''The Search for the Giant Squid'' is a non-fiction book by Richard Ellis on the biology, history and mythology of the

giant squid The giant squid (''Architeuthis dux'') is a species of deep-ocean dwelling squid in the family Architeuthidae. It can grow to a tremendous size, offering an example of abyssal gigantism: recent estimates put the maximum size at around Trac ...

of the

genus Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nom ...

'' Architeuthis''. It was well received upon its release in 1998. Though soon rendered outdated by important developments in giant squid research,Mullen, J. (2013)
Video of giant squid in ocean depths is a big breakthrough, expert says

CNN CNN (Cable News Network) is a multinational cable news channel headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable news channel, and presently owned by ...

, January 10, 2013. it is still considered an important reference on the subject.Grundhauser, E. (2018)
Wishlist: An Essential History of Giant Squid
''

Atlas Obscura ''Atlas Obscura'' is an American-based online magazine and travel company. It was founded in 2009 by author Joshua Foer and documentary filmmaker/author Dylan Thuras. It catalogs unusual and obscure travel destinations via user-generated conten ...

'', January 5, 2018.

History

Background

Ellis wrote a chapter about the giant squid for his 1994 book, ''Monsters of the Sea'', and said he "was so intrigued by this critter" that it led him to write "an entire book about ''Architeuthis''".Morelli, T. (2002)
Richard Ellis Interview
The Octopus News Magazine Online (TONMO), February 3, 2002. ''The Search for the Giant Squid'' incorporates text from both ''Monsters of the Sea'' and a 1997 articleEllis, R. (1997). The models of ''Architeuthis''. '' Curator: The Museum Journal'' 40(1): 30–55. on museum models of giant squid published in '' Curator: The Museum Journal''.Ellis, R. (1998). ''The Search for the Giant Squid''. Lyons Press, New York. ix + 322 pp. . It followed a number of shorter publications by Ellis on the subject of giant squid that appeared between 1994 and 1998. To gather material for his book, Ellis spoke to giant squid expert

Clyde Roper Clyde F. E. Roper (born 1937) is a zoologist at the National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C. He has organised a number of expeditions to New Zealand to study giant squid, including in 1997 and 1999. He graduated from Transylvania Uni ...

during the latter's preparations for his (ultimately unsuccessful) January–March 1997 expedition to New Zealand in search of the giant squid. Miller, L. (1996)
In search of the giant squid
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on March 2, 1999./ref> Responding to a comment about the paucity of available information on the giant squid, Ellis said: "There's not that much known, but there's a lot you can write about what's not known, why it isn't known and who doesn't know it." In 2003, Ellis explained: "I wrote ''The Search for the Giant Squid'' to try and dispel some of the crazy ideas that this cephalopod is in any way dangerous to humans".

Publication

The first hardback edition was published by Lyons Press on September 1, 1998; a paperback edition by

Penguin Books Penguin Books is a British publishing house. It was co-founded in 1935 by Allen Lane with his brothers Richard and John, as a line of the publishers The Bodley Head, only becoming a separate company the following year.Robert Hale released a hardback edition for the British market in 1999, and an Italian translation by Edizioni Piemme (as ''Il Calamaro Gigante''; translated by Maria Teresa Marenco) appeared the same year. In 2002, a German translation was published by Heel Verlag (as ''Riesenkraken der Tiefsee''; translated by Kurt Beginnen).Formats and editions of The Search for the Giant Squid

WorldCat WorldCat is a union catalog that itemizes the collections of tens of thousands of institutions (mostly libraries), in many countries, that are current or past members of the OCLC global cooperative. It is operated by OCLC, Inc. Many of the O ...

Subsequent developments

The book was published at a time when there were still no known photographs of a live giant squid, which Ellis described as "the most elusive image in natural history". This soon changed as the first years of the 21st century saw a number of breakthroughs in live giant squid imaging that ultimately culminated in the first recordings of live animals in their natural deep-water habitat in July 2012. These events marked a turning point in the scientific understanding of the giant squid's life history and biology, which Ellis himself discussed in a TV interview, commenting: "now my book is a little obsolete".

