Edward Lear facts for kids

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Quick facts for kids Edward Lear
Edward Lear in 1866
Born	(1812-05-12)12 May 1812 Holloway, Middlesex, England
Died	29 January 1888(1888-01-29) (aged 75) Sanremo, Liguria, Italy
Occupation	Artist, illustrator, writer, poet and musician.
Language	English
Nationality	British
Citizenship	British, Italian
Period	19th century
Genre	Children's literature, literary nonsense and limericks.
Notable works	The Book of Nonsense, The Owl and the Pussycat

Edward Lear (born May 12, 1812, died January 29, 1888) was a talented English artist, illustrator, musician, author, and poet. He is best known today for his funny and imaginative "literary nonsense" works, especially his short, humorous poems called limericks. He helped make limericks very popular.

As an artist, Lear did three main things:

He drew birds and animals for scientific books.
He made colorful drawings during his travels, which he later turned into paintings or book illustrations.
He also illustrated some poems by the famous poet Alfred, Lord Tennyson.

As a writer, he is famous for his popular collections of nonsense poems, songs, short stories, and even silly recipes and alphabets. He also wrote music for twelve of Tennyson's poems.

Edward Lear's Life Story
Edward Lear as an Author
Works by Edward Lear
Illustrations
See also

Edward Lear's Life Story

Early Years and Challenges

Lear drawn by Wilhelm Marstrand

Edward Lear was born in Holloway, North London, into a middle-class family. He was the second to last of 21 children. His father, Jeremiah Lear, was a stockbroker. Edward was mostly raised by his oldest sister, Ann, who was 21 years older than him. When Edward was four, his family faced money problems, so he and Ann had to move out of their family home. Ann was like a mother to him and cared for him until she passed away when he was nearly 50.

Lear had health problems throughout his life. From age six, he often had epileptic seizures, a condition that made him feel ashamed. He also suffered from bronchitis and asthma. Later in life, he even lost some of his eyesight. When he was about seven, he started having periods of deep sadness, which he called "the Morbids." This might have been because his childhood was not very stable.

Becoming a Talented Artist

Masada on the Dead Sea, Edward Lear, 1858

By the time he was 16, Lear was already drawing to earn money. He quickly became a serious artist who drew birds. He worked for the Zoological Society and then for the Earl of Derby, who had a private collection of animals. Lear was special because he was one of the first major bird artists to draw birds while they were alive, not just from stuffed specimens.

When he was just 19, Lear published his first book, Illustrations of the Family of Psittacidae, or Parrots in 1830. He was considered one of the best bird artists of his time. He even taught Elizabeth Gould and helped her husband, John Gould, with his famous bird books.

Later, his eyesight became too weak for the very detailed drawings needed for bird illustrations. So, he started painting landscapes and traveling. He visited places like Greece, Egypt, and India. During his travels, he made many colorful drawings. He would then turn these into oil or watercolour paintings in his studio. His landscape paintings often showed bright sunlight and strong colors.

Lear continued to paint seriously throughout his life. He always wanted to illustrate Tennyson's poems, and a book with some of his illustrations was published near the end of his life.

Travels in Italy

Temple of Venus and Roma, Rome

Painting of Celano

In 1842, Lear began a trip through Italy. He traveled through many regions, including Lazio, Rome, and Abruzzo. In his personal notes and drawings, Lear wrote about Italian life, local traditions, and beautiful old buildings. He was especially interested in the Abruzzo region, which he visited in 1843. He drew sketches of medieval villages and described places like Celano, with its castle overlooking a large plain.

Musician and Composer

Lear in 1887, a year before his death. His arm was bent as he was holding his cat, Foss, who leapt away.

Edward Lear mainly played the piano, but he also enjoyed the accordion, flute, and a small guitar. He wrote music for many poems from the Romantic and Victorian eras. He was most famous for setting Tennyson's poems to music. Tennyson himself approved of Lear's musical versions, which was a great honor.

Lear also wrote music for many of his own nonsense songs, like "The Owl and the Pussy-cat." Sadly, only two of these musical scores have survived. Even though he never played music professionally, he often performed his nonsense songs and his settings of other poets' works at social gatherings.

