WRFH/Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM - Rumor Has It: The Unknown Scandal of Lewis Carroll

Episode Date: April 15, 2024

In this episode we look at the not-quite scandal of Lewis Carroll and the Liddell family.

Shh. Rumor has it. Rumor has it. Rumor has it. Rumor has it. Rumor has it. Rumor has it. Did you hear? I saw. She told me rumor has it. You'll never believe. You're listening to Rumor Has It with Addy Longnaker. Hello, hello. This is Addie Longnicker with Rumor Has It on Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM. Today we're talking about the mysterious and unsolved scandal of Lewis Carroll. Many of us know Louis Carroll for his delightful children's rhymes, nonsense poems, and, more famously, his story of Alice in Wonderland and Alice Through the Looking Glass. What many people don't know is that there is a scandal surrounding Lewis Carroll and the family of girls upon which the novels Alice in Wonderland was based.

Lewis Carroll was friends with the Liddell family. The Liddell's father was president or dean of the college at which Carol worked. The little family had three little girls, Lerina, Alice, and Edith. He would regularly take them out on fishing boats and picnics and things of that nature. After writing the book in 1865, there was a rift that happened between the family and Louis Carroll. No one quite knows why. However, Lewis's diary is missing three pages that happened, what he wrote right around the break in their relationship. Mrs. Liddell cut off the relationship and was the driving force behind it

and refused to let him see her daughters anymore. No one is quite sure the reason for this, and it remains an unsolved mystery, but it has the breath of scandal around it. We may never know what happened and why those three pages are missing, but it certainly has the breath of scandal about it. Until next time, this has been Rumor Has It on Radio Free Hillsdale 101.7 FM with Addie Lungnaker.