Content

The book consists of ten chapters covering the biology, mythology and history of the giant squid, as well as popular culture depictions and notable models thereof. An appendix lists all " authenticated giant squid sightings and strandings" known to the author (expanded from a similar list in Ellis's ''Monsters of the Sea''), comprising 166 entries and spanning five centuries, from 1545 to 1996. The extensive bibliography numbers some 600 references spread across 38 pages. Apart from the cover, the book is illustrated exclusively with black-and-white images, including 30 photographs and 35

line drawings Line most often refers to: * Line (geometry), object with zero thickness and curvature that stretches to infinity * Telephone line, a single-user circuit on a telephone communication system Line, lines, The Line, or LINE may also refer to: Arts ...

Reception

Several giant squid specimens from the collections of the Zoological Museum in Copenhagen

Early reviews

''The Search for the Giant Squid'' was generally well received upon its release. Miller, L. (1998)
The big calamari: A teuthologist (squid expert) explains all there is to know about the elusive sea monster
''

The New York Times Book Review ''The New York Times Book Review'' (''NYTBR'') is a weekly paper-magazine supplement to the Sunday edition of ''The New York Times'' in which current non-fiction and fiction books are reviewed. It is one of the most influential and widely rea ...

'', November 8, 1998. p. 14. Dirda, M. (1998)
The tentacled terror of the deep
''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

'', November 22, 1998.Wells, M. (1998). Far beneath in the abysmal sea. ''

Nature Nature, in the broadest sense, is the physical world or universe. "Nature" can refer to the phenomena of the physical world, and also to life in general. The study of nature is a large, if not the only, part of science. Although humans are ...

'' 396(6712): 641–642. Halliday, T. (1999). The Search for the Giant Squid. ''

The Times Literary Supplement ''The Times Literary Supplement'' (''TLS'') is a weekly literary review published in London by News UK, a subsidiary of News Corp. History The ''TLS'' first appeared in 1902 as a supplement to ''The Times'' but became a separate publication ...

'' no. 5037. p. 3. nonymous(1999). The editors recommend. ''

Scientific American ''Scientific American'', informally abbreviated ''SciAm'' or sometimes ''SA'', is an American popular science magazine. Many famous scientists, including Albert Einstein and Nikola Tesla, have contributed articles to it. In print since 1845, it ...

'' 280(3): 109–110. Pokryszko, B.M. (1999). Book review: Richard Ellis. The Search for the Giant Squid. ''Folia Malacologica'' 7(3): 187–190. Lanier, J. (1999)
The Search for the Giant Squid: The Biology and Mythology of the World's Most Elusive Sea Creature by Richard Ellis
'' Whole Earth'', Spring 1999.Wicinas, D. (1999)
Mysteries of the deep: All you need to know about lost continents and sea monsters
''

The Pennsylvania Gazette ''The Pennsylvania Gazette'' was one of the United States' most prominent newspapers from 1728 until 1800. In the several years leading up to the American Revolution the paper served as a voice for colonial opposition to British colonial rule, ...

'', January/February 1999.Nonfiction Book Review: The Search for the Giant Squid by Richard Ellis
''

Publishers Weekly ''Publishers Weekly'' (''PW'') is an American weekly trade news magazine targeted at publishers, librarians, booksellers, and literary agents. Published continuously since 1872, it has carried the tagline, "The International News Magazine of ...

''. It was a ''

'' 1998 Best Book of the Year.

, considered the world's foremost expert on ''Architeuthis'' at the time, commented:Ellis, R. (1999). ''The Search for the Giant Squid''. Penguin Books, New York. ix + 322 pp. .

Ellis asthe freedom and luxury to dredge into the depths of mythology, fantasy, fiction, and undocumented 'eyewitness' accounts, as well as into the scientific literature, itself not entirely free from imagination. The mix of all these sources, dissected and analyzed with an appropriate dash of skepticism, and an occasional pinch of speculation, yields a volume that surely will be read and re-read by the full range of readers from monster-lovers to scientists.

Martin Wells, a zoologist at the

University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a public collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209 and granted a royal charter by Henry III in 1231, Cambridge is the world's third oldest surviving university and one of its most pr ...

, considered the book "serious and very well researched" and a "gold-mine of fact and fantasy, for we scientists who work on cephalopods and for all of us who love monsters". Reviewing the work for ''

'',

Laura Miller Laura Miller (born November 18, 1958) is an American journalist and politician who served as the 58th mayor of Dallas, Texas from 2002 through 2007. She decided not to run for re-election in 2007. She was the third woman to serve as mayor of Da ...

agreed that it was "rigorously researched", but opined that some pages "contain more data than anyone but the most devoted squid buff could desire". This sentiment was echoed by David Wicinas in the

University of Pennsylvania The University of Pennsylvania (also known as Penn or UPenn) is a private research university in Philadelphia. It is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and is ranked among the highest-regarded universitie ...

