Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

Alice Liddell’s father was the Dean of Christ Church in Oxford, she was one of ten children that grew up on the Christ Church campus in the mid-19th century. Charles Dodgson was a mathematician in Oxford and an amateur photographer, Dodgson met the Liddell family while photographing the Cathedral in 1856, and came to know the family well. He used to take Alice and some of her siblings on boating trips during which he would tell them fantastical stories, Alice was always taken by his stories, and would quickly become the protagonist in many of them. Their relationship developed so quickly and they became so close that many people began to grow concerned, and one such afternoon while on a train something happened between the two of them that forced the hand of the Dean and others in the community, Dodgson was no longer allowed to see Alice, Charles Dodgson was 29 and Alice was only 11, at the time. Alice grew up to marry a professional cricket player and the couple bore three sons, and yet the events of her childhood would remain with Alice for her entire life. Charles Dodgson remained a prominent mathematician and would hold the Christ Church Mathematical Lectureship until his death in 1898, he never married, and was rumored to have died unhappy and alone.

In 1864 Charles Dodgson published one of the stories that he would tell to Alice and her siblings while on their boat trips, Alice’s Adventures Underground. And in 1865 the book was republished under the title Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland under the pen name Lewis Carroll.

I have more than 30 different copies of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Every time I find an edition or a copy that I do not have, I buy it. I have even reviewed a copy of rendition of the story for Nomadic Press by the author Steve McCaffery called Alice in Plunderland. It was hilarious, satirical, and dark. I recommend it. I have no idea why I have such a strong connection to the book. It has always fascinated me how wonderful the story is, how brilliantly the characters were written, how creative the dialogue is, and how it has brought joy and inspiration to so many people despite its origins having such a bleak beginning. The Walrus and The Carpenter is probably my favorite poem, with Invictus being a close second. And yet I know that Alice Liddell was haunted by the story for her entire life. It is said that she wouldn’t even read it, and only finally did as an old woman once her cricketer husband, Reginal Hargreaves, had passed away. Alice Liddell was even introduced to a middle aged Peter Llewelyn Davies during which Davies pleaded with Liddell about how she managed to live a normal life despite the cloud of having inspired lingering overhead. Peter Llewelyn Davies is the namesake for the famed play Peter Pan, or the Boy Who Wouldn’t Grow Up, though he was unlikely the actual inspiration for the character, but still Peter was preoccupied by the connection for his entire life. James Barrie (J. M. Barrie) acted as a co-guardian of the Llewelyn boys after their mother died. Davies would later throw himself under a train as it was returning to Sloan Square Station in London, committing suicide.

​It has always amazed me that the two of them, Alice Liddell and Peter Llewelyn Davies, would meet, and to do so for the sole purpose of discussing life after providing a degree of inspiration for two of the most celebrated childrens classics. One of my favorite places, when I lived in New York City, was a sculpture, in Central Park dedicated to Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, in Bronze it portrays every character from the story. I would often sit at the Hans Christian Andersen Sculpture and I would write, there were always children playing on-, or people posed and taking pictures on or near the Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland sculpture. I would also frequent Alice’s Tea Cup near Columbus Avenue in New York, a Mad Tea Party themed teahouse. Fun Fact: The number on the Mad Hatter’s hat, “10/6,” is a price ticket, ten shillings and a sixpence, which, especially at that time (1864-65) would have been a rather expensive, and therefore very nice hat. I’ve always been partial to Johnny Depp’s portrayal of the Hatter in Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland even though Burton did not use the name from the original story (Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland), not to mention Mia Wasikowska’s reinvention of Alice, I mean, how great was that? And, of course, Alan Rickman as Absolem, The Caterpillar. I’m an avid hookah smoker, I have one sitting next to me currently, so he being synonymous with wisdom is quite fitting ;) Nevertheless the most interesting and, probably famous character, aside from Alice, and maybe The Hatter, is The Cheshire Cat, sometimes helping Alice and sometimes getting her into trouble—all of Carroll’s (Dodgson) characters are so amazingly written! They all made an appearance in the sculpture, though some were more difficult to find than others. One year for Halloween, in New York City, all of my friends and I showed up to a party dressed up as The Mad Hatter, we were all The Mad Hatter, which, in-and-of-itself was the costume—the collective introduction of the many faces of The Hatter, it was pretty great.

​Simon Winchester wrote a really great biography of Alice Liddell titled The Alice Behind Wonderland, it’s a short read and worth every second of your time. There is also a great nonfiction-novel about Alice titled Alice, I have Been written by Melanie Benjamin. Oh my, I love that I had just mentioned a nonfiction-novel about Alice Liddell when in my last blog entry I wrote about Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood, which was the first nonfiction-novel. Shit like that, as small and meaningless as it might be for you, I don’t know, man I just think that stuff, all this stuff is really cool! Maybe that’s why I feel as connected to some of these stories and authors as I do, I allow them to take ahold of me, and I want to know more, the intrigue blossoms into a passion, and one day I find myself completely surrounded by books. I get excited about these little things. For example, when I was working at Op. Cit. Books in Santa Fe I found a copy of Chitty-Chitty Bang-Bang, now, I mean, everyone knows the movie starring Dick Van Dyke, right? It’s a great movie. There are scenes from that movie that Family Guy has spoofed—which, again, I think is so cool—but, anyway, I find this copy of Chitty-Chitty Bang-Bang and I’ll bet that you cannot guess who wrote it? It blew my mind. Do you give up? I’ll give you a hint: “A Medium Dry Martini, Lemon Peel. Shaken, Not Stirred.” Got it yet? That’s right! Ian Flippin’ Fleming! Ian Fleming, the guy who created James Bond also wrote Chitty-Chitty Bang-Bang! How can you not love books? The worlds are so incredible.