Biography of Lewis Carroll 

Early Life: Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, who came to be known as Lewis Carroll, was born on January 27, 1832.  His family was predominately English, Anglican, Conservative, and upper middle class.  Carroll, who was the third child and the oldest boy, had seven sisters and three brothers (Victorian web).  ”As a boy, Lewis Carroll devoted himself… to the entertainment of his brothers and sisters” (239).   Education: Lewis Carroll’s father placed a strong emphasis on the education of his children, and in August of 1844, when Carroll was twelve years old, his father sent him to a private boarding school (242).  In January of 1851, Carroll moved to Oxford to attend his father’s old college, Christ Church.  However, after being there only two days, he received the sad news that his mother had died (Victorian web).   Adulthood: Lewis Carroll was described as being “about six foot tall, slender, and handsome… with curling brown hair and blue eyes.”  When he was seventeen, he suffered from a severe case of whooping cough, which caused him to have poor hearing in his right ear.  He also had a stammer that he never outgrew (Victorian web).   His Works: In 1852, he published a poem entitled “Solitude” under the name Lewis Carroll, and he eventually became known by this name.  (Prior to this, he had been known as Charles L. Dodgson.)  In 1865, he published Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, again under the penname Lewis Carroll.  This work achieved immediate success.  He died suddenly of pneumonia on January 14, 1898 (Victorian web).