Edward Gorey's Home - Elephant House

When Edward Gorey passed away unexpectedly in April 2000, family, friends and fans were shocked and saddened. As the 10th season for the Edward Gorey House celebrates the life and work of this extraordinary man, I thought it was a good time to take a look at his home, which now operates as the museum. The museum is a wonderful place to visit, take in the yearly exhibitions, and to be able to walk through the building and grounds that Mr. Gorey called home for many years...but what was the house like when Mr. Gorey lived and worked there?

Fortunately, photographer Kevin McDermott was able to capture the house before the lengthy process of cleaning it out and sorting through all the stuff occurred. Even more fortunately for all of us, Mr. McDermott published his photographs in the wonderful Elephant House or, The Home of Edward Gorey (Pomegranate Books, San Francisco 2003). The introduction for the book was written by author John Updike, and was originally issued as a standard coffee table hardback and in two limited editions. The regular hardcover edition is still in print and available at bookstores and on line.

Advice to young authors has always been "write about what you know", so it is not surprising that Edward Gorey wrote about everything and anything! As the photographs of his home attest, Mr. Gorey collected and was interested in everything...and I mean everything! Books, cats, rocks, toys, art, yard sale finds, things picked up on the side of the road, and popular culture all found a home with Mr. Gorey. Objects are placed with deliberate, and often amusing care inside and outside his home, creating an environment that stimulated his imagination every day. It is no wonder that his works continue to inspire countless scores of admirers today.
The limited editions were created in editions of 100 numbered and 26 lettered (A to Z) copies, each housed in an embossed slipcase and hand signed & numbered/lettered by Kevin McDermott and John Updike. Each numbered copy was issued with an original signed/numbered photograph of "Ogdred's Place" laid in. I have copy #100/100. The 26 lettered copies have an original signed/lettered photograph of "Edward's Hands" laid in. I am showing copy Z/26.

Since Gotham Book Mart closed, the limited edition copies have been difficult to find, but author Kevin McDermott still has a few of the numbered limited edition copies available for purchase. He can be contacted through his website www.kevinmcdermott.com. Mr. McDermott also sells individual limited edition prints of his work through his site. I chose Looking Out the Window for my collection because it is such a haunting image.

2011 Edward Gorey House Exhibition

The 10th Anniversary exhibition has opened at The Edward Gorey House in Yarmouth Port, MA. The theme of this year's exhibition is Edward Gorey and the Performing Arts. This broad subject cuts a wide path through Mr. Gorey's entire career, and the exhibition is one of the most entertaining shows The House has mounted (pun intended).

Following in the footsteps of many past exhibitions, this year's delightful show features many pieces of original artwork and ephemera which have never before been previous on public display. The two images of original Edward Gorey artwork were provided by The Edward Gorey House. All areas of the performing arts favorites are represented, from Mr. Gorey's signature designs for the Broadway production of Dracula to television, including Mystery! Also on display are selections from the worlds of poetry, opera, ballet, and a large selection of items related to Mr. Gorey's shows presented on and around Cape Cod in the 1980's and 90's.

A number of Mr. Gorey's hand made puppets which made appearances in several entertainments are displayed. Below is a video showing the rehearsal process (captured by Mooncusser Films) for a puppet show. Words to live by, "Not so much twitching, please".



For just one more week, visitors to the Boston area can get a double whammy of Gorey. The Elegant Enigmas show at the Athenaeum is closing next week...RUN, don't walk to get to the show!

Fine Art Prints - Part 6

In August 2002, Gotham Book Mart produced the official list of etchings and collagraphs made by Edward Gorey. This list is the only record (apart from Mr. Gorey's original notebook) of how many prints Mr. Gorey completed for each image and hand signed/numbered. As mentioned in a previous posting, prints #1 through #6 are the Diogenes images.

I have 21 prints in my collection. Over the course of several postings I will be going down the list, giving information, and showing images of as many of the prints as I can. The titles and the numbers of the prints reflect the list from GBM.

#7 Estranged Family - 65/95 prints were hand signed.
#8 Framed & Belted Talisman - 19/50 prints were hand signed.
#9 Black Skull/Elephants Mirage in Gray Mist - 20/25 prints were hand signed.

#10 Cat in Window Observing Night Moon - 40/50 prints were hand signed.
#11 Montage of Found Objects in Color - 9/50 prints were hand signed. This is the rarest of all of Edward Gorey's prints, I do not believe that the print run was ever completed.
#12 Tassled Creature Cushion Resting in Window - 40/95 prints were hand signed. I have #32/95 in my collection.
#13 Boy with Bottle Seated on Ocean Rock - 40/95 prints were hand signed.
#14 Scratching Dog on Sea Rock - 65/95 prints were hand signed.
#15 Child Carried Aloft by Two Creatures - 75/95 prints were hand signed.
#16 Topiary & Child with Creature Held Aloft - 70/95 prints were hand signed. I have #14/95 in my collection.

The Bell, the Book and the Spellbinder

The Bell, the Book and the Spellbinder by Brad Strickland was published by Dial Books for Young Readers in 1997. Mr. Strickland is pretty much "on his own" at this point in the John Bellairs' book series, but the basic premise for this story was founded on a comment Mr. Bellairs once made to a publisher about an enchanted/magic book that enslaves its reader.

Edward Gorey created a wraparound dust jacket design that features his most colorful rear cover of the series. The lurid orange color used for the background of the tattered poster leaps out at you. Mr. Gorey also created a frontis illustration and several small interior spot illustrations. The frontis drawing may just be his most disturbing illustration from the entire series, and possibly his career. It shows a deceased, dry mouse who still has the power to move due to magic. As the mouse tries to move, it begins to pull itself apart.

