The Hunting of the Snark

*This is NOT a comic! But the creator also makes comics!

By Lewis Carroll. Illustrated by Tove Jansson. Published by Tate. 

Hardcover, 64 pages, Text with B&W Illustrations, 2011 (originally published in Swedish 1959)

The Hunting of the Snark tells the story of how the Bellman and his eccentric crew, who include a butcher, a baker, a beaver and a tailor, set off in quest of that most mysterious and elusive of creatures, the Snark.

In 1959 Tove Jansson, the author and illustrator of the Moomin books, was commissioned to illustrate a Swedish language edition of Lewis Carroll's masterpiece. She proved an inspired choice, the enigmatic charms of her illustrative style bringing the beauty and strangeness of Carroll's tale to life, as the minds of two of the greatest children's authors of the past 150 years met on the page.

Remarkably, amid the huge, worldwide success of her stories from Moominvalley, Jansson's unique edition of The Hunting of the Snark was forgotten, remaining un-available for over fifty years. Now, for the first time, her beautiful illustrations are matched with the original English text in this facsimile edition, so that readers can enjoy this wonderful adventure afresh through the eyes of one of Europe's finest illustrators.

Lewis Carroll (1832-98) is the pseudonym of Charles Lutwidge Dodgson. Carroll was a mathematics lecturer who in his spare time penned poems, short stories and children's tales as well as puzzles and games of logic. He was also a pioneering photographer.

Finnish author and illustrator Tove Jansson (1914-2001) is most famous for her much-loved Moomin characters. A novelist, painter, illustrator and cartoonist, Jansson's books have been translated into over forty languages.