Nov. 26: Oxford lecturer Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, aka Lewis Carroll, sends a handwritten manuscript to 10-year-old Alice Liddell on this day in 1862 as a Christmas present, The mathematician, a friend of the family, told the story of the girl who fell down a rabbit hole to Alice at a picnic and she insisted he write it down.

Nov. 27: Robert Burns decides on this day in 1786 not to board a ship to Jamaica and heads instead to Edinburgh.

Nov. 28: The Bard gets married on this day in 1582 to Anne Hathway

Nov. 29: Madeleine L’Engle, author of 30 books including A Wrinkle in Time , part of a quintet of stories which include A Swiftly Tilting Planet was born on this day in 1918 in New York City.

Nov. 30: A wit to the end, Oscar Wilde dies at age 46 on this day in 1900 in a Paris hotel, his last remarks are a dig at the wallpaper in his room: “My wallpaper and I are fighting a duel to the death. One of us had to go.”