Edward Lear

1812-1888. British Author.

Life

Edward Lear was born in London in 1812 and died in San Remo (Italy) in 1888. He was the youngest son of Ann Skerrett and Jeremiah Lear, a middle-class family. When his father, a stockbroker, got into financial trouble his mother charged her eldest daughter Ann to take care of her younger brother Edward. From then on the young woman took on the mother's role and even after financial stability had returned Edward's mother didn't resume her mother's role. Lear early showed a talent for painting and drawing. Therefore he dedicated himself to draw illustrations for natural history books. In 1832 the Illustrations of the Family of Psittacidae was published. A collection of coloured lithographies of parrots. Due to his paintings Edward Stanley, the later 13th Earl of Derby, engaged him as an animal painter at his estate. Later on, when his eyesight got worse, Lear traveled to Rome to do a painting course and to achieve reputation as a landscape painter. However, with his paintings he never had the success he hoped for.

Although he published a collection of some of his limericks which he originally wrote to entertain the children and later also the adults at Edward Stanley's estate. He published his nonsense verses with his own illustrations in A Book of Nonsense(1846),one of his most important works. Apart from his poems he wrote some travel books on Italy (1846-75) and other countries he visited as a lonely traveler, e.g Journals of a Landscape Painter in Albania (1851). Although having loyal friendships, amongst others with Alfred Tennyson, Edward Lear often felt isolated and unhappy since he was rejected by the ones he really loved. He developed homosexual feelings for his good friend and travel companion Franklin Lushington. However, these feelings weren't mutual. Another failed intent to gain someone's love was with a young women named Augusta Bethell of London. Lear wanted to propose to his long-term friend and consulted her sister about his idea. Augusta's sister advised him against proposing. Thus, Lear did never marry although Augusta would have agreed to his proposal. His emotions are reflected in some of his poems, in which the characters also suffer from loss and isolation from society.

Nonsense poetry

Although Edward Lear wished to become famous for his paintings rather than for his nonsense poetry, he is still today associated with a special type of poetry: the Limerick.

         There was an Old Man with a gong,
         Who bumped at it all the day long,
         But they calles out, "O law!
         You're a horrid old bore!"
         So they smashed that Old Man with a gong.
        [1]

         There was an Old Person whose habits,
         Induced him to feed upon Rabbits;
         When he'd eaten eighteen,
         He turned perfectly green,
         Upon which he relinquished those habits.[ebd.]    
          

In his Limericks Lear often broaches the issue of bad eating habits which finally lead to the punishment of the character. In his later career as a writer Lear wrote longer poems, published in Nonsense Songs (1870). One of the most familiar poems is "The Owl and the Pussy-cat". In these poems there are no human protagonists and Lear usually invented nonsense creatures or unreal places with funny names. Other representatives of nonsense literature in a similar manner were Lewis Carroll and Thomas Hood.

Today one can find a collection of Edward Lear's verses and tales in The Complete Verse and Other Nonsense(Penguin,2002).

Sources

http://www.gutenberg.org/files/982/982-h/982-h.htm http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/edward-lear

Coote, Stephen: The Penguin Short History of English Literature. Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1993.

Nowak, Helge: Literature in Britain and Ireland.A History. Tübingen: Francke, 2010.

The Cambridge History of English Poetry. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 2010.