The Hunting of the Snark
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snarkhunt.bsky.social
The Hunting of the Snark
@snarkhunt.bsky.social
840 followers 1.2K following 1.7K posts
Mainly about Henry Holiday's illustrations to Lewis Carroll’s "The Hunting of the Snark"

by @goetzkluge.bsky.social

※ Snark anniversaries: @snark150.bsky.social
※ My Snark blog since 2017: https://snrk.de
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snarkhunt.bsky.social
The Hunting of the Snark @snarkhunt.bsky.social · Sep 16
I am hunting the Snark. My main hunting grounds are Henry Holiday's illustrations to Lewis Carroll's "The Hunting of the Snark". The shortlink bm.snrk.de leads you to my most important finding.
https://snrk.de https://snrk.de/page_elizabeth-i/ describes the images shown in this picture.
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snarkhunt.bsky.social
«I had no other meaning in my mind, when I wrote [The Hunting of the Snark]: but people have since tried to find the meanings in it. The one I like best (which I think is partly my own) is that it may be taken as an Allegory for the Pursuit of Happiness.»

Lewis Carroll, 1897-01-12
January 11, 2025 at 12:26 AM
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snarkhunt.bsky.social
👈: Illustration by Henry Holiday (cut by Joseph Swain) to the chapter 'The Banker’s Fate' in Lewis Carroll’s 'The Hunting of the Snark' (1876).
👉: Horizontally compressed rendering of 'The Imagebreakers' (1566-1568) by Marcus Gheeraerts the Elder.

snrk.de/flipping-the...
December 8, 2025 at 11:58 AM
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snarkhunt.bsky.social
#TheHuntingOfTheSnark | #LewisCarroll | #HenryHoliday | #JosephSwain | #MarcusGheeraerts | #MarcusGheeraertsTheElder | #Nose

snrk.de/page_the-ima...
https://snrk.de/flipping-the-nose/ ※ Left: The Banker in Lewis Carroll's 'The Hunting of the Snark' (1876) after his encounter with the Bandersnatch, depicted in Henry Holiday’s illustration (woodcut by Joseph Swain) to the chapter 'The Banker’s Fate' in Lewis Carroll’s tragicomedy. ※ Right: Slightly horizontally compressed rendering of 'The Imagebreakers' (1566-1568, aka 'Allegory of Iconoclasm'), an etching by Marcus Gheeraerts the Elder. Keys: TheHuntingOfTheSnark | LewisCarroll | HenryHoliday | JosephSwain | MarcusGheeraerts | MarcusGheeraertsTheElder | Nose
December 8, 2025 at 12:05 PM
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snark150.bsky.social
"[...] It also celebrates the 150th anniversary of the publication of Carroll’s 'The Hunting of the Snark'. [...]"

