by Mark Dery
46 Andrew M. Goldstein, “Children’s Book Icon Tomi Ungerer on His Radical, Anti-Authoritarian Career,” Artspace, January 15, 2015, http://www.artspace.com/magazine/interviews_features/meet_the_artist/tomi-underer-interview-52564.
47 Joseph Stanton, Looking for Edward Gorey (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Art Gallery, 2011), 83.
48 Quoted in Howard Fulweiler, Here a Captive Heart Busted: Studies in the Sentimental Journey of Modern Literature (New York: Fordham University Press, 1993), 65.
49 Ellen Barry, “Dark Streak Marked Life of Prolific Author,” Boston Globe, April 17, 2000, C5.
50 Karen Wilkin, “Mr. Earbrass Jots Down a Few Visual Notes: The World of Edward Gorey,” in The World of Edward Gorey, by Clifford Ross and Karen Wilkin (New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1996), 63.
51 Dahlin, “Conversations with Writers,” 32.
52 Apparently, The Hapless Child came full circle with its origins when “some nit made a movie of [it],” according to Gorey in one of his letters to Peter Neumeyer. Writing in November of ’68, he says he is going to see a screening of the film, which he notes was made “ages ago.” In a later letter, he reports, “The short, semi-animated film the young man made from [The Hapless Child] had its merits: quite straightforward, bits of Beethoven, someone I can’t remember, and some of the more sinister sawing away at the strings from Vivaldi’s Seasons; he did however leave out the supernatural element, if that is what it is, entirely.” By “supernatural element,” Gorey must have meant the devilish imp in each scene, a revealing remark that supports Stanton’s theory that the evil sprites are intervening in human affairs, steering the unhappy course of Charlotte Sophia’s life. See Floating Worlds, 117, 127.
53 Jane Merrill Filstrup, “An Interview with Edward St. John Gorey at the Gotham Book Mart,” in Ascending Peculiarity, 77.
54 Gorey, letter to Neumeyer, Floating Worlds, 86.
55 Gorey, as we know, was well familiar with the literature of Victorian sensationalism. The Edward Gorey Personal Library, at San Diego State University, includes copies of scholarly studies such as Thomas Boyle’s Black Swine in the Sewers of Hampstead: Beneath the Surface of Victorian Sensationalism and Louis James’s Fiction for the Working Man, 1830–1850: A Study of the Literature Produced for the Working Classes in Early Victorian Urban England.
Thus it seems likely that the startling similarity between the ending of The Curious Sofa and a bizarre scene in a “blood,” as penny dreadfuls were alternatively known, is more than mere coincidence. In his classic work of Victorian sociology, London Labour and the London Poor, Henry Mayhew mentions a costermonger who routinely read bloods aloud to his illiterate workmates. One choice passage “took their fancy wonderfully,” the man recalled; Mayhew gives us chapter and verse:
With glowing cheeks, flashing eyes, and palpitating bosom, Venetia Trelawney rushed back into the refreshment-room, where she threw herself into one of the arm-chairs.…But scarcely had she thus sunk down upon the flocculent cushion, when a sharp click, as of some mechanism giving way, met her ears; and at the same instant her wrists were caught in manacles which sprang out of the arms of the treacherous chair, while two steel bands started from the richly carved back and grasped her shoulders. A shriek burst from her lips—she struggled violently, but all to no purpose: for she was a captive—and powerless!
See “The Literature of Costermongers,” in Henry Mayhew, London Labour and the London Poor, vol. 1, The Street-Folk, archived at the Tufts Digital Library, https://dl.tufts.edu/catalog/tei/tufts:MS004.002.052.001.00001/chapter/c4s19.
So uncannily similar is Venetia’s fate to Alice’s that it’s difficult not to believe that Gorey borrowed a few cogwheels, at least, from the penny dreadful in question when he was making up Sir Egbert’s diabolical sofa.
