The Great Puzzle: Issues of self-identity in Carroll's Wonderland

Earlier this year, Jen Harrison at East Stroudsburg University, asked me to write a Guest Post on her blog, The Worrisome Words. Here's a link to my post "The Great Puzzle: Issues of Self-identity in Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland."

Thanks Professor Harrison for publishing my essay on a question Alice asks, "Who in the world am I?"

Remembering Morton Cohen

 I was saddened to learn of the passing of Morton Cohen at age 96 who obituary is in The New York Times. Cohen was the premiere Lewis Carroll scholar. He edited the two-volume The Letters of Lewis Carroll, with assistance from Roger Lancelyn Green, which was published in 1979. Cohen's Lewis Carroll: A Biography (1995, is the definitive biography on the Victorian author, photographer, and mathematician. 

Cohen was a classic researcher and scholar. While Cohen published many works on Carroll, the edited Letters and the biography form the basis for serious Lewis Carroll scholarship. 

I was fortunate to meet Cohen on several occassions through the meetings of the Lewis Carroll Society of North America. He was formal,  but friendly. He seemed be a man steeped in Victorian culture. 

Cohen was also well known for significant work on H. Rider Haggard.

After a lifetime of researching Lewis Carroll, Cohen wrote his definitive Lewis Carroll: A Biography. Click here or on the title to a link of a .pdf of my book review of Cohen's biography: "On a First-Name Basis with Charles Lutwidge Dodgson" published in Children's Literature 26. 

Chatting about Lewis Carroll with Kara Miller of Innovation Hub

How did Lewis Carroll change children's literature and publishing? Those were the questions that Kara Miller wanted to know about when she interviewed me from WGBH's radio show  "Innovation Hub." The show airs Saturday, Nov. 21, at 10 a.m. eastern time. Here's a link to the blog post: http://blogs.wgbh.org/innovation-hub/2015/11/20/what-you-dont-know-about-alice-wonderland/

We had fun chatting about how Lewis Carroll was influential in changing children's literature from didactic to more entertaining. We also talked about how Carroll was involved in publishing the first Alice book.

I appreciated the opportunity share the celebration of the 150th anniversary of the publcation of "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" with WGBH, a radio station I enjoyed listening to when I lived in Boston.

Update on Wednesday, January 27, 2016 at 09:56PM by JAS

Thanks to Innovation Hub for re-tweeting about my interview on Lewis Carroll's birthday.

(Un)Birthday Celebration at UNC-Charlotte

Thanks to the Children's Literature Graduate Students and Mark West at University of North Carolina-Charlotte's English Department for inviting me to be part of their (Un)Birthday Celebration of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.

I am looking forward to meeting with students and talking about "Alice and Multiple Wonderlands." How has Alice endured for so long? How did Lewis Carroll, particularly as the controller of the Wonderland empire, help to cement the book's legacy? What is it about the books that still appeals to readers? These are some of the questions that I have been pondering as I prepared the talk.

WGLT interviews me about Alice in Wonderland's 150th anniversary

Thanks to Judy Valente for putting together a smart, charming piece about the 150th anniversary of the publication of Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Judy has done so many interesting and intriguing radio pieces for WGLT. Whenever she has interviewed me, it has been a good experience and she always makes me sound much better.

Here's a link to the interview. https://news.illinoisstate.edu/2015/10/alice-wonderland-turns-150/WGLT's Charlie Schlenker took this photo of me and aa selection of Alice books.