Dodgson Trivia

In honor of Charles Lutwidge Dodgson’s birthday this week (January 27), I’ve pulled together a quick quiz of Charles Dodgson/Alice in Wonderland trivia. Answers to come next week. Enjoy!

1) Which of the following words was NOT invented by Dodgson:

  • Chortle
  • Snark 
  • Galumph
  • Telarian

2) Which of the animals in the caucus race of Alice in Wonderland is a reference to Dodgson himself?

John Tenniel, “Sit down, all of you, and listen to me.” 1954.183. Collection of the Rosenbach

3) Dodgson is famously associated with Christ Church College, Oxford,
where he attended university and then became a mathematics lecturer.
But which Public School did he attend before entering Oxford?

4) The Rosenbach owns Dodgson’s passport, which he used on his one and only trip outside of Britain. Where did he travel?

Charles Dodgson’s passport. 1867. EL3 .D645 MS3. Collection of the Rosenbach

 5) When Alice recites “How doth the Little Crocodile,” in Chapter 2 of Alice in Wonderland, she is parodying which famous poem by Isaac Watts?

6) Which of these is a pamphlet written by Charles Dodgson? 

  • On the Means of Improving the Quality and Increasing the Quantity of Food
  • Lawn Tennis Tournaments, The True Method of Assigning Prizes with a Proof of the Fallacy of the Present Method
  • Logic and Utility : The Tests of Truth and Falsehood, and of Right and Wrong; Being an Outline of Logic, the Science of Reasoning, and of the Utilitarian or Happiness Theory of Morals 
  • The Type Printing Instrument : Descriptions and Opinions of the Press

7) At the mad tea party in Alice in Wonderland the Dormouse tells the tale of Elsie, Tillie, and Lacie, who live in this unusual location.

8) Dodgson first used the pen name “Lewis Carroll” when he published this poem in 1856.

9)  Unlike the Cheshire Cat, Alice’s own cat never physically appears in Alice in Wonderland, although it is referred to several times. What is her cat’s name?

10) Much of Dodgson’s handwritten material is in this unusual color ink, which he began using in 1870.


Kathy Haas is the Associate Curator at the Rosenbach and the primary poster at the Rosen-Blog.

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