Meta: Site Update

Posted on April 24, 2006 by Marco Graziosi

I am going to try and upgrade the blog from WordPress 1.5 to 2.0.2 later today, so there might be problems.

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Where did Nonsense go?

Posted on March 27, 2006 by Marco Graziosi

One of the questions which are often asked about Nonsense is, Why did it disappear almost completely from literature after the great season of Edward Lear and Lewis Carroll? As M.B. Heyman writes in his thesis (Isles of Boshen: Edward Lear’s literary nonsense in context, University of Glasgow, Faculty of Arts, Department of English Literature, 2005):

If we skip Lear, Carroll, and the rest of the nineteenth century momentarily, we find a curious twist to the course of nonsense. Although literary nonsense drastically changed the face of children’s literature, as a more “pure” form for children it seems to have died away toward the turn of the century. Instead of remaining a children’s genre, nonsense returned to its old adult audience in various forms (p. 3).

After listing a few examples (Edward Gorey, Mervyn Peake, Dr. Seuss and Roald Dahl) he concludes that “the genre has never returned to the kind of success and popularity it had with Lear and Carroll” (p. 4).

I don’t know as to why it disappeared from children’s literature but have an idea about where it went: first it moved to the pages of the Comic Supplements in American newspapers and, when it vanished from them too, around 1910, it became the basic component of cartoons and was at the core of the medium at least until the 1960s when, with the sad demise of the theatre shorts and the advent of the TV cartoon, it was replaced by elementary adventure plots.

ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive

ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive are getting ready to celebrate Animation’s 100th Birthday on April 6th: the site has a Biopedia (an Alphabetical Biographical Index) and the frequent posts often include wonderful illustrations from animation-related books and sometimes even whole shorts that can be downloaded.

É Cohl, Fantasmagorie, 1908

As an experiment in vodcasting, I’m posting a cartoon which perfectly exemplifies the pervasiveness of Nonsense even in the earliest animated films: Émile Cohl‘s Fantasmagorie (1908). You may need to download iTunes to watch it.

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Self-Reference in Lear s Limericks

Posted on March 27, 2006 by Marco Graziosi

The documents section of nonsenselit.org now contains a recent essay on Edward Lear:

Winfried Nöth. “The Art of Self-Reference in Edward Lear’s Limericks.” Interdisciplinary Journal for Germanic Linguistics and Semiotic Analysis 10.1, 2005, pp. 47-66.

Many thanks to professor Nöth and the journal editors for permission to reproduce it.

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The Owl and the Pussycat Went to See. . .

Posted on March 16, 2006 by Marco Graziosi

The Owl and the Pussycat Wen to See… is a musical play adapted from the verses and stories of Edward Lear by Sheila Ruskin and David Wood (who wrote the music and lyrics). The LP (Philips 6308022) was published in 1970 with a colourful hippy-style cover and features Harry Secombe (Narrator), Roy Castle (Owl) and Hattie Jacques (Pussycat): Side 1 & Side 2

Cover

The story, as told in the back cover:

