Lewis Carroll is actually a pseudonym, the pen name taken by Charles Lutwidge Dodgson. Although best known for his children's books, Dodgson worked professionally as a mathematician, studying particularly recreational logic, determinants, geometry and the mathematics behind tournaments and elections.

Charles Lutwidge Dodgson was born in Daresbury, Cheshire, England, on January 27, 1832. He was the third child of 11 who would eventually be born to the clergyman Charles Dodgson and his wife, Frances Jane (Lutwidge). Charles, like his father and most of his siblings, suffered from a stutter his entire life.

Because of the relative isolation of the parsonage in which the family lived, young Charles created his own games. Biographer S.D. Collingwood wrote, "in this quiet home the boy invented the strangest diversions . . .he . . . numbered certain snails and toads among his intimate friends . . . He tried also to encourage civilised warfare among earthworms. . ."

Charles took his first lessons at...