- 1873-05-28 (Wed): Carroll arrived in Salisbury a few minutes after “my dear Uncle’s death” (uncle Skeffington).
- 1874-07-18 (Sun): (No entry. Conception of “The Snark was a Boojum, you see.”, see 1875-11-06)
- 1874-07-22 (Thu): (see 1875-11-06)
- 1875-10-24 (Sun): Acrostic on Gertrude Chataway.
- 1875-10-25 (Mon): Acrostic on Gertrude Chataway as dedication for a book called “The Hunting of the Snark” to be published before Christmas. Plan to add a “Christmas Greeting” to the book (for his “40000 child-readers”) and an advertisement for searching a house in London for himself (in Summers) and other photographers.
- 1875-10-29 (Fri): Learned from Macmillan that engraver Joseph Sawain cannot finish illustration blocks under three months. Therefore complete publishing before Christmas not possible.
- 1875-10-30 (Sat): Visit from Henry Holiday until 1875-11-01.
- 1875-10-31 (Sun): Considering to use illustration to “The Landing” as frontispiece. (That was implemented later.) The other five images would be published later, “if the poem ever is introduced as a story”.
- 1875-11-02 (Tue): Sent Macmillan 14 stanzas to be published at Christmas, with frontispiece only.
- 1875-11-05 (Fri): Sent poem to Macmillan from start to “Fit 3.”.
- 1875-11-06 (Sat): Poem has 88 stanzas.
Last stanza (end of last chapter) was composed on 1875-07-22.
Last line “came into my head while out on a walk at Guilford” on 1874-07-18. - 1875-11-13 (Sat): Macmillan objects to have front- and back-cover illustrations. Telegraphed to Macmillan to wait until Easter 1876 with seven illustrations.
- 1875-11-18 (Thu) J. T. Fausset suggests F. W. Lawson as illustrator.
- 1875-11-19 (Fri): Visit by Ruskin. Discussed illustrators (Lawson, Holiday, Fairfield brothers). R thinks that none of them near Tenniel. C already asked Fairfields. Considers to ask Lawson. Gave up the idea on 1875-11-24.)
- 1875-11-24 (Sat): Received a portfolio of drawings from Lawson. C and R think they are “uninteresting”.
- 1876-02-05 (Sat): Notes about an “Easter Letter”.
- 1876-03-22 (Wed): Finished the manuscript of the “‘Easter Letter’ to be put into copies of the Snark.”
- 1876-03-29 (Wed): Writing down about 80 presentation copies for family and friends at Macmillan.
Source: Edward Wakeling (Ed.), Lewis Carroll’s Diaries, Vol. 6, 2001
2024-05-01, updated: 2024-05-08