BIB_ID
413305
Accession number
MA 9758.3
Creator
Carroll, Lewis, 1832-1898.
Display Date
Oxford, 1897 April 8.
Credit line
Gift of Arthur A. Houghton, Jr., 1987.
Description
1 item (5 pages) ; 11.1 x 18.1 cm
Notes
Written from '"Ch. Ch.", Carroll's abbreviation for Christ Church.
This item is part of the Arthur A. Houghton, Jr., Lewis Carroll collection. The large collection includes printed books, letters, manuscripts, puzzles and games, personal effects and ephemera, which have been cataloged separately.
The letter is signed with the initials CLD. 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.
Removed from a bound collection of autograph manuscripts and letters titled "Lewis Carroll and Enid Stevens" (MA 6390.1-8).
Previously accessioned as AAH 516.
This small collection also includes a typed letter signed from George J.C. Grasberger, a rare book dealer in Philadelphia, to Arthur A. Houghton, dated June 27, 1934, informing Houghton that he has this letter, it is for sale and he would be happy to quote a price. Grasberger also enclosed a Christmas leaflet he printed, titled 'Arithmetical Puzzle by Lewis Carroll" and dated Christmas, 1933 which quotes the two puzzles from this letter.
This item is part of the Arthur A. Houghton, Jr., Lewis Carroll collection. The large collection includes printed books, letters, manuscripts, puzzles and games, personal effects and ephemera, which have been cataloged separately.
The letter is signed with the initials CLD. 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.
Removed from a bound collection of autograph manuscripts and letters titled "Lewis Carroll and Enid Stevens" (MA 6390.1-8).
Previously accessioned as AAH 516.
This small collection also includes a typed letter signed from George J.C. Grasberger, a rare book dealer in Philadelphia, to Arthur A. Houghton, dated June 27, 1934, informing Houghton that he has this letter, it is for sale and he would be happy to quote a price. Grasberger also enclosed a Christmas leaflet he printed, titled 'Arithmetical Puzzle by Lewis Carroll" and dated Christmas, 1933 which quotes the two puzzles from this letter.
Provenance
From the Arthur A. Houghton, Jr., Lewis Carroll collection; gift of Arthur A. Houghton, Jr., 1987.
Summary
Discussing three of her friends, Helen Drew and "the Mackarness girls" [Jessie & Kathleen Mackarness] and giving her an arithmetical puzzle to give to Helen Drew and three two-word anagram puzzles; relating the restrictions placed on the girls by their mothers to come to dinner or tea and concluding that he must "...drop both the acquaintances : so the sooner we forget each other the better - It's a very good thing that some girls are more get-at-able! What a nuisance it would be if your mother were to say 'I can only send Enid in sets of three'! And the difficulty would be, how to make up the set - Scamp, of course, w'd do for one : but who could we get for the third?;" setting forth a mathematical puzzle "...which I invented 2 days ago; which you can give to Helen, to console her for not coming to dine. 'Three men, A, B & C, are to run a race of a quarter-of-a-mile. Whenever A runs against B, he loses 10 yards in every 100 : whenever B runs against C, he gains 10 yards in every 100. How should they be handicapped?' ('Handicapping' means that the inferior runners are allowed a start : & the amount is so calculated that, if all were to run at their previous rates, it would be a dead heat : i.e., they would all get to the winning post at the same moment.) Here are 3 more of my two-word anagrams for you - Make 'dry one' into one word : also 'he's wet' : also 'scale it.' I called this morning with my sister-in-law, Mrs. Wilfred Dodgson, (mother of my 3 nieces), who is passing through Oxford : but, unluckily your mother was out."
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