Edward St. John Gorey (February 22, 1925 – April 15, 2000) was an American writer,

Tony Award The Antoinette Perry Award for Excellence in Broadway Theatre, more commonly known as a Tony Award, recognizes excellence in live Broadway theatre. The awards are presented by the American Theatre Wing and The Broadway League at an annual ce ...

-winning costume designer, and artist, noted for his own illustrated books as well as cover art and illustration for books by other writers. His characteristic pen-and-ink drawings often depict vaguely unsettling narrative scenes in Victorian and

Edwardian In the United Kingdom, the Edwardian era was a period in the early 20th century that spanned the reign of King Edward VII from 1901 to 1910. It is commonly extended to the start of the First World War in 1914, during the early reign of King Ge ...

settings.

Early life

Gorey was born in

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

. His parents, Helen Dunham (née Garvey) and Edward Leo Gorey, divorced in 1936 when he was 11. His father remarried in 1952 when he was 27. His stepmother was Corinna Mura (1910–1965), a cabaret singer who had a small role in ''

Casablanca Casablanca (, ) is the largest city in Morocco and the country's economic and business centre. Located on the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic coast of the Chaouia (Morocco), Chaouia plain in the central-western part of Morocco, the city has a populatio ...

'' as the woman playing the guitar while singing "

La Marseillaise "La Marseillaise" is the national anthem of France. It was written in 1792 by Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle in Strasbourg after the declaration of war by the First French Republic against Austria, and was originally titled "". The French Na ...

" at Rick's Café Américain. His father was briefly a journalist. Gorey's maternal great-grandmother, Helen St. John Garvey, was a nineteenth-century

greeting card A greeting card is a piece of card stock, usually with an illustration or photo, made of high quality paper featuring an expression of friendship or other sentiment. Although greeting cards are usually given on special occasions such as birthday ...

illustrator, from whom he claimed to have inherited his talents. From 1934 to 1937, Gorey attended public school in the Chicago suburb of

Wilmette, Illinois Wilmette is a village in Cook County, Illinois, United States. Bordering Lake Michigan, Kenilworth, Winnetka, Skokie, Northfield, Glenview, and Evanston, Illinois, it is located north of Chicago's downtown district. Wilmette had a populatio ...

, where his classmates included

Charlton Heston Charlton Heston (born John Charles Carter; October 4, 1923 – April 5, 2008) was an American actor. He gained stardom for his leading man roles in numerous Cinema of the United States, Hollywood films including biblical epics, science-fiction f ...

, Warren MacKenzie, and

Joan Mitchell Joan Mitchell (February 12, 1925 – October 30, 1992) was an American artist who worked primarily in painting and printmaking, and also used pastel and made other works on paper. She was an active participant in the New York School of artis ...

. Some of his earliest preserved work appears in the Stolp School yearbook for 1937.

Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums, Education center, education and Research institute, research centers, created by the Federal government of the United States, U.S. government "for the increase a ...

br>1937 Stolp School yearbook with Edward Gorey juvenilia
/ref> Afterward, he attended the Francis W. Parker School in Chicago. He spent 1944 to 1946 in the

Army An army, ground force or land force is an armed force that fights primarily on land. In the broadest sense, it is the land-based military branch, service branch or armed service of a nation or country. It may also include aviation assets by ...

Dugway Proving Ground Dugway Proving Ground (DPG) is a United States Army facility established in 1942 to test biological and chemical weapons, located about southwest of Salt Lake City, Utah and south of the Utah Test and Training Range. Location Dugway Provin ...

Utah Utah is a landlocked state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is one of the Four Corners states, sharing a border with Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico. It also borders Wyoming to the northea ...

. He then attended

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

, beginning in 1946 and graduating in the class of 1950; he studied French and roomed with poet

Frank O'Hara Francis Russell "Frank" O'Hara (March 27, 1926 – July 25, 1966) was an American writer, poet, and art critic. A curator at the Museum of Modern Art, O'Hara became prominent in New York City's art world. O'Hara is regarded as a leading figure i ...

.Lumenello, Susan
"Edward Gorey: Brief life of an artful author: 1925–2000"
''

Harvard Magazine ''Harvard Magazine'' is an independently edited magazine and separately incorporated affiliate of Harvard University. It is the only publication covering the entire university and regularly distributed to all graduates, faculty, and staff. The ...

'', March–April 2007 Starting in 1951, Gorey illustrated poetry books by Merrill Moore for Twayne Publishers including
Case Record from a Sonnetorium
' (many illustrations by Gorey, 1951), and ''More Clinical Sonnets'' (1953). In the early 1950s, Gorey, with a group of recent Harvard and Radcliffe alumni including

Alison Lurie Alison Stewart Lurie (September 3, 1926December 3, 2020) was an American novelist and academic. She won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for her 1984 novel ''Foreign Affairs''. Although better known as a novelist, she wrote many non-fiction books ...

(1947),

John Ashbery John Lawrence Ashbery (July 28, 1927 – September 3, 2017) was an American poet and art critic. Ashbery is considered the most influential American poet of his time. Oxford University literary critic John Bayley wrote that Ashbery "sounded, in ...

(1949),

Donald Hall Donald Andrew Hall Jr. (September 20, 1928 – June 23, 2018) was an American poet, writer, editor, and literary critic. He was the author of more than 50 books across several genres from children's literature, biography, memoir, essays, and inc ...

