E Is for Edward: A Centennial Celebration of the Mischievous Mind of Edward Gorey

by The Edward Gorey Charitable Trust, Gregory Hischak

Overview

Notes From Your Bookseller

Celebrate the unparalleled works of author and illustrator Edward Gorey with this detailed guide to the beloved artist. With illustrations, new materials, and personal notes, E is for Edward is a perfect collection for any fan of Gorey’s works.

A sweeping, gorgeously produced celebration of beloved American writer, artist, and illustrator Edward Gorey on his 100th birthday. Issued by the Edward Gorey Charitable Trust and produced in creative partnership with The Edward Gorey House.  

For more than seven decades, Edward Gorey's work has delighted fans of all ages and inspired artists across multiple disciplines. His collection of self-authored books, which comprises more than 100 volumes including The Gashlycrumb Tinies and The Doubtful Guest, remains a profoundly radical and uncompromised body of work. Viewed either separately or in their entirety, these works represent one of the most unique voices in American arts and letters. 

E Is for Edward celebrates Edward Gorey as author, illustrator, humorist, playwright, printmaker, fabric artist, and stage designer, showcasing the vast array of material he created between 1953 and his death in 2000. Curated by Gregory Hischak, Director of The Edward Gorey House, the book is organized by major themes and topics that characterize Gorey's work including hapless children, mutant menageries, the murder mystery, the ballet, sartorial elegance, stylized decor, and the many recurring motifs and latent symbolism that underlie these subjects. In addition, Hischak offers a look into the pages of the dozens of rarely-viewed notebooks kept by Gorey throughout his lifetime.

Illustrated with hundreds of original pieces of art and archival material, E Is for Edward is a must-have for every fan and the most comprehensive, in-depth exploration of Gorey's art in more than a decade. 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780762489565
Publisher:	Workman Publishing Company
Publication date:	09/30/2025
Sold by:	Hachette Digital, Inc.
Format:	eBook
Pages:	384
File size:	143 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

The Edward Gorey Charitable Trust was created by Edward Gorey in his will, designating it as the sole owner of his intellectual property and charging it to benefit organizations “whose primary purpose is the welfare of animals.” The Trust pursues its mission by licensing Mr. Gorey’s intellectual property, lending his work to museums and other exhibitors, and issuing grants for animal rescue, care, and conservation. In 2019, the Trust began new efforts to organize Mr. Gorey’s archive for the use of researchers and educators and to expand the reach of his work through collaborations with artists, designers, non-profit organizations, and others.

Gregory Hischak is a playwright, poet, and performer based in Yarmouth Port, Massachusetts. He has curated and designed exhibits at The Edward Gorey House, which serves to preserve Gorey's life and legacy, since 2014, and been its Director since 2020.

Table of Contents

Introduction

Hapless Children
Mutant Menageries
Murder He Wrote
Doing the Steps
Dressed to Kill
Concealing the Art
Hippity Wippity
He Wrote It All Down Zealously

The Afterimage
Other Readings
Index
Acknowledgments
 

Editorial Reviews

"[A] loving tribute.... this survey, playful to its core, does more showing than telling, excavating the artist beneath the commercial powerhouse with lovely reproductions of his early strange tales for children, pieces of personal ephemera like his collection of ticket stubs from the New York City Ballet (of which he was a devotee), and notes on his style of dress (“beatnik dandy,” a biographer once termed it). It’s an inventive and intimate retrospective of the most hallucinatory parts of a surreal body of work."—Publishers Weekly

“E Is for Edward is an absolute gift, an entirely unique and lavishly wondrous compendium devoted to the multifarious mind of Edward Gorey.”
 —Patti Smith

"At long last, an encyclopedic and precise explanation for the truly unfathomable universe of an inexplicable artist.” —Daniel Handler, aka Lemony Snicket

“Edward Gorey has inspired generations of curious adults and odd children (including me), not only in his meticulous craft and macabre imagination but also in his peerless practice of the art of being wholly and unapologetically himself. E Is for Edward maps with insight, affection, and humor the singularly strange world of Gorey. Here there definitely be monsters, but this wonderful book also conjures the curious, sensitive, inspiring human who created it all.”
 —John Hodgman

“E Is for Edward is an absolute goldmine of exquisite Gorey artwork, fascinating ephemera, and thoughtful commentary that will not only enchant my fellow Gorey-obsessives, but also spirit lucky new readers away to his peculiar world.”—Tom Gauld

From the Publisher