John Tenniel

Hello! My name is John Tenniel, and I was an artist who loved bringing stories to life with my drawings. I was born in London, England, on February 28th, 1820. From the time I was a little boy, I was always drawing on any piece of paper I could find. I didn't go to a fancy art school; instead, I mostly taught myself by visiting art galleries and studying books in libraries. When I was about 20 years old, in 1840, I had a serious accident while fencing with my father and lost the sight in my right eye. I didn't let that stop me, though. I simply trained myself to work even harder with my left eye and continued to follow my dream of becoming a professional artist.

My big break came in 1850 when I was invited to become a cartoonist for a famous magazine called 'Punch'. It was a very popular weekly magazine in Great Britain, known for its humor and its cartoons about politics and important events. For over 50 years, I was the main political cartoonist there. Each week, my job was to draw a large, detailed picture about the most important news of the day. During my time at 'Punch', I drew thousands of cartoons, and my work became very well-known all across the country. It was a wonderful job that allowed me to do what I loved most: draw every single day.

While I was busy at 'Punch', a writer named Lewis Carroll asked me in 1864 to work on a project that would become the most famous of my entire life. He wanted me to create the illustrations for his new children's book, 'Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'. Mr. Carroll had very specific ideas about how the characters should look, so we worked together very closely. I would read his words, and he would look at my sketches, and we would discuss them. It took a lot of work to get Alice, the White Rabbit, the Mad Hatter, and the grumpy Queen of Hearts to look just right. When the book was published in 1865, my drawings helped readers all over the world imagine the magical, topsy-turvy world of Wonderland.

The first 'Alice' book was so popular that a few years later, Lewis Carroll wrote a sequel called 'Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There'. He asked me to illustrate it, too, and I was excited to draw even more curious characters. This time, I brought characters like Tweedledee and Tweedledum and the fearsome Jabberwock to life. Mr. Carroll was worried my drawing of the Jabberwock might be too scary for children, but I thought it was an important part of the story, and we decided to keep it in. The book came out in 1871 and was another big success. After that, I decided to focus mainly on my work for 'Punch' magazine, as illustrating books took a great deal of time and effort.

I was very proud of my long career as an artist. In 1893, I was given a great honor when Queen Victoria made me a knight for my work. From then on, I was known as Sir John Tenniel. I finally retired from 'Punch' magazine in 1901 after drawing for them for half a century. I lived to be 93 years old, passing away in 1914, just three days before my 94th birthday. While my political cartoons showed the world what was happening during my time, it is my drawings for the 'Alice' books that people remember most. I am so happy that my art has helped children and adults fall in love with Wonderland for generations.