(1951), and O'Hara (1950), amongst others, founded the Poets' Theatre in Cambridge, which was supported by Harvard faculty members John Ciardi and

Thornton Wilder Thornton Niven Wilder (April 17, 1897 – December 7, 1975) was an American playwright and novelist. He won three Pulitzer Prizes, for the novel ''The Bridge of San Luis Rey'' and for the plays ''Our Town'' and ''The Skin of Our Teeth'', and a U. ...

. Sayre, Nora
"The Poets' Theatre: A Memoir of the Fifties"
'' Grand Street'', Vol. 3, No. 3 (Spring, 1984), pp. 92–105. Published by: Ben Sonnenberg"Open Book: Obsessed at Harvard"
''Harvard Magazine'', January–February 2002 He frequently stated that his formal art training was "negligible"; Gorey studied art for one semester at the

School of the Art Institute of Chicago The School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) is a Private university, private art school associated with the Art Institute of Chicago (AIC) in Chicago, Illinois. Tracing its history to an art students' cooperative founded in 1866, which gr ...

in 1943.

Career

From 1953 to 1960, he lived in

Manhattan Manhattan ( ) is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the Boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City. Coextensive with New York County, Manhattan is the County statistics of the United States#Smallest, larg ...

and worked for the Art Department of Doubleday Anchor, where he illustrated book covers, added illustrations to text, and provided

typographic Typography is the art and technique of arranging type to make written language legible, readable and appealing when displayed. The arrangement of type involves selecting typefaces, point sizes, line lengths, line spacing, letter spacin ...

design. He illustrated works as diverse as

Bram Stoker Abraham Stoker (8 November 1847 – 20 April 1912), better known by his pen name Bram Stoker, was an Irish novelist who wrote the 1897 Gothic horror novel ''Dracula''. The book is widely considered a milestone in Vampire fiction, and one of t ...

's ''

Dracula ''Dracula'' is an 1897 Gothic fiction, Gothic horror fiction, horror novel by Irish author Bram Stoker. The narrative is Epistolary novel, related through letters, diary entries, and newspaper articles. It has no single protagonist and opens ...

'',

H. G. Wells Herbert George Wells (21 September 1866 – 13 August 1946) was an English writer, prolific in many genres. He wrote more than fifty novels and dozens of short stories. His non-fiction output included works of social commentary, politics, hist ...

' ''

The War of the Worlds ''The War of the Worlds'' is a science fiction novel by English author H. G. Wells. It was written between 1895 and 1897, and serialised in '' Pearson's Magazine'' in the UK and ''Cosmopolitan'' magazine in the US in 1897. The full novel was ...

'', and

T. S. Eliot Thomas Stearns Eliot (26 September 18884 January 1965) was a poet, essayist and playwright.Bush, Ronald. "T. S. Eliot's Life and Career", in John A Garraty and Mark C. Carnes (eds), ''American National Biography''. New York: Oxford University ...

's ''

Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats ''Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats'' (1939) is a collection of whimsical Light poetry, light poems by T. S. Eliot about Cat, feline psychology and sociology, published by Faber and Faber. It serves as the basis for Andrew Lloyd Webber's 1981 ...

''. Throughout his career, he illustrated over 200 book covers for Doubleday Anchor, Random House's Looking Glass Library, Bobbs-Merrill, and as a freelance artist. In later years he produced cover illustrations and interior artwork for many children's books by John Bellairs, as well as books begun by Bellairs and continued by Brad Strickland after Bellairs' death. His first independent work, ''The Unstrung Harp'', was published in 1953. He also published under various pen names, some of which were

anagram An anagram is a word or phrase formed by rearranging the letters of a different word or phrase, typically using all the original letters exactly once. For example, the word ''anagram'' itself can be rearranged into the phrase "nag a ram"; which ...

s of his first and last names, such as Ogdred Weary, Dogear Wryde, Ms. Regera Dowdy, and dozens more. His books also feature the names Eduard Blutig ("Edward Gory"), a German-language

pun A pun, also known as a paronomasia in the context of linguistics, is a form of word play that exploits multiple meanings of a term, or of similar-sounding words, for an intended humorous or rhetorical effect. These ambiguities can arise from t ...

on his own name, and O. Müde (German for O. Weary). At the prompting of Harry Stanton, an editor and vice president at

Addison-Wesley Addison–Wesley is an American publisher of textbooks and computer literature. It is an imprint of Pearson plc, a global publishing and education company. In addition to publishing books, Addison–Wesley also distributes its technical titles ...

, Gorey collaborated on a number of works (and continued a lifelong correspondence) with Peter F. Neumeyer. ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' credits bookstore owner Andreas Brown and his store, the

Gotham Book Mart The Gotham Book Mart was a famous Midtown Manhattan bookstore and cultural landmark that operated from 1920 to 2007. The business was located first in a small basement space on West 45th Street near the Theater District, Manhattan, Theater Distric ...

, with launching Gorey's career: "It became the central clearing house for Mr. Gorey, presenting exhibitions of his work in the store's gallery and eventually turning him into an international celebrity." Gorey's illustrated (and sometimes wordless) books, with their vaguely ominous air and ostensibly Victorian and

settings, have long had a

cult following A cult following is a group of fans who are highly dedicated to a person, idea, object, movement, or work, often an artist, in particular a performing artist, or an artwork in some medium. The latter is often called a cult classic. A film, boo ...

