Illustrations of the Family of Psittacidae

"I wish I were an egg and was going to be hatched."
-Edward Lear
Illustrations of the Family of Psittaidae, or Parrots (1832) consists of 42 lithographs that were produced by Edward Lear at the London Zoo beginning when Lear was only 18 years old. By the age of 20 he was able to publish the entire collection. It is considered to be among Lear's greatest because he created it before he started to lose his sight. Thanks to this new edition, which is being released in full color, readers will have access to a unique replica of Lear's unparalleled art.
Art lovers and naturalists, especially birdwatchers, will be enchanted.

EDWARD LEAR (1812-1888), was a British writer and artist, who created landscape paintings, nonsense verse, and the illustration of birds and reptiles. He was Queen Victoria's private drawing master and given a place in the Poet's Corner in Westminster Abbey. As a naturalist painter, his work is often compared to the bird paintings of Gould and Audubon, who both worked with Lear. As a writer, Lear's humorous alphabets and wordplay influenced such twentieth-century writers as Shel Silverstein, Ogden Nash, and Laura Richards.