Lewis Caroll: Artist, Inventor And A Mathematician



I'm a pre-final year engineering student at MAIT Delhi. Apart…
Who has not read Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Caroll, indeed?
“And as in uffish thought, he stood,
The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,
Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,
And burbled as it came!”
Remember the name of the book or poem from where the lines are taken? Jabberwocky! Yes!
Today, we will unfold in front of you some lesser-known facts about the great mathematician, Charles Lutwidge Dodgson. He goes with the pen-name, Lewis Caroll, and is a renowned writer of children's fiction.
1. He invented the nyctograph that enables us to write in the dark.
2. He wrote nearly a dozen books on maths, such as An Elementary Treatise on Determinants, Simultaneous Linear Equations, Algebraic Equations, The Game of Logic, and many more.
3. Once, a man thought that he was Jack the Ripper. The list of people suspected of being Jack the Ripper is a long one, and, for some reason, it was thought that the mind behind Alice is on it.
4. The author was a lifelong bachelor. He dealt with a lot of criticism, and scepticism, as his 50% of his surviving photographic work consists of photos of young girls, including some of the girl who was the muse behind Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass, Alice Liddell.
5. Carroll suffered chronic migraines. He also had epilepsy, stammering, partial deafness and ADHD.
6. Despite being a mathematician, Carroll did not keep a precise balance of his bank account. He was not much concerned with money.
7. He was a prominent letter writer. He would sometimes write backwards, forcing the reader to hold the letter to a mirror to read.
8. Carroll took about 3,000 photos during his lifetime.
9. He commenced his hobby by clicking landscape and cathedral shots but later focused on portraits and scientific specimens.
Kids of the Victorian Age loved the books of Caroll, as they were different from the strict, modified, and moral-oriented stories of the era.
He filled his books with puzzles, through the play of words, logic, and fantasy, painting a “curiouser” yet an imaginative space in the minds of the kids of the Victorian Age. He pushed them to think independently, creatively, and giving them the boost of bucket-full-of-imagination.
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I'm a pre-final year engineering student at MAIT Delhi. Apart from my CSE Major, I'm keen on other stuff as well. Writing blogs, poetry, graphic design, and snap lens creation are some of them. I had a lot of people who invested in me, and I excelled at most of my many and varied hobbies ;)