These pages contain a copy of “The Kraken”, a public Yahoo Group dedicated to discussing the work of Russell Hoban (1925-2011) active from 1999 to 2019 when Yahoo withdrew their groups services.
The Kraken was established by Dave Awl, who also created the first dedicated Russell Hoban website, The Head of Orpheus.
In addition to many thousands of posts discussing Russell Hoban’s work from hundreds of participants, between September 2002 and March 2005 Hoban himself posted to the group quite regularly, answering questions, clarifying misunderstandings, providing context and just having fun.
A copy of all “messages” (posts) to The Kraken Yahoo Group was made in 2019 with PG Offline. Our thanks to them for this very useful tool. The software extracted all group posts and created a series of simple HTML digest pages consisting of 50 group posts each, with an index table at the top of each digest listing the post titles, with anchor links to the individual posts below. The archived files had a well-earned rest for a few years before being reinvigorated in 2026 on russellhoban.org. Thanks to Dave Awl for sharing the files archive, Eli Bishop for some handy scripting and Richard Cooper for uploading.
In addition to the posts (all text only), there are directories containing files and photos uploaded to the group.
List of post digest files
| Link | Starts at post no. | Starts on date |
| HtmlDigest1 | 1 | 05/09/1999 |
| HtmlDigest2 | 51 | 18/09/1999 |
| HtmlDigest3 | 102 | 06/10/1999 |
| HtmlDigest4 | 153 | 15/11/1999 |
| HtmlDigest5 | 204 | 27/12/1999 |
| HtmlDigest6 | 257 | 26/01/2000 |
| HtmlDigest7 | 307 | 03/03/2000 |
| HtmlDigest8 | 357 | 24/03/2000 |
| HtmlDigest9 | 407 | 23/04/2000 |
| HtmlDigest10 | 457 | 06/06/2000 |
| HtmlDigest11 | 507 | 04/09/2000 |
| HtmlDigest12 | 557 | 29/10/2000 |
| HtmlDigest13 | 607 | 16/01/2001 |
| HtmlDigest14 | 657 | 10/02/2001 |
| HtmlDigest15 | 707 | 06/04/2001 |
| HtmlDigest16 | 757 | 01/05/2001 |
| HtmlDigest17 | 807 | 11/05/2001 |
| HtmlDigest18 | 857 | 31/05/2001 |
| HtmlDigest19 | 907 | 21/07/2001 |
| HtmlDigest20 | 957 | 22/09/2001 |
| HtmlDigest21 | 1007 | 15/12/2001 |
| HtmlDigest22 | 1057 | 24/01/2002 |
| HtmlDigest23 | 1107 | 07/02/2002 |
| HtmlDigest24 | 1157 | 19/02/2002 |
| HtmlDigest25 | 1207 | 04/03/2002 |
| HtmlDigest26 | 1257 | 11/03/2002 |
| HtmlDigest27 | 1307 | 05/04/2002 |
| HtmlDigest28 | 1357 | 03/05/2002 |
| HtmlDigest29 | 1408 | 14/06/2002 |
| HtmlDigest30 | 1459 | 26/07/2002 |
| HtmlDigest31 | 1509 | 27/08/2002 |
| HtmlDigest32 | 1559 | 18/09/2002 |
| HtmlDigest33 | 1611 | 29/09/2002 |
| HtmlDigest34 | 1663 | 03/10/2002 |
| HtmlDigest35 | 1713 | 10/10/2002 |
| HtmlDigest36 | 1763 | 18/10/2002 |
| HtmlDigest37 | 1815 | 25/10/2002 |
| HtmlDigest38 | 1865 | 05/11/2002 |