  1. Owl & Pussycat set sail to find a ring & someone to marry them (THE OWL & THE PUSSYCAT);
  2. THE LAND WHERE THE BONG TREES GROW
    They meet the Dong with a luminous nose, who is sad because he has lost his Jumbly Girl (THE SONG OF THE DONG);
  3. THE HILLS OF THE CHANKLY BORE
    Dong takes Owl & Pussycat to meet the Quangle Wangle, whose beaver hat is a hotel (THE QUANGLE WANGLE’S HAT). He takes them on a journey, accompanied by the Runcible Spoon to protect them from the villainous hungry Plum Pudding Flea (OFF WE GO). Dong meets Professor Bosh & joins his Plum Pudding Flea hunt (OFF WE GO — reprise);
  4. TORRIBLE ZONE — TREES OF SOFFSKY POFFSKY
    The travellers have a rest but Runcible Spoon sleepwalks and the Plum Pudding Flea nearly catches them. They set a honey trap for him (HONEY SONG). It works! (I’M STUCK). He is nearly netted by Professor Bosh but escapes, leaving them stuck in the honey.
  5. PIGGYWIG’S WOOD
    Owl, Pussycat & Quangle Wangle help the Piggywig who sells them the ring on the end of his nose. A sudden storm makes everyone hide (FROM THE STORM);
  6. GULF OF HANDEL
    The mad Jumblies are washed ashore in their sieve (THE JUMBLIES SONG) & lick Professor Bosh & Dong out of the honey trap (HONEY SONG — reprise). Hearing there is an owl (Jumblies’ favourite food) on the island they rush off to find him, pursued by Professor Bosh. Dong has found his beloved Jumbly Girl once more (A SYLLABUB SEA);
  7. CITY OF TOSH — TURKEY HILL
    Owl, Pussycat & Quangle Wangle find the Turkey’s house. The sleep-walking Runcible Spoon again saves them from the Plum Pudding Flea & they all meet the vicar (THE TURKEY’S SONG) who forgets the wedding service. Owl & Pussycat hope to be married soon (A SYLLABUB SEA — reprise) but the Jumblies arrive and attack Owl; the five-pound note saves him. Professor Bosh hurries to the scene but is accidentally knocked out by the Turkey. Dong & Jumbly Girl arrive & help sort out the muddle. Quangle Wangle suggests a celebration (THE WEDDING FEAST). The Plum Pudding Flea is caught in Professor Bosh’s net; Owl & Pussycat are married at last & everyone dances for joy (BY THE LIGHT OF THE MOON).
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The Laughable Looloos

Posted on February 20, 2006 by Marco Graziosi

Helen Stilwell’s Laughable Looloos 1906 series is now available in full colour at Nonsense in the Early Comics.

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The Woozlebeasts

Posted on February 16, 2006 by Marco Graziosi

Cover

The architect, John Prentiss Benson (1865-1947), had always dreamed of becoming an artist like his older brother Frank. In 1905 he lived in Flushing NY with his wife and four children and worked at his architecture firm of Benson and Brockway. He kept a studio in his home where he dabbled with paints, brushes, and canvases. His dabbling in 1904, probably to amuse his children, resulted in The Woozle Beasts (the cover and spine say Woozle Beasts but the title page reads WOOZLEBEASTS: today under the influence of computerese the title would be WoozleBeasts).

On his fifty-sixth birthday in 1921, John received a telegram from brother Frank that read “John, if your are going to paint —PAINT!” And surprisingly, John Prentiss Benson gave up architecture and took up serious painting. He became one of the world’s leading maritime painters with over 500 paintings.

Arthur Deex, author of the preceding blurb, has given in to my insistence and scanned the book, so we are now in a position to offer the largest collection of Woozlebeasts ever published: it includes an almost complete run of the strip as it appeared in newpapers in 1904 (in the Los Angeles Times and Chicago Tribune from 21 August 1904 to 1 January 1905; the New York Herald had started publication on 5 April 1904, according to Allan Holtz’s Stripper Guide) and the 1905 Moffat, Yard & Co. book. Even The Artistic Legacy of John Prentiss Benson. Compiled and edited by Nicholas J. Baker. Sheridan Books, 2003; p. 251, only lists 94 beasts, our index includes 154 as well as three single-panel panoramic cartoons. According to the same source (p. 250) Benson “had a book of original Woozlebeast drawings bound in hard cover and presented to his four children. The inscription written inside the front cover reads as follows: ‘Dedicated to Marjorie, Philip, Gertrude and little Mary – 30 years ago.’ It was signed, ‘John P. Benson, May 13th, 1935.'”

The use of the limerick verse and the careful drawing style clearly differentiate the Woozlebeasts from the average newspaper comic of the period, and place it in the 1904-05 drive to please middle-class readers after the first wave of attacks against the new medium. The short-lived strip would start a minor tradition of depictions of fantastic animals which includes Helen Stilwell’s 1906 Laughable Looloos and Gustave Verbeek‘s The Terrors of the Tiny Tads (28 May 1905-25 October 1914) and The Loony Lyrics of Lulu (17 July 1910-23 October 1910), the latter also using limericks, sometimes written by the readers, to describe invented animals.

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American Limericks

Posted on February 10, 2006 by Marco Graziosi

I had just finished my previous post when I received the following article from Arthur:

A New Book of Nonsense

The nonsense craze started by Edward Lear in the 1840s eventually swept through the entire English speaking world. The spread, however, was more of a creep than an explosion in the early years by today’s standards.

In America the earliest books of limericks were published in New York and London simultaneously:

Parkes, Harry. Random Rhymes. London & New York: Frederick Warne & Co., c1860.

Rummical Rhymes with Pictures to match set forth in fayre prospect Alphabetically & Geographically. New York: Hurd Houghton, 1862 and Dean & Son, 1863.

The first American printing of Lear’s A Book of Nonsense was probably:

Lear, Edward. A Book of Nonsense. Philadelphia: Willis P. Hazard, 1863. First American printing. Some distribution with original title-leaf canceled and imprinted “New York: M. Doolady, agent.”

The first distinctly American limerick books were associated with the American Civil War:

Ye Book of Copperheads, Philadelphia: Frederick Leypold, 1863. Reprinted in 1864 in conjunction with the Lincoln-McClellan presidential campaign.

The Book of Bubbles: A Contribution to the New York Fair in aid of the Sanitary Commission. New York: Endicott & Co., 1864.

The New Book of Nonsense: A Contribution to the GREAT CENTRAL FAIR in aid of the Sanitary Commission. Philadelphia: Ashmead & Evans, 1864.

The New Book of Nonsense, like The Book of Bubbles, was produced and sold as a fund raiser for the Sanitary Commission. The Sanitary Commission was a civilian organization in the North dedicated to remedy the “unsanitary conditions” to which Union soldiers were subjected. The nearest thing to the Commission today would be the Red Cross.

The book was clearly an attempt to take advantage of the popularity of Lear’s nonsense books. The printing and binding is very slipshod, with limericks often cropped in part. But the style of the verses and their topics, while many are perhaps shocking today, and certainly politically incorrect, are an excellent window on the way 1860s Americans viewed the world.

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The Limerick Craze!

Posted on February 7, 2006 by Marco Graziosi

The Limerick Craze

A number of early limerick books are now available for your online enjoyment, including the four published in the 1820s that inspired Edward Lear:

  1. The History of Sixteen Wonderful Old Women. Illustrated with as many engravings; exhibiting their principal eccentricities and amusements. Much credit is due to our artist, I ween; For such pictures as these can seldom be seen. London: J. Harris and Son, 1822. First edition 1820. [From the Hockliffe Collection website. Colour scans at the Edward Lear Home Page.]
  2. Anecdotes and Adventures of Fifteen Gentlemen. London: John Marshall, c 1821. [Colour scans at the Edward Lear Home Page.]
  3. Anecdotes and Adventures of Fifteen Young Ladies. By the Author of “Anecdotes and Adventures of Fifteen Gentlemen.” London: E. Marshall, c1822. [From the Hockliffe Collection website.]
  4. A Peep at the Geography of Europe. Illustrated by Comic Figures of the Several Nations. London: E. Marshall, c1824. [Courtesy Arthur Deex.]

Also worth a look are: A Lady. Little Rhymes for Little Folks: or, Poetry for Fanny’s Library. London: John Harris, 1823 [Arthur Deex], which contains a few limericks; and Thomas Hood. The Headlong Career and Woful Ending of Precocious Piggy. London: Griffith and Farran, 1860 [University of Florida], in which the story is told in monorhyme limericks, every single line in the book rhyming with “pig”.

In addition, you can now read three early American books from Arthur’s collection:

  1. The New Book of Nonsense. A Contribution to the Great Central Fair in Aid of the Sanitary Commission. Philadelphia: Ashmead & Evans, 1864.
  2. Ye Book of Bubbles. A contribution to the New York Fair in aid of the Sanitary Commission. Endicott & Co., New York: March 1864.
  3. Ye Book of Sense. A Companion to the Book of Nonsense. Philadelphia: Porter and Coates, n.d. Title and thirty-one hand colored plates. Oblong 8vo. c1870.

