Lewis Carroll in Numberland: His Fantastical Mathematical Logical Life

By Jessica Schneider Feb 3, 2009, 10:18 GMT

A penetrating work that explores the amazing imagination and mathematical genius of the man who wrote Alice\'s Adventures in Wonderland. Just when we thought we knew everything about Lewis Carroll, here comes a highly original biography that will appeal to Alice fans everywhere. Fascinated by the inner life of Charles Lutwidge Dodson, Robin Wilson, a Carroll scholar and a noted mathematics ...more

Such is the recent title of the Lewis Carroll biography by Robin Wilson.

The NYT notes: “In 'Lewis Carroll in Numberland,' the distinguished British mathematician Robin Wilson has filled a perceived gap in the writings about Carroll by describing in a straightforward, jabberwocky-free fashion the author’s mathematical accomplishments, both professional and popular.”

The product description notes:

“A penetrating work that explores the amazing imagination and mathematical genius of the man who wrote Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. Just when we thought we knew everything about Lewis Carroll, here comes a highly original biography that will appeal to Alice fans everywhere.

Fascinated by the inner life of Charles Lutwidge Dodson, Robin Wilson, a Carroll scholar and a noted mathematics professor, has produced this revelatory book—filled with more than one hundred striking and often playful illustrations—that examines the many inspirations and sources for Carroll's fantastical writings, mathematical and otherwise.

As Wilson demonstrates, Carroll—who published serious, if occasionally eccentric, works in the fields of geometry, logic, and algebra—made significant contributions to subjects as varied as voting patterns and the design of tennis tournaments, in the process creating imaginative recreational puzzles based on mathematical ideas. In the tradition of Sylvia Nasar's A Beautiful Mind and Andrew Hodges's Alan Turing, this is an engaging look at the incredible genius of one of mathematics' and literature's most enigmatic minds.”

W.W. Norton & Co. 208 pages.

Read the NYT review here, for those with interest.