Lear, Edward

(1812-1888)

   One of a large family, he was born in Highgate, London, the son of a stockbroker, and earned his living as a zoological draftsman and water colorist of the highest order. While making illustrations of the earl of Derby's private menagerie at Knowsley, Lancashire, he produced for the earl's grandchildren A Book of Nonsense (1846) for which he became famous. Although he suffered from epilepsy and depression, he traveled widely, making sketches all the way, turning them into carefully finished watercolors and large oil paintings. The last few years of his life were spent at San Remo, on the Italian Riviera, where he died and was buried. He published three volumes of bird and animal drawings, seven illustrated travel books and three more books of nonsense. Among his publications: Nonsense Songs, Stories, Botany, and Alphabets, 1871. More Nonsense, Pictures, Rhymes, Botany, etc., 1872. Laughable Lyrics, 1877. Queery Leary Nonsense, 1911. Some of his poems: "Ribands and Pigs," "Rice and Mice," "The Owl and the Pussy Cat," "The Table and the Chair," "The Two Old Bachelors," "The Young Lady of Tyre," "Turkey Discipline."

   Sources: Dictionary of National Biography. Electronic Edition 1.1. Oxford University Press, 1997. Encyclopædia Britannica Ultimate Reference Suite DVD, 2006. The National Portrait Gallery (www.npg.org.uk). Shrieks at Midnight: Macabre Poems, Eerie and Humorous. Sara Brewton and John E. Brewton, eds. Thomas Y. Crowell, 1969. The Columbia Granger's Index to Poetry. 11th ed. The Columbia Granger's World of Poetry, Columbia University Press, 2005 (http://www.columbiagrangers.org). The Complete Verse and Other Nonsense of Edward Lear. Vivien Noakes, ed. Penguin Books, 2001. The Oxford Companion to English Literature. 6th edition. Margaret Drabble, ed. Oxford University Press, 2000. The Rattle Bag: An Anthology of Poetry. Seamus Heaney and Ted Hughes, eds. Faber and Faber, 1982. Westminster Abbey Official Guide (no date).