Cold Open

It’s July 4th, 1862, on the River Thames near Oxford, England.

30-year-old professor Charles Dodgson pulls on the oars of a small rowboat. It’s a glorious day and Charles doesn’t have any classes to teach, so he’s making the most of the summer afternoon. But he isn’t alone.

Sat with him in the boat are three daughters of a university colleague. As Charles guides the rowboat upriver, the girls lounge on the seats and watch the world go by. But the middle daughter, 10-year-old Alice, is getting restless.

She trails her fingers over the side of the boat before scooping a handful of water and splashing her older sisters. As the girls begin squabbling, the rowboat rocks alarmingly. Charles realizes that he needs to calm the kids, otherwise, his leisurely afternoon is going to end in wet disaster.

Suddenly, a blue streak shoots in front of the boat, catching the girls’ attention. It’s a bird - a kingfisher disappearing into its nest near the bank. And that gives Charles an idea.

With the girls stunned into silence by the bluebird, Charles resumes rowing. But this time, he begins telling a story as he works the oars. He improvises a tale of a girl tumbling into a hole, and Charles smiles at the precocious middle daughter as he reveals the name of the girl who falls into that fantastical world: Alice.

This spur-of-the-moment story leaves the three girls enthralled—and when Charles Dodgson drops them at home that evening, Alice begs Charles to write the story down for her. Thanks to her pleading, Charles will set to work turning his whimsical improvisation into a proper manuscript. The tale will eventually be published under Charles’s pen name Lewis Carroll, and become the classic of children’s literature Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. But Alice’s relationship with Charles will end soon after the story is published—and posthumous allegations will stain Charles’s reputation as a children’s author, a career that began after a boat trip on the River Thames on July 4th, 1862.

Introduction

From Noiser and Airship, I’m Lindsay Graham and this is History Daily.

History is made every day. On this podcast—every day—we tell the true stories of the people and events that shaped our world.

Today is July 4th, 1862: Lewis Carroll Imagines Wonderland.

Act One

It’s March 1850 in Croft-on-Tees, a village in North Yorkshire, twelve years before Charles Dodgson's boat trip.

18-year-old Charles enters his dining room, his hands behind his back and a smile on his face. The rest of the large Dodgson family are seated around the table. Charles’s father, a parish priest, gestures impatiently for Charles to sit down so they can begin eating. But first, Charles has something to show them. He takes his hands from behind his back and places a small, homemade book on the table. Flicking to the first page, Charles’s father reads the handwritten title: The Rectory Magazine.

A few weeks ago, Charles returned home from the boarding school where he spent three unhappy years. But now that he’s come of age, Charles is looking forward to better things. In two months, he’ll begin studying mathematics at Christ Church College, part of the University of Oxford. In the meantime, Charles is spending the long summer break writing short stories and poems.

Charles has eight younger siblings, and they all take turns reading Charles’s homemade book over dinner. The Rectory Magazine is full of silly stories and colorful illustrations. Even Charles’s serious father can’t help a smile at his son’s satirical writing—but when Charles leaves for Christ Church College, his father reminds him that he needs to leave such frivolities aside, and pay attention to studies.

Over the next five years, Charles does almost exactly as his father asks. He excels at mathematics, impressing his tutors with his ability to solve complex problems. In 1852, he earns his degree and is invited to stay on at Oxford as a postgraduate student and teacher. But although Charles is a skilled mathematician, he is also easily distracted - especially by his true passion: writing. Despite his father’s warning, after spending his days crunching numbers, Charles chooses to spend his evenings playing with letters. He continues writing short stories and poems like the ones he included in The Rectory Magazine—but now, Charles sends his latest creations off to local newspapers.

And in March 1856, Charles gets his first big break in the literary world. A national magazine offers to publish one of his poems. But since Charles’s reputation as a mathematician is growing, he doesn’t want his academic work to be confused with the playful stories he writes for leisure. The magazine editor has a solution—he tells Charles to use a pen name. So, Charles offers a shortlist of four names to use, and the editor chooses the one he likes best: Lewis Carroll.

