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1832 – 1898: The man who gave the world Alice and Wonderland
Lewis Carroll: A Biography
What you need to know before your trail
Charles Lutwidge Dodgson was a pioneering photographer, Oxford don and mathematician, who – as Lewis Carroll – gave the world not only Alice, but the Jabberwocky, the Red Queen, the Mad Hatter, the March Hare, the Cheshire Cat and an unforgettable tea party. But who was he?
In this elegant, affectionate biography, Morton N. Cohen brings a singular expertise – drawn from some thirty years’ scholarship on Carroll as well as from special access to the Dodgson family documents – to the riddle of the quiet, stammering man who liberated children’s books from the moralists and whose imagination brought forth some of the funniest nonsense, wildest characters and most extraordinary cultural icons of modern times.
Travel Guide
Travel to Lewis Carroll Country
Charles Lutwidge Dodgson is better known as Lewis Carroll
Dodgson was born in the small parsonage at Daresbury in Cheshire. He was the eldest boy but already the third child of the four-and-a-half-year-old marriage. Eight more children followed. When Charles was 11, his whole family moved to the rectory. This remained their home for the next 25 years.
“Lewis Carroll” was educated at home. By the age of seven, he was apparently reading books such as The Pilgrim’s Progress. Like many of his siblings, he suffered from a stammer and this would have an effect on the rest of his life.
Alice in Wonderland
The story of Alice in Wonderland actually starts in a very real place above ground – the story came about following a journey the author had when walking along a river between Oxford and Godstow whilst trying to entertain the two little girls in his care.
Dodgson told the girls a story that featured a bored little girl named Alice who goes looking for an adventure. The girls loved it, and the real Alice asked Dodgson to write it down for her. He began writing but it wasn’t until they all went on another journey and boat trip a month later, when he started to elaborate the story and write it out in full.
Booktrail Boarding Pass: Lewis Carroll: A Biography
Destination: Oxford, Daresbury Author/Guide: Morton N Cohen Departure Time: 1832 – 1898
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