A BOOK OF NONSENSE
Second edition — in the rare presentation variant of the original wrappers — of the greatest of silly books.
Very good.
Price: $15,000.00
A BOOK OF NONSENSE
"His people exist nowhere else in literature. Some are gentle, some are violent, some are musical, some are wild. [...] Even when they are peaceful [...] they are exceedingly strange" — Jenny Uglow
Painter of birds, landscape artist, drawing tutor to Queen Victoria, Edward Lear was a talented and versatile artist. While he didn't invent the limerick form, his self-financed A BOOK OF NONSENSE established it decisively outside its traditional oral form, inaugurating "the arrival of a new literary genre" (Schiller, v). His limericks were funny, surprising, and a bit naughty. Lear's unapologetic embrace of the absurd was an important moment in the growing acceptance that children preferred simply fun reading material over the simply didactic, a philosophy that has led to some of the best children's books since: ALICE'S ADVENTURES IN WONDERLAND by Lewis Carroll, WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE by Maurice Sendak, WHERE THE SIDEWALK ENDS by Shel Silverstein, and more.
Only this edition (the first one-volume edition) and the first edition (in two volumes) were printed using lithography and bound gutta percha (using a rubber solution rather than sewing together the leaves). Copies in wrappers are rare, as in "most 19th century books so bound the rubber has perished" (Carter, ABC). The Morgan Library adds that "the adhesive encouraged the leaves to depart easily" (#215). This was the last edition before the one traditionally labeled the first "trade" edition in 1862, which brought the book to a wider audience. A landmark in the history of children's books, bringing reason to literacy by means of nonsense.
Read more: Morgan Library, Early Children's Books and Their Illustration; Loker, One Hundred Books Famous in Children's Literature (Grolier); Schiller, Nonsensus; Uglow, Mr. Lear: A Life of Art and Nonsense; Carter, "Gutta-Percha (or Caoutchouc) Binding,"ABC for Book Collectors.
The Object
n.p. [London]: n.p. [Thomas McLean], n.d. [1855]. 5.5'' x 8''. Original cloth-backed pictorial wrappers, bound gutta percha as issued. Illustrated with title and 72 lithographic plates by Lear. Spine/hinges subtly and expertly repaired. Presentation variant of wrappers, printed without "New Edition" or publication details, but with "To" added (in print) for Lear to fill out (in manuscript): this copy left blank. Clumsy alignment to printed text of "Cape Horn"; last line of "Calcutta" cropped. Foxing to wrappers and margins of leaves, corners with tiny chips. Leaves with a couple small stains, small pencil plate counts to corners.
The Fine Print
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