Friendships and Companions

Lear had a very close friendship with Franklin Lushington, a young lawyer he met in Malta in 1849. Lear felt a strong connection to him, though Lushington didn't feel the same way. They remained friends for nearly 40 years, but Lear was often sad because his feelings were not fully returned.

Lear never married. Instead, he relied on his friends and people he wrote letters to for companionship. Later in his life, his Albanian chef, Giorgis, became a faithful friend, even if Lear joked that he wasn't a very good cook! Another important companion in San Remo was his cat, Foss, who passed away in 1886 and was buried in Lear's garden.

Later Life and Passing

Lear traveled a lot during his life. In the 1870s, he settled in San Remo, a town on the beautiful Mediterranean coast. He named his villa "Villa Tennyson."

Lear was known for introducing himself with very long, silly fake names, like "Mr Abebika kratoponoko Prizzikalo Kattefello Ablegorabalus Ableborinto phashyph."

Lear's grave in San Remo, Italy.

After a long period of declining health, Edward Lear passed away at his villa in 1888 from heart disease. His funeral was described as a quiet and lonely event, as many of his friends could not attend.

Lear is buried in the Cemetery Foce in San Remo, Italy. On his gravestone are lines from a poem Tennyson wrote about him, mentioning how Lear's art could make distant places feel real:

all things fair.
With such a pencil, such a pen.
You shadow'd forth to distant men,
I read and felt that I was there.

In 1988, 100 years after his death, Britain honored him with special stamps and an exhibition. His birthplace in London is marked with a plaque. In 2012, his 200th birthday was celebrated with events and exhibitions around the world, including an "International Owl and Pussycat Day."

Edward Lear as an Author

Edward Lear sketches dated 15 May 1864, from Paddy Leigh Fermor's collection.

Howatke, by Edward Lear, 1867

In 1846, Lear published A Book of Nonsense, a collection of limericks. This book was very popular and helped make limericks and the idea of "literary nonsense" famous. In 1871, he published Nonsense Songs, Stories, Botany and Alphabets, which included his most famous nonsense song, The Owl and the Pussycat. He wrote this song for the children of his friend, the Earl of Derby. Many other works followed.

Lear's nonsense books were very popular during his lifetime. Some people even thought that "Edward Lear" was just a fake name, and that the Earl of Derby was the real author. They pointed out that both men were named Edward, and "Lear" is an anagram (a word made by rearranging letters) of "Earl."

The falls of the Kalama, Albania 1851

Lear's nonsense writings are special because he loved to invent words and play with sounds. He created funny words like "diaphanous doorscraper" and "blue Boss-Woss." His characters had silly names like Quangle-Wangles, Pobbles, and Jumblies. One of his most famous made-up words is "runcible spoon," which appears in "The Owl and the Pussycat" and is now in many English dictionaries:

They dined on mince and slices of quince,
    Which they ate with a runcible spoon;
And hand in hand, on the edge of the sand
    They danced by the light of the moon,
                The moon,
                The moon,
    They danced by the light of the moon.

Lear also used other tricks in his writing to surprise readers. For example, his poem "Cold Are the Crabs" starts like a serious poem but ends very suddenly and comically.

1862ca-a-book-of-nonsense--edward-lear-001

A Book of Nonsense (c. 1875 James Miller edition) by Edward Lear

Today, limericks are usually written in five lines. However, Lear published his limericks in different ways, sometimes in two, three, or five lines, depending on how much space there was under the picture.

In Lear's limericks, the first and last lines often end with the same word, rather than just rhyming. They are usually truly nonsensical and don't have a clear punchline. They are also not rude or inappropriate, unlike some limericks today. Here's a typical Lear limerick:

There was an Old Man of Aôsta
Who possessed a large Cow, but he lost her;
But they said, "Don't you see she has run up a tree,
You invidious Old Man of Aôsta?"

Lear's poem about himself, How Pleasant to know Mr. Lear, ends with these lines, which mention his own life journey: