I was first introduced to the artwork of Edward Gorey as a child in the 70’s and 80’s and always loved the Victorian and Edwardian style of his drawings, often poring admiringly over the images.

A wonderful tribute to the fabulous Edward Gorey, I loved looking through the pictures I grew up loving as well as reading the text. While I’ve enjoyed his art for decades, I was so thankful to be given the opportunity to learn more about him in this book.

With many pre-drawings among his illustrations and book covers I would recommend this to fans of Gorey, the goth in your life, and artists. This is a book I’ll be getting for my home.



Thank you to Black Dog & Leventhal and NetGalley for the PDF

My thanks to both NetGalley and Black Dog and Leventhal Publishers for an advance copy of this new look at an artist whose style immediately recognizable, a mixture of the past, a bit of darkness and snark, humor and violence, but one that continues to entertain even today.

I was sixteen and working in my first bookstore when I was first introduced to the works of Edward Gorey. I was a cartoon person, comics and newspaper strips, along with works from The New Yorker, that was the extent of my art knowledge. For odd there was Charles Adams, or Bernie Wrightson, or some European comics if I wanted to show off. One of my co-workers was an artist, and a very good one. We were discussing his portfolio, while we should have been working, and he mentioned casually that he was trying to find a style that was Edward Gorery-like. I nodded, probably because being male at sixteen one doesn't admit to not knowing anything . I think Bob knew this for he went dodging a few customers and came back to cash wrap with a small book. The Gashlycrumb Tinies was my gateway drug to the world of Edward Gorey, a mix of alphabet, children being murdered, and really beautiful art. I am still surprised my father never bought this for me as a child. My mother probably had something to do with that. I was drawn to the story, the violence, and the art again, different in so many ways, like the clip art books we sold of Victorian art, and yet I never saw a child on fire in any of those. I enjoyed the art, but didn't know much about the man, something this wonderful book has amended. And has made me want to read more. E Is for Edward: A Centennial Celebration of the Mischievous Mind of Edward Gorey by Gregory Hischak, Curator of the Edward Gorey House, is a look at the man and of course the art, looking at pieces once thought lost, book covers, ballet based pieces, and the works that made him famous.

Edward St. John Gorey was born 100 years ago in Chicago. At the rip old age of 18 months Gorey began to draw pictures and taught himself to read by the age of three. Gorey's great-grandmother was a greeting card designer, and Gorey said that his artistic talent must have come from her. Gorey seemed to be attracted to people who would later become famous, going to school with Charlton Heston, attending Harvard and sharing a room with the poet Frank O'Hara. Gorey was a self-taught artist taking only a semester of art school. Starting in the 1950's Gorey began to work for Doubleday Anchor Publishing in the Art Department, working on covers for a variety of books. Gorey also illustrated the books for children by John Bellairs, a series I loved when I found them in the early 80's. Also Gorey did the illustrations for a work by T. S Eliot, Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats. There is no idea how many illustrations Gorey did for Anchor, but some think it must be close to a thousand. Gorey also worked on his own projects, beginning to self-publish his works at first.

The book is very complete and really well written. One gets a good glimpse of the man's life, along with an understanding of how the works came about. The best is that the author spends much time on the art, looking at all the individual works, detailing their creation, and reception. Book covers works on ballet, plays, and of course paper projects. I was surprised that Gorey was still working up until his death in the early 2000s. There is such a feeling of the art coming from a different time and place, far in the past, not in the time of Y2K. The illustrations are really well done, representing the work and the artist well and in my case, leaving me with a need to acquire a lot more books.

A book for fans of the artist, as well as fans of sequential art, especially those that wish to make a career out of art. The way Gorey worked, the pictures, the ups and downs of his career have a lot to show and to teach. A wonderful book, really well designed and written.

I don't buy a lot of physical books anymore but I'll be looking to add this to my Gorey collection when it comes out. This is just gorgeous, and it covers all the writings I love so much by the master of weird and cool. A lot of people may not realize they are already familiar with Gorey's work until you show examples, but he was prolific in his contributions to the work of others while writing his own amazing works. There's even a section at the end about his style -- even his clothing was unique.
Thanks so much to NetGalley for letting me read this advanced readers copy

A delightful and unique tribute to the great Edward Gorey.

There is no shortage of collections of Gorey’s art, but this is such an unusual and terrific blend of visuals and text and walks you through Gorey’s creations and the stories behind them.

Technically this is a quick read because the text is appropriately minimal, but I love that the visuals serve both to support the text as you read and also as something to come back to for a second (or third?) pass just to appreciate their gorgeousness.

This is the first Gorey compendium I’ve encountered that also has so many ancillary visuals, and I loved seeing the pre-drawings and other supporting material.

I would also note that I liked the manner in which this was organized, by type of character/creature rather than strictly chronological or driven by how the art was originally published.