Lewis Carroll Biography

Lewis Carroll was an English author who is predominantly known for writing fiction books for children, his most famous work is the book called Alice in Wonderland. His original name was Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, he used Lewis Carroll as his pen name, upon gaining fame as an author he was commonly known by his pen name. Apart from writing children’s books the author served as a lecturer of mathematics, he received a studentship from Christ College when he was only twenty years old. 

Some of the famous Lewis Carroll books include Alice in Wonderland, The Hunting of the Snark, Sylvie and Bruno, and Through the Looking-Glass. He also did well in the field of mathematics, and some of his known papers that contributed greatly to the advancement of science include, A Syllabus of Plane Algebraic Geometry, The Fifth Book of Euclid Treated Algebraically, and An Elementary Treatise on Determinants, With Their Application to Simultaneous Linear Equations and Algebraic Equations.

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Early Life and Family of Lewis Carrol

Charles Lutwidge Dodgson was born in the village of Daresbury, England, on January 27, 1832. Lewis Carroll's real name was Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, which was given by his parents. He was born into a middle-class family, his father was a clergyman at the church. His family history included many clergies and army officers, he was raised as a Catholic Christain. His family followed the Church of England. His parents were Charles Dodgson and Frances Jane Lutwidge. His father was a gifted mathematician who chose to serve the church and became the clergy of the Church of England. 

Charles Lutwidge Dodgson was the eldest child, he had 11 siblings. From a young age, He was inclined towards entertaining family members, especially his siblings. He was an excellent student, he particularly excelled in subjects like science and mathematics. His life and ideologies were greatly influenced by his father. His father, Charles Dodgson was a conservative and later in life served as an Archdeacon of Richmond. He was also a great supporter of Anglo-Catholicism and the Tractarian movement. He was also a supporter of John Henry Newman, his father did his best to instill such ideologies in the mind of the young author. Needless to say, Lewis Carroll also believed in some of the ideologies and practiced Christianity throughout his life. It is documented in various Lewis Carroll biography that he and his father shared an ambivalent relationship because of differences in some of the ideologies between them. Apart from the occasional differences in opinion, Lewis Carroll life was pretty aligned with the ideologies and beliefs of his father.

Lewis Carroll during his early years of life was educated at home. Lewis Carroll books and other notes are kept safe as a testament to his elite education. He was only seven years old when he completed reading books such as The Pilgrim's Progress, which further attested to his precocious intellect. 

Education of Charles Lutwidge Dodgson

An interesting fact about Lewis Carroll is that he attended the Richmond School, which was especially considered an elite and prestigious school for children. Lewis Carroll used to stutter during his childhood, this was also common in his siblings, due to this he felt uncomfortable having social interaction. He has been considered a shy individual and this character remained true till his adult life.

After completing his education at Richmond school he was sent to Rugby School in 1846. The school was a public school located in Rugby, Yorkshire, England. He continued his education there for three years. It is reported by many biographers in Charles Lutwidge Dodgson biography that he evidently was not very happy at the school. He particularly had difficulties in adjusting to the social hierarchy of the school. Nevertheless, he did exceptionally well at school. During this time his tutors observed his talent in mathematics. Not much was known about his literary interests during this period of his life. He left the Rugby institution in 1849.

Lewis Carroll was then enrolled at the University of Oxford in 1850. He studied at Christ’s College, he was a resident student at the college. His studies were disrupted when his mother died at the age of 47. He moved back to his home for a brief time. Many biographers write about Lewis Carroll that his career veered between high promise and irresistible distraction. Despite various distractions, he achieved first-class honours in Mathematics Moderations in the year 1852.

