The English writer and artist Edward Lear (1812-1888) achieved fame as a lithographer, landscape artist, and author and illustrator of numerous travel books. He is now remembered, however, for his five volumes of nonsense poetry and prose. Edward Lear...

In a small cemetery in San Remo, Italy, Edward Lear's gravestone reads simply: "LANDSCAPE PAINTER IN MANY LANDS;" and, indeed, this description epitomizes Lear's view of himself. Others remember him principally for his nonsense poetry, occasionally for...

Edward Lear's illustrated nonsense verse, narratives, alphabets, and botanies are early and central examples of a type of literature for children that endures because it conveys humorous, vigorous, and accessible images of a skewed reality. Known as...

EDWARD LEAR. By Peter Levi. Macmillan; 362 pages; Pounds 20 HOW pleasant to know Mr Lear! Who has written such volumes of stuff! Some think him ill-tempered and queer, but a few think him pleasant enough." It may come as a surprise...

LEAR. Selected Letters, edited by Vivien Noakes. Oxford University Press. 325 pp. $29.95. "A LIFE LIVED BACKWARDS," read The Times Literary Supplement headline on a review of this book, the first edition of Edward Lear's letters since 1907. The phrase is apt. The...

The trend seems as plain as the nose on your child's face, or an arrow through your head. There's Madonna, Billy Crystal and Jamie Lee Curtis. And Jerry Seinfeld. And John Lithgow. And Katie Couric.All celebrities. All parents. All authors of children's books.Now Steve Martin...