C.J. Verburg's Blog

What a treat to spend an evening talking about books, theater, and art with the people who love them!

Did you ever wonder how the author-illustrator of sparse, sinister tales like The Doubtful Guest and The Gashlycrumb Tinies designed a Tony Award-winning production of Dracula? and conspired on a 21st-century album with The Tiger Lillies and the Kronos Quartet?

If you missed “From Page to Stage and Back,” there’s still time to catch the video. It’ll be up on YouTube for the rest of June.

What a delight to share an evening at the Cartoon Art Museum with a festive crowd of Gorey fans and friends! The Grand Opening Soiree is history, but “Backstage with Edward Gorey: A Centennial Exhibition” continues through the spring into August. More special events to come!

On April 5 the apparel was glamorous, the jewelry exotic, and the tattoos subtly sinister. Curious art-lovers discovered original theatrical drawings, posters, and ephemera by the genius whose stunning black-and-white designs for Dracula helped made Frank Langella a Broadway star.

This was the first-ever public appearance for many of the objects on display, outside of the Cape Cod stages where Gorey directed his own scripts. Now they can also be seen in my lavish new book The Theatrical Adventures of Edward Gorey. (The Cartoon Art Museum still has a few signed copies!)

Wandering through this visual buffet, guests quaffed libations from The Whistling Pig Bar & Tea Shop and savored a scrumptious black-and-white cake from Sweet Art by Jennifer — designed in 2 matching parts so we could ogle our cake and eat it, too.

If you haven’t visited the Cartoon Art Museum lately, this spring is an ideal time. Bring your family or out-of-town guests to explore its distinctive collection of drawings, books, hands-on activities, and the Batman Room featuring costumes and other memorabilia from the films. With Ghirardelli Square next door, Aquatic Park outside, Pier 39 and the Ferris Wheel a stone’s throw away, CAM offers something for everybody.

A birthday toast to San Francisco’s Legion of Honor Museum as it turns 100! — as would Edward Gorey if he’d stuck around till 2025. You can celebrate both centennials by stopping by for a signed copy of The Theatrical Adventures . . .  (and don’t miss the double exhibition on theatrical set design down the hall). Unsigned books also available at the DeYoung. Both museum shops are chock full of choices for holiday gifts and cheer!

As exciting as It’s been to hear the personal reactions of early readers of this, my newest and most ambitious book, I’m thrilled to see its first published review!

A short excerpt:

“The Theatrical Adventures of Edward Gorey is a visual and intellectual treat: part biography, part meditation on the artistic process, and part “mini art exhibit” of previously unpublished material. . . . Verburg collaborated closely with [archivist Will] Baker and the [Edward Gorey Charitable] Trust to create a “lavish sampler of whole texts and excerpts, notebook sketches and polished works of art.” She meticulously braids her first-person account and Gorey’s archival photos with rare sketches, unpublished scripts, and anecdotes from friends and collaborators to create a comprehensive, visually vibrant book.

‘Much has been written about Gorey, yet Verburg’s book makes a distinctive contribution. Not only was it written by one of Gorey’s close friends and collaborators, but according to Baker, Verburg’s book is the first publication to extensively use the  Trust’s papers, scripts, and unpublished files, which had been stashed away in a storage facility in undifferentiated stacks for years.’

Click here to read or listen to Elizabeth Marshall‘s full review in PopMatters, 12 November 2024.
(Another treat on the same page: Ana Yorke’s ‘Slow Horses: Season Four Subverts the Spy Genre’) 

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More details coming soon! Or click now for Big Hill Books (MN), The Provincetown Bookshop (MA), Cape Cod Theatre Company (MA), Titcomb’s Bookshop (MA), and Books Inc in the Marina (CA).

How do you design a book about a famous book designer?

That was the challenge for Allison Weiner at Chronicle Books.

The cover came first — had to, since the marketing, publicity, and sales forces would start work before we knew exactly what images and text fit into our 250 +/- pages. Allison and editor Mirabelle Korn chose a red velvet wrap-around curtain (really!) to signal theater. Echoing Edward Gorey’s legendary designs for Dracula, the actors inside that frame are costumed in black and white — here, from a poster Edward drew for a show on Cape Cod.

The inside was trickier.

After working with Edward on theater projects for more than a decade, I didn’t expect many surprises. Ha! New marvels popped up almost daily as archivist Will Baker sorted through his papers. Each hidden treasure that we discovered (or couldn’t) in the Charitable Trust’s collection had to find a place (or not) in the book. Old colleagues, friends, and collectors told me amazing stories. The pages grew larger. The title grew livelier. Chapters expanded, divided, and merged. The Theatrical Adventures of Edward Gorey is at the printer now, and I’m still not sure exactly what’s in it.

But while we’re waiting . . . here’s what you’ll find when you open that velvet-trimmed cover.

The Theatrical Adventures of Edward Gorey: Rare Drawings, Scripts, and Stories

For anyone who’s ever been curious about the brilliant, eccentric creator of such classics as Dracula on Broadway, the PBS Masterpiece Mystery animation, and strange little books like The Curious Sofa and The Gashlycrumb Tinies, this large, lavish volume is a treasure trove. Just in time for HALLOWEEN 2024!

I’m thrilled to announce that on Saturday 12/3/2022, the Bay Area Independent Publishers Association (BAIPA) gave its Best Cover Award in the Mystery/Thriller category to Silent Night Violent Night — a twisty whodunnit in which journalist/sleuth Cory Goodwin takes a walk on the wild side of publishing, and a posh holiday party turns deadly.

If you’re dreaming of a noir Christmas, or if you need a gift for someone who’s ready to strangle the Little Drummer Boy and Frosty the Snowman, here are links where you can read reviews and a sample, and buy the paperback or ebook of Silent Night Violent Night: a Cory Goodwin Mystery.