Picture of author.

Edward Lear (1812–1888)

Author of The Owl and the Pussycat (Jan Brett)

300+ Works 9,612 Members 209 Reviews 13 Favorited

About the Author

Edward Lear was born in Holloway, England, to Jeremiah (a stockbroker) and Ann Lear, tutored at home by his sister, and briefly attended the Royal Academy schools. Both an author and an illustrator, he earned his living as an artist from the age of 15, mainly by doing landscapes. What he is show more remembered for is his nonsense books, especially his popularization of the limerick. Along with Lewis Carroll, he is considered to be the founder of nonsense poetry. In addition to his limericks, he created longer nonsense poems. The best---and best known---is The Jumblies, in which the title characters go to sea in a sieve; it is a brilliant, profound, silly, and sad expression of the need to leave the security of the known world and experience the wonder and danger of the unknown. His other most notable work is The Owl and the Pussy Cat, a less complex poem whose title characters also go to sea. Lear produced humorous alphabets and botany books as well. His wordplay, involving puns, neologisms, portmanteau words, and anticlimax, retains its vitality today and has influenced such contemporary writers of children's nonsense verse as Shel Silverstein, Ogden Nash, and Laura Richards (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Image credit: Engraved by Andrew from a photograph taken in San Remo, by Roncarolo.

Works by Edward Lear

A Was Once an Apple Pie (1992) 888 copies
A Book of Nonsense (1846) 676 copies
An Edward Lear Alphabet (1952) 247 copies
The Owl and the Pussy-Cat (1870) 229 copies
The Quangle Wangle's Hat (1876) 220 copies
The Jumblies (1968) 207 copies
Nonsense Poems (1994) 128 copies
Nonsense Songs (1907) 122 copies
The Scroobious Pip (1776) 101 copies
The Owl and the Pussycat (1991) 78 copies
Nonsense Songs and Stories (1984) 45 copies
The Pobble Who Has No Toes (1968) 42 copies
Gorey x 3 (1953) — Author — 41 copies
Owls and Pussycats (1988) 39 copies
Nonsense! (1998) 38 copies
The Duck and the Kangaroo (2009) 28 copies
Edward Lear : selected letters (1988) — Author; Author — 24 copies
Teapots and Quails (1953) 24 copies
The Owl and the Pussycat (2008) 22 copies
ABC (1986) 21 copies
The New Vestments (1970) 17 copies
Il libro dei nonsense (1970) 17 copies
Limericks (1965) 16 copies
Of Pelicans and Pussycats (1990) 16 copies
Whizz! (1973) 15 copies
Nonsense Alphabets (1975) 15 copies
A Book of Learned Nonsense (1987) 13 copies
The Family of Parrots (1997) 13 copies
Laughable Lyrics (2008) 12 copies
The Cretan journal (1984) 12 copies
More Nonsense (2008) 11 copies
A Book of Lear (1939) 11 copies
The Poetry of Edward Lear (2019) 11 copies
Two Laughable Lyrics (1966) 9 copies
Lear's Nonsense Verses (1967) 9 copies
The Two Old Bachelors (1962) 8 copies
For Lovers of Cats (1978) 8 copies
So Much Nonsense (2007) 6 copies
Sämtliche Limericks. (1988) 5 copies
Nonsense Book (1956) 4 copies
Nonsense Alphabet Gb (1973) 4 copies
Edward Lear's Cats (2020) 3 copies
Edward Lear's Tennyson (1988) 3 copies
Fabuleario (1993) 3 copies
Bosh and Nonsense (1982) 3 copies
The Book of Nonsense (2015) 2 copies
Edward Lear in Corsica (1966) 2 copies
a book of limericks (2015) 2 copies
El Omnibus, Sin Sentido (1972) 2 copies
Calico Pie 2 copies
bon appétit ! (2007) 2 copies
Disparatario (2002) 2 copies
Kniga bez smysla (2007) 1 copy
Sverchok na nosu (2017) 1 copy
Phantastische Reise (1973) 1 copy
Learicks 1 copy
Limerickar (2022) 1 copy
Un livre a-sensé (2009) 1 copy
A Bit of Nonsense (2005) 1 copy
BUHO Y LA GATITA EL (1997) 1 copy
Poèmes sans sens (1993) 1 copy
Nonsense Verses (2019) 1 copy
NONSENSE SONGS. (1939) 1 copy
Nonsense Songs (1965) 1 copy

