2023-04-19 23:51:00
The famous author of children’s books Lewis Caroll He returned to the spotlight following never-before-seen photos were revealed that he himself would have taken of minors. The publication of the unpublished material, which will be auctioned by a relative of one of the photographed women, once once more agitated the thesis that the creator of Alice in Wonderland would have been a “repressed pedophile”, as maintained by a documentary released a few years ago.
The set of images was discovered in a safe while cleaning a house. Its protagonist is Alexandra ‘Xie’ Rhoda Kitchen, the daughter of one of Carroll’s colleagues, who was photographed from the age of four to the age of sixteen.
There are approximately 50 photos that were taken in the late 1860s and 1870s and show the girl doing different activities, sleeping on the couch, playing with a bucket and shovel, or wearing different outfits. They are valued at thousand pounds each (just over $1,200) and will be auctioned in the city of Essex.
Little Alexandra was one of the “friends” by Lewis Carroll, who was then between 20 and 30 years old, and historians believe that she was one of the “favorites” of the writer when he devoted time to photography. His father was the Reverend George William Kitchen, one of the notable friends of Carroll at the prestigious Christ Church College the Oxford.
Where did the story of Alice in Wonderland originate?
Lewis Carroll “pedophile”
The revelation of the images occurred eight years following Charles Lutwidge Dodgsonthe real name of Lewis Carroll, was branded as “repressed pedophile” in the BBC documentary. titled “The Secret World of Lewis Carroll”, the audiovisual piece supports this thesis since it revealed photos taken by the writer that show one of the women naked Alice Liddell’s sisters the girl who inspired the famous tale that is an emblem of English literature.
The 2015 documentary delves into the time when Lewis Carroll became friends with Alice Liddell and two of her sisters, Lorina (Ina) and Edith, as children. The documentary for the 150th anniversary of the publication of Alice in Wonderland explored the controversy surrounding Carroll’s friendship with minors and his obsession with photography.
In that search, the researchers discovered disturbing images to today’s eyes. Among them, photos of Lorina, Alice’s older sister, showing her naked in front of the camera. “These are images that no parent would ever have consented to,” said the documentary’s host, Martha Kearney, at the time.
For her part, Alicia’s great-granddaughter, Vanessa Tait, gave details of the writer and tried to separate him from those accusations. “He was a strange but admirable man, and I don’t want to tarnish him with accusations of pedophilia that we are all so obsessed with now.”
The photo auction
The brand new discovery of the envelope with the photos of Alexandra “Xie” by her great-grandchildren were delivered to the auctioneers Sworders, from Stansted Mountfitchet, in Essex. “Copies come for sale from the great-grandchildren of the Reverend George Kitchen.
His mother, Elizabeth Kitchen, had sold around 10 similar photographs in the late 1980s, but these new discoveries were found in a brown envelope in the back of a safe while the family home in Essex was being cleaned.” the spokesperson for the auction house.
alice behind the looking glass
He further explained that at the time “the camera was still a relatively new technology, and Dodgson (Caroll) was an early and capable enthusiast. He found many friends who wanted him to make likenesses with their children.”
For his part, Sworders director Luke Macdonald called Xie Kitchin’s original collection “remarkable” and “wonderful.” “They were taken by Charles Dodgson, it has been with the Kitchin family since the 1870s, a truly wonderful find in a brown envelope in the back of a safe on a local farm,” he noted.
Carroll wrote Alice in Wonderland in 1865 and its sequel through the looking glass in 1871. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland has sold 100 million copies. The book has also been adapted into television shows and movies, most notably the 2010 film “Alice in Wonderland,” which starred Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter.
The auction of the eight copies will end on Sunday, April 23.
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