Edward Lear

The British poet and painter known for his absurd wit, Edward Lear was born in 1812 and began his career as an artist at age 15. His first book of poems, A Book of Nonsense (1846) was composed for the grandchildren of the Derby household. Around 1836 Lear decided to devote himself exclusively to landscape painting (although he continued to compose light verse).

Lear's travel journals were published in several volumes as The Illustrated Travels of a Landscape Painter. Popular and respected in his day, Lear's travel books have largely been ignored in the twentieth century. Rather, Lear is remembered for his humorous poems, such as 'The Owl and the Pussycat,' and as the creator of the form and meter of the modern limerick.

Like his younger peer Lewis Carroll, Lear wrote many deeply fantastical poems about imaginary creatures, such as 'The Dong with the Luminous Nose.' His books of humorous verse also include Nonsense Songs (1871) and Laughable Lyrics (1877). Lear died in 1888 at the age of 76.