I am curious how the Oxford University @ox.ac.uk will "also" celebrate the 150th anniversary of Carroll’s 'The Hunting of the Snark'. Do they understand Henry Holiday's illustrations?
Christ Church, University of Oxford, The House BEYOND THE APPLICANCES OF ART The Library's forthcoming exhibition: '"Beyond the Appliances of Art": Lewis Carroll and His Illustrators' explores how Carroll worked with artists to create illustrations for his books. 12 Jan 2026 The exhibition examines how Lewis Carroll's works have inspired later artists and illustrators to produce their own interpretations. It also celebrates the 150th anniversary of the publication of Carroll’s 'The Hunting of the Snark'. A highlight of the exhibition is the Michelson Alice, donated jointly to the Bodleian Libraries and Christ Church in 2025 by Ellen A. Michelson, a distinguished collector and philanthropist. The Michelson Alice is one of just 22 known copies of the 1865 true first edition of Carroll’s 'Alice's Adventures in Wonderland' and was Lewis Carroll’s personal working copy, enhanced by his markings as he planned the contents of The Nursery Alice and by ten of John Tenniel’s original preliminary pencil drawings for the illustrations of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. The exhibition also showcases original sketches by John Tenniel, Carroll’s illustration plan for Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, original sketches and proofs for some of Carroll’s other works along with later artists’ responses to 'The Hunting of the Snark'. Dates: 27 January to 26 February 2026. Venue: Christ Church Upper Library, St Aldates, Oxford OX1 1DP. Please enter Christ Church via Tom Gate on St Aldates. Please note that there is no step-free access to the Upper Library. Entry: Admission is free. There is no need to book a ticket or timed slot to enter – just drop in at any time during exhibition opening hours. How will Henry Holiday's illustrations (https://snrk.de) to Lewis Carroll's 'The Hunting of the Snark' be presented in the exhibition of the Christ Church Upper Library? ------------------------------------------------------------------------- About the image: https://snrk.de/page_elizabeth-i/ ※ [right]: Allegorical English School painting (by an unknown artist, ca. 1610) of Queen Elizabeth I at Old Age with allegory of Death and Father Time. (EAN: 4050356835081. Location of original painting: Corsham Court, Wiltshire, England, UK) ※ [left]: Henry Holiday’s back cover illustration (1876) to Lewis Carroll’s 'The Hunting of the Snark".
January 14, 2026 at 10:34 PM
snarkhunt.bsky.social
#OTD Lewis Carroll, the author of ‘The Hunting of the Snark’, died 128 years ago at age 65 on 14 January 1898.
https://snrk.de/page_elizabeth-i/ [right]: Allegorical English School painting (by an unknown artist, ca. 1610) of Queen Elizabeth I at Old Age with allegory of Death and Father Time. (EAN: 4050356835081. Location of original painting: Corsham Court, Wiltshire, England, UK) [left]: Henry Holiday’s back cover illustration (1876) to Lewis Carroll’s The Hunting of the Snark.
January 14, 2026 at 3:37 PM
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snarkhunt.bsky.social
‪Different views on hunting happiness
(Lewis Carroll vs. Arthur Schopenhauer)

snrk.de/hunting-happ...
https://snrk.de/hunting-happiness/ As to the meaning of the Snark, I’m very much afraid I didn’t mean anything but nonsense. Still, you know, words mean more than we mean to express when we use them; so a whole book ought to mean a great deal more than the writer means. So, whatever good meanings are in the book, I’m glad to accept as the meaning of the book. The best that I’ve seen is by a lady (she published it in a letter to a newspaper), that the whole book is an allegory on the search after happiness. Lewis Carroll Letter (1884-06-13?) to the Lowrie (Lowry?) children in USA who had written to Lewis Carroll about the meaning of The Hunting of the Snark (see also: Evelyn Hatch, ed., A Selection of the Letters of Lewis Carroll to his Child-Friends, London, 1933, pp. 242-243) What disturbs and depresses young people is the hunt for happiness on the firm assumption that it must be met with in life. From this arises constantly deluded hope and so also dissatisfaction. Deceptive images of a vague happiness hover before us in our dreams, and we search in vain for their original. Much would have been gained if, through timely advice and instruction, young people could have had eradicated from their minds the erroneous notion that the world has a great deal to offer them. Arthur Schopenhauer Günther Flemming made me aware of this quote in a comment to his translation of The Hunting of the Snark, p. 156, ISBN 978-3-8442-6493-7. ------------------------------ LewisCarroll | ArthurSchopenhauer
December 13, 2025 at 7:48 PM
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snarkhunt.bsky.social
About Lewis Carroll's 'The Hunting of the Snark': Is "Boots" among the portmanteau words which can be made from "maker of Bonnets and Hoods"? Under Linux, the programs 'an' and 'grep' help to answer the question.
$ an -w 'maker of Bonnets and Hoods' | grep boot bootees bootee's booths booth's bootee booted boots boot's booth boot (Boldface has been set manually after running the command.) See also: https://snrk.de/boots-bonnetmaker/ Keys: The Hunting of the Snark | TheHuntingOfTheSnark | Lewis Carroll | LewisCarroll | portmanteau | portmanteaus | anagram generator | anagramgenerator | anagramm
December 30, 2025 at 11:54 PM
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snarkhunt.bsky.social
#anglican #ThomasCranmer #TheHuntingOfTheSnark

In one of Henry Holiday's illustrations to "The Hunting of the Snark" (1876, by Rev. C.L. Dodgson aka Lewis Carroll), a hidden depiction of Thomas Cranmer's hand in the flames can be found.

See also: Curator's comment in snrk.de/faiths-victo....
Explanation: https://bm.snrk.de
October 1, 2023 at 12:24 AM
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snarkhunt.bsky.social
Karen Gardiner, "Life, Eternity,and Everything: Hidden #Eschatology in the Works of Lewis Carroll", pp. 25~41 in The Carrollian, Issue 31, 2018.

snrk.de/eschatologic...

