1910 First Miniature Edition - The Hunting of the Snark by Lewis Carroll
A charming 1910 First Miniature Edition of Lewis Carroll’s The Hunting of the Snark, retaining Henry Holiday’s remarkable original illustrations and presented in an attractive red cloth binding with gilt decoration.
Author: Lewis Carroll (Charles Lutwidge Dodgson).
Title: The Hunting of the Snark: An Agony, in Eight Fits.
Publisher: London: Macmillan and Co., Limited, 1910.
Edition: First Miniature Edition, 1910, as stated on the copyright page. First published in 1876.
Language: English.
Pages: xii, 83 pages, followed by the publisher’s catalogue.
Size: 6 x 4 inches.
Binding: Very good original red cloth binding with gilt lettering and decorative rules to the spine, a gilt circular vignette depicting the Bellman on the front board, and blind-stamped borders. The cloth retains its attractive red colour, with only minor age-related wear. A small original bookseller’s label from H. J. Goulden, High Street, Canterbury, is affixed to the front pastedown. Protected in a removable mylar cover.
Content: Very good, with clean, well-preserved pages showing light, even age toning and occasional minor spotting. A small pencilled price notation appears on a preliminary leaf. The original publisher’s catalogue is retained.
Illustrations: Nine black-and-white illustrations by Henry Holiday, including the illustrated frontispiece and the celebrated final illustration accompanying the poem’s mysterious conclusion. Complete
Estimate: USD $200–250.
The book: First published in 1876, The Hunting of the Snark is one of Lewis Carroll’s most imaginative and enduring works of literary nonsense. Subtitled An Agony, in Eight Fits, the poem recounts the extraordinary voyage of a peculiar crew led by the Bellman in pursuit of the elusive Snark. Its eight episodes introduce a memorable assortment of characters, including the Baker, the Beaver, the Butcher and the Barrister, whose increasingly absurd adventures culminate in one of Carroll’s most enigmatic endings.
This delightful First Miniature Edition was published by Macmillan in 1910, more than three decades after the original edition. Despite its compact format, it preserves the distinctive typography and the celebrated illustrations by Henry Holiday, whose intricate compositions give visual form to Carroll’s strange and dreamlike world. The original red cloth binding, with its gilt portrait of the Bellman, makes this an especially appealing small-format edition for collectors of Lewis Carroll, Victorian illustrated literature and literary nonsense.
The author: Lewis Carroll (1832–1898), the pen name of Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, was an English author, mathematician, photographer and lecturer at Christ Church, Oxford. He is best remembered for Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1865) and Through the Looking-Glass (1871), two masterpieces that transformed children’s literature through their imaginative settings, linguistic invention and playful explorations of logic.
Carroll’s fascination with language, mathematics and paradox is equally evident in The Hunting of the Snark, a work that combines elaborate wordplay with a mysterious, almost philosophical narrative. Its enduring appeal lies in its ability to entertain readers while resisting any single interpretation, securing its place among the most celebrated examples of English nonsense poetry.
The illustrator:
Henry Holiday (1839–1927) was an English painter, stained-glass designer and illustrator associated with the Pre-Raphaelite movement. A versatile artist whose work encompassed painting, decorative arts and ecclesiastical commissions, Holiday was personally selected by Carroll to illustrate The Hunting of the Snark. His nine detailed engravings have become inseparable from the poem’s visual identity.
Holiday’s illustrations are particularly admired for their intricate linework, theatrical compositions and extraordinary imaginative detail. They capture the absurdity of Carroll’s characters while introducing an atmosphere of mystery that perfectly complements the poem’s elusive subject.