Lewis Carroll: A Biography

Morton Norton Cohen

Macmillan, 1995 - Authors, English - 577 pages

This monumental biography was prompted by Morton N. Cohen's belief that the Carroll revealed by the letters, diaries and works was not the same as the Carroll created by his biographers, and it was time to set the record straight. He traces the dual careers of Charles Dodgson, Fellow of Christ Church, Oxford, who made important contributions to mathematics and logic and to the life of the University, as well as being one of the pioneers of photography in Victorian England, and forging strong friendships with children, and of Lewis Carroll, creator of Alice in Wonderland and The Hunting of the Snark, acknowledged masterpieces we still read today and precursors of surrealist writing. No biographer has addressed so judiciously the inner divisions which proved such a creative spur to Carroll's imagination and his genius. The text is enhanced by over 100 of Carroll's photographs and drawings.

About the author

Morton Norton Cohen was born on a farm in Calgary, Alberta, Canada on February 27, 1921. He graduated from what is now Tufts University before receiving a doctorate in English at Columbia University. He taught at West Virginia University, Syracuse University, Rutgers University, City College of New York, and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. He was a scholar of Victorian literature who spent much of his career editing the letters and writing the definitive biography of Charles Lutwidge Dodgson as known as Lewis Carroll. His books included Rider Haggard: His Life and Works, The Search for Rudyard Kipling, Lewis Carroll: A Biography, and Lewis Carroll and Alice, 1832-1982. He was elected to the Royal Society of Literature in England in 1996. He died on June 12, 2017 at the age of 96.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Lewis Carroll: A Biography
• Author: Morton Norton Cohen
• Edition: illustrated, reprint
• Publisher: Macmillan, 1995
• ISBN: 0333660331, 9780333660331
• Length: 577 pages