Authors

British · 1812–1888

Edward Lear

Edward Lear was a British artist, illustrator, and author who invented the modern literary limerick and pioneered English nonsense literature. He began his career as a natural history illustrator — his drawings of parrots for the Zoological Society of London are still celebrated — and gave drawing lessons to Queen Victoria. His Books of Nonsense (1846 onward) and longer poems including 'The Owl and the Pussycat' and 'The Dong with a Luminous Nose' established the nonsense poem as a serious literary form. He suffered from epilepsy, depression, and bronchitis throughout his life.