Lewis Carroll was the pseudonym of the Reverend Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, an enigmatic author, illustrator, logician, renowned photographer, letter writer, diarist, and for the majority of his adult life, mathematics lecturer at Christ Church, Oxford University. To illustrate this author's advanced sense of logic, mystery, and creativity, Dodgson constructed his pen name as a puzzle in itself. 1.
Charles Lutwidge Dodgson was born in 1832 in Cheshire, England, a village about twenty miles from Liverpool. One of eleven children living on a secluded farm, young Dodgson spent much of his young life seeking isolation in the landscapes surrounding his home. 2. Most creatures in Alice's world are constructions of a young boy's observations on the farm: white rabbits, caterpillars, mushrooms, field mice, gardens of flowers, and other barnyard and parsonage animals.
3. His two most famous works, however, are Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865) and Through the Looking-Glass (1872). 4. Although these pieces of literature were originally written to entertain the minds of young children, they are full of themes and allusions to Victorian society.
Along with personal experiences on his childhood farm, the story of Alice is a direct result of Dodgson's work as a tutor and photographer during his time at Christ Church. 5. They took many rowing trips down the river and Dodgson would collect his thoughts in a diary. Aside from these interactions, the artist also took many posed photographs of Liddell's family, specifically his young children, one of which was seven-year-old Alice.