57 Dahlin, “Conversations with Writers,” 40.
58 Solod, “Edward Gorey,” 103.
59 Dahlin, “Conversations with Writers,” 39.
60 Ibid.
61 “Alison Lurie, “Of Curious, Beastly & Doubtful Days: Alison Lurie on Edward ‘Ted’ Gorey,” transcript of remarks delivered at the Edward Gorey House’s Seventh Annual Auction and Goreyfest, October 4, 2008, http://www.goreyography.com/north/north.htm.
62 Solod, “Edward Gorey,” 102–3.
63 Dahlin, “Conversations with Writers,” 40.
64 Filstrup, “An Interview with Edward St. John Gorey,” 78.
65 Charles Poore, “Books of the Times,” New York Times, October 28, 1961, 19.
66 Heller, “Edward Gorey’s Cover Story,” 237.
Chapter 9. Nursery Crimes—The Gashlycrumb Tinies and Other Outrages: 1963
1 Dick Cavett, “The Dick Cavett Show with Edward Gorey,” in Ascending Peculiarity: Edward Gorey on Edward Gorey, ed. Karen Wilkin (New York: Harcourt, 2001), 62.
2 Edward Gorey, letter to Alison Lurie dated “Friday evening” (September 10, 1953), 1, Alison Lurie Papers, Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections, Cornell University Library. All quotations from Gorey’s correspondence with Lurie are taken from the Lurie Papers at Cornell.
3 Ibid., 2.
4 Alison Lurie, “Of Curious, Beastly & Doubtful Days: Alison Lurie on Edward ‘Ted’ Gorey,” transcript of remarks delivered at the Edward Gorey House’s Seventh Annual Auction and Goreyfest, October 4, 2008, http://www.goreyography.com/north/north.htm.
5 Stephen Schiff, “Edward Gorey and the Tao of Nonsense,” in Ascending Peculiarity, 146.
6 Lillian Gish and her sister, Dorothy, were occasional, much-revered guests at Bill Everson’s screenings of their films. The Gishes had been movie stars since movies began, to borrow the headline of Lillian’s obituary in the New York Times: Dorothy’s comic gifts made her shine in silent comedies directed by Griffith protégés, while Lillian captivated audiences with her unlikely combination of porcelain-doll features, feminine vulnerability, and strong-willed resourcefulness in Griffith classics such as The Birth of a Nation (1915), Intolerance (1916), and Broken Blossoms (1919). It’s all but certain that Gorey met the Gish sisters, since he “worshipped” Lillian, he told Neumeyer, and wouldn’t have missed a screening of her films.
7 Schiff, “Edward Gorey and the Tao of Nonsense,” 145.
8 Haskel Frankel, “Edward Gorey: Professionally Preoccupied with Death,” Herald Tribune, August 25, 1963, 8.
9 Scott Baldauf, “Edward Gorey: Portrait of the Artist in Chilling Color,” in Ascending Peculiarity, 174.
10 Jane Merrill Filstrup, “An Interview with Edward St. John Gorey at the Gotham Book Mart,” in Ascending Peculiarity, 76.
11 Robert Cooke Goolrick, “A Gorey Story,” New Times, March 19, 1976, 58.
12 “Most beautiful”: Karen Wilkin, “Edward Gorey: Mildly Unsettling,” in Elegant Enigmas: The Art of Edward Gorey (Petaluma, CA: Pomegranate Communications, 2009), 26. “Wordless masterwork”: Mel Gussow, “Edward Gorey, Artist and Author Who Turned the Macabre into a Career, Dies at 75,” New York Times, April 17, 2000, http://www.nytimes.com/2000/04/17/arts/edward-gorey-artist-and-author-who-turned-the-macabre-into-a-career-dies-at-75.html?pagewanted=all.
13 Robert Dahlin, “Conversations with Writers: Edward Gorey,” in Ascending Peculiarity, 48.
14 Edward Gorey, letter to Peter Neumeyer, in Floating Worlds: The Letters of Edward Gorey & Peter F. Neumeyer, ed. Peter F. Neumeyer (Petaluma, CA: Pomegranate Communications, 2011), 55.
