The LOC.GOV Wise Guide : Do You Have a Fat Mind?

Only someone with an imagination as fertile as Lewis Carroll's would ask the question, "I wonder if there is such a thing in nature as a fat mind?"

The question is from an article by Carroll in an unknown magazine. He clipped it and kept it in a scrapbook, which is housed in the Library of Congress' Rare Book and Special Collections Division.

Lewis Carroll, date unknown. Prints and Photographs Division.

Fabric Merchant, 1911. A merchant at the Samarkand market displays colorful silk, cotton and wool fabrics as well as a few traditional carpets. A framed page of the Koran hangs at the top of the stall. Prints and Photographs Division.

Now, this amusing article and other things that Carroll fancied enough to collect in a volume are online in "The Lewis Carroll Scrapbook Collection."

Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, better known as Lewis Carroll (1832-1898), the Victorian-era children's author of "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland" (1865) and "Through the Looking-Glass" (1871), was a lecturer in mathematics at the University of Oxford. The scrapbook contains approximately 130 items, including newspaper clippings, photographs and a limited number of manuscript materials, collected between 1855 and 1872.

In his article "Feeding the Mind," Carroll writes, "I have heard of a physician telling his patient -- whose complaint was merely gluttony and want of exercise -- that 'the earliest symptom of hyper-nutrition is a deposition of adipose tissue,' and no doubt the fine long words greatly consoled the poor man under his increasing load of fat. I wonder if there is such a thing in nature as a fat mind?"

Carroll goes on to explicate what is proper nutrition for the mind in his characteristically funny treatment of what he obviously views as a serious topic.

The "Scrapbook" presentation includes an Essay by Carroll expert Edward Wakeling, a Timeline of important events in Carroll's life and a Portrait Gallery of key people mentioned in the scrapbook.

The "Lewis Carroll Scrapbook Collection" is in the Global Gateway Web site of international materials from the Library of Congress and other major institutions. In the "Collaborative Digital Libraries" section you can view materials from Brazil, the Netherlands, Russia and Spain. The "Digital Collections" section provides links to thematic presentations, including "Puerto Rico at the Dawn of the Modern Age," "The Spanish-American War in Motion Pictures" and the extraordinary "Prokudin-Gorskii Collection" of color-saturated photographs of Russia taken just before the revolution.

A. "Lewis Carroll," date unknown. Prints and Photographs Division. Reproduction information: Reproduction No.: LC-USZ62-70064 (b&w film copy neg.); Call No.: BIOG FILE - CARROLL, LEWIS [item] [P&P]

B. "Fabric Merchant," 1911. A merchant at the Samarkand market displays colorful silk, cotton and wool fabrics as well as a few traditional carpets. A framed page of the Koran hangs at the top of the stall. Prints and Photographs Division. Reproduction information: Reproduction No.: (LC-DIG-ppmsc-03948) (28)