10 Wonderful Facts About Lewis Carroll

Lewis Carroll's real name was Charles L. Dodgson. The pen name came about by taking his own name, Charles Lutwidge, translating it into Latin - Carolus Ludovicus, reversing the names and retranslating them into English - hence, Lewis Carroll.

Born in Cheshire, Charles was the third of 11 children.

Dodgson suffered from a bad stammer and was deaf in one ear.

Dodgson's first piece of work under his pen name was a romantic poem called Solitude, published in 1856

Alternative titles considered for Alice's Adventures in Wonderland included Alice Among the Fairies and Alice's Golden Hour.

Dodgson denied that Alice was based on his real life friend, Alice Liddell.

An acrostic poem is where the first letter on each line makes up a word or words. Such a poem can be found at the end of Through the Looking Glass which spells out Alice Liddell's name, leading people to believe that he did in fact base the character after his real life friend.

Queen Victoria supposedly was a big fan of the book and suggested to Dodgson that he dedicate his next book to her - Carroll denied this to be true.

Dodgson took up photography and excelled at the art. He photographed many famous people include Alfred Lord Tennyson and created approximately 3000 images. But after 24 years of taking pictures he abruptly stopped.

Chess figured prominently in Dodgson's work. References to the game can be found in Through the Looking Glass. Some of his photographs feature chess being played and it has been documented that Dodgson was an avid player.

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