Arthur has also provided two very beautiful limerick books from the 1900s:

Not enough? For some time our gallery has been hosting Bennet Cerf’s Pop-up Limericks (New York: Random House, n.d.).

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Three Lear Limericks

Posted on February 7, 2006 by Marco Graziosi

Although it may sound sacrilegious, some artists have actually chosen to re-illustrate the verses in Edward Lear’s A Book of Nonsense. These Latter Day Neo Reform Limericks keep popping up everyday in bookshops.

Janina Domanska

It’s not that Lear didn’t get it, or that Lear couldn’t draw, it’s just that that was then and this is now. When Renaissance artists painted Biblical scenes, they didn’t depict the patriarchs as scruffy, unwashed, nomads, they sketched them as wealthy Italian noblemen wearing proper garb. And so Lear’s old men are drawn according to modern views for modern times. They aren’t better; they aren’t worse; they are just different.

Displayed here are a number of modern illustrations for three of Edward Lear’s most popular limericks — An Old Man with a beard, An Old Man in a tree, and An Old Man who said, “Hush!”

If you have other examples (and there are quite a few) in your collections, please add them to this Blog of Bosh.

Arthur

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To the Land Where the Jam-tree Grows !?

Posted on February 6, 2006 by Marco Graziosi

Nothing […] amused Lear more than the failure of some people to appreciate the utter absence of sense in his nonsense. He used to relate that some one once wrote to him to say that he had marched various botanical and other works without finding any allusion to a “Bong-tree.” Where, his correspondent, asked, did the “Bong-tree” grow?
[Evelyn Baring, “Introduction.” Queery Leary Nonsense. A Lear Nonsense Book. Edited by Lady Strachey. London: Mills & Boon, 1911.]

The question is a recurrent one, and I myself have sometimes been asked it, why the Bong-tree? The problem of the Bong-tree is an early one if the producer of The Owl and the Pussy Cat and Other Nonsense Songs, Illustrated by Lord Ralph Kerr (London: Cundall and Co., 1872), which you can see in facsimile in our Picture gallery, felt the need to replace it with a more appetizing and less nonsensical “Jam-tree”.

The Jam-Tree

Vivien Noakes, in her definitive edition (Edward Lear. The Complete Verse and Other Nonsense. London: Penguin, 2001: 507) presents the modern interpretation:

The coach-road along which Lear would have travelled between Liverpool and Knowsley, passes through the village of Knotty Ash, said to have taken its name from a gnarled ash tree which once stood outside the public house beside a group of cottages called ‘The Little Bongs’. The tree was known locally as ‘the ash tree at Little Bongs’, and may have been the inspiration for Lear’s Bong tree.

Noakes prudently adds that “on the other hand, he may just have liked the sound of the word”, and in fact manuscripts at the Houghton Library and Pierpont Morgan Library contain variants (“Phloss tree” and “Palm tree” respectively).

Another influence on the final choice of the name which I have never heard mentioned might be the “Bo-tree”, or Indian fig tree, said to be the tree under which the Buddha became enlightened (Ficus religiosa, family Moraceae). On its eastern side is “the immovable spot on which all The Buddhas have planted themselves! This is the place for destroying passion’s net!”. While Siddartha is sitting there he is attacked by the god Mâra, but his perfection protects him, and the evil god is defeated (Buddhism in Translations. Passages Selected from the Buddhist Sacred Books and Translated from the Original Pâli into English by Henry Clarke Warren. Harvard University Press, 1896. § 8: The Attainment of Buddhaship). Just after attaining buddhaship “the Blessed One sat cross-legged for seven days together at the foot of the Bo-tree experiencing the bliss of emancipation” (§ 9: First Events after the Attainment of Buddhaship).

The quest of the owl and the pussy-cat is more earthly, of course, but it also leads to bliss, and the rhythm of the poem, with its long, repeated sounds at the end of each stanza clearly gives it some sort of ecstatic quality.

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