Renowned Victorian author Lewis Carroll was born Charles
Lutwidge Dodgson on January 27, 1832, in Daresbury, Cheshire, England. The son
of a clergyman, Carroll was the third child born to a family of eleven
children. From a very early age he entertained himself and his family by
performing magic tricks and marionette shows, and by writing poetry for his
homemade newspapers. In 1846 he entered Rugby School, and in 1854 he graduated
from Christ Church College, Oxford. He was successful in his study of
mathematics and writing, and remained at the college after graduation to teach.
His mathematical writings include An
Elementary Treatise on Determinants (1867), Euclid
and His Modern Rivals (1879), and Curiosa
Mathematica (1888). While teaching, Carroll was ordained as a deacon;
however, he never preached. He also began to pursue photography, often choosing
children as the subject of his portraits. One of his favorite models was a
young girl named Alice Liddell, the daughter of the Dean at Christ’s Church,
who later became the basis for Carroll’s fictional character, Alice. He
abandoned both photography and public speaking between 1880 and 1881, and
focused on his writing.
Many of Carroll’s philosophies were based on games. His interest
in logic came purely from the playful nature of its principle rather than its
uses as a tool. He primarily wrote comic fantasies and humorous verse that was
often very childlike. Carroll published his novel Alice’s
Adventures in Wonderland in 1865, followed by Through the Looking Glass in 1872.
Alice’s story began as a piece of extemporaneous whimsy meant to entertain
three little girls on a boating trip in 1862. Both of these works were
considered children’s novels that were satirical in nature and in
exemplification of Carroll’s wit. Also famous is Carroll’s poem “Jabberwocky,”
in which he created nonsensical words from word combinations. Carroll died in
Guildford, Surrey, on January 14, 1898.
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