Author Archives: Marco Graziosi

De kat en de uil

Posted on January 27, 2009 by Marco Graziosi

Below is a pen and ink calligraphic drawing by Jacob Labotz representing a cat and an owl. Online translator software is not very good with 18th-century Dutch, but it is obvious they are fighting for the possession of the mouse … Continue reading →

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An Exile in Paradise

Posted on January 15, 2009 by Marco Graziosi

You may remember that RS Productions started working on a documentary on Edward Lear’s travels in Greece and Albania almost two years ago, and I linked to a promo last year. The first of the three parts is now going … Continue reading →

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The Cowboysterous Kangaroosevelt Bear

Posted on December 28, 2008 by Marco Graziosi

Theodore Roosevelt‘s refusal, in 1902, to shoot an imprisoned bear spawned a long series of political cartoons and, since the bound animal was often represented as a cub, and brought to the creation of the Teddy Bear. Roosevelt’s hunting mania … Continue reading →

Posted in Comics, Gustave Verbeek, Peter Newell | 1 Comment

Il libro esplosivo

Posted on December 12, 2008 by Marco Graziosi

My Italian translation of Peter Newell’s Rocket Book, Il libro esplosivo, has been out for some time now. The publisher, orecchio acerbo, have a beautiful book trailer on YouTube: While you are there, don’t miss the short for Stefano Benni’s … Continue reading →

Posted in General, Peter Newell, Podcasts | Leave a comment

Edward Lear's Nervous Family

Posted on December 3, 2008 by Marco Graziosi

Yale University’s Beinecke Rare Books and Manuscripts Library has scans of a few of their Edward Lear manuscripts online; the small collection includes self-caricatures taken from letters and original cartoons for the Nonsense Botanies, but also the full manuscript of … Continue reading →

Posted in Edward Lear, Lewis Carroll, Podcasts | Leave a comment

The Edward Lear Diaries Project

Posted on October 4, 2008 by Marco Graziosi

Edward Lear’s diaries have been used by all major biographers and extracts have been published in books about  particular locations, most notably by Philip Sherrard for Corfu and Rowena Fowler for Malta. Except for the Indian Journal, published by Ray … Continue reading →

Posted in Edward Lear | 2 Comments

Irish Sources of Edward Lear's Early Picture Stories

Posted on September 14, 2008 by Marco Graziosi

In a previous post I quoted a passage from Prothero’s biography of Arthur Penrhyn Stanley reporting the event that might have originated Edward Lear’s picture story “St. Kiven and the Gentle Kathleen,” an illustrated version of Tom Moore’s “By that … Continue reading →

Posted in Comics, Edward Lear | 8 Comments

Non-Limericks 2: Alfred Crowquill

Posted on August 31, 2008 by Marco Graziosi

Like Thackeray, Alfred Crowquill (pseudonym for Alfred Henry Forrester) has his place in the prehistory of comics thanks to an 1849 booklet entitled A Goodnatured Hint about California, a satire of the California gold rush. Besides publishing a successful series … Continue reading →

Posted in Comics, Edward Lear, Limerick | 2 Comments

Full Owl and Pussy-Cat from The Beano

Posted on August 28, 2008 by Marco Graziosi

On the Beano site you can now read the full comic-book adaptation of Edward Lear’s “The Owl and the Pussy-Cat” by Hunt Emerson. The last page includes a short biography of the poet.

Posted in General | 1 Comment

Non-Limericks 1: W.M. Thackeray

Posted on August 20, 2008 by Marco Graziosi

In his recent book on the Father of the Comic Strip: Rodolphe Töpffer (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2007), David Kunzle also discusses British parallels to the Genevan inventor of comics; among them a special section is devoted to William … Continue reading →

Posted in Comics, Edward Lear, Limerick | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment