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Edward St. John Gorey (February 25, 1925 - April 15, 2000) was an artist noted for his wryly humorous and more than slightly macabre art works in pen and ink. Born in Chicago, he attended Harvard from 1946-1950 where he studied French. Although he would frequently state that his formal art training was "negligible", Gorey studied art for one semester at the Chicago Art Institute in 1943 eventually becoming a professional illustrator. From 1953-1960 he lived in New York City and worked for the Art Department of Doubleday Anchor illustrating book covers. His first work - The Unstrung Harp - was published in 1953. He also was known under the pen name Ogdred Weary, an anagram of his first and last names.
His books of illustrated stories and drawings, with their constantly ominous air in Victorian and Edwardian settings, had a cult following, but Gorey became well known through his animated introduction to the PBS series Mystery! in 1980, and his scenic design for the 1977 Broadway production of Dracula. In later years, he lived year-round in Yarmouth Port, Massachusetts, on Cape Cod, where he wrote and directed numerous evening-length entertainments, often featuring his own papier-mâché handpuppets, in an ensemble known as La Theatricule Stoique. His major theatrical work was the libretto for an "Opera Seria for Handpuppets", The White Canoe, to a score by the composer Daniel James Wolf. The premiere of the opera, based on the Lady of the Lake legend, was tragically posthumous.
He was noted for his fondness for ballet which he attended in a long fur coat, and for cats, which figure prominently in his work. His house is called Elephant House and now serves as a gallery and museum of sorts.
He wrote more than 100 books including:
- The Unstrung Harp, 1953
- The Doubtful Guest, 1957
- The Object-Lesson, 1958
- The Curious Sofa: a Pornographic Tale by Ogdred Weary, 1961
- The Hapless Child, 1961
- The Willowdale Handcar: or, the Return of the Black Doll, 1962
- The Gashlycrumb Tinies, 1963
- The Insect God, 1963
- The West Wing, 1963
- The Gilded Bat, 1967
- The Epiplectic Bicycle, 1969
- The Iron Tonic: or, a Winter Afternoon in Lonely Valley 1969
- The Awdrey-Gore Legacy, 1972
- The Glorious Nosebleed, 1975
- Gorey Stories
- The Other Statue
- The Haunted Tea Cosy
- The Headless Bust: a Melancholy Meditation for the False Millennium
Many of Gorey's works were published obscurely and are hard to find or expensive. However, the following three omnibus editions collect together much of his material. Because his original books are rather short, these may contain as 15 or more in each volume.
He also illustrated 60 other works by other authors, such as Edward Lear, John Bellairs and John Ciardi.
External links
Elephant House: The Edward Gorey House (http://www.edwardgoreyhouse.org/)
Mystery! website with illustrations by E. Gorey (http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/mystery/)
Mystery! website interview with Gorey and photo (http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/mystery/gorey.html)
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