15 Frankel, “Edward Gorey,” 8.
16 Schiff, “Edward Gorey and the Tao of Nonsense,” 154.
17 Alexander Theroux, The Strange Case of Edward Gorey (Seattle: Fantagraphics Books, 2000), 11–12.
18 Elizabeth Sewell, The Field of Nonsense (McLean, IL: Dalkey Archive Press, 2015), 74.
19 Dahlin, “Conversations with Writers,” 35–36.
20 Lewis Carroll, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking-Glass (New York: Bantam Dell, 2006), 72.
21 Celia Catlett Anderson and Marilyn Fain, Nonsense Literature for Children: Aesop to S
euss (Hamden, CT: Library Professional Publications, 1989), 171–72.
22 Edward Leo Gorey, letter to Corinna Mura, July 31, 1962, 2.
23 Anna Kisselgoff, “The City Ballet Fan Extraordinaire,” in Ascending Peculiarity, 9.
Chapter 10. Worshipping in Balanchine’s Temple: 1964–67
1 Toni Bentley, e-mail message to the author, November 7, 2012.
2 Peter Anastos, e-mail message to the author, August 16, 2012.
3 Ibid.
4 Anna Kisselgoff, “The City Ballet Fan Extraordinaire,” in Ascending Peculiarity: Edward Gorey on Edward Gorey, ed. Karen Wilkin (New York: Harcourt, 2001), 7.
5 Tobi Tobias, “Balletgorey,” in Ascending Peculiarity, 16.
6 Edward Gorey, “The Doubtful Interview,” in Gorey Posters (New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1979), 6.
7 Edmund White, “The Man Who Understood Balanchine,” New York Times, November 8, 1998, https://www.nytimes.com/books/98/11/08/bookend/bookend.html.
8 Tobias, “Balletgorey,” 15–16.
9 Quoted in Alex Behr, “On The Dream World of Dion McGregor,” Tin House, Summer 2011, archived on Behr’s Writing in the Ether blog, https://alexbehr.wordpress.com/essay-on-the-dream-world-of-dion-mcgregor/.
10 Edward Gorey, letter to Peter Neumeyer, in Floating Worlds: The Letters of Edward Gorey & Peter F. Neumeyer, ed. Peter F. Neumeyer (Petaluma, CA: Pomegranate Communications, 2011), 55.
11 Robert Dahlin, “Conversations with Writers: Edward Gorey,” in Ascending Peculiarity, 42.
12 Alexander Theroux, The Strange Case of Edward Gorey (Seattle: Fantagraphics Books, 2000), 43.
13 Kisselgoff, “The City Ballet Fan,” 6.
14 Entry for “opera hat (in British),” online version of Collins English Dictionary, http://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/opera-hat#opera-hat_1.
15 Entry for “velleity,” Dictionary.com website, http://www.dictionary.com/browse/velleity.
16 Although The Sinking Spell says “copyright 1964 by Edward Gorey” on its copyright page, it wasn’t published until 1965, according to Gorey bibliographer Henry Toledano. See Toledano, Goreyography (San Francisco: Word Play Publications, 1996), 32.
17 Charles Fort, The Book of the Damned: The Collected Works of Charles Fort (New York: Jeremy P. Tarcher / Penguin, 2008), 19.
18 Gorey, letter to Neumeyer, Floating Worlds, 74.
19 Ibid.
20 Edward Gorey, SVA CE Bulletin, Fall 1967, School of Visual Arts Archives, New York.
21 Edward Gorey, illustration-class, archived in “Freelancing,” G Is for Gorey—C Is for Chicago, http://www.lib.luc.edu/specialcollections/exhibits/show/gorey/freelancing.
22 Richard Dyer, “The Poison Penman,” in Ascending Peculiarity, 124.
23 Jane Merrill Filstrup, “An Interview with Edward St. John Gorey at the Gotham Book Mart,” in Ascending Peculiarity, 76.
