His intuitive illustrations and graphic design added a narrative dimension to the witty text of Florence Parry Heide to create the award-winning The Shrinking of Treehorn (1971). Gorey’s ability to bring visual humor to a text has made him the appropriate illustrator of several collections of poetry, such as The Monster Den (1966) and You Read to Me, Til Read to You (1962), by John Ciard.

Edward Gorey On The Dark Side Of Perpetually Dark In addition to illustrating a few of Edward Lear’s poems, including The Dong with the Luminous Nose (1969), Gorey wrote and illustrated The Wuggly Ump (1963), a story in verse about a group of carefree children who end up in the belly of an obscure dragonlike creature. His attraction to this genre is perhaps more evident in his work for children.

Though critics and fans are apt to analyze the dark humor in his work, Gorey maintains that his stories are simply entertainments in the nonsense tradition of Lewis Carroll and Edward Lear. It was followed by a succession of books, many of which were published under a variety of humorously anagrammatic pseudonyms such as Mrs. That same year, his first book, The Unstrung Harp, was published. After working in Boston at various jobs, including bookstore clerk and book jacket designer, he moved to New York in 1953 to become a staff artist at Doubleday. Though largely out of print, many of his books have been made available in the collections Amphigorey (1972), Amphigorey Too (1975), and Amphigorey Also (1983).īorn in Chicago, Gorey attended the Art Institute of Chicago, served a short time in the U.S. Gorey’s unique character is most pervasive in the works of which he is both author and illustrator. Somewhat Gothic and ostensibly grim, these images are usually accompanied by macabre stories of death, dread, and gore or by humorous verses detailing situations of horror.

As an illustrator of books for adults, Edward Gorey has a distinctive, instantly recognizable style: intricately detailed pen-and-ink drawings capture characters, fur- coated, turtle-necked, or dressed in 1920s or Edwardian garb, frozen in moments of stoicism.

Amphigorey too