Lewis Carroll

Born Charles Lutwidge Dodgson in 1832 in England. He came from a large family of eleven children. His father had a gift for mathematics and was a conservative cleric of the Church of England. Later he became the Archdeacon of Richmond. Dodgson was educated at home. His reading list was extensive, and he was a mathematical prodigy.

He and many of his siblings suffered from a stammer. At twelve years old he began attending grammar school. He went on to study mathematics in Oxford. Where he graduated with honors but had trouble concentrating. In 1855 he won the Christ Church Mathematical Lectureship and held that position for the next twenty-six years.

At six feet tall Dodgson was slim, and his health was precarious. He lost his hearing in one ear after a fever as a young child. When he was seventeen, he contacted severe whooping cough that left him with a damaged lungs.

As an adult, his stammer stayed with him but only seemed to show itself around adults. With children it was absent. During his time people of his social class entertained each other in their parlors. He was adept at singing but best at story telling and mimicry. He was a good friend of George MacDonald, a fairy tale author. The enthusiastic response of MacDonald's children of his Alice stories prompted him to publish them. He published under the pseudonym Lewis Carroll, which is a Latin translation for Charles Lutwidge, his first and middle name. It was chosen by his editor. He also published nearly a dozen mathematical works under his regular name, Dodgson.

In addition to writing and mathematics, Dodgson was also a logician and an Anglican deacon. He also took up photography semi-professionally. From his studio, he turned out over three thousand photographs of men, women, children, dogs, dolls, skeletons, statures, paintings and landscape. Although considered controversial the photographs he took of children was always accompanied by their parents. He usually photographed in the outdoors because of the optimal light.

Dodgson also put out a few inventions including a nyctograph, which is a writing tablet that allows note taking in the dark. It has a card with sixteen square grids. It had a system of symbols that represent the alphabet in a graffiti writing system. He also invented a game resembling Scrabble.

When he was as young, Dodgson began writing poetry and short stories. He was published in a few magazines. His work was usually funny and satirical. Dodgson was shy and his own worst critic, although his Alice books made him almost instantly famous. He received more that ninety-eight letters from fans of his books. Almost thirty years after the success of his Alice books, Dodgson published a two-volume book of Silvie and Bruno, two fairy siblings. The stories weave together the land of fairies and England.

Even with all his fame, Dodgson continued to teach at Christ Church until his death. Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, also known as Lewis Carroll died on January 14, 1898, at the age of sixty-five of pneumonia. In two weeks he would have been sixty-six. He is buried in Guildford at the Mount Cemetery.