Fine Art Prints, Part 5 - Confusion Reigns!

Why are some prints by Edward Gorey hand signed and some signed with an embossed signature stamp?

As stated in previous postings, Edward Gorey created a total of 82 Fine Art etchings and collagraph prints. His first collection of six etchings created for Diogenes (discussed in my posting from April 4, 2011) are the only prints that were completed according to proper printmaking procedure. The six Diogenes images were printed as complete runs, numbered, hand signed and offered for sale. For all his subsequent print images, Edward Gorey did not follow proper print making etiquette, which would cause him (and later his estate) many headaches over time.

In order to offer as many images as possible and keep his printing costs manageable, Mr. Gorey decided to print only 10 or 20 impressions of each image against an anticipated total print run of 50 to 95 prints, rather than produce one complete run of an image before moving on to the next. The prints were hand signed and numbered 1/95 through 10/95, and when those ten prints sold, 11/95 through 20/95 were printed and signed - but the entire run of 95 was never printed all at one time.

This system meant that Edward Gorey had to keep a record of the number of prints made to date, so he had a notebook with details on his prints. At one point in the late 1990's, the book was mislaid and all print production came to a halt until the book could be found (it was). The consequence of this system of printing and numbering is that only some of the prints reached their full edition before Mr. Gorey died in April 2000. The editions which were incomplete at the time of Mr. Gorey's death were finished by his estate. These prints are hand numbered, and then signed with an embossed signature stamp. At least one collagraph print run could not be completed because the plate fell apart after the initial prints were pulled (I will discuss this print in a later post).

17 of the 82 print images were never printed during Mr. Gorey's lifetime - the plates were found in Mr. Gorey's home, but no prints had yet been pulled - these were completed by his estate and are referred to as the "Posthumous Prints".

Children in a Museum

In my previous posting, I was saying how nice it was to be in an exhibition where the walls are covered in works drawn by Edward Gorey. This is the kind of exhibition most Gorey collectors dream about. I have a piece of original artwork in which Mr. Gorey has created his own fantasy art exhibition. Given his eclectic tastes in all things, perhaps this is his version of an ideal gallery show.

Children in a Museum is a piece of art originally created for the December 1997 issue of Town & Country Magazine for an article entitled Art Is Fun... Appearing on page 93, the image illustrates an article about the pleasures and problems of taking children to a museum. The article offers advice on how to make the experience pleasurable for both the parent and child, and points out some of the pitfalls that can occur when a child decides to act like a child. In one example taken from an actual experience, the author suggests having opera glasses handy to help spot a child hiding under a bed in a roped off period room.

In the magazine, the image is printed slightly larger than the original artwork, which is 5.75" x 8". This large piece of art is full of great details and wonderfully humorous situations. The gallery pictured also contains one of craziest assemblages of paintings imaginable. The artwork covers periods of art from Renaissance to Modern, and even has time for dessert above the door as you leave the gallery! I am especially fond of the painting of Judith and Holofernes which is delighting the small child and distressing the guardian.

Falling In Love Again

This past Monday, Bill (in red) and I (in green) went to Boston to view the Elegant Enigmas show at the Boston Atheneum. If your Gorey collecting bug is feeling a bit listless, this show is a sure fire cure for the collecting doldrums. Photography was not allowed in the galleries, so the photos show us outside the building.

Entering the exhibition space, we were greeted by several beautifully executed self portraits of Edward Gorey. At first glance, the show seems quite unassuming, being presented in just two rooms. We managed to spend well over an hour and a half studying the original artwork from Mr. Gorey's published books. The art included in the show concentrates on primary books published before 1980, but examples of later titles are included. Organized loosely by publication date, each frame showcases two or more pages from a book. There are several plexi cases with three dimensional objects, unframed artwork, sketches and notebooks.

Pieces like the full color dust jacket design painted for The Broken Spoke stand out because of its size and beautiful colors, but it is the densely rendered black and white drawings which rivet you to the spot in awe and amazement. More than one gallery viewer was overheard to ask, " Is this an etching?" Because the work is so finely detailed, it is almost impossible to believe it is the work drawn by hand.

There are many pieces showing the process Mr. Gorey went through to complete a work of art. It is fascinating to see corrections on the drawings, in some cases artwork is cut in half and a new upper portion is glued to the lower half. Pieces of paper are pasted on top of finished drawings with new lettering or a single word is changed. Viewing the original art gives insight into the thought process involved, which is an aspect unique to illustration art since the art itself is not the final destination, but part of the journey.

Rarely does one see the progression of Mr. Gorey's signature drawing style so clearly displayed. It was unfortunate that there was nothing on display from The Beastly Baby, since this represents some of his earliest work and is very loosely drawn in contrast to the firmer style of his other works. Pieces from The Unstrung Harp and The Listing Attic prepare the way for the masterpiece drawings from The West Wing.

One of the great surprises of the show is a small plexi display case which has just recently been put on display and is not actually part of the exhibition. In this display (located in a room that one stumbles across when heading to the restrooms) are three recent acquisitions by the Atheneum for their permanent collection. They include a hard cover copy of The Black Doll, a stamped sheet of Figbash figures dancing across the page and signed by Mr. Gorey, and the jaw dropping The Sopping Thursday limited edition copy #C/26. This copy includes a piece of original art created especially for this edition (see photo to the right) which features a cat standing in the rain balancing an umbrella on its paw. The announcement card for this title is included in the display which states that the 26 lettered copies were originally sold by Gotham Book Mart for $75.00 each! Oh, to have a time machine!!