Edward Gorey's Centennial Birthday Week!

 Happy Birthday Edward Gorey!

Saturday February 22, 2025 marks the 100th anniversary of Edward Gorey's birth. Take a moment this week to enjoy your favorite book by Mr. Gorey. Celebrate this extraordinary artist by introducing a friend to his works by sharing your favorite book with them.

My favorite work by Edward Gorey is The Epiplectic Bicycle. Over the years, I have gifted copies of this extraordinary work to many of my friends.

Apologies to Mr. Gorey for making him wear the silly Birthday Crown, but you only turn 100 once!

From Ted to Tom, The Illustrated Envelopes of Edward Gorey

From Ted to Tom, The Illustrated Envelopes of Edward Gorey is an illustrated glimpse into Edward Gorey's friendship with Tom Fitzharris. The book reproduces each of the 50 hand painted envelopes Mr. Gorey sent to Mr. Fitzharris between July 8, 1974 and July 26, 1975. Excerpts from the enclosed letters appear alongside enclosures from the missives. 

Tom Fitzharris met Edward Gorey after purchasing one of the works Gorey exhibited at his Graham Gallery exhibition (April 23 through May 18, 1974). The style and variety of the envelope art shown in From Ted to Tom is a visual extension of the works Edward Gorey created for the exhibition, but with the added depth of personal references in the paintings. A friendship was established that inspired not only the illustrated envelopes, but also L'Heure Bleue, a book published by Edward Gorey in 1975. 

The hand lettered enclosures are thought provoking quotes from authors and artists. At the end of the book, Mr. Fitzharris details many of the visual and written references from the missives.

During the 1970's Edward Gorey spent the summer months rooming with his extended family at their home on Cape Cod and would return to his apartment in New York City when the New York City Ballet season commenced. Tom Fitzharris would visit the Cape and many of the summer letters reference these visits in their visual blandishments. According to the notes at the back of the book, the above envelope was inspired when Mr. Gorey was driving and saw what appeared to be a boat oar floating in mid air. It turned out that the oar was affixed to the porch of a home, but the image of a floating oar stuck with the artist.

There has long been curiosity about these extraordinary envelopes. As early as 2002 a selection of six were featured in a New Yorker article (with Mr. Fitzharris's name altered). The Edward Gorey House also displayed a selection around this time. From then until this publication the envelopes were mentioned on occasion but were rarely, if ever seen.

Edward Gorey had been elaborately decorating letters to family and friends since the 1940's and these communications often featured paintings on the envelopes. It is not surprising that the letters were saved and after his death in April 2000 a number of these extraordinary pieces began to be shared by the recipients. Peter Neumeyer published his collection of letters in Floating Worlds, The Letters of Edward Gorey and Peter Neumeyer (Pomegranate 2011). The Neumeyer letters were written for roughly one year beginning in September 1968. Floating Worlds shows the illustrated envelopes but focuses on the content of the letters.

From Ted to Tom has been carefully and beautifully designed, presenting each of the 50 numbered envelopes in order. Edward Gorey enjoyed sending and receiving letters and postcards in the mail. This form of interaction between people is unfortunately dying away as electronic communications have made instant messaging the norm. What will future generations have to ponder of today's communications between people?

Sopping Thurday Lettered Copy Sales Prospectus

The Sopping Thursday by Edward Gorey was published in 1970 by The Gotham Book Mart to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the celebrated emporium. This was the first of many titles by Mr. Gorey to be published by GBM. 

The Sopping Thursday came out as a limited edition of 300 signed/numbered copies and 26 signed/lettered copies. The 300 numbered copies were published in stiff wrappers and signed/numbered by Mr. Gorey. It was the 26 lettered copies that set this edition apart from anything that Edward Gorey had previously published. It is unknown if the idea for this deluxe edition came from Andreas Brown or from Gorey himself, but it is clear that the artist wanted to create something memorable for the store's milestone anniversary.

Each of the 26 lettered copies was specially bound in hardcover, slipcased and was accompanied by an original drawing with a corresponding letter. The letter/limitation are in the lower right hand corner of each drawing together with Edward Gorey's signature in initial form. This was the first time that Mr. Gorey produced a Deluxe Edition for one of his books. With the publication of Amphigorey two years later, the artist would produce another Deluxe Edition, this time with 50 numbered copies, each accompanied by a piece of original artwork. My copy of The Sopping Thursday is letter M and is shown in the first photo.

