The Real-Life Inspiration Behind Lewis Carroll’s Alice In Wonderland

“Who in the world am I?” Alice ponders in Lewis Carroll's Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. "Ah, that’s the great puzzle." Outside the pages of the fantastical 1865 novel, however, the real-life Alice's identity is much less of a mystery. While a young girl certainly never tumbled down a rabbit hole to a whimsical land of eccentric characters like a tea-party-hosting Mad Hatter, a perpetually late White Rabbit, or a mischievously grinning Cheshire Cat, a dark-haired 10-year-old named Alice Liddell did inspire the iconic tale. In fact, Carroll (real name: Charles Lutwidge Dodgson) even once referred to Liddell as one “without whose infant patronage I might possibly never have written at all.”

Carroll Met Alice When He Was Hired to Photograph the Liddell Family

Born on May 4, 1852, in Westminster, England, Liddell was the fourth of Henry and Lorina Liddell's 10 children. Her father, the Dean of Christ Church, first became acquainted with Carroll at the college where the author worked as a mathematics tutor. As Carroll noted in his diary, it was on April 25, 1856, that he first met the young Alice.

An avid photographer, Carroll was invited by Henry Liddell to snap photos of his family, particularly of Alice. This invitation led to a close bond between Carroll and the Liddell family. On July 4, 1862, Carroll and a friend took then-10-year-old Alice, along with her sisters Lorina and Edith, on a boat trip from Oxford to the nearby town of Godstow to have a tea party on the riverbank. It was on this day that the now-famous story was born.

The Birth of a Story

While on the excursion, Carroll entertained the girls by making up a fantastical story about a young girl named Alice. The real-life Alice was so enamored by the tale that she begged him to write it down so that she could read it again and again. This moment marked the beginning of a literary journey that would captivate readers for generations.

The Mysterious Hiatus in Their Encounters

His almost daily meetings with Alice and the other Liddell children came to a mysteriously abrupt halt the following summer. While the reason was likely explained in his diary, the page that may have contained the answer was cut out following his 1898 death. Therefore, the cloud of mystery remains as to why their interactions ceased.

The Liddells finally made a reappearance in his diary in late 1864. As a Christmas gift that year, Carroll fulfilled Alice's wish by giving her a handwritten and illustrated copy of what he had then called Alice’s Adventures Under Ground. Meanwhile, the author continued to expand upon the story—almost doubling it in length—and published a novel the following year with a new title suggested by her father: Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.

The Changing Nature of Their Friendship

However, as Alice grew older, their friendship seemed to dissipate. When Alice turned 12, Carroll observed that she seemed “...changed a good deal, and hardly for the better…” This indicates a shift in their relationship, reflecting the changes that come with growing up.

The Real Alice Almost Became a Royal

As Alice grew up and integrated into Victorian society, she met Queen Victoria’s youngest son, Prince Leopold, while he was pursuing an undergraduate degree at Christ Church. In a storyline that could have been the basis for another type of fairy tale, the pair fell in love. However, the Queen insisted that her son marry a woman of royal lineage, keeping the couple apart. Eventually, at the age of 28, Alice married wealthy cricketer Reginald Hargreaves, another Christ Church student, at Westminster Abbey in 1880.

Only after her wedding did Prince Leopold follow through with his mother’s wishes, marrying a German princess in 1883. Much like Carroll did in his book, Prince Leopold went on to give Alice’s name to his daughter. In turn, Alice named the second of her three sons Leopold and asked the Prince to be the boy’s godfather.

Tragedy and Loss

In a stroke of tragedy, Alice’s son Leopold and his older brother Alan were both killed in World War II, leaving Alice and Reginald Hargreaves with their youngest son, Caryl, as their only surviving child.

Alice Sold Carroll's Manuscript in 1928

After the loss of his two eldest sons, Reginald died in 1926. For her part, Alice remained active in high society. In 1928, she sold the illustrated manuscript of Alice’s Adventures Under Ground, gifted to her by Carroll during her childhood, to an American dealer for £15,400, which is roughly more than $20,000 USD by today’s standards. In 1948, the handwritten work was returned to the United Kingdom and is now housed in the British Museum.

To honor the centennial of Carroll’s birth, an 80-year-old Alice traveled with her son and sister to New York City in 1932 to attend a Lewis Carroll exhibition. During this visit, she received an honorary doctorate from Columbia University for “awakening with her girlhood’s charm the ingenious fancy of a mathematician familiar with imaginary quantities, stirring him to reveal his complete understanding of the heart of a child.”

The Lasting Legacy

Two years later, Alice died at the age of 82, but her legacy continues to live on. She may not have given anyone more of a sense of wonder than she did for Carroll. As historian Martin Gardner noted in 1960’s The Annotated Alice, “A long procession of charming little girls...skipped through Carroll's life, but none ever took the place of his first love, Alice Liddell.”