Following his graduation, he was offered a scholarship to Christ College when he was only 20 years old. In 1854, he succeeded to gain first-class honours in the Final Honours School of Mathematics. After completing his degree he was offered Christ Church Mathematical Lectureship in 1855, which he accepted. He rained in the institute as a teacher for 25 years, till his death. He worked on topics like algebra and determinant evaluation. It was during his days as a teacher in Christ College he worked on his literary interests. He primarily wrote children’s fiction and fantasy novels like Alice in Wonderland. He also wrote poems, some of the prominent examples of Lewis Carroll poems include The Hunting of the Snark and Jabberwocky.

Artistic Works of Lewis Carrol

The most interesting fact about Lewis Carroll's life is that he was not only a prominent mathematician, he was also an author, a photographer. A lesser-known fact about him was he was a good photographer. At an early age, he thought of taking photography as a career path. The biographers that wrote all about Lewis Carroll also mention that he was a good photographer. He left photography because he found it difficult to find the balance between his mathematical research and studio works. It was in 1856, that Carrol took up this form of art. His photography inspiration and work were drawn from his uncle Skeffington Lutwidge and later was influenced by his Oxford friend Reginald Southey. It is documented that almost 60 percent of his work is lost, some of the prominent portraits that he created include the following personalities, John Everett Millais, Ellen Terry, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Julia Margaret Cameron, Michael Faraday, Lord Salisbury, and Alfred Tennyson.

Lewis Carroll is the pen name, Charles Lutwidge Dodgson used to write his novels and poems. Some of his famous works apart from Alice in Wonderland include books like Sylvie and Bruno, Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There. There are some famous Lewis Carroll poems that include Solitude.  

Lewis Carroll is primarily known for his work as a fantasy book writer for children. He first started writing for the family magazine that was called Mischmasch. Between 1854 and 1856 he published his work in various magazines which were partially successful. The journals he wrote for were The Comic Times and The Train, as well as smaller magazines such as the Whitby Gazette and the Oxford Critic.

His most famous Alice in Wonderland was published on 26 November 1865. The book was originally published with the name Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. The book was a huge commercial success and gained much popularity. Some of the records mention that the book was praised by the Queen of England, Queen Victoria. The book contained a part two and three, these were published in 1871, he published the sequel by the name of Through the Looking-Glass, and the thyroid book of the series was published by the name of  What Alice Found There.

His other literary work included The Hunting Snark which was published in  1876 and a series of two books named Sylvie and Bruno. The premise of Sylvie and Bruno was based around the life of these siblings in a fairyland. The book was published in 1895, almost 30 years after the publication of his masterpiece. Although he received much fame and accumulated much wealth through the huge commercial success of his book series Lewis continued his work in mathematics at Christ College.

Scientific Contributions

One of the important things about the author’s life is the balance between his literary and artistic work, while working as a teacher of mathematics in the Christ college he published much research that was prominent in the field of mathematics. He primarily worked in the fields of geometry, linear and matrix algebra, mathematical logic, and recreational mathematics. Some of his prominent contributions in the field include the Kronecker–Capelli theorem. He also developed the study of elections known as Dodgson's method. He was also known for the formulation of the Dodgson condensation, which is a method used for evaluating determinants. It was his initial idea that led him and his colleagues to the alternating sign matrix conjecture, which is now known as a theorem. He also published  "Memoria Technica". Apart from these Lewis Carroll books also includes A Syllabus of Plane Algebraic Geometry, The Fifth Book of Euclid Treated Algebraically, An Elementary Treatise on Determinants, With Their Application to Simultaneous Linear Equations and Algebraic Equations, Euclid and his Modern Rivals, Symbolic Logic Part I and II.

Death and Legacy

Charles Lutwidge Dodgson died on 14 January 1898 at his sisters' home, the cause of his death mentioned in the Lewis Carroll biography is the infection of pneumonia. He was 65 years old at the time of his death. His funeral was held at the nearby St Mary's Church. His body was buried at the Mount Cemetery in Guildford. The author and mathematician were commemorated at All Saints' Church, Daresbury in its stained glass windows depicting characters from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. He was not married and much is known about his personal life, although many biographers mention that he was ordained when he was a student at Christ College.