Isa Bowman
Illustration — Isa Bowman as the part of Alice in 1888 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 with Phoebe Carlo in the title role: she replaced Carlo as Alice in the 1888 revival. 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, which she reprinted in her memoir.
Isa Bowman
Isa Bowman · The Story of Lewis Carroll, Told for Young People by the Real Alice in Wonderland on archive.org · Public domain
- Born
- 1874
- Died
- 1958
- Nationality
- United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland · United Kingdom
- Occupation
- biographer · writer · model · actress
- Languages
- English
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wikidata · Q6075698 · wikipedia · Isa Bowman
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Deutsche Nationalbibliothek
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In popular culture
Carroll introduced her to Ellen Terry, who gave her elocution lessons. Carroll dedicated his last novel Sylvie and Bruno to her in 1889: her name appears in a double acrostic poem in the introduction. She married the journalist George Reginald Bacchus in 1899. In 1899–1900 Bacchus published a fictionalised version of her life in Society, a magazine he was editing. 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). The daughter of Charles Andrew Bowman (b. 1851), a music teacher, and Helen Herd, née Holmes. Her sisters, Empsie, Nellie (Mrs Spens) and Maggie (Mrs Tom Morton) Bowman were all actresses, and also friends of Carroll. According to Maggie's father-in-law, William Morton, the sisters were all actresses from a very early age. He said that Maggie had an amusing diary in rhyme written by Carroll about her visit to Oxford as a young child. Isa played a small part in the 1949 British film Vote for Huggett, together with her sisters Empsie and Nellie.
• Gyles Brandreth's play Wonderland about the relationship between Isa Bowman and Dodgson was performed at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2010.
Documentary record
Isa Bowman, an actress, was born in 1874. The birth is recorded by the Deutsche Nationalbibliothek.
Portrait of Isa Bowman (1874–1958) as Cinderella at Drury Lane Theatre from The Sketch, Vol. XII, No. 155, January 15, 1896, cover
Alfred Ellis · The Sketch, Vol. XII, No. 155, January 15, 1896, cover
Portrait of Isa Bowman (1874–1958) in The Rose of the Riviera from The Sketch, Vol. XLII, No. 540, June 3, 1903, page 249
Hana, Bedford Street, Strand (no individual credited) · The Sketch, Vol. XLII, No. 540, June 3, 1903, page 249
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The biographical narrative on this page is based on the Wikipedia article Isa Bowman, revision 1359932765 (EN edition), by its contributors. VALÉORINE has edited that text and built its own documentary record around it. The reused material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0, and this page's reuse of it is offered under the same licence. Everything else on this page — the chronology, the holdings, the evidence, the plates and the connections — is VALÉORINE's own record. Sources and licences.
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The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 26 August 2026.
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