Lewis Carroll (1832-1896)

Reverend Charles Lutwidg Dogdson, better known to the world by his pen name Lewis Carroll, was an English writer best known for Alice Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass. He was also a mathematician, logician, Anglican clergyman and in his time, a pioneering amateur portrait photographer. Through the two Alice books and several books of nonsense verse, such as The Hunting of the Snark, he became well known for writing with an anarchial sense of humour and original and experimental wordplay, with many of his passages referenced regularly in modern times. His personal life is however a subject of constant controversy, with accusations of paedophilia and questions about his close relationship with the real-life protagonist of his Alice books, Alice Liddell.

Main works:

• Alice Adventures in Wonderland (1865)
• Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There (1871)
• The Hunting of the Snark (1876)

A selection from his work:

• “When I use a word,” Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, “it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less.” — Through the Looking Glass

~ by Damon on January 5, 2007.