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

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

writer,

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

-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 The Edwardian era or Edwardian period of British history spanned the reign of King Edward VII, 1901 to 1910 and is sometimes extended to the start of the First World War. The death of Queen Victoria in January 1901 marked the end of the Victori ...

settings.

Early life

Edward St. John Gorey was born in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

. 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 Corinna Mura (born Corinna Wall; March 16, 1910 – August 1, 1965) was a cabaret singer, actress, and diseuse. She had a small role in the classic film ''Casablanca (film), Casablanca'' as the woman playing the guitar while singing "Tango ...

(1910–1965), a cabaret singer who had a small role in ''

Casablanca Casablanca, also known in Arabic as Dar al-Bayda ( ar, الدَّار الْبَيْضَاء, al-Dār al-Bayḍāʾ, ; ber, ⴹⴹⴰⵕⵍⴱⵉⴹⴰ, ḍḍaṛlbiḍa, : "White House") is the largest city in Morocco and the country's econom ...

'' as the woman playing the guitar while singing "

La Marseillaise "La Marseillaise" is the national anthem of France. The song was written in 1792 by Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle in Strasbourg after the declaration of war by France against Austria, and was originally titled "Chant de guerre pour l'Armée du R ...

" 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 New Trier Township, Cook County, Illinois, United States. Bordering Lake Michigan and Evanston, Illinois, it is located north of Chicago's downtown district. Wilmette had a population of 27,087 at the 2010 census. The ...

, where his classmates included

Charlton Heston Charlton Heston (born John Charles Carter; October 4, 1923April 5, 2008) was an American actor and political activist. As a Hollywood star, he appeared in almost 100 films over the course of 60 years. He played Moses in the epic film ''The Ten C ...

Warren MacKenzie Warren MacKenzie (February 16, 1924 – December 31, 2018) was an American craft potter. He grew up in Wilmette, Illinois the second oldest of five children including his brothers, Fred and Gordon and sisters, Marge (Peppy) and Marilyn. His hi ...

, 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 and education and research centers, the largest such complex in the world, created by the U.S. government "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge". Founded ...

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

Army An army (from Old French ''armee'', itself derived from the Latin verb ''armāre'', meaning "to arm", and related to the Latin noun ''arma'', meaning "arms" or "weapons"), ground force or land force is a fighting force that fights primarily on ...

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

Utah Utah ( , ) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. Utah is a landlocked U.S. state bordered to its east by Colorado, to its northeast by Wyoming, to its north by Idaho, to its south by Arizona, and to it ...

. He then attended

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

, 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. Aside from ''The Harvard Crimson'', it is the only publication covering the entire university, and also regularly distributed ...

'', March–April 2007 In the early 1950s, Gorey, with a group of recent Harvard 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 boo ...

(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 over 50 books across several genres from children's literature, biography, memoir, essays, and includin ...

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

John Ciardi John is a common English name and surname: * John (given name) * John (surname) John may also refer to: New Testament Works * Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John * First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John * Second E ...

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'' — a ...

. 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 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 grew into the museum and ...

in 1943.

Career

From 1953 to 1960, he lived in

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

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 ( leading), and ...

design. He illustrated works as diverse as

Bram Stoker Abraham Stoker (8 November 1847 – 20 April 1912) was an Irish author who is celebrated for his 1897 Gothic horror novel '' Dracula''. During his lifetime, he was better known as the personal assistant of actor Sir Henry Irving and busine ...

's ''

Dracula ''Dracula'' is a novel by Bram Stoker, published in 1897. As an epistolary novel, the narrative is related through letters, diary entries, and newspaper articles. It has no single protagonist, but opens with solicitor Jonathan Harker taking ...

'',

H. G. Wells Herbert George Wells"Wells, H. G."
Revised 18 May 2015. ''

The War of the Worlds ''The War of the Worlds'' is a science fiction novel by English author H. G. Wells, first serialised in 1897 by ''Pearson's Magazine'' in the UK and by ''Cosmopolitan (magazine), Cosmopolitan'' magazine in the US. The novel's first appear ...

'', and T. S. Eliot's ''

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

''. 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 John Anthony Bellairs (January 17, 1938 – March 8, 1991) was an American author best known for his fantasy novel ''The Face in the Frost'' and many Gothic mystery novels for children featuring the characters Lewis Barnavelt, Rose Rita Pottin ...

