Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, better known as Lewis…

Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, better known as Lewis Carrol, had written poetry and short stories from a young age, both contributing heavily to the family magazine Mischmasch and later sending them to various magazines, enjoying moderate success.

Between 1854 and 1856, his work had appeared in the national publications, The Comic Times and The Train, as well as smaller magazines like the Whitby Gazette and the Oxford Critic.

Most of this output was humorous, sometimes satirical, but his standards and ambitions were exacting.

Sometime after 1850, he did write puppet plays for his siblings' entertainment, of which one has survived, La Guida di Bragia.

In 1856, he had published his first piece of work under the name that will make him famous.

A romantic poem called "Solitude" had appeared in The Train under the authorship of "Lewis Carroll."

This pseudonym is a play on his real name; Lewis is the anglicized form of Ludovicus, which is the Latin for Lutwidge, and Carroll an Irish surname similar to the Latin name Carolus, whence comes the name Charles.

In the same year, 1856, a new Dean, Henry Liddell, had arrived at Christ Church, bringing with him his young family, all of whom will figure largely in Dodgson's life and, over the following years, greatly influence his writing career.

Dodgson had become close friends with Liddell's wife, Lorina, and their children, particularly the three sisters: Lorina, Edith and Alice Liddell.

He was for many years widely assumed to have derived his own "Alice" from Alice Liddell.

This had been given some apparent substance by the fact the acrostic poem at the end of Through the Looking Glass spells out her name, and that there are many superficial references to her hidden in the text of both books.

It will be pointed out that Dodgson himself repeatedly denies in later life that his "little heroine" was based on any real child, and will  frequently dedicate his works to girls of his acquaintance, adding their names in acrostic poems at the beginning of the text.

Gertrude Chataway's name appears in this form at the beginning of The Hunting of the Snark, and no one has ever suggested this means any of the characters in the narrative are based on her.

Though information is scarce (Dodgson's diaries for the years 1858–1862 are missing), it does seem clear that his friendship with the Liddell family was an important part of his life in the late 1850s, and he grew into the habit of taking the children (first the boy, Harry, and later the three girls) on rowing trips accompanied by an adult friend to nearby Nuneham Courtenay or Godstow.

It was on one such expedition, on July 4, 1862, that Dodgson had invented the outline of the story that will eventually become his first and largest commercial success.

Having told the story and been begged by Alice Liddell to write it down, Dodgson eventually (after much delay) had presented her with a handwritten, illustrated manuscript entitled Alice's Adventures Under Ground in November 1864.

Before this, the family of friend and mentor George MacDonald had read Dodgson's incomplete manuscript, and the enthusiasm of the MacDonald children had 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 Alice Among the Fairies and Alice's Golden Hour had been rejected, the work is 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.

The illustrations this time are by Sir John Tenniel; Dodgson had evidently thought that a published book would need the skills of a professional artist.