I would argue easily that he was not one of the best to ever live. Or even in his day. His work is only famous because it is associated to his fame for alice. Competent no doubt but hardly the best.
On Apr 20, 2014 2:22 AM, "karl shah-jenner" <shahjen@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
I would suggest the letter from Dodson to Alices parent suggest other
wise.
this one?
The letter was written in his rooms at Christ Church College in February 1877, when he was 43 and Alice was 25.
Although the name of the addressee has been scribbled out it appears to begin 'Dear Miss Liddell'.
Written in his customary violet ink, it reads: 'Thank you for the sight of the pretty photographs, but don't keep the child in for me - I am fearfully busy - and what could Miss Lloyd have been thinking of to say such things of me?
'She must have taken some remark of mine about liking children and have said to herself for "some" read "all", for "girls" read "boys" and for "ten" read "two" - such a method of exaggeration is wholly unfounded, and yet she professes to be an admirer of Dr Liddon. Believe me.' It is signed 'Yours very truly, C L Dodgson.'
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice_Liddell suggests the situation was cryptic.
Given he was an outspoken critic of a popular new form of mathematics, I imagine his detractors of the day would have sought any means to destroy him - yet not much seemed to surface if anything at all - there doesn't seem to be any record of it.
At the end of it all, the guy was a master photographer, one of the best that lived.
