Lewis Carroll

Lewis Carroll

Lewis Carroll, the Pseudonym for the famous writer and mathematician Charles Lutwidge Dodgson was born in Cheshire, England in 1832. Carroll was the oldest son in a family of seven girls and four boys. Interestingly every one of the children stuttered. His mother, Frances Jane Lutwidge, and father, Rev. Charles Dodgson were first cousins. Carroll was interested in Mathematics at a very young age, and always studied a harder level of math than was expected. He was home schooled and taught by his father, who was also a renowned scholar till the age of 12, where he then attended Mr. Tates School in Richmond at Yorkshire. In 1846 he attended Rugby school then he graduated from Oxford University in 1854 leaving the class the top student in Mathematics. In that same year he received his Bachelor of Arts degree and was named “Master of the House,” commonly called a “fellow” in other colleges. That following year he was appointed a lecturer, or a “tutor” as we call it, until he would later resign that post. In 1861 he was ordered to become a deacon of the Church of England but chose to disobey those orders and did not follow through.

In 1876, he came out with the children’s fantasy works called The Hunting of the Snark, a nonsense poem that takes place at sea and was later turned into a successful musical. Other notable works of Carroll is the famous Alice and Wonderland, and Sylvie and Bruno. He also published several very useful math books including “A syllabus of Algebraically Planed Geometry, “Proportional Representation, and two series of Curiosa Mathematica. He also invented the system of Mnemonics, the system used to help remember concepts, he also was known for improving the game of backgammon.

Carroll remained at the University of Oxford till 1881 working as a professor lecturing on Mathematics and writing books on Geometry, mathematics and on tournaments and elections, and recreational logic. Carroll was more of a logician who looked at it as a game; instead of looking at it as a way to test reason. Carroll was a well known bachelor and loved the notion of entertaining his guests. He would quite frequently have parties where he would arrange seating charts for his guests and would entertain with speeches, and magic tricks that he learned when he was just a little