Gorey Secrets: Artistic and Literary Inspirations behind Divers Books by Edward Gorey

by Malcolm Whyte, Peter F Neumeyer (Foreword)

Edward Gorey (1925–2000) was a fascinating and prolific author and artist. Of the one hundred delightful and fascinating books that Gorey wrote and illustrated, he rarely revealed their specific inspirations or their meanings. Where did his intriguing ideas come from? In Gorey Artistic and Literary Inspirations b ehind Divers Books by Edward Gorey , Malcolm Whyte utilizes years of thorough research to tell an engrossing, revealing story about Gorey’s unique works.

Exploring a sampling of Gorey’s eclectic writings, from The Beastly Baby and The Iron Tonic to The Curious Sofa and Dracula , Whyte uncovers influences of Herman Melville, Agatha Christie, Edward Lear, the I Ching , William Hogarth, Rene Magritte, Hokusai, French cinema, early toy books, eighteenth-century religious tracts for children, and much more.

With an enlightening preface by Gorey collaborator and scholar Peter F. Neumeyer, Gorey Secrets brings important, uncharted insight into the genius of Edward Gorey and is a welcome addition to collections of both the seasoned Gorey reader and those who are just discovering his captivating books.

176 pages, Hardcover

Published November 1, 2021

About the author

Malcolm Whyte is an author, editor, publisher, and founder of the Cartoon Art Museum in San Francisco. Whyte lives in Marin County, California with his wife, author Karen Cross Whyte. He has produced nearly 200 books, 45 of which he has written or co-written. His taste is for unique, offbeat ideas with a sense of good humor and produced with an eye for color and beautiful graphics as represented by The Original Old Radio Game (possibly the world's first trivia book) from 1965 to Maxon: Art out of Chaos, FU (Fantagraphics Underground) Press, 2018.

(biography from wikipedia.org)

Reviews

[Clarence Green · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lovely book, but there seems to be one issue. On page 53, an illustration from the Loathesome Couple is accompanied with text that reads "Harold and Maude". The main female character in the story is named is Mona, not Maude.

In addition, Harold is not even featured in that illustration. It's just Mona and her parents.

[Rick Jones · Rating 4 out of 5]

This examination of the influences on Edward Gorey's work felt about 50-50 for me. Sometimes, Whyte was able to remove himself from the conversation and the analysis was interesting...other times, not so much, and it was distracting. It was lighter than I had hoped.

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Most interesting indeed.

[Emily · Rating 5 out of 5]

The only problem with this book is that I want the author to do an examination of all Gorey's works.