dodgson invented the outline of the story that eventually became his first and largest commercial success. Events 836 - Pactum Sicardi, peace between the Principality of Benevento and the Duchy of Naples Year 1862 was a Common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common year starting on Monday Having told the story and been begged by Alice Liddell to write it down, Dodgson eventually (after much delay) presented her with a handwritten, illustrated manuscript entitled Alice's Adventures Under Ground in November 1864[11].

Before this, the family of friend and mentor George MacDonald read Dodgson's incomplete manuscript, and the enthusiasm of the MacDonald children encouraged Dodgson to seek publication. George MacDonald ( 10 December 1824 &mdash 18 September 1905) was a Scottish author poet and Christian minister In 1863, he had taken the unfinished manuscript to Macmillan the publisher, who liked it immediately. After the possible alternative titles Alice Among the Fairies and Alice's Golden Hour were rejected, the work was finally published as Alice's Adventures in Wonderland in 1865 under the Lewis Carroll pen name, which Dodgson had first used some nine years earlier [8]. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865 is a novel written by English author Charles Lutwidge Dodgson better known under the Pseudonym Lewis The illustrations this time were by Sir John Tenniel; Dodgson evidently thought that a published book would need the skills of a professional artist. Sir John Tenniel (28 February 1820 &ndash 25 February 1914 was an English Illustrator.

The overwhelming commercial success of the first 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 with sometimes unwanted attention. He also began earning quite substantial sums of money. However, he didn't use this income as a means of abandoning his seemingly disliked post at Christ Church[8].

In 1872, a sequel — Through the Looking-Glass — was published. Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There ( 1871) is a work of Children's literature by Lewis Carroll (Charles Lutwidge Dodgson Its somewhat darker mood possibly reflects the changes in Dodgson's life. His father had recently died (1868), plunging him into a depression that would last some years[8].

The Hunting of the Snark

In 1876, Dodgson produced his last great work, The Hunting of the Snark, a fantastic "nonsense" poem, exploring the adventures of a bizarre crew of variously inadequate beings, and one beaver, who set off to find the eponymous creature. " The Hunting of the Snark (An Agony in 8 Fits " is a nonsense Poem written by Lewis Carroll (Charles Lutwidge Dodgson in 1874 when he was 42 years The painter Dante Gabriel Rossetti reputedly became convinced the poem was about him[8]. Dante Gabriel Rossetti (12 May 1828 – 9 April 1882 was an English poet Illustrator, painter and Translator.

The photographer

Photo of Alice Liddell taken by Lewis Carroll (1858).
Photo of Alice Liddell taken by Lewis Carroll (1858). Alice Pleasance Liddell (May 4 1852 &ndash November 16 1934 was the inspiration for the children's classic Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll

In 1856, Dodgson took up the new art form of photography, first under the influence of his uncle Skeffington Lutwidge, and later his Oxford friend Reginald Southey. Photography (fә'tɒgrәfi or fә'tɑːgrәfi (from Greek φωτο and γραφία is the process and Art of recording pictures by means of capturing Reginald Southey ( 15 September, 1835 - 8 November, 1899) was an English Physician.

He soon excelled at the art and became a well-known gentleman-photographer, and he seems even to have toyed with the idea of making a living out of it in his very early years [8].

A recent study by Roger Taylor and Edward Wakeling[12] exhaustively lists every surviving print, and Taylor calculates that just over fifty percent of his surviving work depicts young girls. He would later use many of his photographs of children in conjunction with his writings to add illustration to his work. Alexandra Kitchin, known as "Xie" (pronounced "Ecksy"), was his favourite photographic subject. Alexandra 'Xie' Rhoda Kitchin ( September 29, 1864 - April 6, 1925) was the favourite photographic subject of Charles From 1869 until he gave up photography in 1880, Dodgson photographed her at least fifty times, ending just before her sixteenth birthday. Less than a third of his original portfolio has survived[13], however; Dodgson also made many studies of men, women, male children and landscapes; his subjects also include skeletons, dolls, dogs, statues and paintings, trees, scholars, scientists, old men and little girls. His studies of nude children were long presumed lost, but six have since surfaced, four of which have been published.

