Rick Jones

Rick Jones, longtime friend of Edward Gorey and former director of the Edward Gorey House passed away on March 17, 2026 at the age of 83. His obituary in the Cape Cod Times can be read HERE.

Rick and I became acquainted after Edward Gorey's passing in 2000. Rick was part of the team of friends, family and colleagues that transformed Edward Gorey's home into a permanent museum to honor the artist's legacy. When I began this goreyana collecting blog in 2008, Rick was always helpful with information, ideas, questions, stories, and the occasional correction. Like so many people who knew Mr. Gorey personally, Rick was always quick to relate a story with a smile and a chuckle in his voice.

I met Rick in person on two visits to The Edward Gorey House. Bill Campbell and I first visited the house about a week before the annual House exhibition was to open in 2006. That year, the exhibition explored Edward Gorey's connections with Dracula. In the photo above, Rick had just received the original artwork from Gorey's unfinished/unpublished illustrated edition of the Bram Stoker novel from The Edward Gorey Charitable Trust. 

One of the artifacts that would be on display was a Gorey designed throw pillow from the 1977 Broadway production of Dracula.

Also on display was Edward Gorey's Tony Award for costumes from Dracula. Rick kindly let me gently hold the award. 

Our 2014 excursion to The House again found Rick in fine fettle, happily sharing stories and making every visitor feel welcome.

Rick Jones was a true gentleman and a part of Edward Gorey's legacy. He will be truly missed.
 

Peter Neumeyer

Peter F Neumeyer, academic, educator, author and children's literature scholar died on April 2, 2026 at the age of 96. Mr. Neumeyer was a friend and collaborator with Edward Gorey on three books: Donald And The... (published by Addison-Wesley, 1969), Donald Has A Difficulty (Fantod Press, 1970) , and Why We Have Day And Night (Young Scott Books, 1970). 

Edward Gorey entered into an intensely close correspondence with Peter Neumeyer wherein they discussed all manner of subjects including literature and their joint projects. They also sent each other volumes by mail in a frenzy of common interests. Mr. Neumeyer chronicled their back and forth correspondence in the book Floating Worlds, The Letters of Edward Gorey and Peter F. Neumeyer (Pomegranate Books, 2011) - see my blog post from September 30, 2011 HERE.

The recent exhibition Something Else Entirely, The Illustration Art of Edward Gorey included two drawings from Donald And The... 

At the end of January Peter Neumeyer sent a hand written note to The Society of Illustrators to acknowledge and congratulate the Society on the show and its theme of Gorey as illustrator.

photo of Mr. Neumeyer from Santa Rosa Friends Home article -https://frontporch.net/community/friends-house/blog/childrens-literature-author-peter-neumeyer-continues-writing-his-own-life-story-at-friends-house/

Images from Donald And The... courtesy The Edward Gorey Charitable Trust

Image of note from Peter Neumeyer courtesy The Society of Illustrators.

Glen Baxter

Glen Baxter, the British surrealist artist who combined a love of old movies (particularly classic American Westerns), art history, adventure stories, English boy's schools, quirky relatives, and food (particularly cheeses) with absurdist humor died on March 29, 2026 at the age of 82. 

Widely exhibited in galleries and museums around the world, Glen Baxter's first solo exhibition was held at the Gotham Book Mart and Gallery in the mid 1970's. As part of an email exchange with Mr. Baxter a few years ago, the artist sent me this scan of a photo taken at his Gotham Book Mart opening with Edward Gorey. Mr. Gorey was so taken with his works that he purchased ten pieces of art at the show.

For more information about Glen Baxter to here: https://artlyst.com/glen-baxter-artist-of-the-absurd-has-died-aged-82/ 

 Artwork shown is in my personal collection