#TheHuntingOfTheSnark (The Hunting of the Snark), #LewisCarroll, #ThomasCranmer, #Anglican, #42Articles, #42, #EternalDamnation
You find the full text shown in this image in the ALT text to the image in rule42.snrk.de (which redirects you to https://snrk.de/eschatological-snark/#GardinerConclusion)
October 1, 2023 at 3:50 PM
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snark150.bsky.social
Äktschually, Lewis Carroll's Snark island might be located around ten hours hours to the West from the Isle of Sark, because the beast breakfasted there (snrk.de/page_breakfa...) while the Brits had their five-o’clock tea (snrk.de/snarkhunt/#153).
Image: 'The Queen's Palace at Papeete, Tahiti', c 1885. Illustration by Robert Taylor Pritchett in 'Journal of Researchers into the Natural History and Geology of the Countries Visited during the Voyage of H.M.S. Beagle Round the World', under the Command of Captain Fitz Roy, R.N. by Charles Darwin, M.A., F.R.S. Publisher: T. Nelson and Sons, London, 1890 Remark: Lewis Carroll and Henry Holiday's 'The Hunting of the Snark' (1876) is about a naval expedition (like the one where Charles Darwin participated) conducted by 9 Snark hunters. (Many people wrongly(?) think that there were 10 hunters: https://snrk.de/boots-bonnetmaker/). Darwin also had some breakfasts in Tahiti (https://snrk.de/page_breakfast-in-tahiti/) while his folks back home had their five-o’clock tea.
December 17, 2025 at 2:52 PM
snarkhunt.bsky.social
The Boojum
The Boojum (Donald J. Trump, @realDonaldTrump) posted on his own hellish platform on December 15th, 2025: «A very sad thing happened last night in Hollywood. Rob Reiner, a tortured and struggling, but once very talented movie director and comedy star, has passed away, together with his wife, Michele, reportedly due to the anger he caused others through his massive, unyielding, and incurable affliction with a mind crippling disease known as TRUMP DERANGEMENT SYNDROME, sometimes referred to as TDS. He was known to have driven people CRAZY by his raging obsession of President Donald J. Trump, with his obvious paranoia reaching new heights as the Trump Administration surpassed all goals and expectations of greatness, and with the Golden Age of America upon us, perhaps like never before. May Rob and Michele rest in peace!» ----------------------------------------------------------------- About the image: Depiction (left image) of the 'Boojum' proposed by Henry Holiday to Lewis Carroll as an illustration to 'The Hunting of the Snark'. But Carroll preferred to leave it to the imagination of the readers how the Boojum might look like. Holiday's monster might have been inspired by Jean-Jacques Grandville's 'Volvox' (right image) in Scènes de la vie privée et publique des animaux; 1842. Image source: https://snrk.de/page_the-quest-of-the-snark-what-can-science-reveal/#DarwinBoojum As for text inserted by me (goetzkluge.bsky.social) into the left image, search for «In our correspondence about the illustrations» in Henry Holiday's 'The Snark’s Significance' (https://snrk.de/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/HenryHoliday_TheSnarksSignificance__searchable.pdf), 1898-01-29 (The Academy, p. 128)
December 15, 2025 at 8:38 PM
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munterlinden.bsky.social
https://snrk.de/#Steinberg All art is infested by other art. Leo Steinberg (1920–2011) , in Art about Art, 1979
March 17, 2025 at 5:19 PM
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racheldeering.bsky.social
Book Cover of the Day:
The Hunting of the Snark. The cover features an illustration of a bearded man perched high on the mast of a sailing ship, holding a large club or mallet. The title, "The Hunting of the Snark," is prominently displayed in a stylized font across the lower part of the image, integrated with the ship's sails and rigging. The entire design is enclosed within a decorative border. Brown cover.
November 30, 2025 at 8:37 AM
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snarkhunt.bsky.social
It's my favorite book cover since many years.
https://snrk.de/starry-map/ John Tufail’s “The Illuminated Snark” (p. 15, https://contrariwise.info/articles/illuminatedsnark.pdf) lead me to this comparison. In 2004 he interpreted the starry night sky in Henry Holiday’s front cover illustration to Lewis Carroll’s “The Hunting of the Snark” (1876) as a map, where the white clouds represented land with rivers. I liked the suggestion, but did not find any real-world map to which Holiday might have alluded. Holiday engraved that illustration himself. I discovered John Tufail’s paper in 2009. Only today (2024-05-12), after 15 years, I got the idea to compress and flip a large segment of a map of the British isles vertically. That’s my “slowness in taking a jest”. You see the result. Sadly, I can’t tell John that anymore. I appreciated his guidance a lot. The white clouds weren’t the land, but as for a map having been hidden in the illustration, John was right.
November 30, 2025 at 11:01 AM
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snarkhunt.bsky.social
The back cover isn't bad either.
https://snrk.de/page_elizabeth-i/#AgedQueen ※ Left: Henry Holiday’s back cover illustration (1876) to Lewis Carroll’s The Hunting of the Snark. ※ Right: Allegorical English School painting (by an unknown artist, ca. 1610) of Queen Elizabeth I at Old Age with allegory of Death and Father Time. (EAN: 4050356835081. Location of original painting: Corsham Court, Wiltshire, England, UK)
November 30, 2025 at 11:08 AM
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snarkhunt.bsky.social
Father Time (snrk.de/time/)
From: https://snrk.de/time/ The image on the lower right side is an allegorical English School painting (ca. 1610, by an unknown painter) of Queen Elizabeth I at old age together with the allegories of Death and of Father Time (EAN: 4050356835081. Location of original painting: Corsham Court, Wiltshire, England, UK). The image on the upper right side is a detail from that painting in mirror view. It shows the head of Father Time. The image on the left side is a depiction of the Bellman from Henry Holiday’s front cover illustration (inset) to Lewis Carroll’s The Hunting of the Snark (1876).
December 12, 2025 at 10:44 PM
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snarkhunt.bsky.social
About Henry Holiday's back cover illustration to Lewis Carroll's 'The Hunting of the Snark' (1876): Are there letters in the waves? Or are these shapes just #asemic?