Photo of John Everett Millais and his wife Effie Gray with two of their children, signed by Effie (c. 1860)
Photo of John Everett Millais and his wife Effie Gray with two of their children, signed by Effie (c. Sir John Everett Millais 1st Baronet, PRA ( June 8, 1829 &ndash August 13, 1896) was an English painter Euphemia ('Effie' Chalmers Gray (1828 - 1897 was the wife of the critic John Ruskin, but later left her husband to marry his protege the Pre-Raphaelite painter 1860)

He also found photography to be a useful entrée into higher social circles. During the most productive part of his career, he made portraits of notable sitters such as John Everett Millais, Ellen Terry, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Julia Margaret Cameron, Michael Faraday and Alfred, Lord Tennyson[8]. Sir John Everett Millais 1st Baronet, PRA ( June 8, 1829 &ndash August 13, 1896) was an English painter Dame Ellen Terry GBE ( 27 February 1847 &ndash 21 July 1928) was an English stage actress. Dante Gabriel Rossetti (12 May 1828 – 9 April 1882 was an English poet Illustrator, painter and Translator. Julia Margaret Cameron ( 11 June 1815 &ndash 26 January 1879) was a British Photographer. Michael Faraday, FRS ( September 22 1791 – August 25 1867) was an English Alfred Tennyson 1st Baron Tennyson (6 August 1809 – 6 October 1892 was Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom and remains one of the most popular English poets

Dodgson abruptly ceased to photograph in 1880. Over 24 years, he had completely mastered the medium, set up his own studio on the roof of Tom Quad, and created around 3,000 images. Fewer than 1,000 have survived time and deliberate destruction. His reasons for abandoning photography remain uncertain.

With the advent of Modernism tastes changed, and his photography was forgotten from around 1920 until the 1960s. Modernism describes an array of Cultural movements rooted in the changes in Western society in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century He is now considered by many to be one of the very best Victorian photographers, and is certainly the one who has had the most influence on modern art photographers. Fine art photography refers to photographs that are created to fulfill the creative vision of the artist

The inventor

To promote letter writing, Dodgson invented The Wonderland Postage-Stamp Case in 1889. This was a cloth-backed folder with twelve slots, two marked for inserting the then most commonly used 1d. stamp, and one each for the other current denominations to 1s. The folder was then put into a slip case decorated with a picture of Alice on the front and the Cheshire Cat on the back. The Cheshire Cat is a fictional cat appearing in Lewis Carroll 's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. All could be conveniently carried in a pocket or purse. When issued it also included a copy of Carroll's pamphletted lecture, Eight or Nine Wise Words About Letter-Writing. [14][15][16]

Another invention is a writing tablet called the Nyctograph for use at night that allowed for note-taking in the dark; thus eliminating the trouble of getting out of bed and striking a light when one wakes with an idea. The device consisted of a gridded card with sixteen squares and system of symbols representing an alphabet of Dodgson's design.

Among the games he devised outside of logic, croquet, billiards and those played on a chess board, there are a number of word games, including an early version of what today is known as Scrabble. The verb "to scrabble" also means to scratch scramble or scrape about see Wiktionaryscrabble. He also appears to have invented, or at least certainly popularised, the Word Ladder (or "doublet" as it was known at first); a form of brain-teaser that is still popular today: the game of changing one word into another by altering one letter at a time, each successive change always resulting in a genuine word. Word Ladder is a Word game invented by Lewis Carroll, the author of books such as Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the For instance, CAT is transformed into DOG by the following steps: CAT, COT, DOT, DOG [8]

Other items include a rule for finding the day of the week for any date; a means for justifying right margins on a typewriter; a steering device for a velociam (a type of tricycle); new systems of parliamentary representation[17]  ; more nearly fair elimination rules for tennis tournaments; a new sort of postal money order; rules for reckoning postage; rules for a win in betting; rules for dividing a number by various divisors; a cardboard scale for the college common room he worked in later in life, which held, next to a glass, insured the right amount of liqueur for the price paid; a double sided adhesive strip for things like the fastening of envelopes or mounting things in books; a device for helping a bedridden invalid to read from a book placed sideways; and at least two ciphers. [8].

