{{Short description|British actress (1874–1958)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=February 2016}} {{Use British English|date=February 2016}} thumb|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.<ref>Moses, pp.244-247</ref><ref>Collingwood (1898) p.280</ref> 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'',<ref>Foulkes (2005) p.135</ref><ref>{{cite book | title=The diaries of Lewis Carroll | volume=2 | series=Opie Collection of Children's Literature | first=Lewis | last=Carroll | publisher=Cassell | year=1954 | page=557 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book | title=Alice beyond wonderland: essays for the twenty-first century | first=Cristopher | last=Hollingsworth | publisher=University of Iowa Press | year=2009 | isbn=978-1-58729-819-6 | page=163 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book | title=Lewis Carroll: a biography | first=Michael | last=Bakewell | publisher=Heinemann | year=1996 | isbn=0-434-04579-9 | page=287 }}</ref> which she reprinted in her memoir.<ref name=cohen3>{{cite book | title=Lewis Carroll and Alice, 1832-1982| first=Morton Norton | last=Cohen | publisher=Pierpont Morgan Library | year=1982 | page=96 }}</ref> Carroll introduced her to Ellen Terry,<ref>Foulkes (2005) p.103</ref> who gave her elocution lessons.<ref>{{cite book | title=Lewis Carroll: through the looking glass | first=Angelica Shirley | last=Carpenter | publisher=Twenty-First Century Books | year=2003 | isbn=0-8225-0073-6 | page=103 }}</ref> Carroll dedicated his last novel ''Sylvie and Bruno'' to her in 1889: her name appears in a double acrostic poem in the introduction.<ref>Collingwood (1898) p.403</ref><ref>Moses, p.272</ref><ref>{{cite book | title=The universe in a handkerchief: Lewis Carroll's mathematical recreations, games, puzzles, and word plays | first=Martin | last=Gardner | authorlink=Martin Gardner | publisher=Birkhäuser | year=1996 | isbn=0-387-25641-5 | page=5 }}</ref>

She married the journalist George Reginald Bacchus in 1899.<ref>Morton Norton Cohen, Roger Lancelyn Green, (1979) vol.2, p.710</ref> In 1899-1900 Bacchus published a fictionalised version of her life in ''Society'', a magazine he was editing.<ref name=nelsonmendes291>James G. Nelson, Peter Mendes, (2000) p.291</ref> 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).<ref name=nelsonmendes291/><ref name=nelsonmendes348>James G. Nelson, Peter Mendes, (2000) p.348</ref><ref>Frank A. Hoffmann, ''Analytical survey of Anglo-American traditional erotica'', Bowling Green University Popular Press, 1973, {{ISBN|0-87972-055-7}}, p.34</ref><ref>Tracy C. Davis, "The Actress in Victorian Pornography", ''Theatre Journal'', Vol. 41, No. 3, Performance in Context (Oct., 1989), pp. 294-315 [https://www.jstor.org/stable/3208182]</ref><ref>{{cite book | title=Actresses as working women: their social identity in Victorian culture | series=Gender and performance | first=Tracy C. | last=Davis | publisher=Routledge | year=1991 | isbn=0-415-05652-7 | pages=145, 180, 183}}</ref><ref>Kristine Ottesen Garrigan, ''Victorian scandals: representations of gender and class'', Ohio University Press, 1992, {{ISBN|0-8214-1019-9}}, pp.113,131</ref>

Isa Bowman was the daughter of Charles Andrew Bowman (b. 1851), a music teacher,<ref>Foulkes (2005) p.67</ref> and Helen Herd, née Holmes.<ref>{{cite book | title=Lewis Carroll: interviews and recollections | first=Morton Norton | last=Cohen | publisher=Macmillan | year=1989 | isbn=0-333-41721-6 | pages=101–102 }}</ref> Her sisters, Empsie, Nellie (Mrs Spens) and Maggie (Mrs Tom Morton) Bowman were all actresses,<ref>Cohen & Lancelyn Green (1979) vol.1 p.710</ref><ref>‘Marriage of Maggie Bowman’, ''The Era'', 14 June 1902 p. 11</ref> and also friends of Carroll.<ref name=cohen3/> 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.<ref>Morton, William (1934). ''I Remember. (A Feat of Memory.)''. Market-place. Hull: Goddard. Walker and Brown. Ltd., pp. 127-128</ref>

Isa played a small part in the 1949 British film ''Vote for Huggett'', together with her sisters Empsie and Nellie.<ref>{{IMDb name|0101326/}}</ref>

==In popular culture== * Gyles Brandreth's play ''Wonderland'' about the relationship between Isa Bowman and Dodgson was performed at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2010.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.edinburghspotlight.com/2010/08/fringe-interview-michael-maloney-wonderland-assembly/ | title=Fringe Interview - Michael Maloney | accessdate=2010-08-08}}</ref>

==References== {{Reflist|2}} * {{cite book | title=The Life and Letters of Lewis Carroll | url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.99874 | first=Stuart Dodgson | last=Collingwood | publisher=T. Fisher Unwin | year=1898 }} * {{cite book | title=Lewis Carroll and the Victorian stage: theatricals in a quiet life | first=Richard | last=Foulkes | publisher=Ashgate Publishing | year=2005 | isbn=0-7546-0466-7 }} * {{cite book | title=The Story of Lewis Carroll: Told for Young People by the Real Alice in Wonderland | publisher=J H Dent & Co | year=1899 |first=Isa | last=Bowman }} * {{cite book | title=Lewis Carroll in Wonderland and at Home: The Story of His Life | first=Belle | last=Moses | publisher=BiblioBazaar | year=2009 | isbn=978-1-103-29348-3 }} * {{cite book | title=Publisher to the decadents: Leonard Smithers in the careers of Beardsley, Wilde, Dowson | series=Penn State series in the history of the book | first1=James G. | last1=Nelson | first2=Peter | last2=Mendes | publisher=Penn State Press | year=2000 | isbn=0-271-01974-3 }} * {{cite book | title=The letters of Lewis Carroll | volume=1 | first1=Morton Norton | last1=Cohen | first2=Roger | last2=Lancelyn Green | publisher=Oxford University Press | year=1979 | isbn=0-19-520090-X }} * {{cite book | title=The Letters of Lewis Carroll: 1886-1898 | volume=2 | first1=Morton Norton | last1=Cohen | first2=Roger | last2=Lancelyn Green | publisher=Macmillan | year=1979 | isbn=0-333-24283-1 }}

==External links== * {{Gutenberg author | id=Bowman,+Isa | name=Isa Bowman}} * {{Internet Archive author |sname=Isa Bowman}} * 'Isa's Visit to Oxford' by Lewis Carroll, full text with annotations and illustrations at: [https://lewiscarrollresources.net/isasvisit/ Lewis Carroll Resources]

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Bowman, Isa}} Category:1874 births Category:1958 deaths Category:British child actresses Category:British stage actresses Category:British biographers