Carroll, Lewis, pseudonym of Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (1832-98), English logician, mathematician, photographer, and novelist, best known for his fantasy, Alice in Wonderland.


Dodgson was the eldest son and third child in a family of seven girls and four boys born to Frances Jane Lutwidge, the wife of the Rev. Charles Dodgson. He was born in Daresbury, Cheshire, on Jan 27, 1832. His father was perpetual curate there from 1827 until 1843, when he became rector of Croft in Yorkshire - a post he held until his death on Jan 14, 1898 in Guildford, Surrey.

His family lived in an isolated country village and had few friends outside the family but found little difficulty in entertaining themselves. Charles showed a great aptitude for inventing games to amuse them. The "Rectory Magazines", manuscript compilations to which the family were supposed to contribute, were created when he was 12. In fact, Charles wrote nearly all of those that survive, including Useful and Instructive Poetry (1845; published 1954), The Rectory Magazine (c. 1850, mostly unpublished), The Rectory Umbrella (1850-53), and Mischmasch (1853-62; published with The Rectory Umbrella in 1932).



Young Dodgson attended Richmond School, Yorkshire (1844-45), and then Rugby School (1846-50). He endured several illnesses during this period, one of which left him deaf in one ear. After Rugby he spent a further year being tutored by his father, during which he matriculated at Christ Church, Oxford (May 23, 1850). He went into residence as an undergraduate there on Jan. 24, 1851.

Dodgson excelled in his mathematical and divinity studies in 1852; on the strength of his performance in examinations, he was nominated to a studentship (called a scholarship in other colleges). In 1854 he gained a first in mathematical Finals - coming out at the head of the class - and proceeded to a bachelor of arts degree in December of the same year. He was made a "Master of the House" and a senior student (called a fellow in other colleges) the following year and was appointed lecturer in mathematics (equivalent to today's tutor), a post he resigned in 1881. He held his studentship until the end of his life.

As Charles L. Dodgson, the name he used for his academic works, he was the author of a number of books on mathematics, none of enduring importance, although Euclid and His Modern Rivals (1879) is of some historical interest.