, as well as books begun by Bellairs and continued by

Brad Strickland William Bradley Strickland (born October 27, 1947) is an American writer known primarily for fantasy and science fiction. His speculative fiction is published under the name Brad Strickland except for one novel written as Will Bradley. By a wide ...

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 ''nag a ram'', also the word ...

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 paronomasia, 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 the intentional use of homophonic ...

on his own name, and O. Müde (German for O. Weary). At the prompting of Harry Stanton, an editor and vice president Addison-Wesley, Gorey collaborated on a number of works, and continued a lifelong correspondence with Peter F. Neumeyer. ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' 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 refers to a group of fans who are highly dedicated to some person, idea, object, movement, or work, often an artist, in particular a performing artist, or an artwork in some medium. The lattermost is often called a cult classic. ...

. 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 These are the winners and nominees for the Tony Award for Best Costume Design. The award was first presented in 1947 and included both plays and musicals. In 1961, and since 2005 the category was divided into Costume Design in a Play and Costum ...

and was nominated for the

Tony Award for Best Scenic Design This is a list of winners and nominations for the Tony Award for Best Scenic Design for outstanding set design of a play or musical. The award was first presented in 1947. In 1960, 1961, and since 2005, the category was divided into 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 broadcasting, public broadcaster and Non-commercial activity, non-commercial, Terrestrial television, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly fu ...

series ''

Mystery! ''Mystery!'' (also written ''MYSTERY!'') is a television anthology 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 already established PBS show ''Masterpi ...

'' In the introduction of each ''

'' episode, host

Vincent Price Vincent Leonard Price Jr. (May 27, 1911 – October 25, 1993) was an American actor, art historian, art collector and gourmet cook. He appeared on stage, television, and radio, and in more than 100 films. Price has two stars on the Hollywood Wal ...

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 Yarmouth Port is a census-designated place (CDP) in the town of Yarmouth in Barnstable County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 5,320 at the 2010 census. Yarmouth Port was home to the original Christmas Tree Shops until its clo ...

, on

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

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

papier-mâché upright=1.3, Mardi Gras papier-mâché masks, Haiti upright=1.3, Papier-mâché Catrinas, traditional figures for day of the dead celebrations in Mexico Papier-mâché (, ; , literally "chewed paper") is a composite material consisting of p ...

puppets, an ensemble known as Le Theatricule Stoique. The first of these productions, ''Lost Shoelaces'', premiered in

Woods Hole, Massachusetts Woods Hole is a census-designated place in the town of Falmouth in Barnstable County, Massachusetts, United States. It lies at the extreme southwest corner of Cape Cod, near Martha's Vineyard and the Elizabeth Islands. The population was 781 at ...

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 and e ...

. Based on Thomas Moore's poem ''The Lake of the Dismal Swamp'', the opera was staged after Gorey's death and directed by his friend, neighbor, and longtime collaborator Carol Verburg, with a puppet stage made by his friends and neighbors, the noted set designers Herbert Senn and Helen Pond. In the early 1970s, Gorey wrote an unproduced screenplay for a

silent film A silent film is a film with no 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, when ...

, ''The Black Doll''. After Gorey's death, one of his executors, Andreas Brown, turned up a large cache of unpublished work - 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 Locus (plural loci) is Latin for "place". It may refer to: Entertainment * Locus (comics), a Marvel Comics mutant villainess, a member of the Mutant Liberation Front * ''Locus'' (magazine), science fiction and fantasy magazine ** ''Locus Award' ...

'', 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' ...

. He attended every performance for 25 years. Although Gorey illustrated and wrote many children's books, he did not associate himself with children and had no particular fondness for them. Gorey never married, professed little interest in romance, and never discussed any specific romantic relationships in interviews. In

Alexander Theroux Alexander Louis Theroux (born 1939) is an American novelist and poet. He is known for his novel ''Darconville's Cat'' (1981), which was selected by Anthony Burgess for his book-length essay '' Ninety-Nine Novels: The Best in English Since 1939 � ...

