Pamphlets of Lewis Carroll - Böcker

Between 1860 and 1897 Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, known to the ages as Lewis Carroll, produced (in addition to the ""Alice"" books and his well-known photographic works) over 180 booklets, leaflets, pamphlets, and instruction manuals. Varying radically in length and subject matter, they testify to Dodgson's unparalleled creativity and eclecticism. Collected now for the first time, these writings shed light on many of the intellectual and cultural enthusiasms of this eminent Victorian. Famed as a writer, photographer, and mathematician, Dodgson was also a moral crusader and a diligent churchman who nourished a then-illicit passion for the theatre. He was also a prolific creator of games, puzzles and brain twisters. Indeed, one of his earliest independent publications was the 1860 ""Rules for court circular"", a blueprint for an original game bearing some resemblance to rummy. This volume, the first of a planned series, concentrates on the work associated with Dodgson's career as an Oxford don. Much of the material collected here has not appreared in print since the author's lifetime; included among many other items is all the work connected with Dodgson's curatorship of the Christ Church Room. An enthusiastic participant in university life, Dodgson left a lively ""paper trail"" that lavishly documents his positions on various local disputes. He preferred this form of discourse to debates, in which - partly because of a speech impediment - he was not particularly successful. Modern readers are the beneficiaries of this inclination to print: the writings are of interest not only for the logic and high moral principle they display, but also for their genuine wit and whimsy. Appearing in chronological order, the pamphlets are presented with background information placing them in context. Taken together, they offer real insight into Dodgson the man and into the Victorian period in general.

The final volume in the Pamphlets of Lewis Carroll series collects more than one hundred of his works on the Alice books, the theater, religion and morality, science and mathematics, photography, letters and postage, humor, stories, poetry, undergraduate papers, circular letters, and miscellaneous others. Each pamphlet is accompanied by editorial commentary placing it in its historical context and frequently quoting from contemporary responses to these works.This volume shows the remarkable variety of topics about which Carroll expressed himself in print. It includes many pieces never before reprinted and more than a dozen newly discovered. Many of these items have previously been available only in a few rare book libraries. Originals have been carefully examined and transcribed to provide definitive texts. The commentary provides a close look at how Lewis Carroll used his pen to interact with the world around him. The editorial notes reveal the provocations of his writing—what reactions his writing drew and how he engaged with others in print.

Charles L. Dodgson's publications on political subjects offer a very different view of Lewis Carroll, the man made famous by his ""Alice"" books. Better known for whimsical and nonsense writings, Dodgson wrote on the entire spectrum of voting theory, applying it to issues of local governance at Christ Church College in the University of Oxford, where he was employed all of his professional life-mainly as Mathematical Lecturer-and to issues of national politics. Yet this work remained largely unknown at his death. This third volume of a planned series of six is a comprehensive account of Dodgson's publications on voting theory. Francine F. Abeles offers a fresh perspective on his contributions to what was then an embryonic school of politics. Drawing together all of Dodgson's pamphlets, letters, diary entries, and other pieces on this subject, Abeles traces the development of Dodgson's theory of voting from its beginnings in his participation in the academic affairs of the University of Oxford to his attempts to influence the outcome of bills before the British Parliament affecting the extension of the voting franchise and the redistribution of seats in the House of Commons. Collected together for the first time, these writings deal with such topics as ranking methods, voting anomalies, sophisticated voting, proportional representation, apportionment, and applications of game theory to voting strategies. Dodgson's commitment to objectivity and fairness also led him to employ his methods in such sports applications as horse racing wagers and tennis tournament schedules. Each chapter of this book is preceded by an introductory essay providing background information and analyses to assist both the general reader and the specialist. The Pamphlets of Lewis Carroll will be of interest to students and scholars of Carroll's work, to political scientists, historians, and mathematicians, and to readers concerned with Victorian studies.