Richard Grey's Memoria Technica and John Jaques In Statu Quo traveling chess set have at times been mistakenly credited to Dodgson. Richard Grey (1458? &ndash 25 June 1483) was an English knight and the stepson of King Edward IV of England.

The later years

Over the remaining twenty years of his life, throughout his growing wealth and fame, his existence remained little changed. He continued to teach at Christ Church until 1881, and remained in residence there until his death. His last novel, the two-volume Sylvie and Bruno, was published in 1889 and 1893 respectively. Sylvie and Bruno, first published in 1889, and its 1893 second volume Sylvie and Bruno Concluded form the last novel by Lewis Its extraordinary convolutions and apparent confusion baffled most readers and it achieved little success. It does contain an extremely concise account of three-valued logic when Bruno counts "about a thousand and four" pigs because he is certain about the four but estimates the remainder. In three-valued logic, unknown plus four = unknown (see Null (SQL)). Null is a special marker used in Structured Query Language (SQL to indicate that a data value does not exist in the database

The only occasion on which (as far as is known) he travelled abroad was a trip to Russia in 1867, which he recounts in his "Russian Journal" which was first commercially published in 1935. [18]

He died on January 14, 1898 at his sisters' home, 'The Chestnuts' in Guildford, of pneumonia following influenza. Events 1129 - Formal approval of the Order of the Templar at the Council of Troyes. Year 1898 ( MDCCCXCVIII) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common Guildford ( IPA /ˈgɪlfəd/ is the County town of Surrey, England, as well as the seat for the borough of Guildford and the He was 2 weeks away from turning 66 years old. He is buried in Guildford at the Mount Cemetery[8]. Mount Cemetery is a Cemetery in Guildford, Surrey, England. Two particularly famous people have been laid to rest in Mount Cemetery

Controversies and mysteries

The possibility of drug use

Many people have interpreted the encounters and events in the Alice books as hallucinations, usually noting the drinking of tea, consumption of mushrooms and the hookah smoking caterpillar, as references to psychedelic substances. A hallucination, in the broadest sense is a Perception in the absence of a stimulus. A hookah (हुक़्क़ा حقّہ hukkah) is a single or multi-stemmed (often glass-based water pipe for Smoking. The general group of pharmacological agents commonly known as hallucinogens can be divided into three broad categories Psychedelics, Dissociatives The suggestion of drug use made him extremely popular to the counterculture of the 1960s, often being utilised by drug users as a positive way of showing the mainstream that one of their most famous and highly regarded writers also used these forbidden substances. Counterculture (also " counter-culture " is a sociological term used to describe the values and norms of behavior of a Cultural group, or

However, there is no evidence that he ever used drugs. It is true that the standard domestic painkiller of the time, laudanum, was in fact a tincture of opium and could produce a "high" if used in a large enough dose[19] and that Dodgson, most historians would agree, probably used it from time to time, but again there is no evidence he ever used it to excess or that its effects had any impact on his work. Laudanum (ˈlȯd-nəm or ˈlȯ-də-nəm also known as Opium Tincture or Tincture of Opium, is an Alcoholic herbal preparation Opium is a Narcotic formed from the Latex (ie sap released by lacerating (or "scoring" the immature seed pods of opium poppies (

The priesthood

Dodgson had been groomed for the ordained ministry in the Anglican Church from a very early age and was expected, as a condition of his residency at Christ Church, to take holy orders within four years of obtaining his master's degree. See also Anglicanism The Anglican Communion is an international association of national Anglican churches In a general sense the term Holy Orders refers to those in the Christian religion who have been ordained in Apostolic Succession. However, he evidently became reluctant to do this. He delayed the process for some time but eventually took deacon's orders in December 1861. But when the time came a year later to progress to priestly orders, Dodgson appealed to the dean for permission not to proceed. This was against college rules, and Dean Liddell told him he would very likely have to leave his job if he refused to take orders. He told Dodgson he would have to consult the college ruling body, which would almost undoubtedly have resulted in his being expelled. However, for unknown reasons, Dean Liddell changed his mind and permitted Dodgson to remain at the college, in defiance of the rules. [20] Dodgson never became a priest.

