On what date was Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland conceived during the boat trip? It was conceived on 4 July 1862.
On that date, Charles Lutwidge Dodgson—better known by his pen name, Lewis Carroll—rowed along the River Isis near Oxford with Reverend Robinson Duckworth and the three Liddell sisters: Lorina, Alice, and Edith. During the excursion, Dodgson improvised a story about a girl’s extraordinary adventures underground. His diary records the story’s early title as “Alice’s Adventures Under Ground.”
The date is remembered as the “golden afternoon,” echoed by the opening poem of the published book. The journey began at Folly Bridge and ended about five miles upstream at Godstow, Oxfordshire. Alice Liddell later asked Dodgson to write the story down, leading eventually to the illustrated manuscript he presented to her in 1864.
The 4 July date marks the story’s conception, not the novel’s publication. Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland appeared in 1865 after substantial revision and illustration by John Tenniel. The manuscript and the finished book therefore represent different stages in the work’s development.