whose friendship he valued highly. He also took many photographic portraits of poet Alfred Lord Tennyson’s sons.
His favorite subjects were the daughters of the Dean at Christ’s Church, Henry George Liddell (often referred to as H.G. and Liddell rhymes with “middle"). A man of considerable reputation, Liddell’s thirty-six year reign at Christ Church is amply recorded. Charles and the dean were on good professional footing and after gaining all his photographic apparatus, Charles’ other occupation became taking photos of Liddell’s daughters: Lorina, Alice and Edith, and that made Charles a frequent visitor at the “Deanery."
Charles had a stutter. While he was always polite to grownups, because of his speech impediment, he preferred the relationships with children versus adults. Nevertheless, talk has always swirled around his preference as being fixated on children.
The Real Alice (Liddell)
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland originated on a boat trip with the young daughters of Liddell (although others reported it resulted from many previous installments that grew and changed over time). Actually, the first Alice’s adventures were “Underground." Later, after much expansion and more careful deliberation, the location turned into Wonderland.
The “golden afternoon" on the river in 1862 saw Charles in his element with the three Liddell sisters—ranging in age from eight to thirteen—and his friend Robinson Duckworth, gliding languidly over shimmering water. Everyone in the boat was looking forward to the ride and picnic. “Tell us a story" was the prompt and it poured out, the story of Alice down the rabbit hole.
The next day, Alice pestered him—actually more than once—to write the story down for her and the rest they say, is history. He made a copy by hand with his own illustrations and gave it to Alice. Publication followed.
One reviewer attributed the success of these works to the fact that, unlike most children’s book of the era, they had no moral and did not explain anything. Most books of that period were written to teach children how to behave, to obey rules and to do as they were told.
The sequel to the book, Through the Looking-Glass was published in 1871.
- Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland movie, McLeod, Norman Z., 1898-1964. [United States]: Paramount Pictures : Made available through hoopla, 1933. 1 online resource video file (ca. 77 min.): sd., col.
- Image Source: “Alice in Wonderland”. Licensed under Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons
- Drabble, Margaret, Ed. The Oxford Companion to English Literature, 5th ed. New York: Oxford University Press, 1985. Book
- Lewis Carroll Society of North America
- Cohen, Morton N. Lewis Carroll: A Biography. New York: Vintage Books, 1995. Book.
- Mendelson, Edward, Ed. Poetry for Young People: Lewis Carroll. New York: Sterling Publishing Co.,2000. Book