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Cipher alphabets : autograph manuscript.

BIB_ID
413973
Accession number
MA 6387.2
Creator
Carroll, Lewis, 1832-1898.
Display Date
Place not identified, circa 1868.
Credit line
Gift of Arthur A. Houghton, Jr., 1987.
Description
1 item (2 cards) ; 2.1 x 10.2 cm + envelope
Notes
Neither the cards nor the envelope are dated. In a letter to Edith Argles dated April 29, 1868, Carroll mentions that he is enclosing a "key-word for Dolly [the nickname of her sister Agnes] to write with, if she likes." He also mentions enclosing something written in cipher, using the key-word "fox," for Edith and Agnes to translate. This appears to be a reference to the poem housed with these cipher alphabets and cataloged as MA 6387.1. It is not known when or under what circumstances the cipher alphabets and the poem were separated from the letter, which is housed at the Harry Ransom Center, University of Texas. See The Letters of Lewis Carroll, edited by Morton N. Cohen (New York: Oxford University Press, 1979), volume I, page 118, for additional information.
Title taken from the envelope.
The back of the envelope has markings in pencil that appear to be practice ciphers.
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.
Removed from the "Carrolliana" album (MA 6347) assembled by Arthur A. Houghton, Jr., folio 52.
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
From the Arthur A. Houghton, Jr., Lewis Carroll collection; gift of Arthur A. Houghton, Jr., 1987.
Summary
On one side of the cards, Carroll has written instructions for translating a message into cipher, and back into English; when the cards are placed one above the other, the full instructions can be read. On the other side, he has written a key-alphabet and a message-alphabet to be used in creating a cipher.