January 27 is the 173rd Birthday of Charles Dodgson aka Lewis Carroll.
I love the works of Lewis Carroll. Personally I find his life an inspiration and a guiding light.
That said the hardest thing for me to deal with and accept was that Dodgson was a pedophile. The signs are everywhere but in my youth I chose to ignore them and believe that this man operated on a higher plane where love could exist purely for it's own sake.
That accepted it most be noted that Dodgson died as a virgin. While he spent many nights wrestling with what he called his demons there is no indication that he ever harmed a child or entered into any inappropriate relationship.
He controlled his impulses and tried to force his love into the higher plane I imagined.
This self control adds to his pleasant legend.
Not only did he write two still relevant and amusing classic books. (Alice in Wonderland and Through The Looking Glass and What Alice Found There) he was then and is generally accepted now as one of the pioneers of portrait photography. He took wonderful portraits of children, of course, but also definitive portraits of Alfred Tennyson, the Rosetti's, and even members of the Royal Family.
He was a mathematician. His work devoted to Symbolic Logic. Now that work is being generally accepted. In his lifetime his work was generally ignored. The seriousness of it not helped by Dodgson's propensity for turning it into a game for children. Even in his serious texts on the subject he would use examples like this:
1.Puppies, that will not lie still, are always grateful for the loan of a skipping-rope;
2.A lame puppy would not say “thank you” if you offered to lend it a skipping-rope;
3.None but lame puppies ever care to do worsted-work.
(the logical answer here is that puppies that will not lie still never care to do worsted work)
1.Babies are illogical;
2.Nobody is despised who can manage a crocodile;
3.Illogical persons are despised.
(the logical answer is that babies cannot manage crocodiles)
Dodgson also wrote titles such as “A Syllabus of Plane Algebraical Geometry” and “An Elementary Treatise on Determinants.”
While doing prodigious work Dodgson also was a deacon in the church. He did not take priestly orders as he did not feel worthy, perhaps referring to his demons.
He stuttered badly but still would compose and deliver sermons at Oxford. One of his most telling moments is in his carefully cataloged series of letters (Number over 17000!) was one sent to an unnamed agnostic. In this letter Dodgson painstakingly proves via symbolic and standard logic that God exists!
There was much to love and ponder over the man. I can easily recommend Morton Cohen's edition of “The Letters Of Lewis Carroll”. You will be amazed at the giants of the age that Dodgson interacted with on a daily basis. For me I was always startled about his relationship with James Legge, the man who translated the I Ching.
It takes a more devout fan to read the diaries. They are of more than passing interest but do require a lot more commitment.