BIB_ID
412901
Accession number
MA 3888.2
Creator
Carroll, Lewis, 1832-1898.
Display Date
Oxford, England, 1885 May 14.
Credit line
Gift of Charles Blitzer, 1983.
Description
1 item (3 pages) ; 18.2 x 11.2 cm
Notes
Carroll dates the letter April 1, 1845, gives the place of writing as the Scilly Isles, and addresses the letter to "Gentlemen." These are all fictitious, in keeping with the conceit of the letter, a mock letter of reference for Standen.
Written in purple ink. The ink is severely faded. Transcription available in the file.
This mock testimonial was sent to Isabel Standen with a cover letter, which has been cataloged separately as MA 3888.1.
The letter is signed C.L. Dodgson. Charles Lutwidge Dodgson adopted the pseudonym "Lewis Carroll" in 1856 when publishing a poem in "The Train." He used the pseudonym when publishing Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and other works, but wrote under his given name, Charles Dodgson, when publishing mathematical works and in daily life. For administrative purposes, all manuscripts are collated under the name Lewis Carroll.
Written in purple ink. The ink is severely faded. Transcription available in the file.
This mock testimonial was sent to Isabel Standen with a cover letter, which has been cataloged separately as MA 3888.1.
The letter is signed C.L. Dodgson. Charles Lutwidge Dodgson adopted the pseudonym "Lewis Carroll" in 1856 when publishing a poem in "The Train." He used the pseudonym when publishing Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and other works, but wrote under his given name, Charles Dodgson, when publishing mathematical works and in daily life. For administrative purposes, all manuscripts are collated under the name Lewis Carroll.
Provenance
Gift of Charles Blitzer, March 29, 1983.
Summary
Recommending Standen for a position as a governess; writing of her academic qualifications: "I believe her to be quite as much at home in Quaternions as in Thermodynamics"; providing background for their acquaintance: "In general deportment I have always considered her to be a person of rigid (not to say frigid) propriety -- I say this from the experience of many years -- the first event, that I can recall in her life, having been her striking up a warm friendship with a strange gentleman, whom she accidentally met in a public garden, & the last her having concluded a letter to a distant acquaintance (a bachelor) with the words 'with love, yours affectionately'"; describing her character: "As to decision of character, I need only mention (as a matter of painful experience) that, if ever any gentleman ventures to differ from her, however slightly, on some controverted question, the promptitude and precision, with which she deals that gentleman a box on the ear, speaks volumes for the success with which she may be expected to control refractory pupils."
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