Karoline Leach

Infobox Writer
name = Karoline Leach


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birthdate = Birth date and age|1967|7|20|mf=y
birthplace = Liverpool, UK
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occupation = Writer
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period = early 21st century
genre = biography, stageplays
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website = http://karolineleach.com
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Karoline Leach (born July 20, 1967) is a British playwright and author, best known for her book "In the Shadow of the Dreamchild" (ISBN 0-7206-1044-3), which re-examines the life of Lewis Carroll (pseudonym of Charles Lutwidge Dodgson), the author of "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland". This book and her subsequent work on what she terms the [http://carrollmyth.com "Carroll Myth"] have been major sources of upheaval and controversy in recent years and she has produced very polarized responses from Carroll scholars and lay enthusiasts.

Leach was born in Liverpool. She studied acting and worked as both actor and director in British theatre before becoming a writer.

Theatre work

Her first professional produced work as a writer was an adaptation of Hans Christian Andersen's The Snow Queen, commissioned by Orchard Theatre Company in 1989. "The Mysterious Mr Love" was produced in London's West End in 1997. Her most recent play Tryst opened off-Broadway at the Promenade Theatre, on April 6 2006, and has subsequently been produced in Houston and Los Angeles.

The Carroll controversy

There is as yet no consensus about Leach's contribution to Carroll studies. Responses continue polarised. On the one side there has been a call for her book to be burned [ letter to "The Carrollian", Spring 1999] and the Dodgson family took the unprecedented step of making a public announcement refuting all support for her findings [ Announcement in "The Lewis Carroll Review", Spring 1999] , while authorities like Morton Cohen, Donald Rackin and Martin Gardner have sought to downplay or dismiss her importance. Dodgson biographer Morton N. Cohen repudiates Leach's position as being simply a plea for the defence, and, in a recent article in the "Times Literary Supplement" labeled Leach and her supporters as 'revisionists' attempting to rewrite history. [Cohen, Morton N. "When Love was Young", "Times Literary Supplement", October 2003] Similarly, in a review published in Victorian Studies (Vol. 43, No 4), Donald Rackin wrote, "As a piece of biographical scholarship, Karoline Leach's "In the Shadow of the Dreamchild" is difficult to take seriously". Martin Gardner was likewise dismissive in an article published by the Lewis Carroll Society of North America. [ Gardner, Martin, comments in "Knight Letter", the journal of the Lewis Carroll Society of North America, Autumn 2005]

On the other side, she has been hailed as a major new voice, and editorials in The Guardian, The Spectator, the Contemporary Review and "The Carrollian" avow she has brought us "nearer now than before to the man who wrote Alice" , made sure "Carroll studies will never be the same again" [ Bakewell, Michael, "The Carrollian", Spring 1999"] , or finally given us the "whole truth" about the man and his life [ Heptonstall, Geoffrey " The Contemporary Review", August 1999] .

ee also

*Karoline Leach & "The Carroll Myth"
*Hugues Lebailly

References

External links

* [http://karolineleach.com Karoline Leach's website]
* [http://carrollmyth.com "The Carroll Myth"]
* [http://shadowofthedreamchild.com In the Shadow of the Dreamchild]
* [http://contrariwise.cc Contrariwise] , an association for new Lewis Carroll studies