24 Gorey, letter to Neumeyer, Floating Worlds, 177.
25 Cynthia Rose, “The Gorey Details,” Harpers & Queen, November 1978, 308.
26 Peter Neumeyer, letter to Edward Gorey, Floating Worlds, 29.
27 Peter Schwenger, “The Dream Narratives of Debris,” SubStance 32, no. 1 (2003), 80.
28 Ibid.
29 Ibid., 79.
30 Selma G. Lanes, Through the Looking Glass: Further Adventures and Misadventures in the Realm of Children’s Literature (Boston: David R. Godine, 2004), 111.
31 Quoted in Alexander Doty, Flaming Classics: Queering the Film Canon (New York: Routledge, 2000), 119.
32 Theroux, Strange Case, 53.
33 Ibid., 29.
34 Tobias, “Balletgorey,” 18.
35 Peter Stoneley, A Queer History of the Ballet (New York: Routledge, 2007), 127.
36 Ibid., 90.
37 Clifford Ross, “Interview with Edward Gorey,” in The World of Edward Gorey, by Clifford Ross and Karen Wilkin (New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1996), 33.
38 D. T. Siebert, Mortality’s Muse: The Fine Art of Dying (Newark: University of Delaware Press), 39.
39 “Warhol & Collecting Books,” Andreas Brown interviewed by Kathryn Price, curator of collections at Williams College Museum of Art, August 6, 2015, archived on the Williams College YouTube channel, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JL6TBUl8MGM.
40 Ibid.
41 Thomas Curwen, “Light from a Dark Star: Before the Current Rise of Graphic Novels, There Was Edward Gorey, Whose Tales and Drawings Still Baffle—and Attract—New Fans,” Los Angeles Times, July 18, 2004, http://articles.latimes.com/2004/jul/18/entertainment/ca-curwen18.
42 Theroux, Strange Case, 2.
43 Gotham Book Mart and Gallery leaflet announcing “annual Edward Gorey Holiday Exhibit,” 2004, private collection of the author.
44 Carol Stevens, “An American Original,” in Ascending Peculiarity, 131.
45 Edward Gorey interviewed by Marion Vuilleumier for the Cape Cod public-access program Books and the World, 1982. Audiotape recording and transcript provided to the author by Christopher Seufert.
Chapter 11. Mail Bonding—Collaborations: 1967–72
1 Elizabeth Janeway, review of Amphigorey, by Edward Gorey, New York Times Book Review, October 29, 1972, 6.
2 Edward Gorey, “The Real Zoo Story,” review of Animal Gardens, by Emily Hahn, Chicago Tribune, November 5, 1967, 17.
3 Ibid., 18.
4 Jane Merrill Filstrup, “An Interview with Edward St. John Gorey at the Gotham Book Mart,” in Ascending Peculiarity: Edward Gorey on Edward Gorey, ed. Karen Wilkin (New York: Harcourt, 2001), 26, 28.
5 Victoria Chess and Edward Gorey, Fletcher and Zenobia (New York: New York Review Children’s Collection, 2016), n.p.
6 Filstrup, “An Interview with Edward St. John Gorey,” 28.
7 Floating Worlds: The Letters of Edward Gorey & Peter F. Neumeyer, ed. Peter F. Neumeyer (Petaluma, CA: Pomegranate Communications, 2011), 9.
8 Ibid.
9 Ibid., 11.
10 Quoted ibid., 7.
11 Floating Worlds, 8.
12 Ibid., 134.
13 Ibid., 147.
14 Ibid., 210
15 Ibid., 130.
16 Ibid., 16.
17 Ibid., 186.
18 Ibid., 84.
19 Ibid., 134.
20 Ibid., 158, 124.
21 Ibid., 39.
22 Ibid., 39, 42.
23 Ibid., 39.
24 Ibid., 201.
25 Ibid., 18.
26 Ibid., 73–74.
27 Ibid., 60.
28 Ibid., 187.
29 Ibid., 37.
30 Ibid., 105, 111.
31 Ibid., 115, 151.
32 Peter Neumeyer interviewed by Susan Resnik for San Diego State University Oral Histories, April 12–14, 2010, 133, https://library.sdsu.edu/sites/default/files/NeumeyerTranscript.pdf.
