The hunting of the snark

London: Macmillan & Co, 1874. FIRST EDITION. With 9 illustrations by Henry Holiday. Contemporary green pebbled cloth, title in gilt on spine; interior with spots and soiling, fly-leaf browned (perhaps something removed?), inner joint cracked. Bookplate of F.D. Westcott, Subscription Library, Avenue Road, Beckenham. First edition, first issue of Carroll's whimsical nonsense poem with “baker” on p. 83 which was later corrected to “butcher”. The poem describes a voyage to find the Snark (combination snail and shark?), a boojum according to the last line. The motley crew (all of whose names start with “B”) pursues the dangerous creature on an impossible voyage. The issue of the meaning of the poem has been the subject of endless discussions and treatises; does it embrace the pursuit of happiness, of fame and fortune; of popularity; or possibly of the North Pole? Carroll consistently denied that the poem had any meaning at all, but “allowed that ‘words mean more than we mean to express when we use them’.” “The illustrations are noteworthy as a triumph of art over almost intractable material.” Apparently Holiday did provide a picture of the Snark but Carroll refused to include it (though the last plate does portray the Boojum if you can distinguish it).

The binding is unusual, not the standard illustrated binding from Macmillan’s. It could have been simply a contemporary rebinding; both the leaf of advertisments at the end as well as the previous leaf, blank except for the words “[turn over,” are not there, either having been removed or never included.

Williams, Green, Madan, 115.