Robert Peck has masterfully assembled and evaluated Lear's diverse material and written the first book to fully explore Lear's talents as a natural history artist. Augmented by over 200 full-color illustrations, many of them drawn from the extraordinary collection at the Houghton Library at Harvard, extended to include the influence Lear has had on such modern artists and illustrators as Walton Ford and Tony Foster, and enlivened by a Foreword by Sir David Attenborough, this book goes far beyond the scope of a dry scholarly study. It is a fascinating exploration of the dawn of natural history's golden age of color, made more so by Lear's humor, travels, friends, and his extravagant gifts as an artist.