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DODGSON, Charles Lutwidge (1832-1898). Eight autograph letters signed ('CL Dodgson' and 'CLD') to Minnie Fuller (ne Drury), Christ Church, Oxford, and The Chestnuts, Guildford, 3 November 1895 - 26 October 1897, 12 pages, oblong 8vo (occasional light soiling).
In the last years of his life, Dodgson writes to a former child-friend proposing visits to her in London, and theatre trips with her own and other children: in the first instance, he is to see Liberty Hall, and asks if Minnie would be disposed to 'give me a bed, and to lend me a daughter as companion to take to the play', and also looks forward to 'the pleasure of a chat with my old friend'. Dodgson is always concerned as to the suitability of the plays for children - The Professor's Love-Story and The Children of the King pass, but Two Little Vagabonds is rejected as having certain scenes which are 'too sensational'. A cryptic letter of 4 December 1895 refers to a fear of having offended her: 'Please let my remarks be taken to apply to general cases only'. In later letters he suggests she might visit his niece Minella Dodgson '& thus brighten a little the rather dull-life of a school-teacher', mentions that he is to have lunch with Beatrice and Ethel Hatch, asks if Minnie could give some lunch to a girl-friend ('I don't care about food in the middle of the day; but she needs it') and makes an 'audacious proposal' to bring two girl-friends to lunch, and then take them to a play 'without taking either of your children! But I shall meet 2 more girl-friends there, & really I can't undertake more!'.
In a later memoir, Minnie Fuller's daughter, Audrey, recalls one of these visits: 'When I was twelve he took me for my birthday to see The Professor's Love Story, my first theatre, and we went all the way to the Garrick in a hansom, a treat in itself'; Dodgson 'sat all the time with my hand in his; we had about the third row of the stalls and I loved it' (Mrs E.H.B. Skimming, 'More Recollections of Lewis Carroll', Listener, 6 February 1958). (8)
In the last years of his life, Dodgson writes to a former child-friend proposing visits to her in London, and theatre trips with her own and other children: in the first instance, he is to see Liberty Hall, and asks if Minnie would be disposed to 'give me a bed, and to lend me a daughter as companion to take to the play', and also looks forward to 'the pleasure of a chat with my old friend'. Dodgson is always concerned as to the suitability of the plays for children - The Professor's Love-Story and The Children of the King pass, but Two Little Vagabonds is rejected as having certain scenes which are 'too sensational'. A cryptic letter of 4 December 1895 refers to a fear of having offended her: 'Please let my remarks be taken to apply to general cases only'. In later letters he suggests she might visit his niece Minella Dodgson '& thus brighten a little the rather dull-life of a school-teacher', mentions that he is to have lunch with Beatrice and Ethel Hatch, asks if Minnie could give some lunch to a girl-friend ('I don't care about food in the middle of the day; but she needs it') and makes an 'audacious proposal' to bring two girl-friends to lunch, and then take them to a play 'without taking either of your children! But I shall meet 2 more girl-friends there, & really I can't undertake more!'.
In a later memoir, Minnie Fuller's daughter, Audrey, recalls one of these visits: 'When I was twelve he took me for my birthday to see The Professor's Love Story, my first theatre, and we went all the way to the Garrick in a hansom, a treat in itself'; Dodgson 'sat all the time with my hand in his; we had about the third row of the stalls and I loved it' (Mrs E.H.B. Skimming, 'More Recollections of Lewis Carroll', Listener, 6 February 1958). (8)