. He made a notable impact on the world of theater with his designs for the 1977 Broadway revival of ''Dracula'', for which he won the Tony Award for Best Costume Design and was nominated for the Tony Award for Best Scenic Design. In 1980, Gorey became particularly well known for his animated introduction to the

PBS The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educat ...

series ''

Mystery! ''Mystery!'' is an anthology television series produced by WGBH Boston for PBS in the United States. The series was created as a mystery, police and crime drama spin-off of the PBS show ''Masterpiece Theatre''. From 1980 to 2007, ''Mystery!' ...

'' In the introduction of each ''

'' episode, host

Vincent Price Vincent Leonard Price Jr. (May 27, 1911 – October 25, 1993) was an American actor. He was known for his work in the horror film genre, mostly portraying villains. He appeared on stage, television, and radio, and in more than 100 films. Price ...

would welcome viewers to "Gorey Mansion". Edward Gorey House 3

Because of the settings and style of Gorey's work, many people have assumed he was British; in fact, he only left the U.S. once, for a visit to the Scottish Hebrides. In later years, he lived year-round in Yarmouth Port, Massachusetts, on

Cape Cod Cape Cod is a peninsula extending into the Atlantic Ocean from the southeastern corner of Massachusetts, in the northeastern United States. Its historic, maritime character and ample beaches attract heavy tourism during the summer months. The ...

, where he wrote and directed numerous evening-length entertainments, often featuring his own

papier-mâché file:JacmelMardiGras.jpg, upright=1.3, Mardi Gras papier-mâché masks, Haiti Papier-mâché ( , , - the French term "mâché" here means "crushed and ground") is a versatile craft technique with roots in ancient China, in which waste paper is s ...

puppets, an ensemble known as Le Theatricule Stoique. The first of these productions, ''Lost Shoelaces'', premiered in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, on August 13, 1987. The last was ''The White Canoe: an Opera Seria for Hand Puppets'', for which Gorey wrote the libretto, with a score by the composer

Daniel James Wolf Daniel James Wolf (born September 13, 1961 in Upland, California) is an American composer. Studies Wolf studied composition with Gordon Mumma, Alvin Lucier, and La Monte Young, as well as musical tunings with Erv Wilson and Douglas Leedy an ...

. The opera, which was based on

Thomas Moore Thomas Moore (28 May 1779 – 25 February 1852), was an Irish writer, poet, and lyricist who was widely regarded as Ireland's "National poet, national bard" during the late Georgian era. The acclaim rested primarily on the popularity of his ''I ...

's poem ''The Lake of the Dismal Swamp'', was performed under the direction of Carol Verburg, a close friend and neighbor of the artist, after Gorey died. Herbert Senn and Helen Pond, two renowned set designers, created a puppet stage for the opera. In the early 1970s, Gorey wrote an unproduced screenplay for a

silent film A silent film is a film without synchronized recorded sound (or more generally, no audible dialogue). Though silent films convey narrative and emotion visually, various plot elements (such as a setting or era) or key lines of dialogue may, w ...

, ''The Black Doll''. After Gorey's death, one of his executors, Andreas Brown, turned up a large cache of unpublished work, both complete and incomplete. Brown described the find as "ample material for many future books and for plays based on his work"."The Data File: Gorey Discoveries", '' Locus'', December 2000, p.11.

Personal life

Gorey was noted for his love of the

New York City Ballet New York City Ballet (NYCB) is a ballet company founded in 1948 by choreographer George Balanchine and Lincoln Kirstein. Balanchine and Jerome Robbins are considered the founding choreographers of the company. Léon Barzin was the company's fir ...

. He attended every performance and some rehearsals for 25 years. Critic David Ehrenstein, writing in ''Gay City News'', asserts that Gorey was discreet about his sexuality in the "Don’t Ask/Don’t Tell era" of the 1950s. "Stonewall changed all that—making gay a discussable mainstream topic," writes Ehrenstein. "But it didn't change things for Gorey. To those in the know, his sensibility was clearly gay, but his sexual life was as covert as his self was overt." By contrast, the critic Gabrielle Bellot argues that Gorey, "when pressed by interviewers about his sexuality ... declined to give clear answers, except during a 1980 conversation with Lisa Solod, wherein he claimed to be asexual—making Gorey one of few openly asexual writers even today." (Gorey himself did not use the term asexual in the Solod interview.) Alexander Theroux states that when Gorey was pressed on the matter of his

sexual orientation Sexual orientation is an enduring personal pattern of romantic attraction or sexual attraction (or a combination of these) to persons of the opposite sex or gender, the same sex or gender, or to both sexes or more than one gender. Patterns ar ...