See also: snrk.de/page_letters....
About Henry Holiday's back cover illustration to Lewis Carroll's 'The Hunting of the Snark': Are there letters in the waves (https://snrk.de/page_letters-in-the-waves/)? In the image a detail of the back cover illustration has been rendered (in the middle of the illustration). There are in four variants: (1) original, (2) vertically flipped, (3) horizontally flipped, (4) rotated by 180°. I don’t know whether these patterns are letters. If so, they could be asemic. If not, could they be read as e.g. “Anne I”? Who knows? But the pattern in that detail is distinctively different from its surrounding. 93% of the areas which are black in the original image are connected to each other and can be recolored (here I used light grey) with one click. The letters-like shapes (and the other dark areas) are not part of that cluster. I also think that Henry Holiday (who engraved the front and back cover illustrations of The Hunting of the Snark himself) may have hidden some skull-like shapes in the waves. The black thing (https://snrk.de/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/AxedLettersFlipped-scaled.jpg) beside the “letters” looks like an axe, e.g. for chopping off Anne Boleyn’s head. ----------------- asemic writing | asemicWriting | AnneBoleyn
December 13, 2025 at 2:08 AM
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snark150.bsky.social
There will be another essay in 2026.
October 3, 2025 at 6:09 AM
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snarkhunt.bsky.social
Another drawing (upper right image) by Lewis Carroll: A proposal to Henry Holiday how to illustrate the chapter (the "fit") 'The Barrister’s Dream' (snrk.de/snarkhunt/#f...) in 'The Hunting of the Snark' (1876, ).

