Edward Lear (1812–1888) was an English artist and writer of nonsense verse, who made the limerick popular with A Book of Nonsense in 1846. Author of The Owl and the Pussy-cat and The Jumblies, he was also a gifted painter of birds and landscapes, who travelled throughout the Mediterranean and India.
Works
A Book of Nonsense, Nonsense Songs, Stories, Botany, and Alphabets
The twentieth child
Edward Lear was born in 1812 in Holloway, near London, the twentieth of twenty-one children of a stockbroker. When his father fell into financial difficulties, Edward was brought up by his eldest sister Ann. He suffered all his life from epilepsy, which he kept secret, as well as asthma and depression.
He began earning a living at fifteen by drawing. His beautiful coloured illustrations of parrots, published when he was nineteen, made him one of the best bird painters of his time.
Knowsley and the limericks
In 1832 the Earl of Derby invited Lear to draw the animals in his private menagerie at Knowsley Hall, near Liverpool. There he entertained the earl's grandchildren with comic verses and drawings, which he published in 1846 as A Book of Nonsense.
The book, with its limericks, five-line poems about absurd characters, became hugely popular and was reprinted many times. Lear went on to write longer nonsense songs and stories, such as The Owl and the Pussy-cat, The Jumblies and The Dong with a Luminous Nose.
The wandering painter
From 1837 Lear lived mostly abroad for his health, travelling in Italy, Greece, Albania, Egypt, Palestine and India, and publishing illustrated travel journals. In 1846 he gave drawing lessons to Queen Victoria.
He settled in San Remo, on the Italian Riviera, where he built a villa and lived with his beloved cat Foss. He never married. He died in San Remo in 1888, and was buried there.
Anecdotes
Foss the cat
Lear was so attached to his tabby cat Foss that when he moved to a new villa in San Remo, he had it built exactly like the old one so that the cat would not be disturbed. He drew Foss many times, and buried him in the garden in 1887 with a stone recording his age.
Runcible
Lear loved invented words. The runcible spoon with which the Owl and the Pussy-cat eat their mince and quince has puzzled readers for more than a century. The word has since been adopted by dictionaries for a kind of curved fork.
Frequently asked questions
What is a limerick?
A five-line comic poem with the rhyme scheme AABBA, usually about an absurd character, which Edward Lear popularised in A Book of Nonsense.
What are Edward Lear's most famous works?
A Book of Nonsense (1846), The Owl and the Pussy-cat, The Jumblies and The Dong with a Luminous Nose.
Was Edward Lear a painter?
Yes. He was a highly skilled painter of birds and landscapes, and even gave drawing lessons to Queen Victoria.