Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, better known as Lewis Carroll, is recognized by all as the silly fairy-tale author of stories such as Alice in Wonderland and it's sequel Through the Looking Glass. However, little is known about what drove him to write such obviously fantastic stories. Themes such as nonsense and fantasy, education, drug abuse, racism and prejudice, money, malnutrition and public health are touched upon throughout his works. While only speculation can be offered, it is clear that these topics were developed as a result of real life experiences.
             Carroll's childhood had a strong impact on his writing, mostly because of his playful nature. "By this time [age 8] Lewis Carroll was very fond of inventing games for the amusement of his brothers and sisters," (Kelly 3). As a child, Carroll was very attached to his mother "...Carroll's love and affection for his mother was exceptional" (Kelly, 2). Her death in 1851 had an enormous negative effect on Carroll's morale, which was at an all-time low, and when his father died, Carroll stated that it was "the greatest blow that has ever fallen on my life," (Gardner 9). During his adolescent years, he secluded himself from others because of his everlasting stammer.
             Carroll was a part of the wealthier class in Victorian England, but not aristocratic. His father was an Archdeacon at Christ Church in Yorkshire, England. "From his father, he developed an early love of nonsense. A letter from Archdeacon Dodgson, away in Leeds, to his eight-year-old son, for example, reads (Wullschlager 31):
             Then what a bawling & a tearing of hair there will be!
             Pigs and babies, camels and Butterflies, rolling in the
             Gutter together – old women rushing up chimneys &
             Cows after them – ducks hiding themselves in coffee
             Cups and fat geese trying to squeeze themselves
             Into pencil cases &...