He Thought He Saw

The two short stories in this collection by Byron Sewell were inspired by Lewis Carroll's disparaged and oft-maligned Sylvie & Bruno fairy tale. "He Thought He Saw", postulates the surprising inspiration for one of Carroll's most famous nonsense poems, "The Mad Gardener's Song", the reason why Carroll took up photography, and why he never married Gertrude Thomson who was in love with him. The second story was inspired by Carroll's innovative structure of the various realms of reality in Sylvie & Bruno. The setting is near Guildford in the Surrey countryside in the 1870's and later in West Virginia in modern times. Flint Bodkins purchases a mysterious and unsigned poem obviously written in Carroll's hand. Two local Carrollians caution him that the poem is actually a spell used in order to enter the spirit realm. Bodkin ignores their warning and passes through an Ivory Door which separates the natural and spiritual worlds. Bodkin encounters a small fairy, her gigantic elfin brother, and two terrifying Jabberwocks. The first story was suggested by August A. Imholtz, Jr. He has provided a short, scholarly preface for both works.