Edward Gorey

Edward Gorey was an American author and illustrator known for his nonsensical and macabre drawings. He was born in Chicago in 1925. His grandmother was a successful greeting card artist, and Gorey claims to have gotten his artistic abilities from her. He graduated from Harvard in 1950. He studied art for a short time at the Art Institute of Chicago.

After graduating, Gorey moved to New York City, where he got a job illustrating books such as Dracula and War of the Worlds.

His first personal piece that he wrote and illustrated himself was called “The Unstrung Harp.”

A friend of Gorey’s who owned a bookstore saw the potential of his works. He started selling his books and displaying his art in his gallery, and takes credit for helping Gorey to gain popularity.

Edward Gorey was an eccentric man. He enjoyed cats, sweaters, and ballet. He liked to watch TV commercials and considered them an art form. He was never interested in romance, and when questioned whether he was gay, he replied that if anything, he was asexual. Many of his works were considered children’s stories, though he did not intend them to be. He disliked children. He had many friends however and was quite social.

Gorey considered his pieces to be surrealist and nonsensical. He was known for his crosshatching ink illustrations, with characters and settings similar to Victorian, Edwardian, and jazz age styles. Many of his pieces were very macabre and dark, often dealing with death.

He published over 100 illustrated books. Some of the most popular were “The Gashlycrumb Tinines” which pokes fun at parental paranoia.

And “The Doubtful Guest.”

Gorey was a man of many talents. He loved the stage and designed stage props and costumes for his own plays and those of others. He won a Tony for best costume design for his production of Dracula. He created macrame puppets and would perform evening-length puppet shows. He experimented with books, making popups, miniature books, and stories that were entirely wordless.

Gorey also created the timeless opening for the PBS series Mystery!

Edward Gorey died in 2000. His house in Cape Cod is now a museum. There is a documentary being made about him that has been in process for over a decade. Here is a short clip of an interview with Gorey that was done for the documentary.