William Collins
An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers 1 London Bridge Street London SE1 9GF WilliamCollinsBooks.com This eBook first published in Great Britain by William Collins in 2018 Copyright © Mark Dery 2018 Mark Dery asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work Quotations and excerpts from unpublished correspondence with John Ashbery used in this volume are copyright © 2011 John Ashbery. All rights reserved. Used by arrangement with Georges Borchardt, Inc., for the author. Illustrations and excerpts from the works of Edward Gorey are used by arrangement with the Edward Gorey Charitable Trust. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Information on previously published material appears here. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins Source ISBN: 9780008329846 Ebook Edition © November 2018 ISBN: 9780008329822 Version: 2020-08-28
Praise for Born to Be Posthumous:
‘Edward Gorey has been granted the most remarkable biography, one I believe he could have lived with. What was the likelihood that this singular genius could be restored, with such compassion and grace, within his whole context: Balanchine, surrealism, Frank O’Hara, Lady Murasaki, et al?’
JONATHAN LETHEM
‘Edward Gorey’s ardent admirers have long known there is something about his work one can’t quite pin down. Past all reason, Mark Dery has pinned it down. A genius book about a bookish genius’
DANIEL HANDLER, author of A Series of Unfortunate Events
‘Knowing Gorey’s full story, done sparkling justice by Mark Dery, will only make you adore him more’
CAITLIN DOUGHTY, author of Smoke Gets in Your Eyes
‘A devoted and highly readable biography of the illustrator who – from The Doubtful Guest to The Curious Sofa – defined and embodied a world of camp, gothic hilarity’
BEN SCHOTT, Guardian Books of the Year
‘An entertaining account of an artist who liked to be coy with anybody who dared to write about him’
New York Times
‘The best biographies are the result of a perfect match between author and subject, and it’s relatively rare when the two align perfectly. But that’s the case with Born to Be Posthumous. Dery’s book is smart, exhaustive and an absolute joy to read. He has given Gorey the biography he has long deserved’
NPR
‘Excellent and deeply researched … Dery makes a convincing case that Gorey was the true godfather of Goth, inspiring a generation of pop culture memento mori, from the IMAX-scale nightmares of Tim Burton to the travails of Lemony Snicket. Dery has set the standard for a comprehensive appraisal of his legacy’
STEVE SILBERMAN, author of Neurotribes
‘A fascinating and very enjoyable biography. Dery does an excellent job in teasing out the origins of Gorey’s style. For Gorey, as this book elegantly delineates, life was to be lived in art’
MATTHEW STURGIS, author of Oscar: A Life
‘Edward Gorey is the doubtful guest in this fine biography: a stubbornly evasive and irreducible essence, now sprawled in a tureen, now chewing on crockery, now standing with his nose to the wall’
The Atlantic
‘Born to Be Posthumous clears the dust bunnies from the shadowy corners of the House of Gorey, revealing a talent that extended far beyond the macabre faux Victoriana we remember best, and a mind unlike any other’
Vogue
For Margot Mifflin, whose wild surmise—“What about a Gorey biography?”—begat this book. Without her unwavering support, generous beyond measure, it would have remained just that: a gleam in her eye. I owe her this—and more than tongue can tell.
CONTENTS
Copyright
Praise
Introduction: A Good Mystery
CHAPTER 1: A Suspiciously Normal Childhood: Chicago, 1925–44
CHAPTER 2: Mauve Sunsets: Dugway, 1944–46
CHAPTER 3: “Terribly Intellectual and Avant-Garde and All That Jazz”: Harvard, 1946–50
CHAPTER 4: Sacred Monsters: Cambridge, 1950–53
CHAPTER 5: “Like a Captive Balloon, Motionless Between Sky and Earth”: New York, 1953
CHAPTER 6: Hobbies Odd—Ballet, the Gotham Book Mart, Silent Film, Feuillade: 1953
CHAPTER 7: Épater le Bourgeois: 1954–58
CHAPTER 8: “Working Perversely to Please Himself”: 1959–63
CHAPTER 9: Nursery Crimes— The Gashlycrumb Tinies and Other Outrages: 1963
CHAPTER 10: Worshipping in Balanchine’s Temple: 1964–67
CHAPTER 11: Mail Bonding—Collaborations: 1967–72
CHAPTER 12: Dracula: 1973–78
CHAPTER 13: Mystery!: 1979–85
CHAPTER 14: Strawberry Lane Forever: Cape Cod, 1985–2000
CHAPTER 15: Flapping Ankles, Crazed Teacups, and Other Entertainments
CHAPTER 16: “Awake in the Dark of Night Thinking Gorey Thoughts”
CHAPTER 17: The Curtain Falls
Notes
A Note on Sources
A Gorey Bibliography
Index
Acknowledgments
About the Author
Also by Mark Dery
About the Publisher