33 See William S. Burroughs and Brion Gysin, The Third Mind (New York: Grove Press, 1982).
34 Floating Worlds, 85.
35 Ibid.
36 Ibid., 7.
37 Ibid., 20.
38 Peter F. Neumeyer, e-mail message to the author, March 4, 2012.
39 Floating Worlds, 8.
40 Peter F. Neumeyer, e-mail message to the author, March 23, 2012.
41 Kevin Shortsleeve, “Interview with Peter Neumeyer on Edward Gorey,” February 5–11, 2002, 1. Unpublished manuscript provided to the author by e-mail.
42 Neumeyer, Resnik interview, 126.
43 Ibid., 128–30.
44 Floating Worlds, 19.
45 Ibid., 16–17.
46 Robert Dahlin, “Conversations with Writers: Edward Gorey,” in Ascending Peculiarity, 44.
47 Karen Wilkin, “Mr. Earbrass Jots Down a Few Visual Notes: The World of Edward Gorey,” in The World of Edward Gorey, by Clifford Ross and Karen Wilkin (New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1996), 51.
48 Joseph Stanton, Looking for Edward Gorey (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Art Gallery, 2011), 90.
49 Stephen Schiff, “Edward Gorey and the Tao of
Nonsense,” in Ascending Peculiarity, 147.
50 Ibid., 147–48.
51 Simon Henwood, “Edward Gorey,” in Ascending Peculiarity, 160.
52 Clifford Ross, “Interview with Edward Gorey,” in The World of Edward Gorey, 11.
53 Dick Cavett, “The Dick Cavett Show with Edward Gorey,” in Ascending Peculiarity, 59.
54 Quoted in Edward Butscher, Sylvia Plath: Method and Madness (Tucson, AZ: Schaffner Press, 2003), 243.
55 Selma G. Lanes, Through the Looking Glass: Further Adventures and Misadventures in the Realm of Children’s Literature (Boston: David R. Godine, 2004), 110.
56 Karen Wilkin, Elegant Enigmas: The Art of Edward Gorey (Petaluma, CA: Pomegranate Communications, 2009), 80.
57 Dahlin, “Conversations with Writers,” 42.
58 Lanes, Through the Looking Glass, 111.
59 Irwin Terry, “Three Books from Fantod Press III,” Goreyana, April 10, 2009, http://goreyana.blogspot.com/2009/04/three-books-from-fantod-press-iii.html.
60 Richard Dyer, “The Poison Penman,” in Ascending Peculiarity, 124.
61 Dahlin, “Conversations with Writers,” 40.
62 Amy Benfer, “Edward Gorey: No One Sheds Light on Darkness from Quite the Same Perspective as This Cape Cod Specialist in Morbid, Fine-Lined Jocularity,” Salon, February 15, 2000, http://www.salon.com/2000/02/15/gorey.
63 Henwood, “Edward Gorey,” 164.
64 Dahlin, “Conversations with Writers,” 40.
65 Filstrup, “An Interview with Edward St. John Gorey,” 25.
66 Dahlin, “Conversations with Writers,” 41.
67 Edmund White, City Boy: My Life in New York During the 1960s and ’70s (New York: Bloomsbury, 2009), 210.
68 “The black and Latino culture all around him in New York”: This is as good a time as any to acknowledge the whiteness of Gorey’s art, a reflection of the whiteness of his world. Raised in a segregated America, in a city divided by what was (and still is) a de facto apartheid regime, growing up Irish Catholic on one side and country-club WASP on the other, sustained by a cultural diet that consisted almost entirely of art, literature, movies, and music produced by whites for whites, Gorey lived in a world without a single black face (unless I missed it). He seems to have had little if any interaction with people of color, moving in all-white circles: at Harvard, among the gay literati; in New York, among the Balanchinian cultists at the State Theater and the cinephiles at Everson’s screenings; on Cape Cod, among his Yarmouth Port coterie.