Edward Gorey

@Harvard University, Family and Childhood ★ ★ ★ ★ ★ Edward Gorey was an American writer and artist Illinois American Harvard University Artists Poets Novelists Short Story Writers Miscellaneous Pisces Celebrities Edward St. John Gorey was a famous American writer and illustrator. He was famous, particularly in the gothic subculture, for his unconventional dark humored storylines and beautiful illustrations with the designs and ideas set in Victorian and Edwardian era. Throughout his lifetime, Gorey published more than 100 independent works and illustrated more than 50 works by other authors, including Samuel Beckett, Edward Lear, John Bellairs, Charles Dickens, T. S. Eliot, etc. He was very fond of anagrams and published most of his work under different pseudonyms that usually were anagrams of his own name, like, Ogdred Weary, Eduard Blutig, D. Awdrey-Gore, etc. He also wrote and directed theatrical works like Broadway production of ‘Dracula’, Le Theatricule Stoique’s acts and worked on PBS's Mystery series, among other things. The house that he spent most of his life in, Cape Cod house is called ‘Elephant House’ and is the theme of a photography book, ‘Elephant House: Or, the Home of Edward Gorey’, with photographs and text by Kevin McDermott and is now the ‘Edward Gorey House Museum’. Gorey never married or had any family, which is probably why he left the bulk of his estate to a charitable trust benefiting cats and dogs, as well as other species, including bats and insects.

Personal Details

Birthday: February 22, 1925 Died on: April 15, 2000 Nationality: American Famous: Harvard University, Artists, Poets, Novelists, Short Story Writers, Miscellaneous City/State: Illinois Nick names: Ogdred Weary Known as: Edward St. John Gorey Information Detail Birthday February 22, 1925 Died on April 15, 2000 Nationality American Famous Harvard University, Artists, Poets, Novelists, Short Story Writers, Miscellaneous City/State Illinois Nick names Ogdred Weary Known as Edward St. John Gorey Universities Harvard University Harvard University (1946–1950) School of the Art Institute of Chicago (1943–1943) Francis W. Parker School Notable Alumnis Harvard University Birth Place Chicago Gender Male Father Edward Lee Gorey Mother Helen Dunham Sun Sign Pisces Born in Chicago Died at Age 75

Chicago

Edward Gorey born at Unsplash Birth Place

Gorey never married and never specified any romantic relationship in the press. He was sometimes called gay but he maintained that he was neither gay nor straight. Unsplash Personal Life

He died on April 15, 2000, at Cape Cod Hospital in Hyannis, Massachusetts. Unsplash Personal Life

Gorey was born in Chicago to Helen and Edward Gorey. His parents got divorced when he was 11. His father married many times after that and one of his stepmothers was Corinna Mura, a cabaret singer. Unsplash Childhood & Early Life

After attending many local grade schools, Gorey got enrolled in the Francis W. Parker School. After finishing school, he served in the army in Utah from 1944 to 1946. He then attended Harvard University, where he studied French. Unsplash Childhood & Early Life

He founded the Poets' Theatre in Cambridge in the early ‘50s with fellow Harvard alumni like, Alison Lurie, John Ashbery, Donald Hall and poet Frank O’Hara. The group was supported by the faculty members John Ciardi and Thornton Wilder. Unsplash Childhood & Early Life

In 1953, Gorey shifted to New York and started working as an illustrator for the book-publishing company, Doubleday Anchor, where he worked for the next eight years. Around the same time, Gorey published first independent work, ‘The Unstrung Harp’. Unsplash Career

At Doubleday Anchor, Gorey illustrated works as miscellaneous as ‘Dracula’ by Bram Stoker, ‘The War of the Worlds’ by H. G. Wells, ‘Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats’ by T. S. Eliot, many children's books by John Bellairs, etc. Unsplash Career

After ‘Unstrung Hrap’s’ success, Gorey started to gain local popularity with his subsequent works like, ‘The Doubtful Guest (1957)’, ‘The Hapless Child (1961)’, ‘The Gashlycrumb Tinies: The Gilded Bat (1966)’, ‘The Deranged Cousins: or, Whatever (!969)’, etc. Unsplash Career

His book-illustration acclaim from this phase includes two books by Edward Lear, (‘The Dong with a Luminous Nose’), as well as the works of H.G. Wells, T.S. Eliot Samuel Beckett, John Updike, Charles Dickens, Lewis Carroll, Virginia Woolf, etc. Unsplash Career

He started to gain cult following because of his gothic style writing and illustrations, dark humored stories and Victorian styled settings.. Unsplash Career

Gorey is an iconic figure in the gothic culture because of his various writing and illustrations like: ‘The Unstrung Harp (1953), ‘The Curious Sofa (1961)’, ‘The Iron Tonic: Or, A Winter Afternoon in Lonely Valley (1969)’, ‘The Dwindling Party (1982)’, etc. Unsplash Major Works

Information	Detail
Birthday	February 22, 1925
Died on	April 15, 2000
Nationality	American
Famous	Harvard University, Artists, Poets, Novelists, Short Story Writers, Miscellaneous
City/State	Illinois
Nick names	Ogdred Weary
Known as	Edward St. John Gorey
Universities	Harvard University Harvard University (1946–1950) School of the Art Institute of Chicago (1943–1943) Francis W. Parker School
Notable Alumnis	Harvard University
Birth Place	Chicago
Gender	Male
Father	Edward Lee Gorey
Mother	Helen Dunham
Sun Sign	Pisces
Born in	Chicago
Died at Age	75

Edward Gorey

American

Feb 22, 1925

Biography

Personal Details

Chicago