14 Facts About Alice in Wonderland.

Alice in Wonderland is classic that is still in print and has been made into several movies.  Last week I told the story of how the book came to be but today I'm going to share some interesting facts about the book and the author, some you are probably unaware of.

1.  Alice the main character was named after Alice Liddel, daughter of the dean of Christ Church College, the same place Charles Dodgson (Lewis Carroll) taught Mathematics.  He knew the whole family.

2. The children kept asking him to tell them the story of Alice again and again until he finally wrote it down for Alice Liddel as a Christmas gift in 1864.

One year later, he self published the book which had doubled in length from the one he presented Alice Liddel.  The expanded version had the Mad Hatter and the Cheshire Cat which did not appear in the earlier one.

3. Carroll hired a prominent artist of the time to provide illustrations for his book but John Tenniel was not happy withe they way they came out in the first printing so Carroll dumped all the books and used more than half of his yearly salary to have the book reprinted.

4. In 1903, two British filmmakers made Alice in Wonderland into the first movie version.  It was only 12 minutes long but it was the longest ever made in the United Kingdom.  One of the filmmakers played the Frog Footman while his wife played both the White Rabbit and The Red Queen.

5.  The title Alice in Wonderland was not Carroll's first choice for a title but it was the one he went with.

6. The original illustrations were first drawn on paper, then carved into wood, before being made into metal electrotype reproductions for the printing press.

7. Many of the events were based on Alice's real life such as the reference to the Mock Turtle receiving lessons in sketching and drawing from someone who came once a week.  This actually referred to her own tutor.

8. When Carroll included the Dodo it was actually a reference to himself.  The name is based on his real last name of Dodgson which came out as Do-do-dodgson due to his stammer.

9.  The original book "Alice's Adventure Underground" belongs to the British Library and seldom leaves it.  This book is the one he hand wrote and gave to Alice for the early Christmas gift.

10. Lewis Carroll is given credit as the first person to work with manufacturers to bring related products such as a postage stamp case with Alice's picture on it.  He also authorized other products such as her image on a cookie tin.  In addition, he reproduced a facsimile of "Alice's Adventure Underground" for sale and a shorter version for younger children.  He was ahead of his time.

11. After reading Alice in Wonderland, Queen Victoria asked him to dedicate his next book to her.  He did but it was one of his math books, not the sequel to Alice.

12.  Carroll suffered from a rare neurological disorder which was not discovered until 1955.  The disease causes strange hallucinations in which the size of objects are distorted so the sufferer often feels bigger or smaller than they really are.  The disease was named "Alice in Wonderland" syndrome or Todds syndrome for the doctor who discovered it.

13. In 1931, China banned the book because animals should not use human speech.

14. The tree the Cheshire Cat sat in can be found in the garden at Alice's house in Oxford.

Let me know what you think, I'd love to hear.  Have a great day.