The Life of Edwin Dodgson

Edward Wakeling is a former Chairman of the Lewis Carroll Society in the United Kingdom, and has been an active member for over 40 years. He is also a member of various Lewis Carroll Societies around the world including Australia, Canada, Japan, and the United States of America. He contributes regular papers to the various journals published by these Societies. He is one of the major collectors of Lewis Carroll material in the UK, and his collection is often consulted by researchers and writers. He has published many books and articles about Lewis Carroll including the first complete unabridged edition of Lewis Carroll's Diaries which he edited in ten volumes (Lewis Carroll Society, 1993-2007). Other books include Lewis Carroll's Games and Puzzles (Dover Publications, 1992), Lewis Carroll's Oxford Pamphlets (University Press of Virginia, 1993), Lewis Carroll, Photographer jointly with Roger Taylor (Princeton University Press, 2002), and Lewis Carroll and His Illustrators jointly with Morton N. Cohen (Cornell, 2003), Lewis Carroll, The Man and His Circle (Tauris, London, 2015), and The Photographs of Lewis Carroll, A Catalogue Raisonne (University of Texas Press, 2015). He is a recognised Carrollian scholar and is frequently called upon to contribute to conferences and television programmes, and to act as consultant to publishers, auctioneers, and exhibition organisers around the world.
In 1997 Caroline Luke took over from her father, Philip Dodgson Jaques, as one of the two family-executors of the C. L. Dodgson Estate. She had grown up listening to stories told by her grandmother, Amy Irene Hume Jaques, of her childhood and times spent with her 'Uncle Charles' and her other Dodgson aunts, uncles and cousins. There could scarcely have been a better introduction to the understanding of the history and lives and times of this interesting family. She is married to a retired RAF Officer, has three children, and has spent much of her career working in welfare and charitable roles. Now a grandmother herself, she is keen that her seven grandchildren not only enjoy the Alice stories but also have an appreciation of the family history surrounding them. She continues to hope that, one day, it will be possible to establish a permanent 'Home for Alice' to enable visitors to immerse themselves in the history, the artefacts and creativity that this beloved story continues to inspire.