“Sometimes
I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.” – Charles
Lutwidge Dodgson
Best known by his pseudonym, Lewis
Carroll, Dodgson was born this date in 1832 in the small English village of
Daresbury The eldest in a family of 11
children, he grew adept at an early age of entertaining both himself and his
siblings with his storytelling ability.
As a babysitting aide, he made up
stories for his siblings and their friends, something he continued doing into
his 20s and 30s, including for the children of good friend Henry George
Liddell. It was Alice Liddell who can
be credited with his pinnacle inspiration. On a picnic with the Liddell
family, he told Alice and her sisters an amazing tale of a dream world. Alice was so enamored she insisted Carroll
write the story down so she could both relive it and share it with her friends.
Through a series of coincidences,
the story fell into the hands of novelist Henry Kingsley, who urged Carroll to
publish it. And in 1865 the book Alice's Adventures in Wonderland was
born. It would become the most popular
children’s book in England, then America, and then throughout the world before
Carroll’s death in 1898. 
How did a professional mathematician
and photographer spin such a yarn?
Perhaps two of his lasting quotes will suffice: “Begin at the beginning
and go on till you come to the end; then stop.”
And, “If you don’t know where you are going, any road will get you
there.” And always write things down.
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