Page 20 - alice-kbd_text.qxp_9781904808169_text
P. 20

Foreword






               ewis Carroll is the pen-name of Charles Lutwidge
                        3
         LDodgson  (1832–1898), a writer of nonsense literature
         and a mathematician in Christ Church at the University of
         Oxford in England. He was a close friend of the Liddell family:
         Henry Liddell had many children and he was the Dean of the
         College. Carroll used to tell stories to the young Alice (born
         in 1852) and her two elder sisters, Lorina and Edith. One
         day—on 4 July 1862—Carroll went with his friend, the
         Reverend Robinson Duckworth, and the three girls on a boat
         paddling trip for an afternoon picnic on the banks of a river.
         On this trip on the river, Carroll told a story about a girl
         named Alice and her amazing adventures down a rabbit hole.
         Alice asked him to write the story for her, and in time, the
         draft manuscript was completed. After rewriting the story,
         the book was published in 1865, and since that time, various
         versions of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland were released in
         many various languages. You are holding the first translation
         3  Lewis Carroll’s real surname in Russian sources is traditionally but incorrectly
            transliterated as Доджсон (Dodzhson). In English, the “g” is silent, therefore
            in the Evertype editions we use the transliteration Додсон (Dodson); this is
            how Dodgson himself pronounced it.—M. E.

         xviii
   15   16   17   18   19   20   21   22   23   24   25