
” Children swarmed to him like settlers. He became a l&.” W.H. Auden Edward Lear
- beloved nonsense poet, author of such adored poems as The Owl & the Pussycat, inventor of otherworldly characters like Quangle Wangles & of the modern limerick; lauded artist & illustrator
- was a genius who defies classification. Gregarious & popular, Lear had a wide circle of friends, but was often lonely & subject to frequent bouts of depression & debilitating epilepsy, the shame of which he struggled with all his life. In this captivating biography, fellow poet Peter Levi renders descriptions of Lear`s sketches & watercolours (of which he painted some 10, 000 in the course of his career) & provides incisive portraits of his classic poems, such as ` The Jumblies`, ` The Owl & the Pussycat` & ` The Yonghy-Bonghy-Bo`, setting them in the wider context of traditional nursery rhymes. Lear belonged to the great tradition of adventurous British travellers, undertaking extensive journeys in Italy & Greece, in Albania, Turkey, Egypt, Palestine & India & these always-eventful journeys are related here, alongside extracts "ations from his letters & diaries
- an essential biography for all lovers of this remarkable British literary figure & now recognised as one of the greatest nineteenth-century landscape painters.