's memoir of his friendship with Gorey, ''The Strange Case of Edward Gorey'', published after Gorey's death, Theroux recalled that when Gorey was pressed on the matter of his

sexual orientation Sexual orientation is an enduring pattern of romantic 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. These attractions are generall ...

by "a rude ''Boston Globe'' reporter," he replied, "I don't even know." Theroux is referring to Lisa Solod's interview with Gorey ("Edward Gorey: The Cape's master teller of macabre tales discusses death, decadence, and homosexuality"), which appeared in the September 1980 issue of ''Boston'' magazine, not the ''Globe''. Gorey's exact words, in response to Solod's question, "What are your sexual preferences?" were, "Well, I'm neither one thing nor the other particularly. I suppose I'm gay. But I don't really identify with it much." At this point, Solod notes that he laughed. (Nowhere in the Solod interview does he say, "I don't even know.") Solod then asks, "Why not?" To which Gorey replies, "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." Confusion and contention have arisen around the question of Gorey's sexuality for several reasons; chief among them is Gorey's general evasiveness in the face of any probing inquiry, by interviewers, into his inner life, especially his sexuality. But the omission of Gorey's remark "I suppose I'm gay" from the Solod interview when it appeared in ''Ascending Peculiarity'', a collection of interviews with Gorey edited by the art critic

Karen Wilkin Karen Wilkin (born 1940) is a New York-based independent curator and art critic specializing in 20th-century modernism. Biography Educated at Barnard College (1962) and Columbia University, she was awarded a Woodrow Wilson Fellowship and a Fulbrig ...

and overseen by Gorey's ''de facto'' business manager Andreas Brown, has also helped to cloud the question. Critic David Ehrenstein, writing in ''Gay City News'', asserts that Gorey was discreet about his sexuality in what Ehrenstein calls 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." (While Bellot interprets Gorey's answers as a declaration of asexuality, Gorey himself never uses that term in the Solod interview.) From 1995 to his death in April 2000, Gorey was the subject of a ''

cinéma vérité Cinéma vérité (, , ; "truthful cinema") 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 high ...

''–style documentary directed by

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

. (As of 2021, the film has been screened as a work-in-progress; the finished film and accompanying book are in

post-production Post-production 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 individual program segments. The ...

.) He was interviewed on ''Tribute to Edward Gorey,'' an hour-long community,

public-access television Public-access television is traditionally a form of non-commercial mass media where the general public can create content television programming which is narrowcast through cable television specialty channels. Public-access television was creat ...

cable show produced by artist and friend Joyce Kenney. He contributed his videos and personal thoughts. Gorey served as a judge at Yarmouth art shows and enjoyed activities at the local cable station, studying computer art and serving as a cameraman on many Yarmouth shows. 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 a cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists depicted unnerving, illogical scenes and developed techniques to allow the unconscious mind to express itself. Its aim was, according to l ...

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'' is an American daily newspaper founded and based in Boston, Massachusetts. The newspaper has won a total of 27 Pulitzer Prizes, and has a total circulation of close to 300,000 print and digital subscribers. ''The Boston Glob ...

'', "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-kn ...

, 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 and mathematician. His most notable works are ''Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'' (1865) and its sequel ...

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 Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...

, 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 and early Romantic eras. Despite his short lifetime, Schubert left behind a vast ''oeuvre'', including more than 600 secular vocal wor ...

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

Bibliography

Gorey wrote more than 100 books, including the following: * ''The Unstrung Harp'', Brown and Company, 1953 * ''The Listing Attic'', Brown and Company, 1954 * '' The Doubtful Guest'', Doubleday, 1957 * ''

The Object-Lesson ''The Object-Lesson'' (1958) is a picture book by Edward Gorey. A work of surrealist art and literature, it is typical of Gorey's avant-garde style of storytelling, with Victorian and Edwardian-esque line drawings and settings, each described w ...

'', Doubleday, 1958 * ''The Bug Book'', Looking Glass Library, 1959 * ''The Fatal Lozenge: An Alphabet'', Obolensky, 1960 * ''

The Curious Sofa ''The Curious Sofa'' is a 1961 book by Edward Gorey, published under the pen name "Ogdred Weary" (an anagram). According to the cover, the book is a "pornographic illustrated story about furniture". Reviews of the book clarify there is nothing ov ...

: A Pornographic Tale by Ogdred Weary'',

Astor-Honor Prince Ivan Sergeyevich Obolensky (May 15, 1925 – January 29, 2019) was an American financial analyst and corporate officer. He was previously commissioned in the United States Navy, serving as a Flight Lieutenant, and had also been a publishe ...

, 1961 * ''The Hapless Child'', Obolensky, 1961 * ''The Willowdale Handcar: Or, the Return of the Black Doll'',

Bobbs-Merrill Company The Bobbs-Merrill Company was a book publisher located in Indianapolis, Indiana. Company history The company began in 1850 October 3 when Samuel Merrill bought an Indianapolis bookstore and entered the publishing business. After his death in 1 ...

