early nonsense books are not readily accessible as most of them were very properly used up, or eaten up, by the children for whom they were written. The original editions of The Book of Nonsense (1846), as well as Nonsense Songs, Stories, Botany and Alphabets (1871), MoreNonsense (1872) and Laughable Lyrics (1877), are all scarce. It is easier to find a First FolioShakespeare than a first edition of The Book of Nonsense: even the British Museum Library has to content itself with a copy of the third edition (1861). The popularity of that book has been continuous and progressive for a hundred years. During the author’s lifetime there were manyeditions, and scarcely a year has since passed without a reprint.
I am obliged to Mr. George Macy of New York for the courtesy of permission to use as the basis of this Introduction the study of Edward Lear written originally for his bibliographical review, The Dolphin, and I am indebted to the following sources for biographical details: The Letters of Edward Lear (1907) and Late Letters of Edward Lear (1911), both edited by Lady Strachey; Mr. Angus Davidson’s Edward Lear: Landscape Painter and Nonsense Poet (1938); and Edward Lear on My Shelves, the monumental folio by which Mr. William B. Osgood Field, the distinguished American bibliophile, has celebrated Edward Lear and his own unique collection of Lear manuscripts and first editions.
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