There is currently no conclusive evidence about why Dodgson rejected the priesthood. Some have suggested his stammer made him reluctant to take the step, because he was afraid of having to preach, but this seems unlikely given his willingness to take on other public performances (story-telling, recitations, magic lantern shows), and the fact that he did indeed preach in later life, even though not in orders. Others have suggested that he was having serious doubts about the Anglican church. It is known that he was interested in minority forms of Christianity (he was an admirer of FD Maurice) and "alternative" religions (theosophy). John Frederick Denison Maurice ( 29 August 1805 - 1 April 1872) was an English theologian and socialist. This article is about the philosophy introduced by Helena Petrovna Blavatsky Dodgson was deeply troubled by an unexplained sense of sin and guilt at this time (the early 1860s), and frequently expressed the view in his diaries that he was a "vile and worthless" sinner, unworthy of the priesthood. [21]

The missing diaries

At least four complete volumes[22] and around seven pages[23] of text are missing from Dodgson's 13 diaries. The loss of the volumes remains unexplained; the pages have been deliberately removed by an unknown hand. Most scholars assume the diary material was removed by family members in the interests of preserving the family name, but this has not been proven. [24] All of the missing material, with the exception of a single page, is believed to date from the period between 1853 (when Dodgson was 22) and 1863 (when he was 32). [25]

Many theories have been put forward to explain the missing material. A popular explanation for one particular missing page (June 27, 1863) is that it might have been torn out to conceal the belief that Dodgson had proposed marriage on that day to the 11-year old Alice Liddell. Events 1358 - Republic of Dubrovnik is founded 1709 - Peter the Great defeats Charles XII of Sweden Year 1863 ( MDCCCLXIII) was a Common year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common However, there has never been any evidence to suggest this was so, and a paper[26] that came to light in the Dodgson family archive in 1996 provides some evidence to the contrary.

The "Cut Pages in Diary" document

The "cut pages in diary" document, in the Dodgson family archive in Woking, UK.
The "cut pages in diary" document, in the Dodgson family archive in Woking, UK.

This paper, known as the "cut pages in diary document", was compiled by various members of Carroll's family after his death. Part of it at least was presumably written at the time that some of the pages were being mutilated, as it offers a brief summary of two diary pages that are now missing, including the one for June 27, 1863. Events 1358 - Republic of Dubrovnik is founded 1709 - Peter the Great defeats Charles XII of Sweden Year 1863 ( MDCCCLXIII) was a Common year starting on Thursday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common The summary for this page states that Mrs. Liddell told Dodgson there was gossip circulating about him and the Liddell family's governess, as well as about his relationship with "Ina", presumably Alice's older sister, Lorina Liddell. The "break" with the Liddell family that occurred soon after was presumably in response to this gossip. [27][28] An alternate interpretation has been made regarding Carroll's rumored involvement with "Ina": Lorina was also the name of Alice Liddell's mother. What is deemed most crucial and surprising is that the entry seems to make it clear Dodgson's break with the family was not connected with Alice at all.

