".....Curiouser and curiouser," cried Alice.

Right now I am reading about Lewis Carroll and his most famous work and I am intrigued. I had no idea that the persona we know as "Lewis Carroll" was so different from the man of Charles Dodgson. Having never really studied his novels or his life I guess I had certain expectations for the author who created Wonderland. Sure, there were Carroll-esque elements in Dodgson for he learned nonsense, exaggeration, and puns from his own father and it appears to have been part of their daily lives. I particularly like this snippet of a letter our author writes to Tennyson's son, Hallam, in January 1862.

"I am glad you liked the knife, and I think it a pity you should not be allowed to use it 'till you are older'. However, as you are older now, perhaps you have begun to use it by this time: if you were allowed to cut your finger with it, once a week, just a little, you know, till it began to bleed, and a good deep cut every birthday, I should think that would be enough, and it would last a long time so. Only I hope that if Lionel ever wants to have his fingers cut with it, you will be kind to your brother, and hurt him as much as he likes."

I was always led to believe (possibly by Sarah Ellis in From Reader to Writer Teaching Writing through Classic Children's Books) that Alice's Adventures in Wonderland was the result of a boating trip with the Liddel sisters in which he was prompted to tell a story that he later transcribed into his most famous work. Humphrey Carpenter suggests otherwise in his book Secret Gardens The Golden Age of Literature in his chapter called "Alice and the Mockery of God." I may have to start reading Martin Gardner's Annotated Alice that's been collecting dust on my shelf or possibly an real biography of Carroll/Dodgson. Regardless of Dodgson's inspiration, I believe he achieved a bit of greatness. --Kate

“There’s no use trying,” said Alice: “one can’t believe impossible things”.
“I dare say you haven’t had much practice,” said the Queen…
“Why sometimes, I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.”
~ Lewis Carroll Alice in Wonderland