150 Years of Snark
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snark150.bsky.social
150 Years of Snark
@snark150.bsky.social
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Let's celebrate the two coming sesquicentennial anniversaries (snrk.de/150th-snark-anniversaries/) of Lewis Carroll and Henry Holiday's "The Hunting of the Snark" in 2025 & 2026.

For Xwitter refugees: x[.]com/Snark150 ➜ @snarkhunt.bsky.social

2025-01-20
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snark150.bsky.social
Animated version of the nose flip (snrk.de/flipping-the...):
November 30, 2025 at 1:27 PM
snark150.bsky.social
Drop something MIRRORED

Left: The mirrored screenshot from www.bbc.com/news/article... shows a photo of Lewis Carroll.
Right: Illustration by Henry Holiday (engraved by Joseph Swain) to the "fit" "The Beaver's lesson" in Lewis Carroll's "The Hunting of the Snark.
Mirrored screenshot from https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ckgkwml0p3wo Staff at Lincoln Cathedral find a dinner party invite by author Lewis Carroll from 1875. 👇 BBC News - Dinner invite shows what Lewis Carroll had for tea See also: https://bsky.app/profile/ancestralenq.bsky.social/post/3m5452j75ds2o and https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ckgkwml0p3wo Carroll's Snark cameo: https://snrk.de/lewis-carroll/ See also: https://snrk.de/wimmelbild/
November 30, 2025 at 1:05 PM
snark150.bsky.social
If a clock got stuck at six o'clock, just keep it in the time zones where it's six o'clock by moving the clock around the globe. The tea party's table is our globe.

snrk.de/breakfast-in...
https://snrk.de/breakfast-in-tahiti/ In November 1859, Dodgson gave a lecture at a meeting of the Ashmolean Society on “Where does the Day begin?”. A stopped clock is right 24 times a day, if you start carrying the clock around the globe due West at an angular speed of 15°/h once it has stopped. (It’s almost like the mad tea-party having always six o’clock while moving around the table.) Only the day date suddenly would change somewhere. (That’s where in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland the March Hare quickly changes the topic.)
November 19, 2025 at 6:03 PM
snark150.bsky.social
Henry Holiday's illustrations (engraved by Joseph Swain) might inspire some costume desigs. Important: In "The Hunting of the Snark" (snrk.de/snarkhunt), there might be only 9 Snark hunters, not 10 (snrk.de/boots-bonnet...).
https://snrk.de/boots-bonnetmaker/ Could Lewis Carroll have used the word "Boots" as a portmanteau for "Bonnets and Hoods"? (A correct non-sequential interlaced portmanteau can be built from Bonnets and Hoods.) Most readers of "The Hunting of the Snark" assume that the Snark hunting party consists of ten members. However, probably for a good reason, only nine members can be seen in Henry Holiday’s illustrations (engraved by Joseph Swain) to Lewis Carroll’s ballad. Actually, I really think that the Snark hunting party consists of nine members only. But if you, as almost everybody else, prefer ten Snark hunters, that’s fine too. Lewis Carroll gave you (and me) a choice – incidentally(?) in the 9th and the 10th line of his tragicomedy.
November 18, 2025 at 9:03 AM
snark150.bsky.social
@picadorbooks.bsky.social, you "believe the way a story is told is just as important as the story itself."

Pan Macmillan seems to be not to interested in celebrating the Snark's 150 anniversary in 2026. How about you?

(@munterlinden.bsky.social is one of my accounts.)