Migraine and Epilepsy

In his diary for the year 1880 Dodgson recorded experiencing his first episode of migraine with aura, describing very accurately the process of 'moving fortifications' that are a manifestation of the aura stage of the syndrome[29]. Migraine is a neurological Syndrome characterized by altered bodily experiences painful headaches and nausea Given this manifestation, it's possible that he chronically experienced the more common form of migraine, consisting simply of headache and nausea, but no real evidence exists either way, though several people have suggested the odd experiences Alice undergoes in the stories may have been inspired by migraine-like symptoms. Indeed a condition, Alice in Wonderland Syndrome, has been named after it. Alice in Wonderland syndrome ( AIWS, named after the novel written by Lewis Carroll) also known as Todd's syndrome, is a disorienting neurological Also known as micropsia and macropsia, it is a brain condition affecting the way objects are perceived by the mind. Micropsia is a neurological condition affecting human Visual perception, in which objects appear smaller than normal and the subject bigger Macropsia is a neurological condition affecting human Visual perception, in which objects appear larger than normal and the subject smaller For example, an afflicted person may look at a larger object, like a basketball, and perceive it as if it were the size of a mouse.

Dodgson also suffered two attacks in which he lost consciousness. He was diagnosed by two different doctors; a Dr. Morshead believed the attack to be an "epileptiform" seizure. Some have concluded from this he was a lifetime sufferer from this condition, but there is no evidence for it in any of his diaries or letters, and it would seem unlikely for this to be the case if he had indeed suffered generalized seizures. [30]. Some authors have suggested he may have suffered from temporal lobe epilepsy in which consciousness is not always completely lost, but altered, and in which the patient experiences many of the same experiences as Alice in Wonderland. Temporal lobe epilepsy is a form of focal Epilepsy, a chronic neurological condition characterized by recurrent Seizures While

Suggestions of Paedophilia

Dodgson's friendships with young girls, together with his perceived lack of interest in romantic attachments to adult women, and psychological readings of his work — especially his photographs of nude or semi-nude girls[31] — have all led to speculation that he was, in modern parlance, a paedophile. The term pedophilia or paedophilia has a range of definitions as found in Psychology, law enforcement and the popular vernacular This possibility has underpinned numerous modern interpretations of his life and work, particularly Dennis Potter's play Alice and his screenplay for the motion picture, Dreamchild, and a number of recent biographies, including Michael Bakewell's Lewis Carroll: A Biography (1996), Donald Thomas's Lewis Carroll: A Portrait with Background (1996) and Morton N. Cohen's Lewis Carroll: A Biography (1995). Dennis Christopher George Potter (17 May 1935&ndash7 June 1994 was a controversial English Dramatist, best known for The Singing Detective Dreamchild is a 1985 Drama Film produced by Verity Lambert, directed by Gavin Millar and written by Dennis Michael Bakewell is a British Television producer. He is best known for his work during the 1960s when he was the first Head of Plays at the BBC after Sydney Morton N Cohen, Professor Emeritus of the City University of New York is an American author and scholar best known for his extensive studies of Charles Lutwidge Dodgson All of these works more or less unequivocally assume that Dodgson was a paedophile, albeit a repressed and celibate one.

Cohen claims Dodgson's "sexual energies sought unconventional outlets", and further writes:

We cannot know to what extent sexual urges lay behind Charles's preference for drawing and photographing children in the nude. He contended the preference was entirely aesthetic. But given his emotional attachment to children as well as his aesthetic appreciation of their forms, his assertion that his interest was strictly artistic is naive. He probably felt more than he dared acknowledge, even to himself. [32]

Cohen notes that Dodgson "apparently convinced many of his friends that his attachment to the nude female child form was free of any eroticism", but adds that "later generations look beneath the surface" (p. 229).

Cohen and other biographers argue that Dodgson may have wanted to marry the 11-year old Alice Liddell and that this was the cause of the unexplained "break" with the family in June 1863. [33] But there has never been significant evidence to support the idea, and the 1996 discovery of the "cut pages in diary document" (see above) might imply that the 1863 "break" had less to do with Alice, but was perhaps connected with rumors involving her older sister Lorina, or possibly their governess.

