Lewis Carroll

Charles Dodgson was the third child in his family. His father was a very conservative cleric for the Church of England who, though mathematically gifted and on the path to success, married his first cousin and became a country parson instead. Young Dodgson was bright and precocious; he supposedly read Pilgrim's Progress at age seven. He did experience a stutter that followed him throughout his life. He received a degree in mathematics from Christ Church at Oxford, where he'd remain employed in various capacities for much of his life. As the sub-librarian there, he met four-year-old Alice Liddell and her family. Though many believe that Alice Liddell is the titular Alice and was Dodgson's muse, Dodgson denied this later in life. The three Alice books became Dodgson's most famous works, even though he also published a number of books on mathematics and politics. He never married, but his surviving diaries and letters suggest that he had several romantic relationships, including, possibly, with Alice Liddell's older sister and her governess. Dodgson was also an avid photographer and often photographed young girls, something that, while normal by Victorian standards, has fueled questions about his sexual preferences in the years since his death in 1898. As Lewis Carroll, Dodgson is credited with creating the genre of nonsense literature and heralding the beginning of the "Golden Age" of children's literature.