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Lewis Carroll

LEWIS CARROLL (Charles Lutwidge Dodgson) was born in the village of Darebury, Cheshire, England, January 27, 1832. He was a mathematician as well as author, and while the literary life of "Lewis Carroll" was familiar to a wide circle of readers, the private life of Charles Lutwidge Dodgson was retired and practically uneventful.

He took a first class in the final mathematical school in 1854, and the following year was appointed mathematical lecturer at Christ Church, a post he continued to fill until 1881. He published books of a purely mathematical nature first; but in 1865 he published, under the pseudonym of "Lewis Carroll," "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland," a work that was the outcome of his keen sympathy with the imagination of children and their sense of fun. This whimsical story was an immediate success, and the name of "Lewis Carroll" has ever since been a household word.

Mr. Dodgson was extremely fond of children, and it was an open secret that the original of Alice was a daughter of Dean Liddel. A dramatic version of the Alice books was produced at Christmas, 1886, and has since enjoyed numerous revivals.

Throughout this dual existence Mr. Dodgson persistently refused to be publicly identified with "Lewis Carroll," although his authorship of "Alice in Wonderland" and "Through the Looking-Glass" was well known. He died at Guilford on the 14th of January, 1898; his memory is appropriately kept green by a cot in the Children's Hospital, Great Ormond Street, London, which was erected and endowed perpetually by public subscription.