A Blog of Bosh

The American Mix | Your Guide to Intelligent Fun
[Julie Rybicki suggested this: ‘It tells the tale of the writer Howard Norman’s strange pub encounter with an old man, who, after hearing on the CBC radio of Norman’s affection for Edward Lear, gives Norman an original ornithological Lear print of a raven. This Raven print, said the man,”was the bane of his childhood.” ‘
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Rhyme and reason
If it is the ludicrous that you want, invest in Edward Lear�s The Complete Verse and Other Nonsense (edited by Vivien Noakes, Penguin). �Nonsense is the breath of my nostrils� Lear wrote. He saw it as the only feasible response to �this ludicrously whirligig life which one suffers from first & laughs at afterwards�.
The Times

NATIONAL LIBRARY OF AUSTRALIA: Treasures from the World’s great libraries
The National Library of Australia is proud to announce a landmark international exhibition, Treasures from the World’s Great Libraries.
This will include “Edward Lear’s illustrated version of the nursery rhyme High Diddle Diddle”.

Artistic Alpine views
WATERCOLOURS and oil paintings depicting Alpine scenes captured from the mid-18th century up to the 1950s will be on show from the end of the month.
Peaks and Glaciers, showing at John Mitchell & Son in London, will include paintings by Turner and Edward Lear, and range from early romanticised (and frankly imaginary) views to later works which are more topographically accurate and realistic. The watercolour of the Rosenlaui Glacier in the Swiss Alps by Johann-Jakob Biedermann is one of the many highlights.
The Times

The Complete Verse and Other Nonsense by Edward Lear
Nonsense writers come into a special category, and perhaps we shouldn’t expect their posthumous reputations to follow the usual patterns. But still it’s surprising to realise, reading Vivien Noakes’s new edition, that Edward Lear is no longer homosexual.
Guardian Unlimited Books | Observer review