The Mystery of Lewis Carroll

Jenny Woolf's biography of Lewis Carroll takes notice of the evidence that is now available to help us understand and appreciate this famous Victorian poet, mathematician, writer, photographer, and children's author. She has painted a picture of the man based on her thorough research, with accurate descriptions, and her evidence is clear and well presented.

From USA Today, 12 January 2010 'Woolf sheds more light on the mysterious Dodgson in this new biography, examining everything from his relationship with Alice and her older sister to his controversial photographing of nude young girls. 'The more closely Lewis Carroll is studied, the more he seems to slide quietly away,' Woolf writes' - Craig Wilson. http://www.usatoday.com/life/books/news/2010-01-12-alice12_ST_N.htm -- Craig Wilson USA Today 20100112 'In her book, The Mystery of Lewis Carroll, to be published next month, Woolf says the payments show that he detested the idea of children or any helpless creature being abused. He was certainly not trying to assuage a guilty conscience, she believes.' The Sunday Times 20100214 'For decades, biographers of Lewis Carroll have been too fixated on the question of whether the author of Alice in Wonderland was a secret pedophile who got away with taking pictures of scantily-dressed girls during the Victorian era. But a new book by English author Jenny Woolf, out today in the U.K. to coincide with Tim Burton's 'Alice' film, claims that the unearthing of never-before-published bank statements absolves him of many of the wild allegations made against him over the years. 'The Mystery of Lewis Carroll' goes beyond the central controversy over his life to shed light on a man who has proved elusive to his biographers.' -- Javier Espinoza The WSJ 20100305 'Woolf's research and reading of other Carroll biographies is extensive and this comes together to provide a very comprehensive and fascinating overview of the author that gave the world Alice. This highly recommended biography will allow the reader to learn much of Carroll and the times into which he was born.' Fantasy Book Review 20100218 'Woolf sheds more light on the mysterious Dodgson in this new biography, examining everything from his relationship with Alice and her older sister to his controversial photographing of nude young girls. 'The more closely Lewis Carroll is studied, the more he seems to slide quietly away,' Woolf writes' -- Craig Wilson USA Today 20100112 The Mystery of Lewis Carroll reveals new facts about the famous mathematician and author of Alice In Wonderland. Lewis Carroll's real name was Charles Lutwidge Dodgson. Woolf uses recently discovered facts, such as Carroll's accounts ledger and unpublished correspondence with his Alice Liddell's family. Alice was the daughter of his dean at Oxford and inspiration for Alice In Wonderland. Woolf explores how Carroll was repressed by the Victorian era as well as his upbringing as a cleric's son. There were many rumors about Carroll, was he in love with young girls or was it the idea of innocents? There are also rumors that he had affairs with married women. Woolf tries to dispel some of the worst rumors about Carroll. She talks about his love for photography and how he took photographs of friend's children nude, a common practice during the Victorian age rather than an indication of pedophilia. There's no evidence that he harmed any children, although some say he wished to marry 11-year-old Alice Liddell. Four lost volumes of his 13-volume personal diaries might tell that story, if they're ever found. Woolf got the idea for the book about Carroll after she found his personal bank account, forgotten and unnoticed in an archive for over a hundred years. Once transcribed and interpreted, it revealed much about this interesting man. Woolf used documents and family letters to piece together Carroll's life from various archives all over the world. "Some of them I visited in person, others list their holdings online and researchers can buy photocopies of relevant documents," says Woolf. "Some of the material had been transcribed by other researchers and some experts and collectors kindly allowed me the run of their material." "I read all the biographies, plus any monographs, studies, and magazine articles, and all the original documents I could find which had not been published," say

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Understanding the Author of "Alice in Wonderland"

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