's ''Gazette'', who wrote that though the book is "painstakingly researched ..the sheer amount of data may daunt all but the most motivated readers". Biologist and author

E. O. Wilson Edward Osborne Wilson (June 10, 1929 – December 26, 2021) was an American biologist, naturalist, entomologist and writer. According to David Attenborough, Wilson was the world's leading expert in his specialty of myrmecology, the study of an ...

praised Ellis's writing style, remarking that he "uses his exceptional gifts in image and words to evoke the wonder and mystery of the sea". While giving an overall positive appraisal,

Michael Dirda Michael Dirda (born 1948) is a book critic for the ''Washington Post''. He has been a Fulbright Fellow and won a Pulitzer Prize in 1993. Career Having studied at Oberlin College for his undergraduate degree in 1970, Dirda took an M.A. in 1974 a ...

, writing for ''

'', commented that "Ellis's easygoing prose suffers from needless repetitions ..''The Search for the Giant Squid'' could have been more tightly edited and ..just a bit flashier". But he concluded that "Ellis is fun to read, knowledgeable and enthusiastic" and praised Lyons Press for producing "a beautiful book, starting with its striking dust jacket (the author's own painting of a reddish giant squid with an enormous staring eye) and continuing with generous margins, thick paper and lots of drawings and photographs". The visual aspects of the work were also singled out as a strength in a review for ''

'', particularly its "30 b&w photographs and 35 line drawings, many historical, several of the drawings by Ellis himself". The Adventure of the Giant Squid

In a review for '' Whole Earth'' magazine,

Jaron Lanier Jaron Zepel Lanier (, born May 3, 1960) is an American computer scientist, visual artist, computer philosophy writer, technologist, futurist, and composer of contemporary classical music. Considered a founder of the field of virtual reality, La ...

wrote: "Richard Ellis has written the definitive giant squid book, achieving a superb blend of scientific reporting and cultural history." Similarly, in the malacological journal ''Folia Malacologica'', Beata Pokryszko concluded that the "book combines history, zoology, adventure and myth in an admirable way", and the ''Publishers Weekly'' review described it as "an absorbing work of natural history and a classic of

cryptozoology Cryptozoology is a pseudoscience and subculture that searches for and studies unknown, legendary, or extinct animals whose present existence is disputed or unsubstantiated, particularly those popular in folklore, such as Bigfoot, the Loch Ness ...

", in which "Ellis vivifies and celebrates he giant squidwith erudition and consummate skill". Neurologist and writer

Oliver Sacks Oliver Wolf Sacks, (9 July 1933 – 30 August 2015) was a British neurologist, naturalist, historian of science, and writer. Born in Britain, Sacks received his medical degree in 1958 from The Queen's College, Oxford, before moving to the Uni ...

likewise thought that Ellis had done a "splendid job bringing together virtually every known account (mythical, fictional, and factual), and producing a narrative at once gripping and meticulously balanced".

Peter Benchley Peter Bradford Benchley (May 8, 1940 – February 11, 2006) was an American author, screenwriter, and ocean activist. He is known for his bestselling novel '' Jaws'' and co-wrote its film adaptation with Carl Gottlieb. Several more of his works ...

, whose 1991 novel '' Beast'' features a giant squid as its primary antagonist, wrote: "In researching an animal about which so little is known, Richard Ellis has managed to assemble an astonishing amount of material ..This is an amazing book about an amazing creature." ''The Search for the Giant Squid'' was briefly featured in the March 1999 issue of ''

'', under "The editors recommend", where it was noted for providing "a huge amount of information". Russian

teuthologist Teuthology (from Greek , " cuttlefish, squid", and , ''-logia'') is the study of cephalopods such as octopus, squid, and cuttlefish.

Kir Nesis, one of the world's foremost cephalopod experts at the time, described it as an "interesting popular science book" and noted its comprehensive bibliography. Nesis, K.N. (2001)
Поиски гигантского кальмара
''

Nauka i Zhizn ''Nauka i Zhizn'' (''Science and Life'', russian: Наука и жизнь) is a science magazine first issued during the years 1890–1900 in Imperial Russia, and then since 1934 in the Soviet Union (and continued in the Russian Federation ...

