Charles Dodgson gets all the attention.

It is true that Dodgson -- "Lewis Carroll" -- wrote the "Alice" books, and by doing so gained a lasting fame. But Dodgson wrote many, many things, and most of them are mercifully forgotten. Why did "Alice" survive?

For starters, it had Alice. As in, Alice Pleasance Liddell, later Hargreaves. True, the Alice of the books is not the Alice who was daughter of the Dean of Christ Church College. The real Alice was more genteel than the book "Alice," and she didn't look anything like Tenniel's illustrations. But she was bright, talented, beautiful, and determined. Without Dodgson, there would have been no "Alice." But without Alice, there almost certainly would have been no "Alice" either.

These facts make Alice Liddell well worth a good biography. Or several. After all, I have seven or eight biographies of Dodgson, and his life was mostly as dull as ditchwater! Yet they keep coming out, whereas biographies of Alice are few and tend to go out of print quickly.

This isn't a full-fledged biography. Much of it is based on excavations in the Hargreaves family memorabilia rather than archival material. But as such, it gives an excellent view of the life of the Liddell family, and of Alice after she met and married Reginald Hargreaves. As such, it belongs in the library of any true fan of Lewis Carroll. ( )