The Bab Ballads A New Selection Author:W. S. Gilbert, Andrew Crowther (Compiler) With brief biography of Sir William Schwenck Gilbert, Notes, and an Introduction [quoted below] by Andrew Crowther. — "... In 1861, a new comic journal appeared [in London] called Fun, founded in direct imitation of Punch. Gilbert began contributing to Fun shortly after its first appearance, and for ten years... more » was one of its most prolific contributors, providing whimsical and comic material of various sorts including jokes, cartoons,... and comic poems. His riotously funny Bab Ballads ... were first published in Fun.... By June 1866 Gilbert began drawing grotesque cartoons to accompany them, which he signed 'Bab' ... the pet name he was known by as a child....
"There have been many editions of the Bab Ballads. The present selection [of 41 poems] is made from those which Gilbert chose to reprint in volume form.... In making the selection, a general bias has been shown towards those collected in Fifty 'Bab' Ballads [1877] as indicating Gilbert's own preferences, but with some additions and subtractions reflecting the editor's own preferences. Broadly speaking, the aim is to present those which the modern reader is most likely to enjoy...."« less