Down the Rabbit Hole With Lewis Carroll

by Julie Oreskovich

Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (1832 - 1898), otherwise known as Lewis Carroll, is best known for his classic book, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and its sequel, Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There, but Carroll led a varied and interesting life outside of writing literary nonsense. The author was also known as a brilliant scholar and spent a large portion of his life teaching mathamatics including geometry, algebra and logic at Christ Church college at Oxford. He went on to publish several mathematics books as well as puzzles, games and riddles.

Dodgson took up photography in 1856 and became known as a gentleman-photographer. There is considerable controversy surrounding his photographs as a large percentage of the pictues he took depict young girls, some of them unclothed. Since Dodgson's death, there have been numerous scholars who have debated and challenged the suggestion that he was involved in paedophilia photography. Some have argued that the study of child nudes were common and even fashionable during the time that Dodgson took up photography.

The first piece of work published in 1856 under the name Lewis Carroll was a romantic poem called Solitude. That same year, Dodgson was introduced to a family with three children, one of them named Alice, that would influence his writing career. Various accounts have stated that Dodgson first told the story of Alice's Adventures Under Ground (the original title) and ultimately had the book published in 1865 under the name Alice's Adventures in Wonderland after various other titles were discussed including Alice Among the Fairies and Alice's Golden Hour. The original manuscript was illustrated by Dodgson but when it went to print, the author thought a more skilled artist should illustrate the book, so illustrator Sir John Tenniel was hired for the job.

Lewis Carroll went on to write additional commercially successful books including the sequel - Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There in 1871. Some claim that Carroll's last great piece of work was The Hunting of the Snark, a nonsense poem about the adventures of a crew including a beaver who set out to find the creature. Jabberwocky was another nonsense verse poem that appeared in Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There.

Although Dodgson did quite well for himself, he continued to teach at Christ Church until 1881 and lived there in residence until his death. His last novel, Sylvie and Bruno was published in 1889. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland has never gone out of print, has been translated into at least 97 different languages, and has been adapted into various stage, television and film versions.

 

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Versions of Alice

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Most Expensive Lewis Carroll Books Sold on AbeBooks

1. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland - $2,200
Hardbound in red leatherboards with gilt decorations in blue slipcase. Signed by Alice Hargreaves (Liddell), the real Alice, as well as by the type and binding designer.

2. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland - $1,420
Published one year after the first edition, in the original boards. Illustrated throughout by John Tenniel.

3. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass - $1,150
31st thousand and 15th thousand editions 1872 of the first editions. Illustrated throughout by John Tenniel.

4. Alice in Wonderland - $875
1879 near fine clean tight bright stated 60th thousand printing.

5. The Lewis Carroll Picture Book - $775
1899 - Original red cloth decorated in gilt, beveled. first edition, edited by Lewis Carroll's nephew. An interesting volume, belying the limitations of its chief title. Besides 24 illustrations it contains reprints and new matter. The illustrations are chiefly from Lewis Carroll's own photography of well-known persons, child-friends, and comic subjects.

 

Interesting Lewis Carroll Facts

• After the Bible, Koran and Shakespeare, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is the most frequently quoted and best known book in the world.
  
  
• Lewis Carroll had seven sisters and three brothers.
  
  
• In 1867, Lewis took his first and only trip abroad across Europe to Russia.
  
  
• Carroll invented many word games and mathematical puzzles, including word ladder, also known as doublets.
  
  
• Carroll gave the manuscript of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland to Alice Liddell, the women who inspired Carroll to tell the story when she was a little girl.
  
  
• The real Alice, whom the story is modeled on, had dark hair, unlike the Alice in the book who has blonde hair.
  
  
• Carroll based the Dodo character upon himself.
  
  
• Liddell sold the Alice manuscript at auction in 1928 for £15,400.
  
  
• The manuscript now resides in the British Library.
  
  
• At the end of Through the Looking Glass there is a poem, the first letter of each line spells out Alice’s name.
  
  

 

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