A few months after adopting this literary alias, Charles meets a family that will change his life. As the newly appointed Dean of Christ Church College, Henry Liddell is effectively Charles’s boss. On the surface, the men seem very different. There’s a 21-year age gap between them, and Henry has five children while Charles is still a young bachelor. But despite all this, Charles and Henry quickly become close friends.

And over the next few years, Charles often takes dinner with the Liddells. And he’s soon adopted as an honorary uncle by the Liddell children and joins the family on day trips around Oxford and on vacations to their second home in North Wales. When Charles becomes an early adopter of the new medium of photography, he takes the Liddell family on excursions to shoot the local landscapes and countryside. Usually, Charles rows upriver to a quiet spot with a picnic basket in the bottom of the boat. The children then spend a happy few hours running around in the fields while Charles messes about with his camera.

And it’s during one of these trips, on July 4th, 1862, that Charles invents a story about a young girl called Alice who stumbles into a fantasy world. The three Liddell daughters are gripped by Charles’s improvised and absurd tale. He has Alice follow a white rabbit carrying a pocket watch. She meets a perpetually grinning Cheshire cat and escapes from a short-tempered Queen of Hearts.

That evening, as Charles returns the children back to the care of their parents, the middle daughter, Alice, asks Charles if he will write the story down for her. She wants to be able to read it again and again. Charles is touched and agrees.

Soon, Charles Dodgson will set to work on the promise he made to Alice. But after his story is finished and published, the strange tale of a girl lost underground will take on a life of its own - and shatter the simple, scholarly one that Charles has built for himself in Oxford.

Act Two

It’s October 19th, 1863, in London, one year after Charles Dodgson improvised a story during a boat trip on the River Thames.

Now 31 years old, Charles walks through the busy streets, looking at a map to make his way. Although London is only 60 miles from Oxford, the bustling capital seems like a different world to the tranquil college courtyards Charles is more used to. With a final check of his bearings, Charles spots his destination and hurries to its door. There, a plaque declares that the building belongs to the publisher Alexander Macmillan.

After promising Alice Liddell that he’d write up his story for her, Charles found it more challenging than he expected. He was used to writing short stories and struggled to motivate himself to work on a full-length novel. But several weeks ago, Charles finally sent his friend and author George MacDonald an incomplete manuscript. It was titled Alice’s Adventures Under Ground. Upon reading it George was so impressed that he immediately forwarded the manuscript to his own publisher, Alexander Macmillan. Now, Charles has traveled to London to negotiate a publishing deal.

Taking a seat in Alexander’s office, Charles waits anxiously for the publisher's verdict. Alexander explains that most children’s books are educational texts. Even children’s novels tend to be designed more to instruct than to entertain. But Alice’s Adventures Under Ground goes against that trend. It’s whimsical, silly even - but Alexander loves it for exactly that reason.

At the end of their meeting, Charles shakes hands with Alexander and leaves with a promise that Macmillan will publish Alice’s Adventures Under Ground when it’s finished.

This publishing deal helps motivate Charles to get down to work—but progress is still slow. Between his responsibilities at the university, he spends hours poring over his notes, editing the text, and even rewriting entire chapters. Finally, though, he manages to finish the book, a year after shaking hands with Alexander Macmillan and two years after he told Alice that he’d write the story.

But at last in November 1864, as promised, he presents Alice with a handwritten manuscript complete with his own illustrations. Charles then sends another, unillustrated copy of his book to Alexander in London. But that isn’t the end of Charles’ involvement. Alexander soon discovers Charles is a difficult author to handle.

Charles wants control over every aspect of the publishing process. He wants to choose the artist who’ll provide the illustrations. He wants to choose the typeface for the text, he even wants to choose the quality of paper.

But despite all his meddling, when the first run of 2,000 books comes off the press, Charles still isn’t happy and demands a reprint.

Alexander Macmillan is an experienced businessman, however, and knows when to stand up for himself. He agrees to the reprint but insists on Charles paying for it.

