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Edward Lear
(1812 - 1888)
Edward Lear was an English artist, illustrator, author and poet. He is known mostly for his literary nonsense in poetry and prose, and especially his limericks, a form he popularised.
His principal areas of work as an artist were threefold:
- As a draughtsman employed to illustrate birds and animals;
- Making colored drawings during his journeys, which he reworked later, sometimes as plates for his travel books; and
- As a (minor) illustrator of Alfred Tennyson’s poems.
As an author, he is known principally for his popular nonsense works, which use real and invented English words.
Bibliography
ABC: Penned & Illustrated by Edward Lear, Himself (1965)
Another previously unpublished alphabet.
Author(s):
Edward Lear
Illustrator(s):
Edward Lear
Best In Children’s Books Volume 17 (1959)
A collection of stories, poems and articles, many of which have new illustrations.
Read online at archive.org.
Best in Children’s Books Volume 3 (1957)
A collection of stories, verses and articles, some of which have new illustrations.
Read online at archive.org.
Author(s):
Hans Christian Andersen
Marguerite de Angeli
Edward Lear
Illustrator(s):
Barbara Cooney
Paul Galdone
Leonard Weisgard
Best in Children’s Books Volume 38 (1960)
A collection of stories, poems and articles, many of which have new illustrations.
A Book of Bosh (1975)
An anthology of lyrics and prose.
Author(s):
Edward Lear
Illustrator(s):
Edward Lear
A Book of Nonsense (1846)
This first edition was published in two volumes. Each includes thirty-six limericks printed on the rectos only. Save for the volume indication, the covers are the same.
Author(s):
Derry Down Derry
Illustrator(s):
Edward Lear
A Book of Nonsense (1855)
This second edition was published in one volume. The illustrations were redrawn on the lithographic stones, and the limericks are now lettered in the now-familiar five-line style.
Author(s):
Derry Down Derry
Illustrator(s):
Edward Lear
A Book of Nonsense (1861)
Enlarged one-volume third edition contains forty-three new limericks, but three have been dropped from the earlier editions. The plates have been engraved on wood and the text is letterpress.
Author(s):
Edward Lear
Illustrator(s):
Edward Lear
A Book of Nonsense (1866)
This enlarged one-volume seventeenth edition contains forty-three new limericks, but three have been dropped from the earlier editions. The plates have been engraved on wood and the text is letterpress. This edition was hand colored.
Author(s):
Edward Lear
Illustrator(s):
Edward Lear
A Book of Nonsense (1870)
This is the first quarto edition, with colored illustrations printed by wood blocks. There is a typo on this cover as there are only 113 illustrations. Read for free online at Internet Archive.
Author(s):
Edward Lear
Illustrator(s):
Edward Lear
A Book of Nonsense (1980)
This is a facsimile of the first edition to be printed in color.
Author(s):
Edward Lear
Illustrator(s):
Edward Lear
A Book of Nonsense (1982)
A facsimile from the Osborne collection with colored plates.
Author(s):
Edward Lear
Illustrator(s):
Edward Lear
Bosh and Nonsense (1982)
Two hitherto unpublished notebooks of limericks drawn for eleven year old Ada Duncan in 1864-1865.
Author(s):
Edward Lear
Illustrator(s):
Edward Lear
The Complete Nonsense and Other Verse (2002)
This edition of the verse and nonsense drops the annotations, but was compiled by Lear’s biographer.
Author(s):
Edward Lear
Illustrator(s):
Edward Lear
The Complete Nonsense Book (1912)
A complete compilation of Lear’s nonsense up to the time of publication. Read for free online at Internet Archive.
Author(s):
Edward Lear
Illustrator(s):
Edward Lear
The Complete Nonsense of Edward Lear (1947)
An omnibus including five books: A Book of Nonsense, Nonsense Songs, Stories, Botany and Alphabets, More Nonsense Pictures, Rhymes, Botany, etc., Laughable Lyrics and Nonsense Songs and Stories.
Author(s):
Edward Lear
Illustrator(s):
Barnett Freedman
Edward Lear
The Complete Nonsense of Edward Lear (1951)
An omnibus including five books: A Book of Nonsense, Nonsense Songs, Stories, Botany and Alphabets, More Nonsense, Pictures, Rhymes, Botany, &c., and Laughable Lyrics and Nonsense Songs and Stories.
Author(s):
Edward Lear
Illustrator(s):
Edward Lear
The Complete Verse and Other Nonsense (2001)
This is a scholarly edition of the verse and nonsense annotated by Lear’s biographer.
Author(s):
Edward Lear
Illustrator(s):
Edward Lear
A Drawing Book Alphabet (1954)
One of Lear’s previously unpublished comic alphabets.
Author(s):
Edward Lear
Illustrator(s):
Edward Lear
The Duck and the Kangaroo (1956)
This is a facsimile of an autograph in the Harvard Library Lear collection.
Author(s):
Edward Lear
Illustrator(s):
Edward Lear