bsky.app/profile/snar...
"Picador is the literary imprint at Pan Macmillan and what defines a Picador book is the author’s voice: we believe the way a story is told is just as important as the story itself." Source (2025-11-14): https://www.panmacmillan.com/picador
November 14, 2025 at 1:50 AM
snark150.bsky.social
Whoops. Kim Nyamhondera (@panmacmillan.bsky.social's Senior Publicity Manager) didn't like my #HeadsUp.
https://clearsky.app/@kimberleynyam.bsky.social/blocking (2025-11-13)
November 13, 2025 at 12:30 PM
snark150.bsky.social
The movie "Everything Everywhere All at Once" changed my life a littlelittlelittle bit. On the snake pit which once was Twitter, Joyce Carol Oates followed my (now hibernating) Snark account. But when I didn't agree to her scathing post about that movie, she blocked my account.
Michelle Yeoh (left) and Jamie Lee Curtis (right) in "Everything Everywhere All at Once" (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Everything_Everywhere_All_at_Once).
October 31, 2025 at 6:01 PM
snark150.bsky.social
How will the Cassady Lewis Carroll Collection at USC Libraries celebrate the 150th anniversary of the publication of "The Hunting of the Snark" in 2026?
https://snrk.de/150th-snark-anniversaries/ There are three important 150th anniversaries related to “The Hunting of the Snark”. Pan Macmillan already missed two of them. (1) === 18 July 2024: Conception === On 18 July 1874, the very last line of Carroll’s Snark tragicomedy came into his head while out on a walk at Guildford: “For the Snark was a Boojum, you see” . The first stanza was composed on 22 July 1874. “In the midst of the word…” which stands as the last verse of the poem. (2) === 25 October 2025: Naming === On 25 October 1875, Carroll decided to use “The Hunting of the Snark” as the title of his Snark tragicomedy (which in Henry Holiday’s view started out as a tragedy). (3) === 1 April 2026: Birth === On 29 March 1876 at Macmillan, Carroll prepared 80 presentation copies for family and friends. (As far as I understand, these copies contained an additional poem: the Easter Greeting.) On 1 April 1876, Macmillan officially published the poem with Henry Holiday’s illustrations.
October 30, 2025 at 7:30 AM
snark150.bsky.social
Via instagram to BBC Radio 3: You already missed two 150th anniversaries (bsky.app/profile/snar...) of "The Hunting of the Snark". Please at least celebrate the 3rd one, the publication of the tragicomedy in March/April 1876. How about rebroadcasting your 2020 radio play (snrk.de/snark-radio-...)?
Source: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b06sbrxh/ See also: https://snrk.de/snark-radio-play/ Sadly, it’s not online anymore. -------------------------------------------------------------- https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b06sbrxh/clips (2020-01-02): "Tony Robinson narrates this fresh adaptation of Lewis Carroll’s classic masterpiece following a strange assortment of characters on their quest for an elusive beast. Led by a bell-ringing Captain, this motley crew must brave terrifying danger in their chaotic pursuit of a creature known as Snark. Accompanied by specially composed music and songs, this surreal tale questions whether anything is really what it seems. … First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in December 2015." Streaming: 2020-01-02 – 2020-01-31 Credits: – Narrator: Tony Robinson – Bellman: Eric Potts – Baker: Paul Barnhill – Butcher: Everal A Walsh – Barrister: Jonathan Keeble – Snark (in the Barrister’s dream): Jonathan Keeble – Beaver: Stephen Hoyle – Music and songs (composer): Katie Chatburn – Music (performers): – Katie Chatburn – Dorry Macaulay – Kathryn Williams – Stephen Cordiner – Jasper Wilkinson – Director: Charlotte Riches – Author: Lewis Carroll
October 28, 2025 at 11:44 PM
snark150.bsky.social
The lace making pillow is important: snrk.de/page_vivisec....
https://snrk.de/page_vivisection/ Lace-Making: An Infringement of Right • On Vivisection in Lewis Carroll's and Henry Holiday's ... 1 The Hunting of the Snark • Lewis Carroll: Some Popular Fallacies About Vivisection ... 3 • Charles Darwin: Letters on vivisection ... 12 273 The Boots and the Broker were sharpening a spade — 274 Each working the grindstone in turn: 275 But the Beaver went on making lace, and displayed 276 No interest in the concern: 277 Though the Barrister tried to appeal to its pride, 278 And vainly proceeded to cite 279 A number of cases, in which making laces 280 Had been proved an infringement of right. 421 But the Barrister, weary of proving in vain 422 That the Beaver's lace-making was wrong, 423 Fell asleep, and in dreams saw the creature quite plain 424 That his fancy had dwelt on so long. Source: The Hunting of the Snark (1876) Author: Lewis Carroll Illustrator: Henry Holiday, Engraver: Joseph Swain
October 28, 2025 at 5:41 PM
snark150.bsky.social
I recommend Lewis Carroll and Henry Holiday's "The Hunting of the Snark" (snrk.de/snarkhunt).
October 28, 2025 at 5:18 PM
snark150.bsky.social
snrk.de/snarkhunt/#513
https://snrk.de/snarkhunt/#513
October 28, 2025 at 12:24 PM
snark150.bsky.social
Carroll's writings are better than that.
https://snrk.de/meme/ Some (rearranged) verses from Lewis Carroll and Henry Holiday's "The Hunting of the Snark": {https://snrk.de/snarkhunt/#001} “Just the place for a Snark!” the Bellman cried, As he landed his crew with care; Supporting each man on the top of the tide By a finger entwined in his hair. “Just the place for a Snark! I have said it twice: That alone should encourage the crew. Just the place for a Snark! I have said it thrice: What I tell you three times is true.” {https://snrk.de/snarkhunt/#113} Then the bowsprit got mixed with the rudder sometimes: A thing, as the Bellman remarked, That frequently happens in tropical climes, When a vessel is, so to speak, “snarked.” But the principal failing occurred in the sailing, And the Bellman, perplexed and distressed, Said he had hoped, at least, when the wind blew due East, That the ship would not travel due West! {https://snrk.de/snarkhunt/#105} This was charming, no doubt; but they shortly found out That the Captain they trusted so well Had only one notion for crossing the ocean, And that was to tingle his bell.
October 28, 2025 at 1:06 AM
snark150.bsky.social
snrk.de/the-jabberwo...
Christian’s fight with Appollyon in John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress, London: Carington Bowles, 1781. (Source: John Bunyan Society) From https://snrk.de/the-jabberwock/ Keys: Jabberwock, jabberwocky, Lewis Carroll, LewisCarroll
October 27, 2025 at 4:56 PM
snark150.bsky.social
en.wiktionary.org/wiki/gyre
From a screenshot of https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/gyre
October 27, 2025 at 4:48 PM
snark150.bsky.social
There are three important 150th anniversaries of “The Hunting of the Snark”. @panmacmillan.bsky.social already missed two of them.