More about this illustration: snrk.de/page_the-bar...
top]: Detail from the etching (1566-1568) The Image Breakers by Marcus Gheeraerts the Elder. [center]: Illustration (1876) by Henry Holiday to the chapter The Barrister’s Dream in The Hunting of the Snark. C. L. Dodgson did not want Henry Holiday to depict the Snark in the illustrations to The Hunting of the Snark. But Holiday was allowed to let it appear veiled by its “gown, bands, and wig” in The Barrister’s Dream. [bottom]: From a concept draft by C. L. Dodgson (aka Lewis Carroll). The original drawing was part of a lot consisting of an 1876 edition of The Hunting of the Snark and a letter (dated 1876-01-04) by Dodgson to Henry Holiday. The lot was auctioned by Doyle New York (Rare Books, Autographs & Photographs – Sale 13BP04 – Lot 553) offered in November 2013. The whole lot was sold for US$ 25000 (http://www.doylenewyork.com/asp/fullcatalogue.asp?salelot=13BP04+++553+&refno=++953647&image=2). In 2016 this lot seems to have been auctioned again. More from the lot: snrk.de/the-snark-is-a-tragedy First C. L. Dodgson (Lewis Carroll) defined the concept [bottom], then Henry Holiday did the artwork (including the allusions to Gheeraert’s “head” [top]) and finally Joseph Swain cut the illustration [center] into a woodblock. Source: https://snrk.de/page_the-barristers-dream/
December 12, 2025 at 12:01 PM
snarkhunt.bsky.social
snrk.de/themeskitFF_... is a kit for making the Firefox theme shown below. Perhaps the images also can be used to make Themes for other browsers.

#BrowserThemes #FirefoxTheme
snark150.bsky.social 150 Years of Snark @snark150.bsky.social · Jan 26
Whoever owns Yoda, they don't own Henry Holiday's depiction of the Baker's Uncle in Lewis Carroll's "The Hunting of the Snark" (1876).

My favorite Snark theme for the Firexox browser: addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefo....
Image source: https://snrk.de/firefox-snark-theme/#DarkSnark2 Keys: TheHuntingOfTheSnark | HenryHoliday | LewisCarroll | no copyright | Yoda | Stuart Freeborn (creator of the Yoda puppet) | StuartFreeborn | StarWars | Star Wars
December 12, 2025 at 5:40 PM
snarkhunt.bsky.social
The Streisand effect is the challenged book's friend.

#TheHuntingOfTheSnark #LewisCarroll #banned #bannedBook #bannedBooks #outdatedAttitudes #censored #blacklisted #challengedBook #challengedBooks #morbid #crudeLanguage #adultContent #StreisandEffect

WhatsApp AI, 2025-12-09
Q: Is "The Hunting of the Snark" banned somewhere? A: "The Hunting of the Snark" by Lewis Carroll has faced censorship and bans in various countries. Specifically, it was banned in Yugoslavia and Italy for being "too radical" and was even burned by the Nazis. Additionally, there were attempts to ban it in certain districts of California due to its "morbid plot, crude language, and adult content". WhatsApp AI, 2025-12-09 Keywords: banned books | banned book | outdated attitudes | challenged books | challenged book
December 9, 2025 at 11:03 AM
snarkhunt.bsky.social
👈: Illustration by Henry Holiday (cut by Joseph Swain) to the chapter 'The Banker’s Fate' in Lewis Carroll’s 'The Hunting of the Snark' (1876).
👉: Horizontally compressed rendering of 'The Imagebreakers' (1566-1568) by Marcus Gheeraerts the Elder.

snrk.de/flipping-the...
December 8, 2025 at 11:58 AM
snarkhunt.bsky.social
Post in my Snark blog with links to the 'SNARK!' game rules: snrk.de/zzota-snark/

#SnarkGame #CardGame #SnarkGames #CardGames
December 6, 2025 at 10:37 PM
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goetzkluge.bsky.social
Share someone who looks stylish wearing a vest.
https://snrk.de/waistcoat-poetry/ There was an old man of Port Grigor, Whose actions were noted for vigour; He stood on his head till his waistcoat turned red, That eclectic old man of Port Grigor. (Edward Lear, 1872) He was black in the face, and they scarcely could trace The least likeness to what he had been: While so great was his fright that his waistcoat turned white - A wonderful thing to be seen!( Lewis Carroll, from "The Hunting of the Snark", 1876)
December 2, 2025 at 10:14 AM
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mahendra.bsky.social
Every Carrollian must insinuate themselves ever deeper into industry, government, military, public institutions, etc. Time to take back this planet! Back to the trees! Get off my lawn!

#TheHuntingoftheSnark #LewisCarroll #GN #PenandInk #PearlsBeforeSwine #MelvilleHouse
The Bellman gives a magic lantern lecture to the B-Boyz. Tiffin at Breakfasties, etc, A page from my GN version of the Snark, full descriptions of page here: https://justtheplaceforasnark.blogspot.com/search?q=page+15
September 10, 2025 at 4:08 PM