Lewis Carroll wrote the letter in 1891. Photo courtesy of the USC Digital Library / Cassidy Lewis Carroll Collection
USC Libraries Preserve Lewis Carroll’s Literary Lamentations
In celebrity-crazy LA, hand-scripted words by C.L. Dodgson (aka Lewis Carroll) about fame find a fitting home—123 years later.
AS an Anglican deacon and member of the mathematics faculty at Oxford, C.L. Dodgson would’ve spent a quiet life in his bucolic English town—if only he hadn’t written that book. Writing under the pen name Lewis Carroll, he earned his fame for creating Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. And it was too much fame, judging by his words in an 1891 letter that was recently purchased at auction by USC Libraries. In the missive to a friend, Dodgson railed against the notoriety the book brought him, lamenting, “I hate all of that so intensely that sometimes I almost wish I had never written any books at all.” USC now preserves the letter as part of its G. Edward Cassady, M.D. and Margaret Elizabeth Cassady, R.N. Lewis Carroll collection, one of the preeminent Carroll research collections in the country. USC Libraries Dean Catherine Quinlan announced the acquisition at Doheny Library during the 10th annual Wonderland Award ceremony in April.
The letter will be available soon to the public at the University Park Campus and online at the USC Digital Library, digitallibrary.usc.edu. To learn more and support the Cassady Lewis Carroll Collection, call (213) 740- 3672 or visit bit.ly/LewisCarrollUSC.
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