snrk.de/150th-snark-...
https://snrk.de/150th-snark-anniversaries/ There are three important 150th anniversaries related to “The Hunting of the Snark”. Pan Macmillan already missed two of them. (1) === 18 July 2024: Conception === On 18 July 1874, the very last line of Carroll’s Snark tragicomedy came into his head while out on a walk at Guildford: “For the Snark was a Boojum, you see” . The first stanza was composed on 22 July 1874. “In the midst of the word…” which stands as the last verse of the poem. (2) === 25 October 2025: Naming === On 25 October 1875, Carroll decided to use “The Hunting of the Snark” as the title of his Snark tragicomedy (which in Henry Holiday’s view started out as a tragedy). (3) === 1 April 2026: Birth === On 29 March 1876 at Macmillan, Carroll prepared 80 presentation copies for family and friends. (As far as I understand, these copies contained an additional poem: the Easter Greeting.) On 1 April 1876, Macmillan officially published the poem with Henry Holiday’s illustrations.
October 27, 2025 at 10:56 AM
snark150.bsky.social
The Hunting of the Snark
Left: Source: Photo of a large part of the Unites Kingdom (based on https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:MODIS_-_Great_Britain_-_2012-06-04_during_heat_wave_(cropped).jpg). Right: Vertically mirrored front cover illustration by Henry Holiday to Lewis Carroll's tragicomedy "The Hunting of the Snark". See also: https://snrk.de/#hiddenmap
October 26, 2025 at 4:53 PM
snark150.bsky.social
#October25 20251025

150th Anniversary #OTD :
On October 25th, 1875, Lewis Carroll decided to use “The Hunting of the Snark” as the title of his Snark tragicomedy.

See also: snrk.de/150th-snark-...

#TheHuntingOfTheSnark #LewisCarroll #HenryHoliday
https://snrk.de/page_elizabeth-i/
October 25, 2025 at 8:51 AM
snark150.bsky.social
@panmacmillan.bsky.social, 2025-10-24
Deep Thought still is searching for the question which yields the answer "42".

In the meanwhile you could work on reissuing "The Hunting of the Snark" on the 150th anniversary of its publication by Macmillan in 1876
Source (sorry for the link to Meta): https://www.facebook.com/panmacmillanbooks/posts/pfbid032LkgbG3A7nDSMohxbzoeUgbfYbnNjv3RQRpFWPM7MSMrmwvWSK2dvPvzt9czwh7Hl 2025-10-24 Deep Thought still is searching for the question which yields the answer "42". In the meanwhile you could work on reissuing "The Hunting of the Snark" in a good quality (better than the facsimile edition of the British Library) on the 150th anniversary of its publication by Macmillan in 1876. That anniversary will be celebrated in Spring 2026. We might even find the Baker's 42 boxes and Rule 42 of the Code observed by the Bellman. How will Pan Macmillan celebrate the Snark anniversaries? The next one (of the title "The Hunding of the Snark") is tomorrow on October 25th. See also Snark150 in the Blue Sky.
October 24, 2025 at 8:44 AM
snark150.bsky.social
@panmacmillan.bsky.social, HEADS UP!

How will Panmacmillan celebrate the 150th anniversaries of Lewis Carroll and Henry Holiday's "The Hunting of the Snark"? Is there anything which lets you hesitate to celebrate the anniversaries of the Carroll and Holiday's masterpiece?

#SnarkHeadsUp
Douglas Adams' "The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy" started as a science fiction comedy radio series. It was originally broadcasted in the United Kingdom by BBC Radio 4 in 1978. The episodes where “Fits”, like in "The Hunting of the Snark". (See also “Fytte” in "Bards of Burns. A Lay of ye Crystalle Palace", Punch, XXXVI, pp. 48-49, 1859-01-29.). I think that there are some textual allusions to the Snark in Adam's Guide. Lewis Carroll and Henry Holiday's Snark tragicomedy officially was published by Macmillan almost 150 years ago on April 1st, 1876. But Carroll chose the title "The Hunting of the Snark" already on October 25th, 1875. I asked Panmecmillan vie various channels whether they will celebrate the 150th anniversaries of the tragicomedy. No response. https://snrk.de/150th-snark-anniversaries/ There are three important 150th anniversaries related to “The Hunting of the Snark” (https://snrk.de/150th-snark-anniversaries/): (1) === 18 July 2024: Conception === On 18 July 1874, the very last line of Carroll’s Snark tragicomedy came into his head while out on a walk at Guildford: “For the Snark was a Boojum, you see” . The first stanza was composed on 22 July 1874. “In the midst of the word…” which stands as the last verse of the poem. (2) === 25 October 2025: Naming === On 25 October 1875, Carroll decided to use “The Hunting of the Snark” as the title of his Snark tragicomedy (which in Henry Holiday’s view started out as a tragedy). (3) === 1 April 2026: Birth === On 29 March 1876 at Macmillan, Carroll prepared 80 presentation copies for family and friends. (As far as I understand, these copies contained an additional poem: the Easter Greeting.) On 1 April 1876, Macmillan officially published the poem with Henry Holiday’s illustrations.
October 23, 2025 at 11:35 AM
snark150.bsky.social
Carroll's obsession with children doesn't show at all in his (and Henry Holiday's) "The Hunting of the Snark". There might be, however, textual and pictorial elements in the tragicomedy with a sexual context. @finger-in-his-hair.bsky.social contains some attempts to address that.
"Ceci n'est pas un cigar." (https://snrk.de/page_this-is-no-cigar) Detail from Henry Holiday's illustration to the last fit (chapter) of Lewis Carroll's "The Hunting of the Snark" showing a simulacrum about which, as far as I know, until now no AI based image content checker complained. And here I mean the simulacrum on the lower left side of the illustration and not the "torso-like simulacrum" (see https://snrk.de/page_this-is-no-cigar/#Tufail) on the lower right side. The yellow lines and dots are not by Henry Holiday. Holiday's dark illustration (https://snrk.de/snarkhunt/#561) to the 8th fit of Lewis Carroll's "The Hunting of the Snark" is quite challenging. He found a way to hold the beholders of his illustrations responsible for what they "see". Holiday might have gotten some ideas from his teacher John Everett Millais (https://snrk.de/page_lorenzo-and-isabella/).
October 21, 2025 at 10:07 PM
snark150.bsky.social
I run into this issue after I started to analyze Henry Holiday's illustrations to Lewis Carroll's "The Hunting of the Snark". Sadly, Carroll's obsession with children seems to prevent too many people from digging into Carroll's/Dodgson's writings.

