As the year of events and celebration for American writer and artist Edward Gorey come to an end, Erin Cox muses on the lasting importance of Gorey’s work.

By Erin L. Cox, Publisher | @erinlcox

Yesterday ended the year of celebration for the centenary of American writer and artist Edward Gorey (1925-2000). Best known for his pen-and-ink style and his dark humor, Gorey’s work has inspired writers, musicians, artists, and actors throughout his career and today. He even inspired me.

Anyone who knows me well knows that I can be a little macabre, mostly due to Gorey. As a child, I grew up with the television show “Mystery!” (the opening and closing sequences illustrated by Gorey) and Gorey’s famed book The Gashlycrumb Tinies which uses horrible deaths that befall each child to teach readers the alphabet. (My favorite was Neville – my mug pictured here. Imagine my mother trying to explain “ennui” to a six-year-old.)

What gave his work relevance to me as a child and still holds true today is his honesty about the world around us, even if delivered through black comedy.

Gorey was an American writer and artist whose distinctive style, dark wit, and theatrical sensibility reshaped the way we think of illustrated literature. Over the course of his career, Gorey illustrated more than one hundred books, authored dozens, designed sets and costumes for theater and ballet—winning him two Tony Awards (for the revival of “Dracula”)—and cultivated a devoted international readership that continues to grow today.

A true individual, Gorey’s work was not easily categorized – he delved into the absurd and through that prism was able to achieve great emotional depth. Perhaps that is why his work endures better than most and how he is able to continue to engage readers and provoke artists. One can see his influence in the works of Tim Burton and Lemony Snicket, among others.

Over the last year, The Edward Gorey Charitable Trust has celebrated Gorey’s art and impact through exhibitions, performances, and collaborations with contemporary designers. The year kicked off in February 2025 with a birthday celebration at The Raines Law Room in New York City, hosted by the Edward Gorey Charitable Trust.

The evening featured performances by Patti Smith and Jesse Paris Smith, interspersed with readings from The Gashlycrumb Tinies. The evening also featured remarks by actor-writers Norman Reedus and Justin Theroux (whose uncle, novelist Alexander Theroux, was a close friend and neighbor of Gorey’s).

Following that event, other happenings and events from the last year included:

• New York Review Books (nyrb) released From Ted to Tom, a collection of mail art and correspondence that Gorey sent to his friend Tom Fitzharris in 1974 and 1975.
• Transit Books issued a new edition of The Very Fine Clock, written by Muriel Spark and illustrated by Gorey, as the inaugural title of its children’s book imprint.
• Edward Gorey House Director Gregory Hischak compiled and expanded a decade’s worth of House exhibition catalogs in E Is for Edward: A Centennial Celebration of the Mischievous Mind of Edward Gorey (published by Black Dog & Leventhal).
• Insight Editions published Uneasy Elixirs: 50 Curious Cocktails Inspired by the Life and Work of Edward Gorey, by spirit and cocktail writer Virginia Miller.
• Harvard’s Houghton Library presented “Edward Gorey: A Gloomy Gallery,” a wide array of classic Gorey publications alongside many never-before-exhibited or unpublished works from Gorey’s years as a student at Harvard.
• Texas A&M University shared 600 items from the Cushing collection for the exhibit “Ubiquitous Edward Gorey”
• The Society of Illustrators in Manhattan, in partnership with the Edward Gorey Charitable Trust, hosted “Something Else Entirely,” the first exhibition devoted exclusively to Gorey’s art for publications outside his own written body of work. Many of these illustrations had never been publicly shown before.
• As well as live performances from Florida to India, bringing to life Gorey’s work through dance, music, projection on stage – all to bring his work to new audiences.

As the centenary concludes, what the Trust, whose mission is to honor the creative and philanthropic legacy of Gorey, hopes to do is show that Gorey’s work is “an active and evolving body of literature and art—one that continues to invite reinterpretation, scholarship, and creative response.”

Co-Trustee Gray Coleman said of this year’s activities, “From the wonderful birthday party hosted by the Trust in February, to the splendid events in connection with the Society of Illustrators’ exhibit ‘Something Else Entirely’ that closed the year, it has been a wonderful time for all fans of Edward’s work here in New York and worldwide.”

As a fan myself, it has been wonderful to see all of this artwork of Gorey’s being shared with new audiences who might be just discovering him and might get the same wry chuckle from The Doubtful Guest.

The Trust is a partner to the Edward Gorey House, Gorey’s former home in Yarmouth Port, Massachusetts which became a museum in 2002 featuring many personal artifacts and original artwork, including many of the Ghastlycrumb Tinies. As a fan, I visited the Edward Gorey House in 2012. Below are some photos from my visit.