On this day we celebrate the 182nd birth anniversary of celebrated English writer, mathematician, and photographer, Lewis Carroll!
Lewis Carroll in 1863. Photo via Wikipedia
Lewis Carroll was born Charles Lutwidge Dodgson on this day in 1832 in the village of Daresbury in Cheshire, England, the third child and eldest boy in a family of 11 children. If you’ve ever wondered about the origin of his penname, the Lewis Carroll Society of North America revealed that it was derived from the Latin translation of Charles Lutwidge, i.e., Carolus Ludovicus. Dodgson then switched its order before translating it back to English – hence, Lewis Carroll. It was actually his first publisher who selected this for him from a shortlist of pen names that Dodgson had submitted. Aside from being an author, Dodgson was also a gifted mathematician and inventor.
Dodgson was said to have been adept at creating games and writing even as a child. He was home schooled in his early youth, but was eventually sent to Richmond Grammar School and at the Rugby School. At 18, he matriculated as a member of his father’s old college Christ Church at Oxford. Dodgson had been described as an exceptionally gifted student. He was to remain at Christ Church until his death not only as a student but also as a professor.
Photo by Lewis Carroll via Blogspot
Dodgson was said to have suffered from a speech disorder, stammering. However, this did not hinder him to become a good entertainer, with stories claiming that he would not hesitate to sing in front of people and that he was good at charades and storytelling. In addition, Dodgson was also described as shy, but would feel freer with children. This affinity with children led to malicious accusations of him allegedly being a pedophile, also fueled by accounts claiming that he was said to have taken photos of young girls in the nude or semi-nude as a photographer.
Alice Liddell, the girl who was said to have inspired Carroll’s Alice, in 1858. Photo by Dodgson via Blogspot
Anyway, it was this uninhibited spirit in the company of youngsters paired with his gift for storytelling that led Dodgson to come up with Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. As you may have already heard, there is a real-life Alice (Liddell), who, one afternoon during a picnic with her two sisters, was regaled by Dodgson with a narration of what would become this literary classic. Dodgson put the story in writing after Alice requested him to do so. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland was published in 1865, and in six years’ time was followed by Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There. Both were successful at the time and to this day retain a significant amount of popularity.
A few other works that Dodgson penned throughout his life were the poems The Hunting of the Snark and Jabberwocky, and the two-volume novel Sylvie and Bruno.
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Apart from being a writer and a mathematician, did you know that Dodgson also tried his hand in photography? He first dabbled with photography which, in 1856, was a new art form. He was said to have been influenced by his uncle Skeffington Lutwidge and friend from Oxford Reginald Southey. Apparently, Dodgson was not merely an enthusiast, he actually became adept and known for it. Unfortunately, more than half of his portfolio is said to be missing. In any case, this reportedly consisted of photographs of young girls, men, women, male children, landscapes, and other objects such as skeletons, statues and dolls, paintings, dogs, and trees. Dodgson was also able to shoot portraits of some of his time’s renowned sitters, including Michael Faraday and Alfred, Lord Tennyson.
But after 24 years, Dodgson abruptly quit photography, allegedly because he found it difficult to maintain his studio and to compete with commercial photographers who used the dry-plate process (Dodgson himself practiced the wet collodion process). In sum, he was said to have created 3,000 images, with less than a thousand surviving today.
Dodgson died on January 14, 1889, just two weeks’ shy of his 66th birthday, in Surrey, England due to pneumonia following influenza. Although various controversies surrounded his name even after death, it is with no question that the legacy he left as a writer, mathematician, photographer, and inventor remains unparalleled.
All information in this article were sourced from Bio, Wikipedia, and the Lewis Carroll Society of North America. Further reading may also be done through these pages.
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