Associated Works

Eric Carle's Animals Animals (1989) — Contributor — 2,173 copies
Favorite Poems of Childhood (1992) — Contributor — 810 copies
The Nation's Favourite Poems (1996) — some editions — 622 copies
The Best Loved Poems of Jacqueline Kennedy-Onassis (2001) — Contributor — 545 copies
A Treasury of the World's Best Loved Poems (1961) — Contributor — 524 copies
The Mammoth Book of Comic Fantasy (1998) — Contributor, some editions — 502 copies
A Pocket Book of Modern Verse (1954) — Contributor, some editions — 443 copies
In the Nursery (1932) — Contributor — 285 copies
The Lure of the Limerick (1964) — Illustrator — 271 copies
The Literary Cat (1977) — Contributor — 241 copies
Best Remembered Poems (1992) — Contributor — 157 copies
Mr Lear: A Life of Art and Nonsense (2017) — Illustrator — 153 copies
The Faber Book of Beasts (1997) — Contributor — 140 copies
Poems of Early Childhood (Childcraft) (1923) — Contributor — 118 copies
The Standard Book of British and American Verse (1932) — Contributor — 114 copies
Best in Children's Books 17 (1959) 76 copies
The Everyman Anthology of Poetry for Children (1994) — Contributor — 72 copies
Best in Children's Books 03 (1957) 67 copies
Best in Children's Books 38 (1960) 66 copies
The Mammoth Book of Fairy Tales (1997) — Contributor — 62 copies
The Nile: The Blue Nile & The White Nile (1966) — Cover artist — 49 copies
A Golden Land (1958) — Contributor; Illustrator — 42 copies
366 Goodnight Stories (1963) — Contributor — 36 copies
A Book of Nonsense (1956) — Contributor — 34 copies
Art for Children (Childcraft) (1954) — Illustrator — 33 copies
Journeys Through Bookland - Volume I (1909) — Author, some editions — 30 copies
A Book of Nonsense (1927) — Contributor — 30 copies
100 Story Poems (1951) — Contributor — 20 copies
Bright Red (1994) — Composer — 15 copies
Poems of Magic and Spells (1960) — Contributor — 14 copies
Graphic Classics: Canine/Feline Classics (2014) — Contributor — 12 copies
Cricket Magazine, Vol. 2, No. 3, November 1974 (1974) — Contributor — 5 copies
Cats: Fifteen Complete Stories and Poems (1998) — Contributor — 5 copies
Galaxy (1970) — Contributor — 3 copies
Edward Lear (Holloway 1812-Sanremo 1888) — Photographer — 1 copy
Eureka: Poetry and criticism, March 1974, vol.6 no.3 (1974) — Contributor — 1 copy

Tagged

19th century (82) ABC (120) alphabet (203) animals (462) anthology (534) art (79) cats (187) children (224) children's (416) children's books (63) children's literature (132) children's poetry (68) classics (83) collection (68) collection:Fiction (67) Edward Lear (61) English literature (66) Eric Carle (86) fairy tales (57) fantasy (189) fiction (555) graphic novel (55) hardcover (89) humor (481) illustrated (83) limericks (102) literature (233) non-fiction (113) nonsense (141) nursery rhymes (104) owls (65) picture book (407) poems (137) poetry (3,075) read (70) rhyme (70) rhyming (104) shelf:Fiction (67) short stories (117) to-read (244)

Common Knowledge

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Reviews

Edward Lear almost never fails to put a smile on my face. Though, his recipes are rather vicious...

"When the paste is perfectly dry, but not before, proceed to beat the Pig violently, with the handle of a large broom. If he squeals, beat him again." - Quote from TO MAKE GOSKY PATTIES
 
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eurydactyl | 18 other reviews | Jul 20, 2023 |
A delightful book of nonsensical poems. Many will probably know of The Owl and the Pussy Cat, given that the poem was given beautiful illustrations by Jan Brett (although the illustrations in this book are lovely as well. The poems in the book have a wonderful singsong quality to them that makes them fun to read and I think would delight kids. The only issue is that the book does show its age some with depictions of POC. It's only one poem, but the depiction was a bit insensitive for my taste. Overall, most of the poems are fun to read and have a sense of adventure to them. An additional bonus is that you can read it for free on Project Gutenburg!… (more)
 
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AvidLearner | 2 other reviews | Jul 4, 2023 |
It is the illustrations that make me love this version best.
 
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Eurekas | 6 other reviews | Apr 12, 2023 |
Many of the Limericks are fun, notably those featuring Birds,

but this is not a book for kids or sensitive adults = too much violence, Killing, death, and animal cruelty.
 
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m.belljackson | 18 other reviews | Oct 19, 2022 |

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Statistics

Works
300
Also by
50
Members
9,612
Popularity
#2,494
Rating
3.9
Reviews
209
ISBNs
602
Languages
19
Favorited
13

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