A BOOK OF NONSENSE: with many new pictures and verses

LEAR (Edward)

A BOOK OF NONSENSE with many new pictures and verses

London: Routledge, Warne and Routledge, [1862].

Oblong 8vo., [ii] 112 ff. (the final leaf unpaginated); printed pictorial boards (a bit worn and scuffed), red cloth spine rebacked following the original format.

Third Edition, but in actuality the FIRST ENLARGED PRINTING

First appearance of Edward Lear's unique woodcut illustrations, most of which are based on his earlier lithographs from 1846

Edward Lear was an English writer and artist. The youngest child in a large family, he received little formal education, and was looked after by his eldest sister until he found success as an illustrator, publishing a folio of parrot lithographs. He later honed his untrained style at the Royal Academy and became a popular landscape painter. Lear was a constant traveller, chiefly in the Mediterranean and Middle East regions, and published numerous travel books, usually generously illustrated. He is certainly best known for his nonsense verse and limericks, starting with A Book of Nonsense in 1846, which was based on poems and stories he invented for the Earl of Derby's grandchildren, and which has never been out of print.
Three of the original limericks from the privately printed lithographed versions are here suppressed (Compton, Kildare and New York) and never again republished in the author's lifetime; however 43 new nonsense poems are included with the remaining 70 others totaling 113 designs, the final page unnumbered. It is this format and collection that continued to reprint into the start of the 20th century.