Lewis Carroll says that he invented the game on Christmas day in 1877. Carroll devised the word game for Julia and Ethel Arnold. The first mention of the game in Carroll's diary was on March 12, 1878, which he originally called "Word-links", and described as a two-player game. Carroll published a series of word ladder puzzles and solutions, which he then called "Doublets", in the magazine "Vanity Fair", beginning with the March 29, 1879 issue. Later that year it was made into a book, published by Macmillan and Co.