Nonsense Botany and Nonsense Alphabets etc., etc.

London and NY: Frederick Warne. Very Good. 1901. Seventh. Hard Cover. 142, (2) pages; Contents clean and secure in original binding green cloth with bright gilt and dark red lettering and pictorial cloth on right side with images of plants and animals and a Gent. Cloth worn at spine ends and lower corners; gilt rubbed from spine lettering, patterned endpapers; one leaf chipped at top corner margin. A collection of Lears delightful nonsense works combining absurd limericks, recipes and alphabets with humorous illustrations. Illustrated throughout with Lear's fanciful line drawings, approximately 162 illustrations. Contents include the wonderful Nonsense Botany (Puffia Leatherbellowsa and Piggiwiggia Pyramidalis), a brief Nonsense Cookery (Ablongus Pie), and six Nonsense Alphabets (Perpendicular Purple Polly and Scrubious Snake). Edward Lear (1812– 1888) was an English artist, illustrator, musician, author and poet, who is known mostly for his literary nonsense in poetry and prose and especially his limericks, a form he popularised. Lear's nonsense works are distinguished by a facility of verbal invention and a poet's delight in the sounds of words, both real and imaginary. .