Who Was Lewis Carroll?

Lewis Carroll was his pen name. His real name was Charles Lutwidge Dodgson. Probably best known for: "Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland" and "Through the Looking-Glass". A very well known poem, “Jabberwocky” is a favorite of young children.

Lewis Carroll (January 27, 1832—January 14, 1898), was a British writer mostly known for his children’s fiction books Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, its sequel Through The Looking Glass, and his poems Jabberwocky and The Hunting of the Snark. However, his fiction is only a small part of his creative output, as he was also a noted mathematician, Anglican deacon, and photographer.

Lewis Carroll

On a quiet day in late January 1832, in the parsonage of the small town of Daresbury, Cheshire, a figure stepped into the world who would captivate the minds of both children and adults alike.

Lewis Carroll, born Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, would come to be known not only as a master storyteller and the father of one of the most famous young girls in literature, Alice, but also as a profound mathematician and an Anglican deacon, whose riddles and rhymes puzzled the intellectual and literary circles of his time.

It was in the family home, filled with the voices of ten siblings, where Charles’s sharp mind began to take form. Under the stern guidance of his father, a conservative clergyman with unyielded devotion to the Anglican Church, young Charles received his preliminary education. His early encounter with "The Pilgrim’s Progress" sparked a lifelong love for stories, though his stutter often made him a more reclusive narrator.

The academic prowess of Charles became clear when he moved to Richmond Grammar School and later to Rugby School. Despite personal challenges, he shone particularly bright in mathematics, a field in which he would later publish numerous scholarly papers. His journey continued at Christ Church, Oxford University, where the blend of rigorous mathematical theories and whimsical story ideas began to meld into the unique tapestry that defined his dual careers.

Lewis Carroll's Career

Carroll’s early literary output was humorous and satirical, and it appeared in national publications The Comic Times and The Train, and The Oxford Critic between 1854 and 1856. He used Lewis Carroll as a pen name for the first time in 1856 to author a romantic poem titled Solitude, which appeared in The Train. Lewis Carroll is an etymological play on his given name, Charles Lutwidge.

Back in 1862, he had told the story to Alice, who begged for a written version. Under MacDonald’s encouragement, he brought the unfinished manuscript to MacMillan in 1863, and in November 1864, he presented her with a written and illustrated manuscript titled Alice’s Adventures Underground.

Carroll wrote for an audience; a born storyteller, he had a stutter that prevented him from being a performer, but he had an extraordinary sense of theatricality. In his youth, he drew cartoons for his siblings and conjured tricks for them, and involved them in his storytelling process. He liked entertaining other children as a means to being liked, and this started in his household—he had ten brothers and sisters after all.

Alice In Wonderland
By Lewis Carroll

The year 1865 marked the birth of "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland," a work that would redefine the genre of children's literature.

Inspired by a boating trip with the Liddell children, Carroll wove a narrative that was as fantastical as it was profound, peppered with logical conundrums and literary nonsense. The tale received enthusiastic reception, paving the way for its darker sequel, "Through the Looking Glass," which mirrored the complexities of his grief following his father’s death.

Through the Looking Glass
By Lewis Carroll

In 1868, Carroll’s father died and the grief and subsequent depression are reflected in the sequel Through the Looking-Glass, which is noticeably darker in tone. In this story, Alice enters the fantastical world through a mirror, so everything, from movement to logic, works like a reflection, and at the end, she questions reality as a whole, wondering if she is anything but a figment of someone’s imagination.

There’s an anecdote on Carroll that relates that Queen Victoria noticed that her children were so taken with Alice in Wonderland that she requested to be the first person to receive a copy of his next work.

She received what she requested and it was An Elementary Treatise on Determinants with their application to Simultaneous Linear Equations and Algebraic Geometry.

You can read more about the life and times of Lewis Carroll in this great book available on Amazon here.

Lewis Carroll
- The Great Mathematician

Parallel to his literary success, Carroll's academic contributions continued to flourish. His lectures on linear algebra and probability, and his detailed essays on voting systems and electoral reforms, positioned him as a scholarly authority.

Yet, his most substantial impact remained in the realm of literature and imagination.

Carroll's works varied between reality and fantasy.

Carroll's works often went between reality and fantasy, questioning the very fabric of existence and perception. "Through the Looking Glass" ends with Alice pondering if she was merely a dream figure of the Red King.

Lewis died of pneumonia on January 14, 1898 at his sisters’ home, two weeks before turning 66. His legacy will inspire many wannabe authors plus countless other people that wish to become Fairy Tale authors. His life had a numerical precision in his stories that challenged and delighted audiences in equal measure.

Lewis Carroll remains a towering figure in both children’s literature and mathematical logic. His ability to make stories so complex and yet challenge you. It makes him a man to study and admire. He put all this into the adventures of a curious girl named Alice and how she learned logic and probability.

Carroll’s work invites us to question, dream, and believe in the impossible.

My Thoughts

Lewis Carroll’s life was delightfully complex. He was a man who was not merely the creator of Wonderland but also a shrewd mathematician. Readers might think how he was able to put together his love for logic and his ability to create stories.

His work helps us to merge creativity with critical thinking, to find wonder in the workings of the mind.

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