by "a rude ''Boston Globe'' reporter," he replied, "I don't even know." Theroux is referring to Lisa Solod's September 1980 ''Boston'' magazine interview with Gorey ("Edward Gorey: The Cape's master teller of macabre tales discusses death, decadence, and homosexuality"). Gorey's exact words were rather: "Well, I'm neither one thing nor the other particularly. I suppose I'm gay. But I don't really identify with it much. I am fortunate in that I am apparently reasonably undersexed or something. I do not spend my life picking up people on the streets. I was always reluctant to go to the movies with one of my friends because I always expected the police to come and haul him out of the loo at one point or the other. I know people who lead really ''outrageous'' lives. I've never said I was gay, and I've never said I wasn't. A lot of people would say that I wasn't because I never do anything about it." Shortly thereafter, he says, "What I'm trying to say is that I am a person before I am anything else." Gorey's remark "I suppose I'm gay" from the Solod interview was omitted when the interview appeared in ''Ascending Peculiarity'', a collection of interviews with Gorey edited by the art critic Karen Wilkin. From 1995 to his death in April 2000, Gorey was the subject of a ''

cinéma vérité Cinéma vérité (, , ) is a style of documentary filmmaking developed by Edgar Morin and Jean Rouch, inspired by Dziga Vertov's theory about '' Kino-Pravda''. It combines improvisation with use of the camera to unveil truth or highlight subje ...

''–style documentary directed by

Christopher Seufert Christopher Seufert (born 1967) is a documentary film producer and film director, director, and photographer based in Chatham, Massachusetts. His production company is Mooncusser Films. His film work has appeared on HBO, VH-1, the Discovery Chan ...

. (As of 2024 the finished film and accompanying book are in

post-production Post-production, also known simply as post, is part of the process of filmmaking, video production, audio production, and photography. Post-production includes all stages of production occurring after principal photography or recording indivi ...

.) He was once interviewed on ''Tribute to Edward Gorey,'' a community,

public-access television Public-access television (sometimes called community-access television) is traditionally a form of non-commercial mass media where the general public can create content television programming which is Narrowcasting, narrowcast through cable tele ...

cable show produced by artist and friend Joyce Kenney. Gorey served as a volunteer camera-person and master control operator at that same public access station, where he designed community bulletin graphics. His house, in Yarmouthport, Cape Cod, is the subject of a photography book entitled ''Elephant House: Or, the Home of Edward Gorey,'' with photographs and text by Kevin McDermott. The house is now the Edward Gorey House Museum. Gorey left the bulk of his estate to a charitable trust benefiting cats and dogs, as well as other species, including bats and insects.

Style

Gorey is typically described as an illustrator. His books may be found in the humor and cartoon sections of major bookstores, but books such as ''The Object Lesson'' have earned serious critical respect as works of

surrealist Surrealism is an art movement, art and cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists aimed to allow the unconscious mind to express itself, often resulting in the depiction of illogical or dreamlike s ...

art. His experimentation—creating books that were wordless, books that were literally matchbox-sized, pop-up books, books entirely populated by inanimate objects—complicates matters still further. As Gorey told Lisa Solod of ''

The Boston Globe ''The Boston Globe,'' also known locally as ''the Globe'', is an American daily newspaper founded and based in Boston, Massachusetts. The newspaper has won a total of 27 Pulitzer Prizes. ''The Boston Globe'' is the oldest and largest daily new ...

'', "Ideally, if anything were any good, it would be indescribable." Gorey classified his own work as

literary nonsense Literary nonsense (or nonsense literature) is a broad categorization of literature that balances elements that make sense with some that do not, with the effect of subverting language conventions or logical reasoning. Even though the most well-k ...

, the genre made most famous by

Lewis Carroll Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (27 January 1832 – 14 January 1898), better known by his pen name Lewis Carroll, was an English author, poet, mathematician, photographer and reluctant Anglicanism, Anglican deacon. His most notable works are ''Alice ...

and

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 limerick (poetry), limericks, a form he popularised. ...

. In response to being called gothic, he stated, "If you're doing nonsense it has to be rather awful, because there'd be no point. I'm trying to think if there's sunny nonsense. Sunny, funny nonsense for children—oh, how boring, boring, boring. As

Schubert Franz Peter Schubert (; ; 31 January 179719 November 1828) was an Austrian composer of the late Classical period (music), Classical and early Romantic music, Romantic eras. Despite his short life, Schubert left behind a List of compositions ...

said, there is no happy music. And that's true, there really isn't. And there's probably no happy nonsense, either."

Bibliography

The exact number of books that Edward Gorey illustrated for other authors is unknown and estimated to be over 500. A few of the authors Gorey illustrated were Merrill Moore,

Samuel Beckett Samuel Barclay Beckett (; 13 April 1906 – 22 December 1989) was an Irish writer of novels, plays, short stories, and poems. Writing in both English and French, his literary and theatrical work features bleak, impersonal, and Tragicomedy, tra ...

, John Bellairs,

, Alain-Fournier,

Charles Dickens Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English novelist, journalist, short story writer and Social criticism, social critic. He created some of literature's best-known fictional characters, and is regarded by ...

Hilaire Belloc Joseph Hilaire Pierre René Belloc ( ; ; 27 July 187016 July 1953) was a French-English writer, politician, and historian. Belloc was also an orator, poet, sailor, satirist, writer of letters, soldier, and political activist. His Catholic fait ...

Muriel Spark Dame Muriel Sarah Spark (; 1 February 1918 – 13 April 2006). was a List of Scottish novelists, Scottish novelist, short story writer, poet and essayist. Life Muriel Camberg was born in the Bruntsfield area of Edinburgh, the daughter of Bernar ...

