Agatha Snow Abroad: A Sketch Book from her 1912 European Tour
Agatha! presents a sketch book created during a three-month 1912 tour of Europe by four young women, a tour nestled between the horrific sinking of the Titanic and the subsequent outbreak of WW1 in the Austrian-Hungary Empire through which the women passed as Agatha noted.
Five Fat Funny Females Left at Botzen & 1829 Detail of Castle Tyrol. Agatha’s description “on one wheel up and down the mountain,” suggests that the vehicle tilted as it navigated the winding road, something we can imagine when viewing the early 19th c. print.
“Wonderment. Delight. Stimulation. All here, compliments of Agatha Snow and Susan Snow Lukesh. I will call this the most recent archaeological dig by Lukesh … She knows how to dig, whether it be literally for broken pottery … or, as here, figuratively into the adventures of her Great Aunt Agatha … Prediction: you will find Agatha utterly absorbing—and funny; and you’ll be grateful to Lukesh for giving her to us.”
— Richard Flanagan, retired Professor of Creative Writing—from the Foreword
“[Agatha’s] drawings [are] less like ornamentation and more like nuggets of descriptive gold, capable of portraying vastly more information than anything less than a lengthy verbal account.”
— Kipp T. Jarden, Graphic Artist—commenting in the Preface
“What lovely sketches and wonderful looking book! Who needs a 12 megapixel camera phone when they can make such delightful, evocative sketches?”
—Tom M., another A-Word-A-Day reader
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Agatha! After Words
Agatha! After Words offers access to the August 2023 Spotlight Network Interview of Susan with Logan Crawford that discusses a few specific images as well as the background and development of the book itself.
In the book Agatha! we read the brief comments accompanying her sketches, some illuminating while others often cryptic—offering puzzles to solve. What did she mean? Some were solved, others still remain. Agatha! After Words also indicates the puzzles not solved, one of which was “who was Delano Whistler?” That has been solved and its solution is briefly presented.