La campagna romana da Hackert a Balla

La campagna romana da Hackert a Balla
[Announcement of an Italian exhibition of paintings of the Roman campagna; no mention of Lear, though he was active in the same years.]

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Rhyme and reason

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

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The Phonosemantics of Nasal-Stop Clusters

The Phonosemantics of Nasal-Stop Clusters by Ralph Emerson
The humorousness of nasal-stops also makes them one of the secrets of nonsense poets. Dr. Seuss’s books have dozens of nasal-stop coinages, from the Grinch to the Rink-Rinker-Fink. The flora and fauna in Lewis Carroll’s “Jabberwocky” include a “Tumtum tree” and a “frumious Bandersnatch.” Edward Lear’s little Jumblies set sail for “the hills of the Chankly Bore” with “forty bottles of ring-bo-ree.” And Spike Milligan writes of a very “noisy place to belong” called the “Ning Nang Ning Nang Nong!”
[This article about the symbolism of nasal-stop clusters (the sounds MB, MP; ND, NT; NG, NK) also mentions The Jumblies, but � while doing much of ‘ding’s and ‘dong’s � incredibly does not refer to The Dong With a Luminous Nose!]
Iconicity in Language (9/9/2001)

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A Taxonomy of Sound Poetry

Dick Higgins, A TAXONOMY OF SOUND POETRY
[From one of the best sites I know, an essay on ‘sound poetry’ which mentions Lear � and Nonsense poetry in general � as a predecessor.
__ U B U W E B__ : __ P A P E R S __

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Aspects of the Victorian Book

Aspects of the Victorian book, at the British Library
Lear only appears in the “Illustration” section with the Javan Squirrel, but the whole exhibition provides interesting background on the production and publishing of books in the 19th century.

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Treasures from the World's great libraries

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”.

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Artistic Alpine views

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

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The Complete Verse and Other Nonsense by Edward Lear

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

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Child Psychology and Nonsense

G.K. Chesterton, “Child Psychology and Nonsense”, Illustrated London News, October 15, 1921.
For there are two ways of dealing with nonsense in this world. One way is to put nonsense in the right place; as when people put nonsense into nursery rhymes. The other is to put nonsense in the wrong place; as when they put it into educational addresses, psychological criticisms, and complaints against nursery rhymes or other normal amusements of mankind.

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Was Lewis Carroll's interest in Alice sinister?

Was Lewis Carroll’s interest in Alice sinister?
It is true that the Reverend Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, otherwise known as Lewis Carroll, author of the inimitable classics Alice in Wonderland and Alice Through the Looking Glass, liked little girls. Or, as he once wrote: “I am fond of children (except boys).” He took exquisite, melancholy photographs of little girls. He befriended little girls on trains, and beaches, and in the houses of friends. And one particular little girl, Alice Liddell, came to be his muse and great passion.
Guardian Unlimited Books

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