Lewis Carroll was the pen name of Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (1832-1898), an English writer, mathematician and academic. It was while working as a lecturer at Oxford University that Carroll met the daughter of Henry George Liddell, dean of Christ Church College.
Four year old Alice became the audience for Carroll's fantastical
stories and the inspiration for his much-loved lead character.
Sir John Tenniel (1820-1914) was already celebrated as a cartoonist for Punch, England's leading satirical magazine, when, in 1864, he was approached by Lewis Carroll to illustrate Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Although the collaboration between artist and author was not easy - Tenniel afterwards complained that Dogson, 'that conceited old Don', was impossibly demanding - the resulting illustrations for Alice and its sequel proved such perfect realizations of the text that they have become inseparable.