A mathematician. A little girl. Puzzles, paradoxes, conundrums: Charles L. Dodgson (1832-1898), who published children's books under the pen name of Lewis Carroll, was a scholar who stammered, never married (although he seems to have had plenty of affairs), and was so fascinated with the way that children's minds work that as well as being a scholar and professor at Christ Church, Oxford he published books of logical puzzles for children -- to engage their imaginations, and introduce them to the beauty of mathematics.

He is best known for Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865, originally Alice's Adventures Underground) and Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There (1872), but he was pragmatic, too, and relished the opportunity to make money from all his books, although it would appear that he respected some children more than he respected some of the students he had to teach at Christ Church -- perhaps because children possess a greater capacity for wonder.

From the very first sentence of Alice's adventures we can see just why Dodgson was (and still is) so popular with children (both as an author and as a friend to several) -- there is no condescending Victorian authoritative tone of voice, no lecturing on morals or cleanliness -- in short, it is a children's book in the best possible way:

• Alice was beginning to get very tired of sitting by her sister on the bank and of having nothing to do: once or twice she had peeped into the book her sister was reading, but it had no pictures or conversations in it, "and what is the use of a book," thought Alice, "without pictures or conversations?"

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland contains many fine conversations and excellent illustrations by John Tenniel, so Alice herself would have found the book acceptable reading.  Notice, however, within the space of one sentence Dodgson has brought us from the setting by the river, through the book on a sister's lap, and straight into the head of a little girl whose inquiring mind leads her into a world of imagination as gracefully and easily as a mathematical computation.

Dodgson appears to have been an outgoing, lively young man -- not at all the shy, stammering academic he is usually described as being.  The story of his friendship with the Liddells, though, is true -- Henry Liddell was dean of Christ Church, and Dodgson became firm friends with the whole family, including the three young daughters, Ina, Alice, and Edith.  There was nothing sinister in this friendship, nor in the photographs that Dodgson took (see the lovely examples above).  He simply delighted in the company of kind and intelligent people, and he was fond of the logic with which children examine the world, relishing their powers of reasoning -- remember, it takes many years for children to learn sophistry and deception (think of "The Emperor's New Clothes" for the most famous example of infallible child-like logic).

So, the story goes, Dodgson would take the three little girls on boating trips on the river, with picnics at nearby villages; one afternoon he started telling them the story of Alice, and she begged him to write it down.  So he did. 

The novel was quickly quite a commercial success.  It did not interfere with his other, more academic endeavors, however, as Dodgson also published various papers on mathematics, as well as several books.  But he had early craved social celebrity, and had been publishing stories, poems, and articles all along, in popular magazines and journals.  Karoline Leach, whose biography of Dodgson I have relied upon heavily here, calls him gregarious; as his manner was outgoing, so too was his output of publishable material.

The pen name is a play on his own name, Charles Lutwidge Dodgson; appropriate, given his love of wordplay.  Here are a few of the best conversations in Alice's Adventures Underground, that revel in wordplay, logic, and reasoning:

`You!' said the Caterpillar contemptuously.  `Who are YOU?'

  Which brought them back again to the beginning of the
conversation.  Alice felt a little irritated at the Caterpillar's
making such VERY short remarks, and she drew herself up and said,
very gravely, `I think, you ought to tell me who YOU are, first.'

  `Why?' said the Caterpillar.

  Here was another puzzling question; and as Alice could not
think of any good reason, and as the Caterpillar seemed to be in
a VERY unpleasant state of mind, she turned away.

  `Come back!' the Caterpillar called after her.  `I've something
important to say!'

  This sounded promising, certainly:  Alice turned and came back
again.

  `Keep your temper,' said the Caterpillar.

  `Is that all?' said Alice, swallowing down her anger as well as
she could.

  `No,' said the Caterpillar.

  Alice thought she might as well wait, as she had nothing else
to do, and perhaps after all it might tell her something worth
hearing.  For some minutes it puffed away without speaking, but
at last it unfolded its arms, took the hookah out of its mouth
again, and said, `So you think you're changed, do you?'

  `I'm afraid I am, sir,' said Alice; `I can't remember things as
I used--and I don't keep the same size for ten minutes together!'

  `Have some wine,' the March Hare said in an encouraging tone.

  Alice looked all round the table, but there was nothing on it
but tea.  `I don't see any wine,' she remarked.

  `There isn't any,' said the March Hare.

  `Then it wasn't very civil of you to offer it,' said Alice
angrily.

  `It wasn't very civil of you to sit down without being
invited,' said the March Hare.

  `I didn't know it was YOUR table,' said Alice; `it's laid for a
great many more than three.'

  `Your hair wants cutting,' said the Hatter.  He had been
looking at Alice for some time with great curiosity, and this was
his first speech.

  `You should learn not to make personal remarks,' Alice said
with some severity; `it's very rude.'

  The Hatter opened his eyes very wide on hearing this; but all
he SAID was, `Why is a raven like a writing-desk?'

  `Come, we shall have some fun now!' thought Alice.  `I'm glad
they've begun asking riddles.--I believe I can guess that,' she
added aloud.

  `Do you mean that you think you can find out the answer to it?'
said the March Hare.

  `Exactly so,' said Alice.

  `Then you should say what you mean,' the March Hare went on.

  `I do,' Alice hastily replied; `at least--at least I mean what
I say--that's the same thing, you know.'

  `Not the same thing a bit!' said the Hatter.  `You might just
as well say that "I see what I eat" is the same thing as "I eat
what I see"!'

  `You might just as well say,' added the March Hare, `that "I
like what I get" is the same thing as "I get what I like"!'

  `You might just as well say,' added the Dormouse, who seemed to
be talking in his sleep, `that "I breathe when I sleep" is the
same thing as "I sleep  when I breathe"!'

  `Once upon a time there were three little sisters,' the
Dormouse began in a great hurry; `and their names were Elsie,
Lacie, and Tillie; and they lived at the bottom of a well--'

  `What did they live on?' said Alice, who always took a great
interest in questions of eating and drinking.

  `They lived on treacle,' said the Dormouse, after thinking a
minute or two.

  `They couldn't have done that, you know,' Alice gently
remarked; `they'd have been ill.'

  `So they were,' said the Dormouse; `VERY ill.'

  Alice tried to fancy to herself what such an extraordinary ways
of living would be like, but it puzzled her too much, so she went
on:  `But why did they live at the bottom of a well?'

The above passages are quoted from Project Guttenberg's online edition of the text, which can also be found at Literature Online, if you prefer that format.

The site with an exceptionally good, brief biography, is Karoline Leach's, on the Victorian Web.org.

Other links:

• Charles Lutwidge Dodgson
• On his Logic and Puzzles
• List of References
• Bill the Lizard -- a nifty blog of Dodgsonian puzzles.