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...

Vivien Noakes fittingly subtitled her biography of Edward Lear The Life of a Wanderer. On a literal level the phrase refers to Lear's constant traveling as a self-proclaimed "dirty landscape painter" from 1837 until he finally settled at his Villa...

Victorian author and artist Edward Lear possessed "an odd, maybe a unique genius," wrote Roger Lancelyn Green in Tellers of Tales: British Authors of Children's Books from 1800 to 1964. Lear's nonsense verse and limericks, especially his classic The...

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...