Lewis Carroll er dulnefni: Réttu nafni hét höfundurinn Charles Lutwidge Dodgson og var stærðfræðikennari við Christ Church í Oxford. Dodgson hóf söguna 4. júlí 1862 þegar hann var í róðrartúr á Tempsá í Oxford ásamt séra Robinson Duckworth, Alice Liddell (tíu ára) dóttur rektors Christ Church og tveimur systrum hennar, Lorinu (þrettán ára) og Edith (átta ára). Eins og fram kemur í ljóðinu fremst í bókinni höfðu stúlkurnar þrjár beðið Dodgson að segja sér sögu. Hann var tregur til en hóf þó frásögn sem varð fyrsta gerð sögunnar. Margar hálfduldar tengingar til þessara fimm bátsverja má finna víðsvegar í texta bókarinnar sjálfrar sem prentuð var í lokagerð 1865.

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Lewis Carroll is a pen-name: Charles Lutwidge Dodgson was the author's real name and he was lecturer in Mathematics in Christ Church, Oxford. Dodgson began the story on 4 July 1862, when he took a journey in a rowing boat on the river Thames in Oxford together with the Reverend Robinson Duckworth, with Alice Liddell (ten years of age) the daughter of the Dean of Christ Church, and with her two sisters, Lorina (thirteen years of age), and Edith (eight years of age). As is clear from the poem at the beginning of the book, the three girls asked Dodgson for a story and reluctantly at first he began to tell the first version of the story to them. There are many half-hidden references made to the five of them throughout the text of the book itself, which was published finally in 1865.