The British illustrator, artist & writer Edward Lear was well known for his limericks and nonsensical poetry. The 20th child Edward Lear was born on 12th May 1812 in Highgate, London to the middle class family of Ann & Jeremiah Lear. His 21-year old sister also named Ann brought him up. At age 4, Edward and his sister were circumstantially forced to leave their family home and they toiled hard for their livelihood.

Edward Lear began working as a serious illustrator and at a young age of nineteen he came up with his very first publication of Illustrations titled Family of Psittacidae or Parrots in the year 1830. The illustrations were well appreciated bestowing the artist his well deserved comparison with Audubon. Edward Lear continued painting throughout his life. Lear partially fulfilled his lifelong ambition of illustrating the poems of Tennyson when he came up with a volume of illustrations towards the end of his life. Unfortunately his vision for a successful commencement of the work could not realize during his life. Edward Lear briefly taught drawing lessons to Queen Victoria. However he failed to follow proper court protocol which led to some awkward incidents and he had to discontinue the lessons.

Edward Lear was never a possessor of good robust health and often suffered from ailments right through his childhood. At the age six, he suffered from frequent grand mal epileptic seizures, as well as from asthma which remained his constant companion until his death in 1888. To add to his miseries later he suffered from partial blindness. Edward Lear experienced his first epileptic seizure when he was with his father at a Highgate fair. This event embarrassed and scared him to such extent that he felt lifelong guilt & shame for his epileptic attacks. During that time, epilepsy was often thought to be caused due to demonic possession of the human body. This contributed to Lear’s feelings of loneliness and guilt. The constant instability during his early age contributed to some degree of depressionwhich slowly turned into severe depression which he often referred as "the Morbids."

In 1846 Edward Lear published a volume of limericks named A Book of Nonsense, which came in 3 editions and popularized limericks as a form of poetry. He published The History of the Seven Families of the Lake Pipple-Popple in 1865. Edward Lear’s most famous nonsense literature pieces The Owl and the Pussycat was published in 1867. This work was created for Edward Stanley’s children who were the 13th Earl of Derby and a patron of Edward Lear.

Continuing his exceptional work Edward then came up with many other works. Edward's nonsense literature was very popular among the readers during his life. However it was rumored that “Edward Lear" was just a pseudonym used, and the real author of those books was the Earl of Derby to whom Edward Lear had dedicated the works. This rumor was supported by the facts that both had the same name Edward, and "Lear" was an anagram of "Earl".

At age 75, Edward Lear died on 29th January, 1888 in Sanremo, Italy. His writing period extended from 1830 to 1888.