Author Archives: Marco Graziosi

Edward Lear, Bethany

Posted on August 23, 2017 by Marco Graziosi

Edward Lear, Bethany. Signed bottom left and titled bottom right, watercolor with brown ink on paper laid down to mat at edges. Image: 6 1/8 x 9 1/8 in. (15.6 x 23.2cm), sheet: 10 1/2 x 14 1/16 in. (26.7 … Continue reading →

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Son of A Wheelbarrow to Hell

Posted on August 10, 2017 by Marco Graziosi

From Yale University, Beinecke Library MS 404, Rothschild Canticles, 169v (thanks to Francois Soyer). Previous instalments: The Natural History of the Wheelbarrow, A Wheelbarrow to Hell. Rather than devils carrying souls to hell, the scene seems to represent a (good?) … Continue reading →

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Edward Lear, Letter to Mrs Ford

Posted on August 9, 2017 by Marco Graziosi

5 Stratford Place. 30 June 1865 Dear Mrs. Ford, I send you 2 photographs for your collection; — one, (the most professional,) was done this winter: the other — (the head,) — some time back: it is said by my … Continue reading →

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Edward Lear’s Mucous Membrane (Another Unpublished Poem and a ‘Drama’)

Posted on August 3, 2017 by Marco Graziosi

Harvard University, Houghton Library MS Typ 55.14, item 93: Once I had a Mucous Membrane And I kept him in a box ― Which the lid I fastened down with 3 of Brahmah’s patent locks. So ― said I ― … Continue reading →

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Edward Lear’s The Little Mouse: An Unpublished Poem

Posted on July 28, 2017 by Marco Graziosi

This poem does not appear in The Complete Verse and Other Nonsense; Vivien Noakes mentioned it in a note to “The Uncareful Cow, who walked about” on p. 515, but obviously considered this sketch too rough to be published, and she was probably right, as … Continue reading →

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And What About Charles?

Posted on July 24, 2017 by Marco Graziosi

[Part 1] [Part 2] [Part 3] The 18th son Charles had an interesting story, he became medical Missionary and went to the West coast of Africa, was a great favourite of the Chiefs, and when he nearly died of malaria, … Continue reading →

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“Twentieth of Twenty-one”: Edward Lear and his Siblings (3)

Posted on July 19, 2017 by Marco Graziosi

[Part 1] [Part 2] The Lears were non-conformists and had their children baptized at the Meeting House at Haberdashers’ Hall by Pastor Joseph Brooksbank, and all the children who reached adulthood, except Charles, appear in the “Register of Births and … Continue reading →

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“Twentieth of Twenty-one”: Edward Lear and his Siblings (2)

Posted on July 15, 2017 by Marco Graziosi

[Part 1] [Part 3] A second group of family documents is located at the National Art Library in London, “Papers of Ellen Newsom (Née Lear) and her family, 1795-1884,” (Manuscript MSL/1985/3) which includes several items relating to the family, among … Continue reading →

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“Twentieth of Twenty-one”: Edward Lear and his Siblings (1)

Posted on July 11, 2017 by Marco Graziosi

“Twentieth of twenty-one children” must be the most-often-repeated phrase in discussions of Edward Lear’s early life: no biographical sketch omits the snippet; but, did Jeremiah and Ann Lear really have so many children? Families of such size were not uncommon … Continue reading →

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Edward Lear, Quakers, and the Old Man of Jamaica

Posted on July 9, 2017 by Marco Graziosi

Karen Sands-O’Connor. Children’s Publishing and Black Britain, 1965-2015. New York: Springer, 2017, p. 11: As I have suggested elsewhere (Sands-O’Connor, 2008:38-39), Edward Lear, in 1846, included a Jamaican in his Book of Nonsnse (Jamaica being handily rhymed with Quaker); his … Continue reading →

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