The hunting of the snark : an agony, in eight fits, 1876

Abstract

With nine illustrations by Henry Holiday. Frontispiece and full-page plates (printed on one side only) have protective guard sheets and are included in pagination. Includes half-title page and table of contents. Includes one page of ads at the end. ❧ Summary: The Hunting of the Snark (An Agony in 8 Fits) is a nonsense poem written by Lewis Carroll in 1874, when he was 42 years old. It describes "with infinite humor the impossible voyage of an improbable crew to find an inconceivable creature". The poem borrows occasionally from Carroll's short poem Jabberwocky in Through the Looking-Glass (especially the poem's creatures and portmanteau words), but it is a stand-alone work, first published in 1876 by Macmillan. ❧ Contents: Fit The First: The Landing -- Fit The Second: The Bellman's Speech -- Fit The Third: The Baker's Tale -- Fit The Fourth: The Hunting -- Fit The Fifth: The Beaver's Lesson -- Fit The Sixth: The Barrister's Dream -- Fit The Seventh: The Banker's Fate -- Fit The Eighth: The Vanishing. ❧ Binding information: Bound in pictorial, red cloth, embossed and stamped in gold; end papers are black; all edges gilt. Gilt gold lettering on spine and decorative scenes in gilt on both covers. ❧ USC Special Collections copy: Limited Edition of 100 unnumbered copies specially bound in red & gold for presentation (see Carroll's letter to Macmillan of 21-Mar-1876). USC Special Collections copy: Inscribed in purple ink on the half title page, "Mabel Blackett from the Author June 1, 1876". Further inscribed on the verso of the half title with a quote from Chapter 2 of Alice in Wonderland, "and I'm sure I can't be Mabel, for I know all sorts of things, and she, oh! she knows such a very little!", followed by a three verse acrostic poem, spelling out Mabel's name from initial letters. Signed "Lewis Carroll" and dated at the base of the page. A letter from Selwyn Blackett, Mabel's brother, outlining how his sister came to be given the book by Carroll, is pasted onto the front pastedown. In his letter of provenance, dated 1928, Selwyn Blackett, then Canon of Salisbury, recounts how he paid a visit to Dodgson in 1876 to ask permission to do a magic lantern reading of Alice. Upon hearing he had a little sister, who would have been about eight at the time, Dodgson asked her name and shortly afterwards sent a copy of his recently published book with this quotation and verse inscription. Thirty-four inscribed copies of Snark have been sold at auction in the last forty years (ABPC), only one of which mentions an acrostic poem and that is on a tipped-in leaf, suggesting that it is an only an occasional embellishment done when time and inclination allowed. As far as the seller knows (Jonkers), this copy is unrecorded and the acrostic unpublished. [Lovetts' No. 1958 does not record limited or presentation copies]

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