His early academic career veered between high promise and irresistible distraction. He did not always work hard, but was exceptionally gifted, and achievement came easily to him. In 1852, he obtained first-class honours in Mathematics Moderations and was soon afterwards nominated to a Studentship by his father's old friend Canon Edward Pusey. [19] [20] In 1854, he obtained first-class honours in the Final Honours School of Mathematics, standing first on the list, and thus graduated as Bachelor of Arts. [21] [22] He remained at Christ Church studying and teaching, but the next year he failed an important scholarship exam through his self-confessed inability to apply himself to study. [23] [24] Even so, his talent as a mathematician won him the Christ Church Mathematical Lectureship in 1855, [25] which he continued to hold for the next 26 years. [26] Despite early unhappiness, Dodgson remained at Christ Church, in various capacities, until his death, including that of Sub-Librarian of the Christ Church library, where his office was close to the Deanery, where Alice Liddell lived. [27] Character and appearance [ edit ] Health problems [ edit ] 1863 photograph of Carroll by Oscar G. Rejlander Before this, the family of friend and mentor George MacDonald read Dodgson's incomplete manuscript, and the enthusiasm of the MacDonald children encouraged Dodgson to seek publication. In 1863, he had taken the unfinished manuscript to Macmillan the publisher, who liked it immediately. After the possible alternative titles were rejected – Alice Among the Fairies and Alice's Golden Hour – the work was finally published as Alice's Adventures in Wonderland in 1865 under the Lewis Carroll pen-name, which Dodgson had first used some nine years earlier. [29] The illustrations this time were by Sir John Tenniel; Dodgson evidently thought that a published book would need the skills of a professional artist. Annotated versions provide insights into many of the ideas and hidden meanings that are prevalent in these books. [44] [45] Critical literature has often proposed Freudian interpretations of the book as "a descent into the dark world of the subconscious", as well as seeing it as a satire upon contemporary mathematical advances. [46] [47]

In his early sixties, Dodgson increasingly suffered from synovitis which eventually prevented him walking and sometimes left him bed-ridden for months. [87] Death [ edit ] The grave of Lewis Carroll at the Mount Cemetery in GuildfordFit for a Queen". Snopes. 26 March 1999. Archived from the original on 26 March 2022 . Retrieved 25 March 2011. Greenarce, Selwyn (2006) [1876]. "The Listing of the Snark". In Martin Gardner (ed.). The Annotated Hunting of the Snark (Definitiveed.). W. W. Norton. pp.117–147. ISBN 0-393-06242-2.

Lovett, Charlie: Lewis Carroll Among His Books: A Descriptive Catalogue of the Private Library of Charles L. Dodgson. 2005. ISBN 0-7864-2105-3 Lewis Carroll". Biography in Context. Gale. Archived from the original on 26 March 2022 . Retrieved 24 September 2015. Cohen, in particular, speculates that Dodgson's "sexual energies sought unconventional outlets", and further writes: Dodgson died of pneumonia following influenza on 14 January 1898 at his sisters' home, "The Chestnuts", in Guildford in the county of Surrey, just four days before the death of Henry Liddell. He was two weeks away from turning 66 years old. His funeral was held at the nearby St Mary's Church. [88] His body was buried at the Mount Cemetery in Guildford. [29] In March 1856, he published his first piece of work under the name that would make him famous. A romantic poem called "Solitude" appeared in The Train under the authorship of "Lewis Carroll". This pseudonym was a play on his real name: Lewis was the anglicised form of Ludovicus, which was the Latin for Lutwidge, and Carroll an Irish surname similar to the Latin name Carolus, from which comes the name Charles. [7] The transition went as follows:

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RGS Worcester and The Alice Ottley School – Miss Ottley, the first Headmistress of The Alice Ottley School, was a friend of Lewis Carroll. One of the school's houses was named after him. Carroll Related Stamps". The Lewis Carroll Society. 28 April 2005. Archived from the original on 21 March 2012 . Retrieved 10 March 2011. Flood, Raymond; Rice, Adrian; Wilson, Robin (2011). Mathematics in Victorian Britain. Oxfordshire, England: Oxford University Press. p.41. ISBN 978-0-19-960139-4. OCLC 721931689. Woolf, Jenny: The Mystery of Lewis Carroll. 2010. New York: St Martin's Press. ISBN 978-0-312-61298-6 The stammer has always been a significant part of the image of Dodgson. While one apocryphal story says that he stammered only in adult company and was free and fluent with children, there is no evidence to support this idea. [28] Many children of his acquaintance remembered the stammer, while many adults failed to notice it. Dodgson himself seems to have been far more acutely aware of it than most people whom he met; it is said that he caricatured himself as the Dodo in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, referring to his difficulty in pronouncing his last name, but this is one of the many supposed facts often repeated for which no first-hand evidence remains. He did indeed refer to himself as a dodo, but whether or not this reference was to his stammer is simply speculation. [27]