, Florence Parry Heide,

John Updike John Hoyer Updike (March 18, 1932 – January 27, 2009) was an American novelist, poet, short-story writer, art critic, and literary critic. One of only four writers to win the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction more than once (the others being Booth Tar ...

, John Ciardi, Felicia Lamport and

Joan Aiken Joan Delano Aiken (4 September 1924 – 4 January 2004) was an English writer specialising in supernatural fiction and children's alternative history novels. In 1999 she was awarded an MBE for her services to children's literature. For ''Th ...

. As an author, Gorey wrote 116 books. * ''The Unstrung Harp'', Brown and Company, 1953 * ''The Listing Attic'', Brown and Company, 1954 * '' The Doubtful Guest'', Doubleday, 1957 * '' The Object-Lesson'', Doubleday, 1958 * ''The Bug Book'', Looking Glass Library, 1959 * ''The Fatal Lozenge: An Alphabet'', Obolensky, 1960 * '' The Curious Sofa: A Pornographic Work by Ogdred Weary'', Astor-Honor, 1961 * ''The Hapless Child'', Obolensky, 1961 * ''The Willowdale Handcar: Or, the Return of the Black Doll'', Bobbs-Merrill Company, 1962 * ''The Beastly Baby'', Fantod Press, 1962 * '' The Vinegar Works: Three Volumes of Moral Instruction'',

Simon & Schuster Simon & Schuster LLC (, ) is an American publishing house owned by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts since 2023. It was founded in New York City in 1924, by Richard L. Simon and M. Lincoln Schuster. Along with Penguin Random House, Hachette Book Group US ...

, 1963 ** '' The Gashlycrumb Tinies'' ** ''The Insect God'' ** ''The West Wing'' * ''The Wuggly Ump'', Lippincott, 1963 * ''The Nursery Frieze'', Fantod Press, 1964 * ''The Sinking Spell'', Obolensky, 1964 * ''The Remembered Visit: A Story Taken from Life'', Simon & Schuster, 1965 * ''Three Books from Fantod Press (1)'', Fantod Press, 1966 ** ''The Evil Garden'' ** ''The Inanimate Tragedy'' ** ''The Pious Infant'' * ''The Gilded Bat'', Cape, 1967 * ''The Utter Zoo'', Meredith Press, 1967 * ''The Other Statue'', Simon & Schuster, 1968 * ''The Blue Aspic'', Meredith Press, 1968 * ''The Epiplectic Bicycle'', Dodd and Mead, 1969 * '' The Iron Tonic: Or, A Winter Afternoon in Lonely Valley'', Albondocani Press, 1969 * ''Three Books from the Fantod Press (2)'', Fantod Press, 1970 ** ''The Chinese Obelisks: Fourth Alphabet'' ** ''Donald Has a Difficulty'' ** ''The Osbick Bird'' * ''The Sopping Thursday'', Gotham Book Mart, 1970 * ''Three Books from the Fantod Press (3)'', Fantod Press, 1971 ** ''The Deranged Cousins'' ** ''The Eleventh Episode'' ** ''The Untitled Book'' * ''The Awdrey-Gore Legacy'', 1972 * ''Leaves from a Mislaid Album'', Gotham Book Mart, 1972 * ''The Abandoned Sock'', Fantod Press, 1972 * ''A Limerick'', Salt-Works Press, 1973 * ''The Lavender Leotard'', Gotham Book Mart, 1973 * ''CatEgorY'', Gotham Book Mart, 1973. * ''The Lost Lions'', Fantod Press, 1973 * ''The Green Beads'', Albondocani Press, 1978 * ''The Glorious Nosebleed: Fifth Alphabet'', Mead, 1975 * ''The Grand Passion: A Novel'', Fantod Press, 1976 * ''The Broken Spoke'', Mead, 1976 * ''The Loathsome Couple'', Mead, 1977 * ''Gorey Games'', Troubadour Press, 1979 (games designed by Larry Evans) * ''Dancing Cats and Neglected Murderesses'', Workman, 1980 * ''The Water Flowers'', Congdon & Weed, 1982 * ''The Dwindling Party'',

Random House Random House is an imprint and publishing group of Penguin Random House. Founded in 1927 by businessmen Bennett Cerf and Donald Klopfer as an imprint of Modern Library, it quickly overtook Modern Library as the parent imprint. Over the foll ...

