Category Archives: Edward Lear

Cassowary vs Missionary

Posted on August 22, 2009 by Marco Graziosi

The tragic consequences of being a missionary in Timbuctoo were the subject of one of the infrequent comic strips in Punch (22 February 1868, vol. 54, pp. 80-1). The little poem around which the story turns is known in several … Continue reading →

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The Ladies and Scott

Posted on August 7, 2009 by Marco Graziosi

Moonshine, a magazine established in 1879, published the following parody of Edward Lear’s “Akond of Swat” on 1 January 1898 (p. 2); it was prompted by the leading dramatic critic of its age Clement Scott’s assertion that “it was practically … Continue reading →

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Before Little Nemo

Posted on April 14, 2009 by Marco Graziosi

“Wicked Willie’s Dream” by Walter M. Dunk appeared in Harper’s Round Table, vol. XVI, no. 821, 23 July 1895, 760 (click for full story): It clearly anticipates Winsor McCay’s Little Nemo in Slumberland, in particular for Willie’s position after his … Continue reading →

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New Edward Lear Resources

Posted on March 1, 2009 by Marco Graziosi

Just a quick post to mention a few new resources relating to Edward Lear: Never Mind the Pussycat: The Ornithological Art of Edward Lear, the companion site for a 2008 exhibition at the Albert R. Mann Library at Cornell University, … Continue reading →

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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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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 →

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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 →

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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