Category Archives: Edward Lear

Interest in Edward Lear must be on the rise, at least among writers: he has been making appearances in a number of novels, short stories and even as the central character in Clive Barker’s play Subtle Bodies (in Forms of … Continue reading →

In my previous post on the sources of Edward Lear’s “The Courtship of the Yonghy-Bonghy-Bò” I forgot to mention William Wordsworth’s “The Blind Highland Boy,” noted by Michael Heyman in his Isles of Boshen; in the poem the boy escapes … Continue reading →

Vivien Noakes, in her edition of Edward Lear’s Complete Verse and Other Nonsense (London: Penguin, 2001; pp.517-8), mentions as a source for “The Courtship of the Yonghy-Bonghy-Bò” a Great Wolford, Worcestershire, mummers’ play, in which the Fool says: In comes … Continue reading →

There are a number of Edward Lear watercolours for sale at Christie’s, mostly in the “British Art on Paper” sale of 16 November. If you have £20,000-30,000 you can also get: GOULD, John (1804-1881). A Monograph of the Ramphastidae, or … Continue reading →

James Thomas Fields was the publisher of Our Young Folks , an American children’s magazine, which in 1870 first published three poems by Edward Lear, including “The Owl and the Pussy-Cat” (see the previous post: Lear Illustrated in America). In … Continue reading →

Now and then you can see listed on eBay copies of Edward Lear’s Book of Nonsense in which some or all of the pictures have been coloured. Lear’s childish drawing style, with its large spaces waiting to be filled with … Continue reading →