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On July 4, 1862, in a rowboat travelling on the river Thames from Oxford to Godstow for a picnic outing, Alice asked Charles Lutwidge Dodgson to entertain her and her sisters Edith and Lorina with a story. As Rev. Robinson Duckworth rowed the boat, Dodgson regaled the girls with fantastic stories of a girl, not so coincidentally named Alice, and her adventures after she fell through a rabbit-hole. The story was not so unlike those Dodgson had spun for the sisters before, but this time there was one significant difference. When it was done, Alice asked Mr. Dodgson to write it down for her. She asked him again. And again. And eventually, he did write it down. He printed it by hand, illustrated it, and presented it to Alice on November 26 1864, titling it Alice's Adventures Under Ground. In 1865, the story was professionally published under the pen name Lewis Carroll, in an expanded version, as Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, with illustrations by John Tenniel. A second "Alice" book, Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There was published in 1871.
Alice Liddell was a daughter of Henry Liddell, DeanA dean is a name commonly given someone with a senior role in an institution. In a university, a dean is often the head of a division, faculty, college, or school. In a school, a dean may have a counseling role and enforce discipline. In diplomacy, the ti of Christ Church, OxfordChrist Church (in full: The Cathedral Church of Christ in Oxford of the Foundation of King Henry VIII is one of the largest and wealthiest of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. The city of Christchurch, New Zealand, and his wife Lorina Hanna, née Reeve. Alice was the fourth child, having two older brothers and an older sister, Lorina. Her second brother, Arthur, later died of scarlet fever. She had six younger siblings, including her sister, Edith, to whom she was very close. One of her younger brothers died as an infant.
At the time of her birth, her father was the dean of Westminster SchoolWestminster School (in full, The Royal College of St. Peter at Westminster but almost always referred to as Westminster School or even just Westminster for short) is an ancient English public school, located by Westminster Abbey in Westminster, in central, but was soon after appointed to the deanery of Christ Church, Oxford. The Liddell family moved to Oxford in 1856Events January 8 Borax is discovered ( John Veatch). January 29 Queen Victoria institutes the Victoria Cross February 18 The American Party ( Know-Nothings) convene in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to nominate their first Presidential candidate, former Presi. It was soon after this move that Alice first met, Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, who came across the dean’s family while he was photographingPhotography is the technique of recording, by chemical, mechanical or digital means, a permanent image on a layer of material sensitive to light exposure. The word comes from the Greek words φως phos ("light"), and γρα&phi the cathedral.
Alice grew up primarily in the company of her two nearest sisters, Lorina, who was three years older, and Edith, who was two years younger.
When Alice was a young woman, she set out on a grand tour of Europe with Lorina and Edith, as was the custom in those days for families of her standing. Two years later, tragedy struck when her younger sister, Edith, died of measles shortly before she was to be married.
At this time, Alice was a romantic interest of Prince Leopold , the youngest son of Queen Victoria. Many believe that Alice’s grief over the loss of her sister caused the relationship with Leopold to cool down, whilst others speculate that Leopold was dissuaded from pursuing a suit with a commoner by his mother. In the end, Alice married Reginald Hargreaves on September 15, 1880, at the age of 28 in Westminster Abbey. They had three sons: Alan Knyveton Hargreaves, Leopold Reginald "Rex" Hargreaves (both killed in action in World War I), and Caryl Liddell Hargreaves, who survived to have a daughter of his own.
The cost of maintaining their home, Cuffnells, was such that it was deemed necessary to sell Alice's copy of Alice's Adventures Under Ground. The manuscript, fetched nearly four times the reserve price given it by the auction house Sotheby’s , selling for £15,400. It became the possession of Eldridge R. Johnson, and was displayed at Columbia University on the centenial of Carroll's birth (Alice was present, aged 80, and it was on this visit to America that she met Peter Llewellyn-Davies, one of the brothers who were the inspiration for J. M. Barrie's Peter Pan). At Johnson's death, the book was bought by a consortium of American bibliophiles and presented to the British people "in recognition of Britain's courage in facing Hitler before America came into the war." The manuscript now resides in the British Library.