Lewis Carroll

Born Charles Lutwidge Dodgson in 1832, he became famous under the pen name Lewis Carroll. He was an English author, mathematician, logician, photographer, and Anglican deacon, and for many years he taught mathematics at Christ Church, Oxford.

His lasting place in literature comes from Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865) and Through the Looking-Glass (1871), books that helped define literary nonsense and continue to enchant both children and adults. He also wrote works such as The Hunting of the Snark, showing the same love of wordplay, paradox, and imaginative leaps.

Carroll died in 1898, but his writing has never really gone out of print or out of style. What makes him memorable is the unusual blend of exact thinking and wild invention: his worlds are whimsical, but they are built with the precision of a puzzle-maker.