, 1962 * ''The Beastly Baby'', Fantod Press, 1962 * '' The Vinegar Works: Three Volumes of Moral Instruction'',

Simon & Schuster Simon & Schuster () is an American publishing company and a subsidiary of Paramount Global. It was founded in New York City on January 2, 1924 by Richard L. Simon and M. Lincoln Schuster. As of 2016, Simon & Schuster was the third largest publ ...

, 1963 ** ''

The Gashlycrumb Tinies ''The Gashlycrumb Tinies: or, After the Outing'' is an alphabet book written by Edward Gorey that was first published in 1963 as the first of a collection of short stories called '' The Vinegar Works'', the eleventh work by Gorey. The book tells t ...

'' ** ''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 Meredith Press was a publishing company based in New York, with a focus on science fiction and general literature. While Already in 1950 they had y published the Better Homes and Gardens Story Book, they were particularly active in the years 1967 ...

, 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 American book publisher and the largest general-interest paperback publisher in the world. The company has several independently managed subsidiaries around the world. It is part of Penguin Random House, which is owned by Germ ...

, 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 Harcourt () was an American publishing firm with a long history of publishing fiction and nonfiction for adults and children. The company was last based in San Diego, California, with editorial/sales/marketing/rights offices in New York City a ...

, 1998 * ''

The Headless Bust ''The Headless Bust: A Melancholy Meditation on the False Millennium'' is an illustrated book by American author/illustrator Edward Gorey, and is a sequel to his '' The Haunted Tea Cozy'' dedicated to the memory of Lancelot Brown Lancelot Bro ...

: A Melancholy Meditation on the False Millennium'', Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich, 1999 Many of Gorey's works were published obscurely and are difficult to find (and priced accordingly); however, the following four omnibus editions collect much of his material. Because his original books are rather short, these editions may contain 15 or more in each 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'' He also illustrated more than 50 works by other authors, including

Samuel Beckett Samuel Barclay Beckett (; 13 April 1906 – 22 December 1989) was an Irish novelist, dramatist, short story writer, theatre director, poet, and literary translator. His literary and theatrical work features bleak, impersonal and tragicomic expe ...

H. G. Wells Herbert George Wells"Wells, H. G."
Revised 18 May 2015. ''

Alain-Fournier Alain-Fournier () was the pseudonym of Henri-Alban Fournier (3 October 1886 – 22 September 1914Mémoi ...

Charles Dickens Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian e ...

, T. S. Eliot,

Hilaire Belloc Joseph Hilaire Pierre René Belloc (, ; 27 July 187016 July 1953) was a Franco-English writer and historian of the early twentieth century. Belloc was also an orator, poet, sailor, satirist, writer of letters, soldier, and political activist. H ...

(where new illustrations to ''

Cautionary Tales for Children ''Cautionary Tales for Children: Designed for the Admonition of Children between the ages of eight and fourteen years'' is a 1907 children's book written by Hilaire Belloc. It is a parody of the cautionary tales that were popular in the 19th centu ...

'' were published posthumously),

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

Florence Parry Heide Florence Parry Heide (February 27, 1919 – October 23, 2011) was a bestselling American children's writer. Early life Born in Pittsburgh, Heide spent most of her childhood in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania. Her father, who was a banker, died w ...

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 ...

Felicia Lamport Felicia Lamport (1916 – 23 December 1999), was an American poet and satirist who also wrote a column for ''The Boston Globe'' called "Muse of the Week in Review". She was particularly well known for her inventive use of the pun. Life and work ...

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 ''The ...

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 British writer Agatha Christie. Poirot is one of Christie's most famous and long-running characters, appearing in 33 novels, two plays ('' Black Coffee'' and ''Alibi''), and more ...

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

SoHo Weekly News The ''SoHo Weekly News'' (also called the ''SoHo News'') was a weekly alternative newspaper published in New York City from 1973 to 1982. The paper was founded in 1973 by Michael Goldstein (1938–2018). History The first issue was published on ...

'' * 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. The name ''Goth'' was derived directly from the genre. Notable post-p ...

. 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 Questions ...

, 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 novels written by American author Daniel Handler under the pen name Lemony Snicket. The books follow the turbulent lives of Violet, Klaus, and Sunny Baudelaire. After their p ...

''. 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 Romanek (; born September 18, 1959) is an American filmmaker whose directing work includes feature films, television, music videos and commercials. Romanek wrote and directed the 2002 film ''One Hour Photo'' and directed the 2010 film '' Neve ...

