This just in from Chris Morgan:
“Oh Dear, How Puzzling It All Is”
I am currently editing Volume 5 in the LCSNA’s The Pamphlets of Lewis Carroll series, this one about “Games and Puzzles.” In addition to all of the relevant pamphlets, I would like to get copies of any unpublished Carroll letters and other manuscripts that mention games and puzzles, so I can cite them in the book. I would also like to cite any games and puzzles that have appeared over the years that have been inspired by Carroll’s ideas. Any information about these topics would be greatly appreciated. – Chris Morgan morgan@bookgenius.org
Time is fleeting! If you can help Chris, please do contact him directly as soon as possible with the details of what you have. Thanks for your contribution to Carrollian scholarship!
Over the years I have created numerous word transformation puzzles inspired by Carroll’s Doublets. One kind of puzzle is called Missing Links. In addition to puzzles where one letter is changed at a time, which I called “Single Mutation” (SM), there are Double Mutation (DM) and Triple Mutation (TM) Missing Links puzzles, where two or three letters at a time are changed, respectively. Both DM and TM puzzles contain pairs of longer words than those normally found in Doublets puzzles. For example, by double mutation one can transform CHILD to ADULT in 5 steps (i.e. 4 linking words), APPEAR to VANISH in 8, and SURGEON to SCALPEL in 9. By triple mutation one can transform BANANA to CHERRY in 2 steps, PENGUIN to VULTURE in 4,, and TRIANGLE to PENTAGON in 7. The puzzles are presented with a special grid which the player may use if he desires some assistance or eschew if he wants the greater challenge. Another Doublets-inspired kind of word transformation puzzle which I have created is called Word Evolution, where one word is transformed to an associated word which is not necessarily of the same length. Examples of Word Evolution puzzles are: TEACHER to CHALK in 2 steps, OIL to VINEGAR in 3, COAL to DIAMOND in 4, and PRESSURE to TEMPERATURE in 6.