, 1982 * ''Gorey Cats'', Troubadour Press, 1982 (with Malcolm Whyte and Nancie West Swanber) * ''The Prune People'', Albondocani Press, 1983 * ''Gorey Stories'', 1983 * ''The Tunnel Calamity'', Putnam's Sons, 1984 * ''The Eclectic Abecedarium'', Adama Books, 1985 * ''The Prune People II'', Albondocani Press, 1985 * ''The Improvable Landscape'', Albondocani Press, 1986 * ''The Raging Tide: Or, The Black Doll's Imbroglio'', Beaufort Books, 1987 * ''Q. R. V.'' (later retitled ''The Universal Solvent''), Anne & David Bromer, 1989 * ''The Stupid Joke'', Fantod Press, 1990 * ''The Fraught Settee'', Fantod Press, 1990 * ''The Doleful Domesticity; Another Novel'', Fantod Press, 1991 * ''La Balade Troublante'', Fantod Press, 1991 * ''The Retrieved Locket'', Fantod Press, 1994 * ''The Unknown Vegetable'', Fantod Press, 1995 * ''The Just Dessert: Thoughtful Alphabet XI'', Fantod Press, 1997 * ''Deadly Blotter: Thoughtful Alphabet XVII'', Fantod Press, 1997 * ''The Haunted Tea-Cosy: A Dispirited and Distasteful Diversion for Christmas'', Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich, 1998 * '' The Headless Bust: A Melancholy Meditation on the False Millennium'', Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich, 1999 Many of Gorey's early works were published obscurely, making them rare and expensive. He published four omnibus editions that collect as many as 15 of his books into one volume: * ''Amphigorey'', 1972 ()contains ''The Unstrung Harp'', ''The Listing Attic'', ''The Doubtful Guest'', ''The Object-Lesson'', ''The Bug Book'', ''The Fatal Lozenge'', ''The Hapless Child'', ''The Curious Sofa'', ''The Willowdale Handcar'', ''The Gashlycrumb Tinies'', ''The Insect God'', ''The West Wing'', ''The Wuggly Ump'', ''The Sinking Spell'', and ''The Remembered Visit'' * ''Amphigorey Too'', 1975 ()contains ''The Beastly Baby'', ''The Nursery Frieze'', ''The Pious Infant'', ''The Evil Garden'', ''The Inanimate Tragedy'', ''The Gilded Bat'', ''The Iron Tonic'', ''The Osbick Bird'', ''The Chinese Obelisks (bis)'', ''The Deranged Cousins'', ''The Eleventh Episode'', '' he Untitled Book', ''The Lavender Leotard'', ''The Disrespectful Summons'', ''The Abandoned Sock'', ''The Lost Lions'', ''Story for Sara'' y Alphonse Allais">Alphonse_Allais.html" ;"title="y Alphonse Allais">y Alphonse Allais ''The Salt Herring'' [by Charles Cros], ''Leaves from a Mislaid Album'', and ''A Limerick'' * ''Amphigorey Also'', 1983 ()contains ''The Utter Zoo'', ''The Blue Aspic'', ''The Epiplectic Bicycle'', ''The Sopping Thursday'', ''The Grand Passion'', ''Les Passementeries Horribles'', ''The Eclectic Abecedarium'', ''L'Heure bleue'', ''The Broken Spoke'', ''The Awdrey-Gore Legacy'', ''The Glorious Nosebleed'', ''The Loathsome Couple'', ''The Green Beads'', ''Les Urnes Utiles'', ''The Stupid Joke'', ''The Prune People'', and ''The Tuning Fork'' * ''Amphigorey Again'', 2006 ()contains ''The Galoshes of Remorse'', ''Signs of Spring'', ''Seasonal Confusion'', ''Random Walk'', ''Category'', ''The Other Statue'', ''10 Impossible Objects (abridged)'', ''The Universal Solvent (abridged)'', ''Scenes de Ballet'', ''Verse Advice'', ''The Deadly Blotter'', ''Creativity'', ''The Retrieved Locket'', ''The Water Flowers'', ''The Haunted Tea-Cosy'', ''Christmas Wrap-Up'', ''The Headless Bust'', ''The Just Dessert'', ''The Admonitory Hippopotamus'', ''Neglected Murderesses'', ''Tragedies Topiares'', ''The Raging Tide'', ''The Unknown Vegetable'', ''Another Random Walk'', ''Serious Life: A Cruise'', ''Figbash Acrobate'', ''La Malle Saignante'', and ''The Izzard Book''

Pseudonyms

Gorey was very fond of word games, particularly

s. He wrote many of his books under pseudonyms that usually were anagrams of his own name (most famously Ogdred Weary). Some of them are listed below, with the corresponding book title(s). Eduard Blutig is also a word game: "Blutig" is German (the language from which these two books purportedly were translated) for "bloody" or "gory". * Ogdred Weary''The Curious Sofa'', ''The Beastly Baby'' * Mrs. Regera Dowdy''The Pious Infant'', ''The Izzard Book'' * Eduard Blutig''The Evil Garden'' (translated from ''Der Böse Garten'' by Mrs. Regera Dowdy), ''The Tuning Fork'' (translated from ''Der Zeitirrthum'' by Mrs. Regera Dowdy) * Raddory Gewe''The Eleventh Episode'' * Dogear Wryde''The Broken Spoke/Cycling Cards'' * E. G. Deadworry''The Awdrey-Gore Legacy'' and his grandson G.E. Deadworry * D. Awdrey-Gore''The Toastrack Enigma'', ''The Blancmange Tragedy'', ''The Postcard Mystery'', ''The Pincushion Affair'', ''The Toothpaste Murder'', ''The Dustwrapper Secret'' and ''The Teacosy Crime'' (Note: These books, although attributed to Awdrey-Gore in Gorey's book ''The Awdrey-Gore Legacy'', were not really written). She is a parody of Agatha Christie. * Waredo Dyrge''The Awdrey-Gore Legacy'' parody of

Hercule Poirot Hercule Poirot (, ) is a fictional Belgian detective created by the English writer Agatha Christie. Poirot is Christie's most famous and longest-running character, appearing in 33 novels, two plays (''Black Coffee (play), Black Coffee'' and '' ...