| HtmlDigest39 | 1915 | 18/11/2002 |
| HtmlDigest40 | 1965 | 23/11/2002 |
| HtmlDigest41 | 2015 | 03/12/2002 |
| HtmlDigest42 | 2065 | 09/12/2002 |
| HtmlDigest43 | 2115 | 22/12/2002 |
| HtmlDigest44 | 2165 | 06/01/2003 |
| HtmlDigest45 | 2215 | 22/01/2003 |
| HtmlDigest46 | 2265 | 01/02/2003 |
| HtmlDigest47 | 2316 | 08/02/2003 |
| HtmlDigest48 | 2366 | 21/02/2003 |
| HtmlDigest49 | 2417 | 19/03/2003 |
| HtmlDigest50 | 2467 | 01/04/2003 |
| HtmlDigest51 | 2517 | 26/04/2003 |
| HtmlDigest52 | 2567 | 25/05/2003 |
| HtmlDigest53 | 2617 | 16/06/2003 |
| HtmlDigest54 | 2667 | 08/07/2003 |
| HtmlDigest55 | 2721 | 29/07/2003 |
| HtmlDigest56 | 2771 | 28/08/2003 |
| HtmlDigest57 | 2821 | 24/09/2003 |
| HtmlDigest58 | 2871 | 18/10/2003 |
| HtmlDigest59 | 2922 | 16/11/2003 |
| HtmlDigest60 | 2972 | 17/12/2003 |
| HtmlDigest61 | 3022 | 19/01/2004 |
| HtmlDigest62 | 3072 | 08/02/2004 |
| HtmlDigest63 | 3122 | 24/02/2004 |
| HtmlDigest64 | 3172 | 02/04/2004 |
| HtmlDigest65 | 3222 | 25/05/2004 |
| HtmlDigest66 | 3272 | 21/06/2004 |
| HtmlDigest67 | 3322 | 24/08/2004 |
| HtmlDigest68 | 3372 | 03/10/2004 |
| HtmlDigest69 | 3422 | 04/11/2004 |
| HtmlDigest70 | 3472 | 21/11/2004 |
| HtmlDigest71 | 3522 | 08/12/2004 |
| HtmlDigest72 | 3572 | 05/01/2005 |
| HtmlDigest73 | 3622 | 26/01/2005 |
| HtmlDigest74 | 3672 | 14/02/2005 |
| HtmlDigest75 | 3722 | 18/02/2005 |
| HtmlDigest76 | 3772 | 22/02/2005 |
| HtmlDigest77 | 3822 | 04/03/2005 |
| HtmlDigest78 | 3872 | 11/03/2005 |
| HtmlDigest79 | 3922 | 16/03/2005 |
| HtmlDigest80 | 3972 | 23/03/2005 |
| HtmlDigest81 | 4023 | 20/04/2005 |
| HtmlDigest82 | 4073 | 19/05/2005 |
| HtmlDigest83 | 4123 | 29/06/2005 |
| HtmlDigest84 | 4173 | 10/07/2005 |
| HtmlDigest85 | 4224 | 31/07/2005 |
| HtmlDigest86 | 4274 | 19/08/2005 |
| HtmlDigest87 | 4324 | 08/09/2005 |
| HtmlDigest88 | 4374 | 14/09/2005 |
| HtmlDigest89 | 4424 | 10/11/2005 |
| HtmlDigest90 | 4474 | 13/12/2005 |
| HtmlDigest91 | 4525 | 18/01/2006 |
| HtmlDigest92 | 4575 | 03/02/2006 |
| HtmlDigest93 | 4625 | 12/02/2006 |
| HtmlDigest94 | 4675 | 25/03/2006 |
| HtmlDigest95 | 4725 | 20/05/2006 |
| HtmlDigest96 | 4775 | 12/06/2006 |
| HtmlDigest97 | 4825 | 18/07/2006 |
| HtmlDigest98 | 4875 | 22/08/2006 |
| HtmlDigest99 | 4925 | 02/10/2006 |
| HtmlDigest100 | 4975 | 07/11/2006 |
| HtmlDigest101 | 5025 | 11/01/2007 |
| HtmlDigest102 | 5075 | 27/01/2007 |
| HtmlDigest103 | 5126 | 06/02/2007 |
| HtmlDigest104 | 5177 | 21/02/2007 |
| HtmlDigest105 | 5228 | 28/03/2007 |
| HtmlDigest106 | 5282 | 19/04/2007 |
| HtmlDigest107 | 5332 | 31/05/2007 |
| HtmlDigest108 | 5382 | 22/06/2007 |
| HtmlDigest109 | 5432 | 08/08/2007 |
| HtmlDigest110 | 5482 | 12/09/2007 |
| HtmlDigest111 | 5532 | 08/10/2007 |
| HtmlDigest112 | 5582 | 02/11/2007 |
| HtmlDigest113 | 5632 | 13/11/2007 |
