Gorey Details

My last day of Brookline Adult Ed bookbinding class was Wednesday and as we were all heavily gluing our bookcloth to bookboards we got on the subject of Edward Gorey. The teacher had had an Edward Gorey themed party once (genius!) One classmate didn't recognize the name and I realized that while I'm obsessed with the late great illustrator (whose house is now a museum in Yarmouthport) he's definitely the sort of artist that you might recognize less by name but more by his idiosyncratic style.

He had a rich life, drawing cute cats and illustrating the Eliot poem that would become the Broadway hit Cats:

Tons of great covers for Vintage Anchor paperbacks:

And of course his own work, like the Gashlycrumb Tinies:

He even designed his own renditions of Gothic classics. As I mentioned last week the UBC started listing some special books online only, and I just listed this amazingly awesome collection of Gorey's set and costume designs for a Broadway version of Dracula SIGNED BY GOREY HIMSELF. Gorey's birthday is a week from today, February 22nd, and what better way to celebrate than to give this treasure a forever home?