To advertise the publication of this very special limited edition, The Gotham Book Mart held an exhibition featuring the 26 pieces of art created to accompany each book. The exhibit ran from November 20 through December 12, just in time for Christmas gift giving. The publication price for a lettered copy of the book with the accompanying art was $75.00. In the 1990's it was not unusual for a lettered copy of a new Gorey book to be offered by GBM for $125.00. These of course, had no original art included.

With the edition not selling quite as robustly as Andreas Brown anticipated, a sales brochure was created to boost sales. The drawings were xeroxed and 15 brochure sets were created to generate interest from perspective clients. Each of these sets consists of 26 full sized xeroxes of the complete suite of artwork stapled together with the gallery announcement card on top. Each set is numbered in red ink 1/15, 2/15, etc. on the announcement card.

This past year I was able to acquire copy 15/15 which came the collection of the late George Bixby, founder of the Albodoncani Press. This copy is inscribed to Mr. Bixby and signed by Edward Gorey, both on the numbered announcement card and on the first drawing in the suite.

The complete collection of artwork created for this deluxe edition has only been gathered together once for the 1970 exhibition at The Gotham Book Mart. Fortunately for fans and scholars, the art did not sell out and Andreas Brown made the 15 sales prospectus brochures. Even these rare brochures are so seldom seen that it wasn't until collector Sam Speigel photographed and sent me the combined images collaged together on three pages that all the art was again seen in its entirety. The advantage of the brochure is that a collector could assess and evaluate the individual pieces of art when selecting which number to purchase.

The brochure presents a slightly misleading representation of the artwork because the pieces were Xeroxed in black and white and the pieces were created in two colors of ink. In the above image the original art is on the left and the brochure xerox is on the right. The figures are drawn in black ink while the rain is rendered in a light grey ink. The Xerox significantly changes the feel of the original art, emboldening the line quality of the drawings. On the original art the light grey rain softens each drawing and endows the piece with a subtle flavor that can only be experienced by viewing the original art in person. This is truly a masterpiece suite of drawings.

In Edward Gorey's typically enigmatic fashion, the suite of drawings at first feels disjointed and rambling. As in his 1965 book The West Wing the captionless drawings become a story that unfolds in the readers mind as they turn from one drawing to the next. Rain, and the inconvenience of rain, is the main feature in this suite. Edward Gorey understood city rain and, after spending time with these drawings one gets the claustrophobic feel of a week of steady rain in New York City where the only relief is to go indoors. On visiting GBM one rainy day in April in the 1990's, manager Gina Guy remarked to me that she hated rainy days in the city because she was tall and was constantly batting umbrellas away from her face.

The first drawing of the suite is an homage to The Gotham Book Mart and to Andreas Brown. The initials AB and GBM appear in the decorative ironwork of the weather vane that the cat is flying past, Mary Poppins style. It is fortunate that Mr. Brown made a record of this remarkable suite of drawings, but unfortunate that the record is Xeroxes. But was this possible without preparing for expensive full color reproduction?

The technology of the time would not have allowed for a two color scan of the suite of images. When creating the images for The Sopping Thursday Edward Gorey created two pen and ink drawings for each page in the book - one for the black printing and one for the grey. The book drawings do not exist as a single image except when they are printed. The Deluxe Edition drawings are exquisitely rendered individual works of art.

Goreymania - A New Collecting Website

Edward Gorey was born in 1925 and his centennial year is starting off with a bang. Goreymania (www.goreymania.com) is a brand new website devoted to all those perplexing questions one has when plunging into the murky waters of Gorey ephemera. Xandy Hand, the author of the site has provided in-depth information and photos to guide and inform the novice and advanced collector alike. The site currently features four distinct collecting areas of ephemera and promises more will be forthcoming over time.

Fruitcake

Fruitcake

The first recorded recipes come from Ancient Roman times and through the centuries, fruitcake has been an extravagant indulgence served at special celebrations whose ingredients at one time were even regulated by the Pope (See the Wikipedia link HERE for a history of fruitcake).  In November 1978, Johnny Carson told a joke on The Tonight Show about fruitcake, stating that there is only one actual fruitcake that gets passed from hand to hand but is never actually consumed. The joke struck like lightning and fruitcake has never been viewed the same since. It seems that everyone either loves fruitcake or despises it.    

