Lewis Carroll Biography

Know this topic well? Help others and get FREE products!

World of Mathematics on Lewis Carroll

Lewis Carroll is actually a pseudonym, the pen name taken by Charles Lutwidge Dodgson. Although best known for his children's books, Dodgson worked professionally as a mathematician, studying particularly recreational logic, determinants, geometry and the mathematics behind tournaments and elections.

Charles Lutwidge Dodgson was born in Daresbury, Cheshire, England, on January 27, 1832. He was the third child of 11 who would eventually be born to the clergyman Charles Dodgson and his wife, Frances Jane (Lutwidge). Charles, like his father and most of his siblings, suffered from a stutter his entire life.

Because of the relative isolation of the parsonage in which the family lived, young Charles created his own games. Biographer S.D. Collingwood wrote, "in this quiet home the boy invented the strangest diversions . . .he . . . numbered certain snails and toads among his intimate friends . . . He tried also to encourage civilised warfare among earthworms. . ."

Charles took his first lessons at home, under his father's tutelage. He learned mathematics, Latin, and literature with ease, and showed early promise at mathematics. In 1844, he went to the Richmond School, 10 miles from his father's posting at Croft-on-Tees in Yorkshire. James Tate, his headmaster, fostered Charles's interest in mathematics, even writing to his family that he had "a very uncommon share of genius."

He then attended the Rugby school, excelling in his studies. But he may not have enjoyed the boisterous atmosphere, and returned home in 1849, after four years, to get ready to attend Christ Church College, Oxford. He started there on January 24, 1851, but returned home almost immediately to attend his mother's funeral; she had died suddenly.

In 1854, he graduated from Christ Church College, and the following year was named lecturer in mathematics there. In addition, he worked as sub-librarian, and received a scholarship, which added an extra 55 pounds a year to his income. He would remain at Oxford his entire life.

He tutored pupils in mathematics, and was apparently quite a good teacher, able to provide clear explanations. However, he was not a stimulating lecturer, lacking charisma and communication skills (and he still had that stutter). Later in his life, he observed that nine students had attended his first lecture; only two attended his last one, which took place 25 years later.

In 1857 he received his master of arts from Christ Church College. In 1861, he was ordained as a deacon in the Church of England; records show that he performed several baptisms and funerals, and preached sermons, although public speaking must have been difficult for him.

Although he never married, and had few close friends, Dudgeon's life was not empty. He had always loved writing for the sheer joy of it, and his works amused people, which made him content. He never planned to publish, but several of his pieces appeared in British humor magazines, and out of some of these pieces grew Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass, two of the world's enduring classics of children's literature.

But a highlight of Dodgson's life was children. They accepted him--stuttering shyness and all--and he loved to tell them stories. He wrote his famous Alice books for the daughters of Henry George Liddell. He published them under the name Lewis Carroll, under which he had also published light verse.

His scholarly writings are numerous, although not groundbreaking. He modestly described his work as "chiefly in the lower branches of Mathematics." Dodgson did not keep up with the latest developments in his field, nor did he concentrate on doing new mathematics. Instead, his focus was chiefly concerned with teaching, not with research--with providing the all-important underpinnings of knowledge that would allow students to pursue further work.

He wrote a textbook on geometry called A Syllabus of Plane Algebraic Geometry, which was published in 1860. Later, he turned his attention to determinants, first publishing a paper in the Proceedings of the Royal Society in 1866 and later expanding that paper into a book. However, An Elementary Treatise on Determinants was not well received, possibly because he created symbols to use solely in that book.

He distinguished himself particularly in his work in logic and on voting and tournaments. He published a pamphlet in 1873 regarding different ways of arriving at fair majority opinions; although he didn't review the existing literature on the topic, he improved on the ideas that he didn't even know existed.

One of his true loves was recreational logic. All his logic work was published under his pseudonym, indicating that he considered it an amusing pastime. He was particularly interested in the use of diagrams in logic, and he understood, used, and improved on James Venn's circular diagrams, making them square and using red and gray colored counters to indicate the contents of the sets.

Dodgson's clever mind is easily seen at work in the pages of the Alice books, which are riddled with logic puzzles. He also turned mathematics into comedy when he wrote the five-act play Euclid and His Modern Rivals. The play was widely read in English schools.

In addition to his work in mathematics and his writing, Dodgson was a gifted photographer, particularly of children. One of his favorite subjects as Alice Liddell. He has been called the most gifted photographer of children of his era.

Dodgson died on January 14, 1898, in Guildford, Surrey, England.

Recent Updates

August 9, 2004: An unpublished notebook of Dodgson's photos, newspaper clippings, and annotations was posted to the Internet at the Global Gateway web site. Source: Global Gateway, http://international.loc.gov/intld/carrollhtml, August 9, 2004.