A Blog of Bosh

I did not know that orecchio acerbo, who published my Italian translation of Peter Newell’s Slant Book last year, had also produced a short booktrailer which you can see on YouTube:

You can also download a pdf of the Italian edition of the whole book from orecchio acerbo’s site.

No. 1
“It seems to me it orter work,”
Said Farmer Hiram Beggs,
“By feeding Hens on Easter dyes
To deckerate their eggs.”
No. 2
And sure enough for several days
The eggs were many-hued
With stranger markings on the shells
Than Beggs had ever viewed.
No. 3
He peddled them about the town
And found a brisk demand.
He sold a dozen lovely ones
To Mrs. Cyrus Bland.
No. [...]

In the second half of the nineteenth century the west shows a sudden interest in images that can be seen upside down. There are several examples, the most famous being probably Peter Newell’s Topsys and Turvys (New York: The Century Co., 1893), followed by a second volume in 1894, and Gustave Verbeek’s comic strip, Upside-Downs [...]

Here is a previously unpublished letter by Edward Lear which was offered some time ago on eBay. It includes one of his delightful self-caricatures representing the painter watching the swallows.
15 Stratford Place,
Oxford Street, W
4 Sept. 1865.
My dear Mr. Ashton,
You are right about me & the swallows - for I AM here still. You see the [...]

In July 2000 Charles Lewsen gave a performance at the Redgrave Theatre in Bristol of the solo theatre piece, How Pleasant to Know Mr. Lear, first given in 1968 at Hampstead Theatre and the Edinburgh Festival, and subsequently at venues throughout Britain, and festivals in Tel Aviv and Charleston, South Carolina. One such performance also [...]

You may remember that a few months ago I posted on a projected TV series on Edward Lear’s journey through Albania in 1848. A promo of the documentary is now available on YouTube.

A.E. Stalling has a very interesting post on Edward Lear on her blog at Poetry Foundation. After a short general introduction, she states that
The Akond of Swat, [...] with its strict adherence to the form and “exotic” eastern locale, [... is] a ghazal, and consciously so.
The idea, as far as I know, was first advanced [...]

A few more interesting posts from the incredibly lively world of animation blogs:
Michael Sporn has four new nonsense-related articles:

Fantasia Program 1 & 2: a souvenir booklet sold with the initial roadshow presentation of Fantasia.
Alices: on the clash on Alice animations between Disney and Lou Bunin.
Belloc’s Bestiary.
Steig’s Bdsplr: on William Steig’s children books.

Mark Meyerson has [...]

Two new early essays on Edward Lear are available at the nonsenselit.org’s library:
Holbrook Jackson, “Masters of Nonsense.” All Manner of Folks: Interpretations and Studies. London: Grant Richards Ltd., 1912; pp. 30-44.
Hildegarde Hawthorne, “Edward Lear.” St. Nicholas: A Monthly Magazine for Boys and Girls, Volume XLIV, part I, November 1916 - April 1917; pp. [...]

Here is a poem, made of three limericks, by Louise Ayres Garnett and illustrated by Peter Newell. I’m taking it from an eBay auction, the description dates it to 1922 but does not say where it is taken from:

Four quadrupeds danced a quadrille
On the summit of Somebody’s hill,
And a lily-white queen
Looked on at the scene
And [...]