Edward Lear
Edward Lear (12 May 1812 – 29 January 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. His principal areas of work as an artist were threefold: as a draughtsman employed to make illustrations of birds and animals, making coloured drawings during his journeys (which he reworked later, sometimes as plates for his travel books) and as a minor illustrator of Alfred, Lord Tennyson's poems. As an author, he is known principally for his popular nonsense collections of poems, songs, short stories, botanical drawings, recipes and alphabets. He also composed and published twelve musical settings of Tennyson's poetry. |
Birth and Death Data: Born London (capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom) , Died January 29, 1888 (Sanremo (Italian city and comune) )
Date Range of DAHR Recordings: 1898 - 1941
Roles Represented in DAHR: author
= Recordings are available for online listening.
= Recordings were issued from this master. No recordings issued from other masters.
Recordings
| Company | Matrix No. | Size | First Recording Date | Title | Primary Performer | Description | Role | Audio |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Berliner | 4284 | 7-in. | between June 1897 and October 1898 | The owl and the pussy cat | Haydn Quartet | Male vocal quartet | author | |
| Berliner | 0573 | 7-in. | 4/19/1900 | The owl and the pussy cat | Haydn Quartet | Male vocal quartet | author | |
| Victor | [Pre-matrix A-]87 | 7-in. | 7/10/1900 | The owl and the pussy cat | Haydn Quartet | Male vocal quartet, with piano | author | |
| Victor | [Pre-matrix B-]87 | 10-in. | 9/14/1901 | The owl and the pussy cat | Haydn Quartet | Male vocal quartet, with piano | author | |
| Victor | [Pre-matrix B-]3178 | 10-in. | 3/6/1901 | The owl and the pussy cat | Haydn Quartet | Male vocal quartet | author | |
| Victor | B-723 | 10-in. | 11/19/1903 | The owl and the pussy cat | Haydn Quartet | Male vocal quartet, with orchestra | author | |
| Victor | C-723 | 12-in. | 12/2/1903 | The owl and the pussy cat | Haydn Quartet | Male vocal quartet, with orchestra | author | |
| Victor | C-14834 | 12-in. | 5/21/1914 | The owl and the pussy cat | S. H. Clark | Recitation | author | |
| Victor | BS-036891 | 10-in. | 5/11/1939 | The pobble | The Koralites | Dramatic scene | author | |
| Victor | BS-056960 | 10-in. | 10/25/1940 | The owl and the pussy cat | Jessica Dragonette ; H. Maurice Jacquet | Soprano vocal solo, with piano | author | |
| Victor | BS-067776 | 10-in. | 9/10/1941 | Owl and the pussy cat | Craig McDonnell | Recitation, with instrumental trio and sound effects | author | |
| Victor | BS-067777 | 10-in. | 9/10/1941 | Mr. and Mrs. Spikky Sparrow | Craig McDonnell | Recitation, with instrumental trio and sound effects | author | |
| Victor | BS-067778 | 10-in. | 9/10/1941 | The duck and the kangaroo | Craig McDonnell | Recitation, with instrumental trio and sound effects | author | |
| Victor | BS-067779 | 10-in. | 9/10/1941 | The Jumblies | Craig McDonnell | Recitation, with instrumental trio and sound effects | author | |
| Victor | BS-067780 | 10-in. | 9/10/1941 | The broom, the shovel, the poker and the tongs | Craig McDonnell | Recitation, with instrumental trio and sound effects | author | |
| Victor | BS-067781 | 10-in. | 9/10/1941 | The table and the chair | Craig McDonnell | Recitation, with instrumental trio and sound effects | author | |
| Columbia | 751 | 7-in. | between January and September 1902 | The owl and the pussy cat | Artists vary | Male vocal quartet | author | |
| Columbia | 751 | 10-in. | between January and September 1902 | The owl and the pussy cat | Artists vary | Male vocal quartet | author | |
| Columbia | 45744 | 10-in. | 6/3/1915 | The owl and the pussy cat | Columbia Stellar Quartette | Male vocal quartet, unaccompanied | author |
Citation
Discography of American Historical Recordings, s.v. "Lear, Edward," accessed December 25, 2025, http://adp.library.ucsb.edu/names/102449.
Lear, Edward. (2025). In Discography of American Historical Recordings. Retrieved December 25, 2025, from http://adp.library.ucsb.edu/names/102449.
"Lear, Edward." Discography of American Historical Recordings. UC Santa Barbara Library, 2025. Web. 25 December 2025.
DAHR Persistent Identifier
External Sources
Wikipedia: Edward Lear
Discogs: Edward Lear
IMSLP: Edward Lear
RISM: Edward Lear
IMDb: Edward Lear
Britannica: Edward Lear
Linked Open Data Sources
LCNAR: Lear, Edward, 1812-1888 - https://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n79084245
Wikidata: Edward Lear - https://www.wikidata.org/entity/Q309759
VIAF: https://viaf.org/viaf/36920855
MusicBrainz: Edward Lear - https://musicbrainz.org/artist/cf40c5c8-66a2-43fc-a2f2-e5c1619eab2f
Getty ULAN: Lear, Edward - https://vocab.getty.edu/ulan/500016261
Fast: https://id.worldcat.org/fast/39994 - https://id.worldcat.org/fast/39994
Wikipedia content provided under the terms of the Creative Commons BY-SA license
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