Some writers, e. g. , Derek Hudson and Roger Lancelyn Green, who have fallen short of accepting Dodgson as a paedophile, have tended to concur that he had a passion for small female children and next to no interest in the adult world. Roger (Gilbert Lancelyn Green ( 2 November 1918 – 8 October 1987) was a British biographer and children's writer

"The Carroll Myth"

The accepted view of Dodgson's biography has been challenged recently by a group of scholars led by Hugues Lebailly and Karoline Leach who argue that Dodgson's diaries and letters reveal him to have been very different in many key aspects from the traditional image. Hugues Lebailly is a French academic and Senior Lecturer in English Cultural Studies at the Sorbonne. Karoline Leach (born July 20, 1967) is a British Playwright and Author, best known for her book In the Shadow of the Leach's book, In the Shadow of the Dream Child, in particular has raised a considerable amount of controversy. In the Shadow of the Dreamchild A New Understanding of Lewis Carroll is a book by British author Karoline Leach that launched the concept of the "Carroll

Lebailly has endeavoured to set Dodgson's child-photography within the "Victorian Child Cult", which perceived child-nudity as essentially an expression of innocence. Lebailly claims that studies of child nudes were mainstream and fashionable in Dodgson's time and that most photographers, including Oscar Rejlander and Julia Margaret Cameron, made them as a matter of course. Julia Margaret Cameron ( 11 June 1815 &ndash 26 January 1879) was a British Photographer. Lebailly continues that child nudes even appeared on Victorian Christmas cards — implying a very different social and aesthetic assessment of such material. Lebailly concludes that it has been an error of Dodgson's biographers to view his child-photography with 20th or 21st century eyes, and to have presented it as some form of personal idiosyncrasy, when it was in fact a response to a prevalent aesthetic and philosophical movement of the time.

Leach posed a new analysis of Dodgson's sexuality. She argues that the allegations of paedophilia rose initially from a misunderstanding of Victorian morals, as well as the mistaken idea, fostered by Dodgson's various biographers, that he had no interest in adult women. She termed the traditional image of Dodgson "the Carroll Myth". [34] She asserts his diaries show he was also keenly interested in adult women, married and single, and enjoyed several scandalous (by the social standards of his time) relationships with them. In later life many of those he described as "child-friends" were girls in their late teens and even twenties. [35]. She argues that suggestions of paedophilia evolved only many years after his death, when his well-meaning family had suppressed all evidence of his relationships with women in an effort to preserve his reputation, thus giving a false impression of a man interested only in little girls. Similarly, Leach traces the claim that many of Carroll's female friendships ended when the girls reached the age of 14 to a 1932 biography by Langford Reed,[36] who Leach claims intended to suggest from this that Dodgson was a "pure man" untainted by sexual desire. [37]

The concept of the Carroll Myth has been opposed by some leading Carroll scholars, in particular Morton Cohen and Martin Gardner. Morton Cohen may refer to Morton Barnett Cohen (1913&ndash1968 Australian politician Morton N Martin Gardner (b October 21, 1914, Tulsa Oklahoma) is a popular American mathematics and science writer specializing in Recreational mathematics

