Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, popularly known as Lewis Carroll, was a man of great talents. Some of them made him and his works immensely popular across the world. One can imagine the extent of his fame considering the fact that he still has many followers. Even in the 21st century, there are Lewis Carroll societies in several countries.
Such societies are dedicated to the enjoyment and promotion of his fabulous works. He had begun displaying a few of his talents at a young age. Later, as he progressed through life, he used them to create some wonderful works. Now, let’s look at some of his amazing talents:
Storytelling
Today, the entire world knows that he had an exceptional talent in storytelling. From a young age, Carroll had started writing short stories. He was a regular contributor to the family magazine called Mischmasch. During a rowing trip with the children of dean Henry Liddell, he came up with the outline for a story.
When he narrated it to Alice Liddell, she urged him to write it down. This developed into an illustrated manuscript, which was eventually published as Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. Later, he also wrote a sequel to this novel tiled Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There.
Poetry
Carroll also wrote many poems. Some of his earlier works appeared in The Comic Times and The Train, which were national publications. The smaller magazines like the Oxford Critic and the Whitby Gazette also published some of his works. He used the pseudonym ‘Lewis Carroll’ in his first piece of work published in The Train.
It was a romantic poem called Solitude. Another famous poem by Carroll was The Hunting of the Snark, which received mixed reviews. It gained enormous popularity with the public and was reprinted between 1876 and 1908 seventeen times.
Photography
In the mid-19th century, Carroll took up photography. He was influenced by his uncle, Skeffington Lutwidge, and his friend from Oxford, Reginald Southey. He went on to become a famous gentleman-photographer after excelling in this art.
Some believe that he had even thought of making a living out of it in his early years. More than half of his surviving works on photography depicts young girls. Carroll also photographed boys, men, women, and landscapes.
Mathematics
Carroll also excelled in the academic discipline of mathematics. He produced several books dealing with geometry, mathematical logic, recreational mathematics, and linear and matrix algebra. He published these books under his real name, Charles Lutwidge Dodgson.
There was a renewed interest in his mathematical work in the late 20th century. His contribution to symbolic logic was re-evaluated by Martin Gardner and William Warren Bartley. He had also employed mathematical ideas of great sophistication in his ciphers.
Invention
He had made several inventions and one of them was ‘The Wonderland Postage-Stamp Case’. He invented it in 1889 to promote letter writing. Another fascinating invention was the ‘nyctograph’. It was a kind of writing tablet that allowed anyone to take notes in the dark.
This invention enabled individuals to note down an idea without getting up from the bed. He also invented many games and puzzles.