Lewis Carroll was the pen

Lewis Carroll was the pen-name of Charles Dodgson, a mathematics teacher at Oxford University. He was born in England in 1832. Dodgson had no family, but he loved children very much. He often visited his friend Dean Liddell, who had three daughters. One of them, Alice, was four years old. Dodgson told her exciting stories which he made up himself. The stories were about the adventures of a little girl, and Alice liked them very much. When she was ten years old she asked Dodgson to write down the stories for her, and he did so. He called the main character of his book also Alice. This hand-written book had many pictures made by Charles Dodgson himself.

One day a friend of the Liddells, a writer, came to see the family. He found the hand-written book and began to read it with great interest. He said that it was wonderful and that all the children in England should read it. Charles decided to publish his book, and he took the pen-name of Lewis Carroll. The book came out in 1865 and soon was popular with grown-ups and children. Later the book was published in the USA, in France and in Germany. It was translated into Russian in 1923.

As well as “Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland” Lewis Carroll wrote poems and other children’s books. He was also a great letter writer and he invented games and puzzles. Besides, he published some mathematical works.