| HtmlDigest114 | 5682 | 14/12/2007 |
| HtmlDigest115 | 5733 | 05/02/2008 |
| HtmlDigest116 | 5783 | 14/03/2008 |
| HtmlDigest117 | 5834 | 11/06/2008 |
| HtmlDigest118 | 5885 | 19/07/2008 |
| HtmlDigest119 | 5935 | 30/10/2008 |
| HtmlDigest120 | 5985 | 21/12/2008 |
| HtmlDigest121 | 6035 | 25/01/2009 |
| HtmlDigest122 | 6085 | 04/02/2009 |
| HtmlDigest123 | 6136 | 26/02/2009 |
| HtmlDigest124 | 6186 | 12/04/2009 |
| HtmlDigest125 | 6237 | 08/06/2009 |
| HtmlDigest126 | 6287 | 24/09/2009 |
| HtmlDigest127 | 6337 | 04/02/2010 |
| HtmlDigest128 | 6387 | 22/02/2010 |
| HtmlDigest129 | 6437 | 03/04/2010 |
| HtmlDigest130 | 6488 | 31/05/2010 |
| HtmlDigest131 | 6538 | 01/07/2010 |
| HtmlDigest132 | 6588 | 08/08/2010 |
| HtmlDigest133 | 6638 | 19/08/2010 |
| HtmlDigest134 | 6688 | 23/09/2010 |
| HtmlDigest135 | 6738 | 23/10/2010 |
| HtmlDigest136 | 6788 | 07/11/2010 |
| HtmlDigest137 | 6838 | 24/11/2010 |
| HtmlDigest138 | 6888 | 26/12/2010 |
| HtmlDigest139 | 6939 | 17/01/2011 |
| HtmlDigest140 | 6991 | 05/02/2011 |
| HtmlDigest141 | 7041 | 22/02/2011 |
| HtmlDigest142 | 7091 | 21/03/2011 |
| HtmlDigest143 | 7141 | 30/03/2011 |
| HtmlDigest144 | 7192 | 11/05/2011 |
| HtmlDigest145 | 7243 | 23/06/2011 |
| HtmlDigest146 | 7293 | 27/07/2011 |
| HtmlDigest147 | 7343 | 11/09/2011 |
| HtmlDigest148 | 7393 | 13/10/2011 |
| HtmlDigest149 | 7443 | 01/11/2011 |
| HtmlDigest150 | 7493 | 15/11/2011 |
| HtmlDigest151 | 7543 | 21/11/2011 |
| HtmlDigest152 | 7595 | 14/12/2011 |
| HtmlDigest153 | 7645 | 15/12/2011 |
| HtmlDigest154 | 7696 | 17/12/2011 |
| HtmlDigest155 | 7746 | 19/12/2011 |
| HtmlDigest156 | 7797 | 22/12/2011 |
| HtmlDigest157 | 7847 | 01/01/2012 |
| HtmlDigest158 | 7897 | 08/01/2012 |
| HtmlDigest159 | 7947 | 21/01/2012 |
| HtmlDigest160 | 7997 | 03/02/2012 |
| HtmlDigest161 | 8047 | 13/02/2012 |
| HtmlDigest162 | 8097 | 13/03/2012 |
| HtmlDigest163 | 8150 | 10/04/2012 |
| HtmlDigest164 | 8200 | 26/05/2012 |
| HtmlDigest165 | 8250 | 09/07/2012 |
| HtmlDigest166 | 8300 | 18/09/2012 |
| HtmlDigest167 | 8350 | 30/10/2012 |
| HtmlDigest168 | 8400 | 11/12/2012 |
| HtmlDigest169 | 8451 | 17/01/2013 |
| HtmlDigest170 | 8502 | 26/02/2013 |
| HtmlDigest171 | 8555 | 12/06/2013 |
| HtmlDigest172 | 8605 | 19/08/2013 |
| HtmlDigest173 | 8655 | 17/12/2013 |
| HtmlDigest174 | 8705 | 01/04/2014 |
| HtmlDigest175 | 8755 | 03/07/2014 |
| HtmlDigest176 | 8805 | 26/12/2014 |
| HtmlDigest177 | 8856 | 17/02/2015 |
| HtmlDigest178 | 8906 | 21/06/2015 |
| HtmlDigest179 | 8958 | 02/11/2015 |
| HtmlDigest180 | 9008 | 25/02/2016 |
| HtmlDigest181 | 9058 | 08/05/2016 |
| HtmlDigest182 | 9108 | 01/09/2016 |
| HtmlDigest183 | 9158 | 06/02/2017 |
| HtmlDigest184 | 9208 | 13/07/2017 |
| HtmlDigest185 | 9259 | 30/12/2017 |
| HtmlDigest186 | 9309 | 07/03/2019 |