Reverend Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, who wrote under the pseudonym Lewis Carroll, was one of the most creative writers of children's fantasy in the history of literature. His two most famous books, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There (1872), are listed among the greatest and most influential books ever written in English. Dodgson is praised as a genius who fused his own love of word-games and logic puzzles with a genuine love of and sympathy for children. His two Alice books remain popular with both adults and children, and they have been interpreted by critics as guides to a Victorian childhood, as well as sophisticated treatises on philosophy, logic, and mathematics.

Dodgson was born in Daresbury, Cheshire, England, in 1832. He was the eldest son and third child of Reverend Charles Dodgson, a clergyman in the Church of England, and his wife...