.

Carroll Studies’ Evidence Problem
snrk.de/kwm/
Screenshot of https://snrk.de/kwm/
October 21, 2025 at 9:43 PM
snark150.bsky.social
A rare example of serious research on this issue is Katherine Wakely-Mulroney's "The Man Who Loved Children: Lewis Carroll Studies’ Evidence Problem, Journal of the History of Sexuality", University of Texas Press, Volume 30, Number 3, pp. 335-362, 2021-09

www.academia.edu/67147027/The...
https://www.academia.edu/67147027/The_Man_Who_Loved_Children_Lewis_Carroll_Studies_Evidence_Problem Carroll Studies' Evidence Problem Katherine Wakely-Mulroney 2021, Journal of the History of Sexuality ... Lewis Carroll studies treats investigations into the author’s sexuality as outmoded, even unscholarly. This is partly a response to the speculative biographical criticism and media coverage of the 1990s and early 2000s, which placed undue emphasis on his alleged pedophilia. In their efforts to provide a more nuanced, historically contextualized vision of Carroll’s child-friendships, modern critics have tended to either dismiss any allegation of impropriety or treat the subject as a perpetually open question. Both positions foreground the availability and interpretation of evidence, and raise questions concerning scholarly expertise and gatekeeping. This essay argues for a new understanding of what evidence concerning Carroll’s sexuality entails. I identify a shared organizational ethos between his two-part novel Sylvie and Bruno (1889-1893) and the journals composed during his annual summer holidays in Eastbourne. The diaries record Carroll's ongoing efforts to define the kinds of domestic intimacies that were possible between men and girls; the novel likewise explores the various relationships that could connect adults with children – familial, spiritual, romantic, and sexual. The volume of evidence contained in these sources, which amount to thousands of pages, has to be examined quantitatively as well as qualitatively. Carroll’s increasingly energetic and experimental attempts to structure and legitimise his desires through writing is itself a form of evidence, one that is cumulative and suggestive rather than singular and definitive. This evidence points to an erotic obsession with children that was unsettling even by the standards of his own time.
October 21, 2025 at 8:58 PM
snark150.bsky.social
In der ganzen Jagdgesellschaft fehlten Frauen. Die Damen "Care" and "Hope" (linkes Bild) gesellten sich (dank der Interpretation Henry Holidays der beiden Namen als Allegorien) der Snark-Jagdgesellschaft erst auf der Snark-Insel hinzu.
https://snrk.de/page_eagle-and-star/
October 20, 2025 at 5:58 PM
snark150.bsky.social
Der Bäcker ist sogar die Hauptfigur in Lewis Carrolls und Henry Holidays "The Hunting of the Snark". Ich vermute, dass Lewis Carroll's Witz dem Umstand galt, dass es an Bord des Snarkjägerschiffes keine Bräute gab.

snrk.de/page_thomas-...

Die komplette Mannschaft:
Neun Snarkjäger in Lewis Carrolls und Henry Holidays "The Hunting of the Snark". Ich vermute, dass "Boots" ein Kofferwort für "Bonnets and Hoods" ist, es also tatsächlich nur neun Snarkjäger in der Tragikomödie gibt (https://snrk.de/page_boots-bonnetmaker/). Der "Baker" könnte u.A. Thomas Cranmer sein (https://bm.snrk.de).
October 20, 2025 at 1:01 PM