And that’s not the only fight Alexander wins with Charles. He also convinces Charles to change the book’s title. It’s Alexander who suggests something more befitting of the story—and thanks to his intervention, Alice’s Adventures Under Ground becomes Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.

But all the disputes and disagreements between publisher and author are worth it. When Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland is published in November 1865, the book is an immediate hit. Reviewers rave over the innovative story, and the first 2,000 copies sell out within a month. A new edition is rushed out in time for Christmas, and even Queen Victoria reads it to her children.

But Charles doesn’t get the chance to celebrate his success with the girl who inspired his story. Soon after the publication of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Charles falls out with Henry Liddell and stops visiting the family. Although he and Henry eventually resume their friendship, they are never as close. Charles no longer joins the Liddells on their excursions, and he never again takes the children out for day trips on the River Thames.

Although he will rarely see the real Alice again, Charles will return to the fictional Alice in 1871 when he writes a sequel, Through the Looking-Glass. And in the years that follow, Charles will remain at Oxford, where he’ll write more short stories, two poetry collections, and another novel - all under the pen name that made him famous. Charles Dodgson will forever be better known as Lewis Carroll—but long after his death, his reputation will be tarnished when uncomfortable questions emerge about his relationship with the girl behind his iconic creation.

Act Three

It’s 1930 in London, 65 years after the publication of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.

35-year-old American journalist Florence Baker Lennon enters the living room of a townhouse with pen and paper in hand. For years, Florence has been interested in the work of Lewis Carroll, and she’s come to London to interview someone who knew him personally: now 82-year-old Lorina Skene, the eldest daughter of Henry Liddell.

Charles Dodgson, better known as Lewis Carroll, died more than 32 years ago at the age of 65. But his works have remained popular, and Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland is still one of the world’s best-selling children’s books. So today, Florence is here to find out more about the man who wrote the story.

She scribbles down notes as Lorina describes the boat trip on July 4th, 1862, when Charles first made up a story to entertain her and her two younger sisters. Then, Lorina drops a bombshell. She explains why her father broke off relations with Charles around the time that Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland was published. According to Lorina's recollection, Henry thought that Charles had an unhealthy and inappropriate attraction to Lorina's sister, Alice.

Florence is shocked by the revelation, but she keeps it under her hat for another fifteen years until her biography of Charles Dodgson is released in 1945. In her book, Florence repeats Lorina's accusation that Charles was attracted to Alice. She even suggests that Charles proposed marriage when Alice was just eleven years old—and that Henry Liddell responded by briefly ending his friendship with Charles.

Other scholars soon cast doubt on Florence’s findings, though. The only evidence supporting these allegations is a 30-minute interview with an elderly witness. The events happened more than 67 years prior and everyone else who was involved has since died. A note from the time also implies that Henry Liddell fell out with Charles not because of his attraction to Alice, but because Charles was hoping to court the Liddell daughters’ governess.

But with the publishing of Florence’s book, the damage has done. Over the decades, others will repeat Florence’s allegations and use Charles’ photographs of the Liddell children as evidence—even though Charles' defenders point out that there’s no proof that Charles took some of the photographs used to smear him.

Even to this day, literary scholars continue to debate the subject. But despite the rumors that plague its author, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland remains a classic of children’s literature that’s never once been out of print since it was published. It’s been translated into 174 languages and adapted on screen and stage many times—a spectacular afterlife for a story that was conceived during a summer boat trip on the River Thames on July 4th, 1862.

Outro

Next on History Daily. July 5th, 1954. Elvis Presley introduces mainstream Americans to rock and roll when he records his debut single, “It’s All Right.”

From Noiser and Airship, this is History Daily, hosted, edited, and executive produced by me, Lindsay Graham.

Audio editing by Muhammad Shahzaib.

Sound design by Gabriel Gould.

Music by Thrumm.

This episode is written and researched by Scott Reeves.

Edited by William Simpson.

Managing producer, Emily Burke.

Executive Producers are William Simpson for Airship, and Pascal Hughes for Noiser.