Lewis Carroll in Wonderland and at Home: The Story of His Life

Every child who tumbles down the rabbit hole deserves to know the man who built it. This affectionate early biography traces Charles Lutwidge Dodgson's transformation from the eldest of eleven children in rural Daresbury to the Oxford mathematician whose imaginary world would become the most beloved children's book in the English language. Belle Moses, writing in the early twentieth century when Dodgson's contemporaries were still living, paints a portrait of a man whose priestly discipline and mathematical precision somehow gave birth to nonsensical brilliance. The biography follows his childhood fascination with storytelling and nature, his unexpected friendship with the Liddell family, and the legendary boat trip on which he first told Alice Liddell the story that would become a phenomenon. What emerges is not the cartoon eccentric but a complex figure whose humor, shyness, and creativity were all products of his particular history. For anyone who has ever wondered what sort of person invents a Wonderland, this book offers an intimate, sometimes surprising answer.