Alice, Lewis and Jenny

Lewis Carroll: 10 Facts
Jenny Woolf is the author of our new book The Mystery of Lewis Carroll. She shared with us ten intriguing facts about the life of one of literature's most enigmatic figures.

1. Although Carroll went part way towards ordination as a priest of the Church of England, he was never fully ordained. He did not want to be a vicar with a parish, and was content to remain a mere deacon of the church and assist at service. Nobody has ever discovered exactly why this was.

2. Carroll paid for the publication of his books himself. Macmillan & Co’s name is on the spine, but Carroll organised and paid for the illustrations, printing and binding himself, in an early version of self-publishing. Carroll thought he’d be lucky to sell 2,000 copies, but “Alice” has sold so many copies that nobody can count them.

3. Alice’s illustrator, John Tenniel, was a really unusual choice of illustrator. A political cartoonist, he’d never illustrated any other children’s books. He was also very famous, and very expensive. But Carroll knew he was the right man for the job, and backed his intuition by paying Tenniel’s high fee.

4. At first, Tenniel refused to illustrate Through the Looking Glass, the follow-up to Wonderland. Carroll considered several other top illustrators before Tenniel finally changed his mind. Carroll paid him a fee for Looking Glass that was well over half his own annual income.

5. All his life, Carroll was very close to his family. The oldest son of eleven children, he took on all responsibility for his brothers and sisters after his father’s death.

6. When Carroll was young, his family was poor. They grew their own food and kept animals, and his father took in pupils to make money. He also educated Carroll at home till the boy was 12.

7. His father helped him find a good post at Christ Church, Oxford, where he became a mathematics tutor. Carroll was expected to be ordained as a priest and stay celibate as part of his job. If he did decide to marry, that was fine – but he would lose the job.

8. Even though it’s often said that Lewis Carroll was in love with little Alice Liddell, there’s no evidence for this at all. In fact, in his diary and letters, Carroll mentioned Alice’s brother Harry and her sister Ina more than he mentioned Alice. And he stayed friendly with Ina, not Alice, in later life.

9. Although Carroll is popularly supposed to have been a drug user, there’s no evidence that he took recreational drugs. In reality, he was a fan of homeopathy, using homeopathic remedies and administering them to his friends.

10. Carroll financially supported many humanitarian and medical charities without telling anyone. He also gave large sums of money to friends who were in need. This information was hidden in his bank account for 100 years, and only recently discovered.

Jenny's book has had some great reviews, including in The Sunday Times, The Daily Telegraph and The Wall Street Journal Europe. To see more about the book and reviews, click here.