Lewis Carroll alneven irt: Charles Lutwidge Dodgson volt az igazi neve, es matematikat tanitott az Oxfordi Egyetem Christ Church kollegiumaban. Dodgson 1862. julius 4-en kezdte el a meset, amikor csonakkirandulasra ment a Temzen Robinson Duckworth tiszteletessel, a tizeves Alice Liddell-lel, a kollegium esperesenek lanyaval es Alice ket testverevel, a tizenharom eves Lorinaval es a nyolceves Edith-tel. Ahogy a versben olvashato a konyv elejen, a harom kislany megkerte Dodgsont, hogy mondjon nekik egy meset, o pedig eleinte vonakodva kezdte meselni nekik a tortenet elso valtozatat. Sok felig elrejtett utalas talalhato ennek az otfos tarsasagnak a tagjaira a konyv szovegeben, amely vegul 1865-ben jelent meg. – 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. Many half-hidden references are made to the five of them throughout the text of the book itself, which was published finally in 1865.