Works

See also

Notes

  1. ^ a b c Cohen, Morton Lewis Carroll, a biography pp. 30-35.
  2. ^ Cohen, Morton Lewis Carroll, a biography pp. 200-2.
  3. ^ a b Collingwood, Stuart Dodgson. The Life and Letters of Lewis Carroll, 18.
  4. ^ Leach, Karoline In the Shadow of the Dreamchild Ch. 2.
  5. ^ a b c d Leach, Karoline In the Shadow of the Dreamchild Ch. 2
  6. ^ Leach, p. 91
  7. ^ Leach, Karoline In the Shadow of the Dreamchild Ch. 2.
  8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Cohen, Morton Lewis Carroll, a biography
  9. ^ Cohen, Morton N. (ed), The Letters of Lewis Carroll, London: Macmillan, 1979.
  10. ^ a b Leach, Karoline In the Shadow of the Dreamchild Ch. 5 "The Unreal Alice"
  11. ^ a b Leach, Karoline In the Shadow of the Dreamchild Ch. 4
  12. ^ Roger Taylor and Edward Wakeling. (2002). Lewis Carroll, Photographer.
  13. ^ how much evidence is there?
  14. ^ Flodden W. Heron, "Lewis Carroll, Inventor of Postage Stamp Case" in Stamps, vol. 26, no. 12, March 25, 1939
  15. ^ http://www.parkhurstrarebooks.com/newarrivals.htm
  16. ^ The Lewis Carroll Society Website - Carroll Related Postage Stamps
  17. ^ Duncan Black, Iain McLean, Alistair McMillan, Burt L. Events 1199 - Richard I is wounded by a crossbow bolt while fighting France which leads to his death on April 6. Year 1939 ( MCMXXXIX) was a Common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Monroe, Charles Lutwidge Dodgson. A Mathematical Approach to Proportional Representation. ISBN 0792396200.  
  18. ^ http://www.lewiscarroll.org/works.html
  19. ^ http://drugs.uta.edu/laudanum
  20. ^ Dodgson's MS diaries, volume 8, October 22–October 24, 1862
  21. ^ Dodgson's MS diaries, volume 8, see prayers scattered throughout the text
  22. ^ Leach, p. Events 202 BC - Hannibal Barca, leader of the Carthaginians, is defeated by the Roman legions under Scipio Africanus Events 69 - Second Battle of Bedriacum, forces under Antonius Primus the commander of the Danube armies loyal to Vespasian, defeat Year 1862 was a Common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common year starting on Monday 48
  23. ^ Leach, p. 51
  24. ^ Leach, pp. 48–51
  25. ^ Leach, p. 52
  26. ^ Dodgson Family Collection, Cat. No. F/17/1. "Cut Pages in Diary". (For an account of its discovery see The Times Literary Supplement, 3 May 1996. Events 1491 - Kongo monarch Nkuwu Nzinga is baptised by Portuguese missionaries adopting the baptismal name of João Year 1996 ( MCMXCVI) was a Leap year starting on Monday (link will display full 1996 Gregorian calendar) )
  27. ^ Leach, Karoline In the Shadow of the Dreamchild pp. 170–2.
  28. ^ Text available on-line. Looking for Lewis Carroll. Retrieved on 2007-05-04. Year 2007 ( MMVII) was a Common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. Events 1256 - The Augustinian monastic order is constituted at the Lecceto Monastery when Pope Alexander IV
  29. ^ "The Diaries of Lewis Carroll", vol 9 p. 52
  30. ^ "The Diaries of Lewis Carroll", vol 9
  31. ^ Cohen, 1995, pp. 166–167, 254–255.
  32. ^ Cohen, 1995
  33. ^ Cohen pp 100–4.
  34. ^ "The Carroll Myth"
  35. ^ Leach, pp. 16–17
  36. ^ Leach, p. 33
  37. ^ Leach, p. 32

References

External links


Persondata
NAME Carroll, Lewis
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Dodgson, Charles Lutwidge (real name)
SHORT DESCRIPTION Author, mathematician, and clergyman
DATE OF BIRTH January 27, 1832(1832-01-27)
PLACE OF BIRTH Daresbury, Cheshire, England
DATE OF DEATH January 14, 1898
PLACE OF DEATH Guildford, England
Events 98 - Trajan becomes Roman Emperor after the death of Nerva. Year 1832 ( MDCCCXXXII) was a Leap year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian Daresbury is a small rural Village, Civil parish and ward in the unitary authority of Halton and part of the Ceremonial Cheshire (or archaically the County of Chester) is a county in North West England. England is a Country which is part of the United Kingdom. Its inhabitants account for more than 83% of the total UK population whilst its mainland Events 1129 - Formal approval of the Order of the Templar at the Council of Troyes. Year 1898 ( MDCCCXCVIII) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common Guildford ( IPA /ˈgɪlfəd/ is the County town of Surrey, England, as well as the seat for the borough of Guildford and the England is a Country which is part of the United Kingdom. Its inhabitants account for more than 83% of the total UK population whilst its mainland
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