The Earl & the Pussycat

The Earl & the Pussycat, exhibition at the Walker Gallery in Liverpool
Edward Smith Stanley, 13th Earl of Derby (1775-1851) was one of the most prominent natural historians of his day. �The Earl & the Pussycat� exhibition marks the 150th anniversary of the death of this remarkable man, whose outstanding zoological collections founded Liverpool Museum.
[In this page you can see a very small reproduction of Holman Hunt’s portrait of EL.]
the Walker – National Museums & Galleries on Merseyside

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The Owl and the Pussy-cat

Edward Lear, The Owl and the Pussy-cat
From Lloyd Schwartz’s Introduction: ‘In Lear’s best-loved poem, “The Owl and the Pussy-cat,” the logic underlying the fantasy is an emotional trueness.’
This regular column in the online version of the Atlantic Monthly presents an introduction to a poem with readings in RealAudio; in this case the readers are Gail Mazur, Lloyd Schwartz, and Richard Wilbur.
Atlantic Unbound | Soundings | 2002.05.30

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John Taylor, The Praise of Hemp-Seed

The Praise of Hemp-Seed. by John Taylor.
From one of the best online collections of e-texts (Renascence Editions) a transcription of one of the earliest nonsense poems in English.
Note: The works (1630) of John Taylor, the water-poet, are available in PDF facsimile at Early English Books Online. Be warned that it is a 150MB download! Also, I don’t know why but it is to be found under Theology in STC I.

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The Russian Avant-Garde Book

The Russian Avant-Garde Book 1910 – 1934 :: MoMA
This is not strictly related to Edward Lear, but the exhibition deserves a visit, and many of the Russian futurists wrote Nonsense (zaum’). Be sure to have a look at the Reading Room. Also, you will need the Macromedia Flash Plug-in 5.0 to enjoy it.

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Lyrics in the Swamp
Pogo’s words are part nonsense, part down-home wisdom; part rural raillery, part parody of big-city and governmental jargon.
The New York Review of Books

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The Eden of Dreams and the Nonsense Land

Mirva Saukkola: The Eden of Dreams and the Nonsense Land
Subtitled “Characteristics of the British Golden Age Children’s Fiction in the Finnish Children’s Fantasy Literature of the 1950s”, this academic dissertation (May 2001, University of Helsinki, Institute for Art Research, Comparative Literature, Faculty of Arts) has some references to Lear.

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The Spook

The Spook
The February 2002 issue of this shiny horror magazine has a long interesting article on Edward Gorey by Deborah Markus, reviewing three recently published biographies.
By the way, the magazine also has the best monthly comics column I have read in years…
You will have to download the full pdf version of the magazine, in high or low resolution. You can also choose to download the Gorey article (1.6MB) by right clicking and choosing “save object as…”

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Introduction to Alice's Adventures in Wonderland

Introduction to Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland By Will Self
BloomsburyMagazine.com – Ezine

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Introduction to Through the Looking-Glass

Introduction to Through the Looking-Glass By Zadie Smith
[From the rising star of British fiction…]
BloomsburyMagazine.com – Ezine

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Beautiful Birds: Masterpieces from the Hill Ornithology Collection

Beautiful Birds: Masterpieces from the Hill Ornithology Collection
Cornell University Library
[Almost nothing on Lear, but interesting for background information, especially concerning the different techniques.]

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