Sunday Times E-Paper

The Owl and the Pussycat

Primaryfacts.com

The English humorist Edward Lear made famous the limerick form of verse and illustrated his work with amusing pictures.

The gentle, friendly man was always fond of children, and most of his writing was done for their pleasure.

Edward Lear was born on May 12, 1812 in Holloway in Middlesex, England. He was the youngest surviving child of the 21 children of Ann and Jeremiah Lear (his parents).

He was raised by his sister, Ann, who was 21 years older than him. When he was four years old, he left the family home and lived with his sister.

Edward Lear was often unwell. From the age of six he suffered from asthma and epileptic seizures. Later in life, he became partially blind, and battled severe depression.

In his teens, Edward Lear was becoming an accomplished artist. He got a job as a draughtsman by the Zoological Society.

In the early 1830s, he was employed by the Earl of Derby to produce drawings of the birds and animals in his private menagerie.

When he was 19, his iIllustrations of the Family of Psittacidae, or Parrots, was published in 1830.

He became one of the best ornithological (bird) artists of his generation.

He also painted landscapes, especially during his travels. He visited Italy, Greece and Egypt, and he often spent his summers on Monte Generoso on the Swiss / Italian border.

He also visited India and Ceylon

(as Sri Lanka was then known).

Lear was an excellent musician. He played flute, accordion, guitar and the piano. He composed music for poems – his own, and for the works of famous Victorian poets.

In 1846, Lear’s ‘A Book of Nonsense’ was published. In 1871, his ‘Nonsense Songs, Stories, Botany and Alphabets’ was published. This book included his most famous work, ‘The Owl and the Pussycat.’

Edward Lear is often credited with popularising the limerick. He created the word ‘runcible’, but nobody is sure what it means! He started to write a follow-up to ‘The Owl and the Pussycat’, called ‘The Children of the Owl and the Pussycat’, but he didn’t get to complete it before his death.

He was friends with Alfred Lord Tennyson, and set some of his poems to music.

Towards the end of his life, Edward Lear settled in San Remo, in Italy. In 1888, he died of heart disease at his villa. He is buried in the Cemetery Foce in San Remo.

In 1988, to mark the centenary of Edward Lear’s death, the Royal Mail produced a set of commemorative stamps in the UK.

AFTER DARK

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