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.