's music video for the

Nine Inch Nails Nine Inch Nails, commonly abbreviated as NIN and stylized as NIИ, is an American industrial rock band formed in Cleveland in 1988. Singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and producer Trent Reznor was the only permanent member of the band ...

song "

The Perfect Drug "The Perfect Drug" is a song by Nine Inch Nails written for the David Lynch film '' Lost Highway''. It was released in 1997 on the ''Lost Highway'' soundtrack as well as a single from the score. Remixes of the song were released as an EP, ''"T ...

" was designed specifically to resemble a Gorey book, with familiar Gorey elements including oversized urns,

topiary Topiary is the horticultural practice of training perennial plants by clipping the foliage and twigs of trees, shrubs and subshrubs to develop and maintain clearly defined shapes, whether geometric or fanciful. The term also refers to plants w ...

plants, and glum, pale characters in full Edwardian costume. Also,

Caitlín R. Kiernan Caitlín Rebekah Kiernan (born 26 May 1964) is an Irish-born American published paleontologist and author of science fiction and dark fantasy works, including 10 novels, series of comic books, and more than 250 published short stories, novella ...

has published a short story entitled "A Story for Edward Gorey" (''

Tales of Pain and Wonder ''Tales of Pain and Wonder'' is Caitlín R. Kiernan's first short story collection. The stories are interconnected to varying degrees, and a number of Kiernan's characters reappear throughout the book, particularly Jimmy DeSade and Salmagundi De ...

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

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 almost 50 years. The quartet covers a very broad range of musical genres, including contemporary classic ...

. 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, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...

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 a retired English 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 Rypdal ...

Carla Bley Carla Bley (born Lovella May Borg; May 11, 1936) is an American jazz composer, pianist, organist and bandleader. An important figure in the free jazz movement of the 1960s, she is perhaps best known for her jazz opera '' Escalator over the Hill'' ...

, 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, Freddie Hubbard, Keith Jarrett, Bill Evans, John Abercrombie, ...

. 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 bassist, singer-songwriter, musician and composer. He gained popularity as the primary lead vocalist and ‍bassist ‍of British rock band Cream. After the group disbande ...

Rick Fenn Richard Fenn (born 23 May 1953) is an English rock guitarist. He has been a member of the band 10cc since 1976 and has also collaborated with Mike Oldfield, Rick Wakeman, Hollies singer Peter Howarth, and Pink Floyd drummer Nick Mason. Hist ...

, 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 is the only member to feature on every Pink Floyd album, and the only constant member since its formation in ...

. The opening titles of the

series ''

'' are based on Gorey's art, 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 (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 known for ...

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 film director, writer, and producer, best known for directing the Dwayne Johnson star vehicles '' Journey 2: The Mysterious Island'' (2012), '' San Andreas'' (2015), and '' Rampage'' (2018) as well as ...

. 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 and Steven Spielberg Productions, is an American film production company founded by director and producer Steven Spielberg, and film producers Kathleen Kennedy and Frank Marshal ...

. 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. Founded in 1890, it has 5,928https://about.colum.edu/effectiveness/pdf/spring-2021-student-profile.pdf students pursuing degrees in more than 60 undergra ...

and

Loyola University Chicago Loyola University Chicago (Loyola or LUC) is a private Jesuit research university in Chicago, Illinois. Founded in 1870 by the Society of Jesus, Loyola is one of the largest Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Cathol ...

. ''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 Joe Meno (born 1974) is an American novelist, writer of short fiction, playwright, and music journalist based in Chicago. Biography After attending Columbia College Chicago, Meno spent time working as a flower delivery truck driver and art ther ...

References

External links

Official website of the Edward Gorey Charitable Trust

Official website of the Edward Gorey House
* * * *
Edward Gorey Collection
at the

Harry Ransom Center The Harry Ransom Center (until 1983 the Humanities Research Center) 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 for the pur ...

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)
''GOREY''
documentary film (2022, forthcoming)
Edward Gorey Doubleday Anchor paperbacks 1953–1960
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Gorey, Edward 1925 births 2000 deaths 20th-century American male writers 20th-century American novelists 20th-century American short story writers American cartoonists American male novelists American male short story writers American surrealist artists American surrealist writers Artists from Chicago Asexual men Harvard Advocate alumni LGBT people from Illinois American LGBT writers School of the Art Institute of Chicago alumni 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 Francis W. Parker School (Chicago) alumni

Early life

Career

Personal life

Style

Bibliography

Pseudonyms

Legacy

See also

References

Further reading

External links