Isa Bowman

Isa Bowman (1874–1958) was an actress, a close friend of Lewis Carroll and author of a memoir about his life, The Story of Lewis Carroll, Told for Young People by the Real Alice in Wonderland.

She met Carroll in 1886 when she played a small part in the stage version of Alice in Wonderland: she played the part of Alice in the 1888 revival.[1][2] She visited and stayed with him between the ages of fifteen and nineteen: Carroll described a visit in July 1888 in Isa's Visit to Oxford,[3][4][5][6] which she reprinted in her memoir.[7] Carroll introduced her to Ellen Terry,[8] who gave her elocution lessons.[9] Carroll dedicated his last novel Sylvie and Bruno to her in 1889: her name appears in a double acrostic poem in the introduction.[10][11][12]

She married the journalist George Reginald Bacchus (1873–1945) in 1899.[13] In 1899-1900 Bacchus published a fictionalised version of her life in Society, a magazine he was editing.[14] The publisher Leonard Smithers then commissioned a pornographic version which was published as The Confessions of Nemesis Hunt (issued in three volumes 1902, 1903, 1906).[14][15][16][17][18][19]

Isa Bowman was the daughter of Charles Andrew Bowman (b.1851), a music teacher,[20] and Helen Herd, née Holmes.[21] Her sisters, Empsie, Nellie and Maggie Bowman were all actresses,[22] and also friends of Carroll.[7] She played a small part in the 1949 British film Vote for Huggett, together with her sisters Empsie and Nellie.[23]

In popular culture

References

  1. ^ Moses, pp.244-247
  2. ^ Collingwood (1898) p.280
  3. ^ Foulkes (2005) p.135
  4. ^ Carroll, Lewis (1954). The diaries of Lewis Carroll. Opie collection of children's literature. 2. Cassell. p. 557. 
  5. ^ Hollingsworth, Cristopher (2009). Alice beyond wonderland: essays for the twenty-first century. University of Iowa Press. p. 163. ISBN 1587298198. 
  6. ^ Bakewell, Michael (1996). Lewis Carroll: a biography. Heinemann. p. 287. ISBN 0434045799. 
  7. ^ a b Cohen, Morton Norton (1982). Lewis Carroll and Alice, 1832-1982. Pierpont Morgan Library. p. 96. 
  8. ^ Foulkes (2005) p.103
  9. ^ Carpenter, Angelica Shirley (2003). Lewis Carroll: through the looking glass. Twenty-First Century Books. p. 103. ISBN 0822500736. 
  10. ^ Collingwood (1898) p.403
  11. ^ Moses, p.272
  12. ^ Gardner, Martin (1996). The universe in a handkerchief: Lewis Carroll's mathematical recreations, games, puzzles, and word plays. Birkhäuser. p. 5. ISBN 0387256415. 
  13. ^ Morton Norton Cohen, Roger Lancelyn Green, (1979) vol.2, p.710
  14. ^ a b James G. Nelson, Peter Mendes, (2000) p.291
  15. ^ James G. Nelson, Peter Mendes, (2000) p.348
  16. ^ Frank A. Hoffmann, Analytical survey of Anglo-American traditional erotica, Bowling Green University Popular Press, 1973, ISBN 0879720557, p.34
  17. ^ Tracy C. Davis, "The Actress in Victorian Pornography", Theatre Journal, Vol. 41, No. 3, Performance in Context (Oct., 1989), pp. 294-315 [1]
  18. ^ Davis, Tracy C. (1991). Actresses as working women: their social identity in Victorian culture. Gender and performance. Routledge. pp. 145, 180, 183. ISBN 0415056527. 
  19. ^ Kristine Ottesen Garrigan, Victorian scandals: representations of gender and class, Ohio University Press, 1992, ISBN 0821410199, pp.113,131
  20. ^ Foulkes (2005) p.67
  21. ^ Cohen, Morton Norton (1989). Lewis Carroll: interviews and recollections. Macmillan. pp. 101–102. ISBN 0333417216. 
  22. ^ Cohen & Lancelyn Green (1979) vol.1 p.710
  23. ^ Isa Bowman at the Internet Movie Database
  24. ^ "Fringe Interview - Michael Maloney". http://www.edinburghspotlight.com/2010/08/fringe-interview-michael-maloney-wonderland-assembly/. Retrieved 2010-08-08. 

External links