Lewis Carroll

Lewis Carroll was born as Charles Lutwidge Dodgson on January 27, 1832 in the town of Warrington Cheshire. When he was born he was the third child of his parent’s four and a half year marriage. During his young life he was educated at home and his vast intellect of his early age was preserved by his parent’s record of books that he had read. His social life was disturbed by his stammering condition stifling his self confidence. At the age of twelve his parents sent him to a private school in a nearby town. After his stay there he continued his academic carrier and attended Rugby School. At the end of the 1849 he left Rugby School and took a break before going to Oxford in January of 1851 to enroll in Christ Church, his father’s former college, but right after his arrival there he left for home after being summonsed because his mother had died of “inflammation of the brain”. (wikipedia.com)

During his younger years he wrote short stories and poems that he often submitted to magazines, from these works of literature he enjoyed fairly good success. He first submitted a romantic poem in 1856 to “The Train” under the pen name Lewis Carroll which is actually a pseudonym of his real name. His most famous literature work was the book “Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland”. (wikepedia.com)

The story of Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland, was first told to the daughter of the dean at Christ Church, Alice Liddell, who many believe is the “Alice” in Alice’s Adventures In Wonderland which Carroll strongly denied throughout his life. It is fairly clear through his library of diaries that he was in close friendship with the Liddell family and spent many hours spent with the children, mostly taking them on rowing trips. During one of these adventures is when he designed the story line of his future success. It was actually another family friend who persuaded Carroll to seek publication and ensure his named stamped in history. (wikipedia.com)

Besides being an avid writer and storyteller Carroll was also a photographer. His favorite subject according to remaining pictures was of young girls. The girl he used as his subject the most was Alexandra Kitchin, there are over fifty surviving prints of her all being taken between 1869 and 1880 the last being taken before her sixteenth birthday, because of his photographic, and social interest in young girls many people today view him as a pedophile, but during the Victorian time period it was not uncommon for girls to be married by the time they where fifteen to men much older than them because of the number of prints depicting young children in various states of dress most about 2/3’s of all of his photographs have been lost, destroyed by time, or intentionally destroyed by his family to protect the family name. Today he is recognized as one of the top Victorian Artists in the world. (wikipedia.com)

Because of Carroll’s “unconventional” friendships with young women and frequent vacations and time spent alone in his apartment at Christ Church rumors became rampant about his relationship with these young women. These rumors cause Carroll much distress and some hypothesize that these where the reasons for him to leave photography. (www.lewiscarroll.cc)


www.wikipedia.com


www.lewiscarroll.cc