Alfred Tennyson (from a photograph by Lewis Carroll)

Alfred Tennyson

Lewis Carroll (Charles Lutwidge Dodgson) (1832-98)

1857

Source: Collingwood, facing p. 71

Dodgson had long "intensely admired" Tennyson's writings, but first met him in 1857, describing him as a "strange shaggy-looking man" with "his hair, moustache, and beard" all looking "wild and neglected," and hiding his face. [Commentary continues below.]

Image download, formatting and text by Jacqueline Banerjee.

[You may use this image without prior permission for any scholarly or educational purpose as long as you (1) credit the source and (2) link your document to this URL or cite the Victorian Web in a print document. Click on the image to enlarge it, and mouse over the text for links.]

But he found that Tennyson's eyes were "keen and restless — nose aquiline — forehead high and broad" and concluded that "both face and head are fine and manly" (qtd. in Collingwood 70). Of course, Dodgson talked to him about his poetry, recounted some of his conversation, and was drawn to him as a photographic subject: "Mr. Dodgson saw a great deal of the Tennysons after this, and photographed the poet himself and various members of his family" (Collingwood 72).

Related Material

Alfred Lord Tennyson: A Brief Biography

Reference

Collingwood, Stuart Dodgson. The Life and Letters of Lewis Carroll (Rev. C. L. Dodgson). London: Unwin, 1898. Internet Archive. From the Fisher Walsh collection, University of Toronto. Web. 11 May 2015.

Created 11 May 2015