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
Nonsense Botany and Nonsense Alphabets (2009)
Selections from Lear, mainly nonsense alphabets and botany.
Nonsense Botany and Nonsense Alphabets, etc. (1927)
Selections from Lear, mainly nonsense alphabets and botany.
The Nonsense Poems of Edward Lear (1991)
All the longer nonsense poems.
Nonsense Songs (1900)
This omnibus contains The Pelican Chorus and Other Verses and The Jumblies and Other Nonsense Verses. Read for free online at Internet Archive.
Nonsense Songs & Laughable Lyrics (1935)
There were several versions of this collection which includes ‘The Scroobius Pip’ and ‘The Little Mouse.’
Nonsense Songs and Stories (1894)
This is a collection of longer poems and stories from the four nonsense books with a few additions. It does not include the limericks.
Nonsense Songs and Stories (1984)
This is a facsimile of the 1895 edition. It is a collection of poems and stories from the four nonsense books with a few additions.
Nonsense Songs, Stories, Botany and Alphabets (1871)
The author’s second book of nonsense includes The Owl and the Pussy-cat. Read for free online at Internet Archive.
Nonsensus: Cross-Referencing Edward Lear’s Book of Nonsense (1988)
The first three editions of A Book of Nonsense are compared to the various original manuscripts. Includes a census of the then-known copies of the two-volume first edition.
The Owl and the Pussy Cat (1961)
The Owl and the Pussy-Cat set out to sea with some honey and plenty of money, but where is the ring and the runcible spoon?
The Owl and the Pussy-Cat and Other Nonsense Poems (1995)
The Owl and the Pussy-Cat went to sea in a beautiful pea-green boat. Here they are accompanied by many of the delightful Lear Limericks and some of the longer nonsense poems.
The Owl and the Pussycat (1991)
The Owl and the Pussycat put to sea again, with honey and money and a runcible spoon.
Read online at archive.org.
The Owl and the Pussycat (1991)
The Owl and the Pussycat went to sea,
In a beautiful pea green boat.
The Pelican Chorus and Other Verses (1899)
A collection of nonsense poems. Read for free online at Internet Archive.
The Quangle Wangle’s Hat (1969)
The Quangle Wangle lives in the top of the Crumpetty tree.
Queery Leary Nonsense: A Lear Nonsense Book (1911)
A new collection of Lear drawings and poems. Read for free online at DigiNole.
Rhymes of Nonsense: An Alphabet (1968)
This alphabet was written around 1862 and is here first published in facsimile.
The Scroobious Pip (1968)
The Scroobious Pip went out one day
When the grass was green and the sky was gray.
Then all the beasts in the world came round
When the Scroobious Pip sat down on the ground.
Read online at archive.org.
Ogden Nash
Sung Under the Silver Umbrella (1935)
An anthology of poems.
Read online at archive.org.
Rachel Field
Edward Lear
Hugh Lofting
Laura E. Richards
Robert Louis Stevenson
Et al
Teapots and Quails, and Other New Nonsense (1953)
New nonsense from the master, taken from his unpublished works.