Case 17
- The Hunting of the Snark
Lot 42…The lost Boots’ diary
I have had a life-long fascination with Lewis Carroll’s poem, The Hunting of the Snark. There is something in the nonsense that creates huge holes for us to fall through.
The island Carroll created for Jabberwocky in 1855 must have lurked in the shadows of his imagination for 21 years before it emerged as the backdrop for The Hunting of the Snark in 1876. In Snark I tried to explore those shadows. It turned into a book about a book about a book.
Lot 42…The lost Boots’ diary
‘It was an extraordinary document. The copious notes and drawings by a character called “the Boots”, and in them he recorded a bizarre Victorian odyssey, an expedition of madmen…’
David Elliot and Lewis Carroll, Snark, being a true history of the expedition that discovered the Snark and the Jabberwock… and its tragic aftermath. Otago University Press, 2016.
Snark Cover Illustration
Pencil and watercolour on paper
I really like wrap-around illustrations for cover jackets, in this case holding in the stormy seas of the voyage.
Snark, being a true history of the expedition that discovered the Snark and the Jabberwock… and its tragic aftermath won the Russell Clark Award for Illustration and the Margaret Mahy Book of the Year at the 2017 New Zealand Book Awards for Children and Young Adults. The book was also awarded a White Raven by the International Youth Library in Munich. In 2018 Snark was also included in the IBBY Honour List for Illustration.
David Elliot and Lewis Carroll, Snark, being a true history of the expedition that discovered the Snark and the Jabberwock… and its tragic aftermath. Otago University Press, 2016.
Snarko-pak
The Snarko-pack was a collaboration between Tara Mcleod (printer), Inge Doesberg, Katherine Madill, Jenner Packer (printmakers) and myself. Its eventual and slightly accidental design, as a sort of little theatre/reading kit with independent characters, somehow really captures many of my feelings about the secret worlds of books.
Lewis Carroll, The Hunting of the Snark, Limited Edition. Otakou Press, University of Otago Library, 2006.
