Lewis Carroll

In his childhood, Carroll suffered a fever that left him with a deaf ear. At the age of 17, he also suffered a severe attack of whooping cough that resulted in a weak chest. He also stammered which affected his social life.

The studentship at Christ Church College was dependent on remaining unmarried. He was supposed to become a priest, after which he could have married and been appointed to a hamlet by the college. However, he felt unsuitable for parish work and though he briefly thought of marriage, he finally chose bachelorhood.

He was a charming entertainer. He could sing reasonably well and was not afraid to perform before an audience. He was skilled at mimicry, storytelling, and farces as well.

Charles Dodgson, better known as Lewis Carroll, was born on 27 January 1832 in the village of Daresbury, England. His family was primarily northern British with some Irish relations. Many men in his family were either army officers or clergy men.

He was the eldest son and the third child in a family of eleven children. His father was an active and conservative priest of the Church of England. When Carroll was eleven years old, his family moved to a spacious church house in North Yorkshire, where they lived for the next 25 years.

As a small boy, Carroll was educated at home. He performed well in mathematics and won many academic prizes. On the other hand, he suffered from a stammering problem that affected his social life.

At the age of twelve, he joined Richmond Grammar School, Yorkshire (1844 - 45). In 1846, he entered the Rugby School where he experienced three years of unhappiness from being bullied. Nevertheless, he continued to excel in academics.

In 1849, he left Rugby to spend a year under his father’s guidance and matriculated at Christ Church College, Oxford on 23 May 1850. The following year, he went into residence as an undergraduate. Shortly thereafter, his mother died at the age of 47.

Lewis Carroll continued at Christ Church College studying and teaching mathematics. In 1855, he won the Christ Church Mathematical Lectureship, a post he continued to hold for the next 26 years till his resignation in 1881.

He worked primarily in the fields of geometry, linear and matrix algebra, mathematical logic, and recreational mathematics, publishing several books under his real name. He also contributed new ideas in linear algebra, probability, and the study of elections and committees.

After his resignation from the Lecturer post, he served as the curator of the common room (manager of the staff club) at Christ Church College from 1882 to 1892.

From a young age, Lewis Carroll wrote poetry and short stories. He produced the magazine ‘The Rectory Umbrella’ from 1849 to 1853. In 1845 he had begun composing the magazine ‘Useful and Instructive Poetry’ which was ultimately published after more than a 100 years in 1954.

His work also appeared in national publications like ‘The Comic Times’ and ‘The Train’, and in small magazines like the ‘Whitby Gazette’ and the ‘Oxford Critic’. Most of his writings were humorous and satirical.

In 1856, he first used the pen name “Lewis Carroll” while publishing a romantic poem called ‘Solitude’ in the publication ‘The Train’.

The same year, a new Dean of the college - Henry Liddell arrived at Christ Church with his family. Carroll became good friends with the dean’s children, namely the three sisters Lorina, Edith, and Alice. He spent a lot of time with them, amusing them with his interesting stories.

On Alice’s insistence, he wrote down one such story and presented to her in November 1864 a handwritten, illustrated manuscript called ‘Alice's Adventures under Ground’. The work was finally published by Macmillan Publishers as ‘Alice's Adventures in Wonderland’ in 1865.