A Visit to the Edward Gorey House Continued

My visit to the Edward Gorey House in October was full of pleasant surprises. One room at the far back of the house had several very interesting displays, including the puppets shown in my previous post and materials relating to the animated sequence for Mystery!. This room also contains a display of hand made stuffed creatures. The case displays the popular Figbash dolls along with other rare pieces sewn by Mr. Gorey. A pile of frogs (with different styles of feet) are joined by a rabbit, elephant, and dragon-like creature. Of particular interest is the cat - a first glance it looks like one of the printed Toy Works cats, but it is actually a hand painted version.

In their goal to display as many interesting things as possible, the room also houses a wall of illustrated books that you can look through. Part of this display is a xerox facsimile or one of Mr. Gorey's sketchbooks containing sketches for the Nantucket and Broadway productions of Dracula. I was delighted to find a page showing his sketch for the iconic poster created for the Broadway production.

Even more of a surprise was to find a page showing the original sketch for the Dracula proscenium and drop curtain used in Nantucket. The finished artwork for the proscenium is in my collection, so it was a thrill to see the sketch. All of the elements in the final artwork are present in the sketch. When the production transferred to Broadway, Mr. Gorey redesigned the proscenium and drop curtain. One can assume that the crossing out on the sketch was done as he went through his idea book and was deciding what to keep and what to re-imagine.

A Visit to the Edward Gorey House

This past week, Bill and I made a visit the Edward Gorey House Museum in Yarmouthport, MA. The 2015 show focuses on Edward Gorey's self published Fantod Press books, and is on display through the end of the year.

Once again, Edward Gorey House director Rick Jones and his staff have done an exceptional job displaying pieces for the exhibition. Every room contains hundreds of objects, each with a story that can be related by the extremely knowledgeable docents - the day we visited, a gentleman named Charles was a delightful and informative companion as we walked through the show. The depth of material and information found in this year's exhibit is second to none.

Upon entering the House, visitors are greeted by a delightful Fantod Under Glass who presides over the exhibition and was created specially for the show. The first two cases you encounter on either side of this colorful fellow are worth the price of admission in themselves.

Edward Gorey created the Fantod Press to self publish The Beastly Baby, a title he was shopping around and which no publisher wanted to touch...much like the Baby itself! These original drawings are rarely seen and are unexpectedly larger in person than their printed versions - a rarity since Mr. Gorey usually drew art at the size he intended for publication. A small sculptural Baby which once belonged to Mr. Gorey is included in the case.

The display on the other side of the Fantod shows artwork from The Chinese Obelisks. On exhibit in this case is an actual mummy's hand which belonged to Edward Gorey and inspired several creepy drawings.

Edward Gorey's home has many rooms with twists, turns, nooks, and crannies which lend themselves to intimate display areas. The small scale of the original art on display is never overwhelmed by the space, and there is something to see in every corner. The interactive layout of the exhibitions also allows for multiple viewers to be in the spaces and still feel as through the show is there "just for them".

In addition to the Fantod displays, there are exhibits of other aspects of Edward Gorey's career. Of particular interest is the large (in terms of material) display showcasing Edward Gorey's relationship with Dracula. The Dracula material includes original artwork from an unfinished illustrated version of the novel, artwork, photographs, and Mr. Gorey's Tony Award from the Broadway production and original art used for the Dracula Toy Theater. The piece of artwork from the Toy Theater has to be one of the largest and most awe-inspiring pieces of original Gorey artwork I have ever seen in person.

Below is a photo of director Rick Jones with myself in Edward Gorey's kitchen, a room that contains a display of personal and interesting objects which Mr. Gorey collected and actually had arranged on his counter tops.

The 2015 show continues on weekends through the end of the year, and is not to be missed.

Limericks for Book Week

In the 1970's and early '80's, work by Edward Gorey would appear sporadically in Cricket Magazine. Cricket was started in 1973 by Marianne Carus, whose intent was to create a literary magazine for children aged 9 to 14 that could be used in the classroom. Many famous authors and illustrators were associated with the publication.

One of the earliest contributions by Edward Gorey was a limerick reprinted from a 1975 Book Week pamphlet that also included Gorey illustrations. Most of Mr. Gorey's future contributions would be as illustrator for works by other authors, but the magazine did reprint a portion of his Dancing Cats in the March 1981 issue. It appears that all contributions by Edward Gorey to Cricket were, like the two shown here, reprinted from other sources and were not made specifically for the magazine.