This paper explores eighteen elected nonsense anthologies edited in the UK since the 1920s, acting on the supposition that they determine, re-mold and visually reinterpret the genre for a common audience in parallel to scholarly approaches to nonsense. It considers the process of anthologising and its chief functions, followed by a review of prime nonsense anthologies. It also revises peritexts that impact the reception of these collections and, by expansion, the perception of literary nonsense, considering specifically book titles, cover designs, tables of contents, prefaces and postfaces. In doing so it it trusts to disclose the implied reader of the anthologies, comment on their coverage relative to the fixed Victorian canon and identify the distinctive features of the genre, highlighted by the anthologists’ editorial and aesthetic choices.