Mr. Lear: A Life of Art and Nonsense
by: Uglow, Jenny

Hardcover. NY, Farrar Straus Giroux, 1st US, 2018, Book: Very Good, Dust Jacket: Very Good, Hardcover in a bright, unclipped dust jacket, 598 pages, b&w and color illustrations. In 1827 the young Edward Lear (1812-1888) began to draw 'for bread and cheese'; later he became a renowned wildlife and landscape artist and, later still, the author of the famous limericks and songs. Reproducing many of his paintings and drawings, Jenny Uglow's critically acclaimed biography describes Lear the artist, traveler, writer of nonsense verse and self-appointed exile, and aims to discover 'how the layers are laid down, how they overlap and twist like strata' in a strange contradictory life of art and nonsense. Clean copy.