* Edward Pig''The Untitled Book'' * Wardore Edgy''

SoHo Weekly News The ''SoHo Weekly News'' (SWN) was a weekly alternative newspaper founded by music publicist Michael Goldstein and published in New York City from 1973 to 1982. Positioned as a competitor to ''The Village Voice'', it struggled financially. T ...

'' * Madame Groeda Weyrd''The Fantod Pack'' * Dewda Yorger"The Deary Rewdgo Series for Intrepid Young Ladies (D.R. on the Great Divide, D.R. in the Yukon, D.R. at Baffin Bay, etc.)" * Garrod Weedy - ''The Pointless Book''

Legacy

Gorey has become an iconic figure in the

goth subculture Goth is a music-based subculture that began in the United Kingdom during the early 1980s. It was developed by fans of gothic rock, an offshoot of the post-punk music genre. Post-punk artists who presaged the gothic rock genre and helped develo ...

. Events themed on his works and decorated in his characteristic style are common in the more Victorian-styled elements of the subculture, notably the Edwardian costume balls held annually in San Francisco and Los Angeles, which include performances based on his works. The "Edwardian" in this case refers less to the

period of history than to Gorey, whose characters are depicted as wearing fashion styles ranging from the mid-nineteenth century to the 1930s. Among the authors influenced by Gorey's work is

Daniel Handler Daniel Handler (born February 28, 1970) is an American author, musician, screenwriter, television writer, and television producer. He is best known for his children's book series ''A Series of Unfortunate Events'' and '' All the Wrong Question ...

, who, under the pseudonym "Lemony Snicket", wrote the gothic children's book series ''

A Series of Unfortunate Events ''A Series of Unfortunate Events'' is a series of thirteen Children's literature, children's novels written by American author Daniel Handler under the pen name Lemony Snicket. The books follow the turbulent lives of orphaned siblings List of A ...

''. Shortly before Gorey's death, Handler sent a copy of the series's first two novels to him, with a letter "saying how much I admired his work, and how much I hoped that he would forgive what I'd stolen from him." Director

Mark Romanek Mark Lee Romanek (; born September 18, 1959) is an American film, music video and commercial director and photographer. He is best known for directing the films ''One Hour Photo'' (2002) and ''Never Let Me Go (2010 film), Never Let Me Go'' (2010) ...

's music video for the

Nine Inch Nails Nine Inch Nails, commonly abbreviated as NIN (stylized as NIИ), is an American industrial rock band formed in Cleveland, Ohio in 1988. Its members are the singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and producer Trent Reznor and his frequent col ...

song " The Perfect Drug" was designed specifically to resemble a Gorey book, with familiar Gorey elements including oversized urns, topiary plants, and glum, pale characters in full Edwardian costume. Also, Caitlín R. Kiernan has published a short story entitled "A Story for Edward Gorey" ('' Tales of Pain and Wonder'', 2000), which features Gorey's black doll. A more direct link to Gorey's influence on the music world is evident in ''The Gorey End'', an album recorded in 2003 by

The Tiger Lillies The Tiger Lillies are a British musical trio formed in 1989 by singer-songwriter Martyn Jacques. Described as the forefathers of Brechtian Punk Cabaret, the Tiger Lillies are known for their unique sound and style which merges "the macabre m ...

and the

Kronos Quartet The Kronos Quartet is an American string quartet based in San Francisco. It has been in existence with a rotating membership of musicians for 50 years. The quartet covers a very broad range of musical genres, including contemporary classical musi ...

. This album was a collaboration with Gorey, who liked previous work by The Tiger Lillies so much that he sent them a large box of his unpublished works, which were then adapted and turned into songs. Gorey died before hearing the finished album. In 1976,

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...

composer

Michael Mantler Michael Mantler (born August 10, 1943) is an Austrian avant-garde jazz trumpeter and composer of contemporary music. Career: United States Mantler was born in Vienna, Austria. In the early 1960s, he was a student at the Academy of Music and V ...

recorded an album called ''The Hapless Child'' (Watt/ECM) with

Robert Wyatt Robert Wyatt (born Robert Wyatt-Ellidge, 28 January 1945) is an English retired musician. A founding member of the influential Canterbury scene bands Soft Machine and Matching Mole, he was initially a kit drummer and singer before becoming para ...

Terje Rypdal Terje Rypdal (born 23 August 1947) is a Norwegian guitarist and composer. He has been an important member in the Norwegian jazz community, and has also given show concerts with guitarists Ronni Le Tekrø and Mads Eriksen as "N3". Career Rypd ...

Carla Bley Carla Bley (born Lovella May Borg; May 11, 1936 – October 17, 2023) was an American jazz composer, pianist, organist, and bandleader. An important figure in the free jazz movement of the 1960s, she gained acclaim for her jazz opera ''Escalator ...

, and

Jack DeJohnette Jack DeJohnette (born August 9, 1942) is an American jazz drummer, pianist, and composer. Known for his extensive work as leader and sideman for musicians including Charles Lloyd (jazz musician), Charles Lloyd, Freddie Hubbard, Keith Jarrett, B ...

