DODGSON CHARLES LUTWIDGE: (1832-1898) Lewis Carroll. English author, poet and mathematician whose works include Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865). A.L.S., C. L. Dodgson, one page, small 8vo, Christ Church, Oxford, 25^th February 1887, to Mrs. Burton. The letter is penned in Dodgson's characteristic purple ink and states, in full, 'I had intended sending this to Mabel in Germany, but, finding it can only go with ends open, & not liking to risk the damage of it being 'examined' by Post Office officials, I prefer depositing it with you, to keep for her. Kindest regards to your daughter'. With blank integral leaf. Some very light, extremely minor wrinkling, otherwise VG

 

Dodgson first met Mabel Burton at Eastbourne in 1877, ten years before the present letter, when the author noted in his diary 'my new friend is Mabel Amy Burton….She seems to be about 8….Mabel herself is entirely charming, and without an atom of shyness: I never became friends with a child so easily or so quickly'

 

The teenage Mabel was studying piano and languages in Germany and, in her Reminiscences of Lewis Carroll recounted 'while at Eisenach….I wrote to Lewis Carroll, but I do not believe that he replied, though I received a Christmas card from him….From that time our correspondence was intermittent, Lewis Carroll was growing elderly, I was a young woman. But we did not forget each other'

 

Five years earlier Carroll had lamented the passing of Mabel's childhood, writing in his diary on 13^th June 1882, 'Called on Mrs. Burton and had a short time with her, her daughter Florence, and Mabel, whom I should have hardly known: she has lost her child-beauty, and has her hair cut short'