Professor Dodgson taught Mathematics at Oxford University. The Dean of the College, Henry Liddell, had three daughters, Lorina, Alice and Edith. In the year 1862, Dodgson and another friend took the three girls for a boat ride on the Thames River. Alice asked Professor Dodgson to make up a story for them. He told them about a little girl named Alice who followed a rabbit down a rabbitt hole, and the adventures
she had in a fantasy land.
Alice asked Professor Dodgson to write the story down for her. It took him a long time--three years-- before he gave her a handwritten copy.
When the story was published Dodgeson used the name Lewis Carroll. A famous illustrator named John Tenniel created the pictures for the story.
Alice in Wonderland has strange characters and magical events. Alice , for example, goes to a tea party at the home of the Mad Hatter and meets the March Hare and the Door Mouse. She meets a Cheshire cat who keeps disappearing. There are many other fanciful people and animals in the story. Alice also experiences changes in her size.
Many years later, Lewis Carroll wrote a sequel to Alice in Wonderland, calledThrough the Looking Glass and What Alice Found there.