. It contains musical adaptations of ''The Sinking Spell'', ''The Object Lesson'', ''The Insect God'', ''The Doubtful Guest'', ''The Remembered Visit'', and ''The Hapless Child''. The last three songs also have been published on his 1987 ''Live'' album with

Jack Bruce John Symon Asher Bruce (14 May 1943 – 25 October 2014) was a Scottish musician. He gained popularity as the primary lead vocalist and ‍bassist ‍of Rock music, rock band Cream (band), Cream. After the group disbanded in 1968, he pursued a ...

, Rick Fenn, and

Nick Mason Nicholas Berkeley Mason (born 27 January 1944) is an English drummer and a founder member of the progressive rock band Pink Floyd. He has been the only constant member since the band's formation in 1965, and the only member to appear on every ...

. The opening titles of the

series ''

'' were original art by Gorey, in an animated sequence co-directed by

Derek Lamb Derek Reginald Lamb (20 June 1936 – 5 November 2005) was a British animation filmmaker and producer. While serving as executive producer of the National Film Board of Canada's English Animation Studio from 1976 to 1982, he produced the Oscar-win ...

. In the last few decades of his life, Gorey merchandise became quite popular, with stuffed dolls, cups, stickers, posters, and other items available at malls around the United States. In 2002, a book of his interviews entitled ''Ascending Peculiarity: Edward Gorey on Edward Gorey'' was released by author Karen Wilkin. In 2007,

The Jim Henson Company The Jim Henson Company, Inc., formerly known as Muppets, Inc., Henson Associates, Inc., and Jim Henson Productions, Inc. (commonly referred to as Henson), is an American entertainment company located in Los Angeles, California. The company is kn ...

announced plans to produce a feature film based on ''The Doubtful Guest'' to be directed by

Brad Peyton Brad Peyton (born May 27, 1978) is a Canadian filmmaker, best known for directing the Dwayne Johnson star vehicles '' Journey 2: The Mysterious Island'' (2012), '' San Andreas'' (2015), and '' Rampage'' (2018) as well as the Netflix series '' Day ...

. No release date was given and there has been no further information since the announcement. The project was later announced again in 2021, with it now also being produced by

Amblin Entertainment Amblin' Entertainment, Inc., formerly named Amblin Productions, is an American film production company founded by director and producer Steven Spielberg, and film producers Kathleen Kennedy and Frank Marshall in 1980. Its headquarters are lo ...

. The online journal ''Goreyesque'' publishes artwork, stories, and poems in the spirit of Edward Gorey's work. The journal is co-sponsored by the Department of Creative Writing at

Columbia College Chicago Columbia College Chicago is a Private college, private art college in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Founded in 1890, it has 6,493 students (as of fall 2021) pursuing degrees in more than 60 undergraduate and graduate degree programs. It i ...

and

Loyola University Chicago Loyola University Chicago (Loyola or LUC) is a Private university, private Society of Jesus, Jesuit research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Founded in 1870 by the Society of Jesus, Loyola is one of the largest Catholic Church, ...

. ''Goreyesque'' was launched in tandem with the Chicago debut of two Gorey collections: ''Elegant Enigmas: The Art of Edward Gorey'' and ''G Is for Gorey''. The collections were shown at the Loyola University Museum of Art (LUMA) in Chicago, Illinois from February 15 to June 15, 2014. ''Goreyesque'' features the work of both emerging talents and seasoned professionals, such as writers Sam Weller and Joe Meno.

References

External links

Official website of the Edward Gorey Charitable Trust

Official website of the Edward Gorey House

"Getting to Know Edward Gorey"
A visit to his house museum, at

Atlas Obscura ''Atlas Obscura'' is an United States, American-based travel and exploration company. It was founded in 2009 by author Joshua Foer and documentary filmmaker/author Dylan Thuras. It catalogs unusual and obscure travel destinations via professiona ...

* *
''GOREY''
��Documentary film (2025, forthcoming) * * *
Edward Gorey Collection
at the

Harry Ransom Center The Harry Ransom Center, known as the Humanities Research Center until 1983, is an archive, library, and museum at the University of Texas at Austin, specializing in the collection of literary and cultural artifacts from the Americas and Europe ...

Edward Gorey Collection
at the Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress * (and multiple pseudonyms, linked)
Andrew Alpern Collection of Edward Gorey
at

Columbia University Libraries Columbia University Libraries is the library system of Columbia University and one of the largest academic library systems in North America. With 15.0 million volumes and over 160,000 journals and serials, as well as extensive electronic resources ...

Mystery! Edward Gorey interview
from pbs.org *
Book cover illustrations
at Edward Gorey Books (GoreyBooks.com)
Edward Gorey Doubleday Anchor paperbacks 1953–1960
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Gorey, Edward 1925 births 2000 deaths 20th-century American LGBTQ people 20th-century American male writers 20th-century American novelists 20th-century American short story writers American cartoonists American humorous poets American LGBTQ writers American literary critics American male essayists American male novelists American male short story writers American surrealist artists American surrealist writers Artists from Chicago Asexual men Francis W. Parker School (Chicago) alumni Harvard Advocate alumni LGBTQ people from Illinois School of the Art Institute of Chicago alumni SoHo Weekly News people United States Army personnel of World War II United States Army soldiers World Fantasy Award–winning artists Writers of Gothic fiction Writers who illustrated their own writing