001 001, O01, or OO1 may refer to: *1 (number), a number, a numeral *001, fictional British agent, see 00 Agent *001, former emergency telephone number for the Norwegian fire brigade (until 1986) *AM-RB 001, the code-name for the Aston Martin Valkyrie ...

1): 88–92. A ''

Booklist ''Booklist'' is a publication of the American Library Association that provides critical reviews of books and audiovisual materials for all ages. ''Booklist''s primary audience consists of libraries, educators, and booksellers. The magazine is av ...

'' review called it "a fascinating compendium" and opined that "Ellis's illustrated books about sea creatures have long made delectable reading". David K. Bulloch, author of ''Underwater Naturalist'' and ''The Wasted Ocean'', wrote: "Ellis has assembled a

potpourri Potpourri ( ) is a mixture of dried, naturally fragrant plant materials used to provide a gentle natural scent, commonly in residential settings. It is often placed in a decorative bowl. The word "potpourri" comes into English from the French ...

of ancient myth, rare sightings, and occasional bodily remains into a mosaic on ''Architeuthis'', the Kraken, cryptic squids of the abyssal depths". Reviewing both ''The Search for the Giant Squid'' and ''Monsters of the Sea'' for ''Newfoundland and Labrador Studies'', Jon Lien—once a member of giant squid expert Frederick Aldrich's "squid squad"—wrote that the former "thoroughly covers our knowledge of this exciting creature" and "is enjoyable and informative but I found it a bit less interesting than 'Monsters of the Sea''.Lien, J. (2000)
Reviews: ''Monsters of the Sea: the History, Natural History, and Mythology of the Ocean's Most Fantastic Creatures''; ''The Search for the Giant Squid''
''Newfoundland and Labrador Studies'' 16(2): 276–279. He was also of the view that "Ellis is hard on Aldrich's efforts to study he giant squidand on his speculations regarding its biology".

Later appraisal

Writing for ''

'' in 2018, Eric Grundhauser opined that despite developments in the field since its publication, the book "is still the best read on the subject" and that "for anyone looking for a thorough primer on these mysterious creatures, this 1998 book remains essential".

Release details

The book has been published in hardback and paperback formats and translated into German and Italian.

Hardcover

* Ellis, R. (September 1, 1998). ''The Search for the Giant Squid'' ''The world's most mysterious and elusive creature—its biology and mythology'' Lyons Press, New York City. ix + 322 pp. . * Ellis, R. (1999). ''The Search for the Giant Squid'' ''An authoritative look at the biology and mythology of the world's most elusive sea creature'' Robert Hale, London. ix + 322 pp. . OCLC also records an electronic reproduction of the first edition by the

HathiTrust Digital Library HathiTrust Digital Library is a large-scale collaborative repository of digital content from research libraries including content digitized via Google Books and the Internet Archive digitization initiatives, as well as content digitized locally ...

() and an "Advance uncorrected proof" () with different pagination (ix + 301 pp.).

Paperback

* Ellis, R. (October 1, 1999). ''The Search for the Giant Squid'' ''The biology and mythology of the world's most elusive sea creature''

Penguin Books Penguin Books is a British publishing house. It was co-founded in 1935 by Allen Lane with his brothers Richard and John, as a line of the publishers The Bodley Head, only becoming a separate company the following year.ranslated by Maria Teresa Marenco Edizioni Piemme, Casale Monferrato. 315 pp. . * Ellis, R. (2002). ''Riesenkraken der Tiefsee'' ''Die aufregende Suche nach den letzten unbekannten Wesen unserer Welt'' ranslated by Kurt Beginnen Heel Verlag,

Königswinter Königswinter ( ksh, Köningkswinte; Low Franconian: ) is a town and summer resort in the Rhein-Sieg district, in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Geography Königswinter is situated on the right bank of the Rhine, opposite Bad Godesberg, at t ...

. 254 pp. .

Notes

References

External links

''The Search for the Giant Squid''
at

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''The Search for the Giant Squid''
at

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Online sample of second chapter
{{DEFAULTSORT:Search for the Giant Squid, The 1998 non-fiction books Books about cephalopods Giant squid Popular science books Lyons Press books