In 1990 Edward Gorey added his own inimitable twist on the ubiquitous holiday treat (and running joke). Published as a limited edition Christmas card for the Albodonocani Press in 1990, Edward Gorey drew Fruitcake, a winter scene in which a bundled up family is braving the cold and snow to dispose of their unwanted fruitcakes under the cover of darkness by dropping them through an ice fishing hole on a frozen pond. 

Strikingly executed in pen and ink, the night sky was rendered not by painting in the background which would have been an overwhelming flat black when printed, but rather by painstakingly applied individual pen strokes. The horizontal flecks of white paper showing through the darkness lighten the image and add a sense of drama to the scene. The fruitcake falling from the sky gives the work a touch of surrealistic humor.  

Arguably Edward Gorey's most famous Christmas card image, I acquired the original artwork for Fruitcake earlier this year.

A Gorey Christmas

Published in the New York Times, The New York Times Book Review (NYTBR) is a weekly supplement that first appeared in the paper in 1896. The NYTBR remains one of the most influential review forums for new literature to this day.

In 1990 Edward Gorey was commissioned by the editors of the NYTBR to create nine spot illustrations to enhance the various book genres being reviewed in the December 2nd issue. Mr. Gorey created two additional illustrations for the issue that provided inspiration for writers to submit short stories based on the images. This issue was titled A Gorey Christmas.

Each of the spot illustrations created for the supplement features three characters; a small boy, an alligator, and a robot. Fir tree branches decorated with Christmas baubles intrude into the frame of each illustration. The book categories illustrated include: Architecture, Art (pictured above), Best Books (pictured at the bottom of the post), Cooking, Gardening, Photography, Poetry, Travel, and the rather inexplicable Dying Children.

Dying Children accompanies an essay by Perri Klass about the prevalence in Victorian yuletide-themed literature of children dying before their time, a theme not dissimilar to Edward Gorey's masterwork, The Gashlycrumb Tinies. Interestingly, the Dying Children drawing is the only one from this series that does not include a book.

The NYTBR supplement also included two special illustrations by Edward Gorey created especially for this issue. These drawings were created as inspiration for writers to compose a story based on the images. Nine short stories were published in the supplement. The first drawing, titled Trimming the Tree, showed our alligator being assisted by a family while placing ornaments on an tree out in the snow, far from the ancestral home in the background (see the top of the post). The second, titled The Skating Party, featured the helpful robot bringing a bowl of flaming holiday punch to a skating party. 

The NYTBR is the only time these whimsical drawings have been published all together, although a few of the images have appeared over the years on greeting cards. 

Original art images courtesy The Edward Gorey Charitable Trust.

 

 

Auction News

There have been several recent auctions that included original art by Edward Gorey. On October 17, 2024 Leland Little Auctions of Hillsborough, North Carolina offered a piece from The Dream World of Dion McGregor, published in 1964 by Bernard Greis Assosiates, New York. The provenance note on this piece stated that the art came from the collection of Don Patterson, executive editor at Bernard Greis. 

Titled Cottage for Sale,  this creepy image illustrates a particularly gruesome tale of a house of torture being shown to perspective renters with the sales pitch given as if the house is a quaint home for rent. Edward Gorey chose what is quite possibly the least horrific part of the tour for this illustration. "And the closet space...each one with a noose hanging in there...". This piece sold for $4920.00 (including buyer's premium).

On October 24th Bohnam's auctions of Los Angeles featured two works by Edward Gorey from the collection of Leonard Stanley. The first, titled Lawn on Malta is a Zen landscape created in 1974 featuring rocks that look like cats alongside sleeping cats that look like rocks. This tranquil scene sold for $12,800.00 (including buyer's premium).

The second piece included in the sale is a beautifully rendered set design from Edward Gorey's seminal 1977 Broadway production of Dracula.

Edward Gorey designed the set with a framework of five arched openings for inset panels which could be quickly changed for each act. This Act 1 set piece is the wall panel inset on the right. The books filling the shelves were indicated on other set drawings for this scene. The drawing sold for $8960.00 (including buyer's premium).

Images courtesy of Leland Little Auctions, Hillsborough, NC, and Bohnams Auctions, Los Angeles, CA. Dracula Act 1 set photo by Martha Swope, New York Public Library Digital Collections.