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PRODUCT DESCRIPTION
Amphigorey Too (Paperback)
by Edward Gorey (Author)
* Paperback: 256 pages
* Publisher: Perigee Trade
* Language: English
* ISBN-10: 0399504206
* ISBN-13: 978-0399504204
* Product Dimensions: 10.7 x 8 x 0.6 inches
Book Description
Edward Gorey's extraordinary and disconcerting books are avidly sought and treasured throughout the world.
This wonderful second collection contains 20 highly enjoyable stories:
THE BEASTLY BABY (a definite Gorey favorite!) about an absolutely abominable baby, you'll be glad to see the end of!
THE NURSERY FRIEZE: Features odd strips of rhino-like animals saying words like "Archipelago" & "Quodlibet" which could very well be used as a frieze for a very unique nursery :-)
THE PIOUS INFANT: About little Henry Clump, who is completely unselfish and charitable, and always concerned about the salvation of everyone elses soul!
THE EVIL GARDEN: About a families visit to an ominous garden, where there is no way out!
THE INANIMATE TRAGEDY: A dramatic tale featuring inanimate objects as the characters, such as pins & needles (who appear to represent the chorus) a penpoint, glass marble, two-holed button, thumbtack, & a piece of knotted string (as the villain)
THE GILDED BAT: About a little girl who grows up to be a very distinguished prima ballerina.
THE IRON TONIC: or "A Winter Afternoon"- "The people at the grey hotel, Are either aged or unwell" "The guests who chose to stay aloof, Lie wrapped in carpets on the roof".
THE OSBICK BIRD: About Emblus Fingby and the osbick bird that chooses one day to live with him, as his loyal friend.
Two versions of THE CHINESE OBELISKS, one version that looks like a sketch or rough draft, and then the better known one in typical Gorey style- All about an author who goes for a walk, and the many things he encounters.
THE DERANGED COUSINS (one of my favorites!): About Rose Marshmary, Mary Rosemarsh & Marsh Maryrose, three cousins who all live together in a rose covered house at the edge of a marsh. "Since they were orphans and there was no one to stop them, they were often merry far into the night"!
THE ELEVENTH EPISODE: Starts when a woman hears a scream apparently coming from a well, when she goes to investigate she falls in and enters a world that changes her life.
[THE UNTITLED BOOK]: Charming piece, that features a little child looking out the window as strange creatures come to play in the garden. Hippity Wippity!
THE LAVENDAR LEOTARD: An early Gorey tale, in which the author introduces two small, distant, ageless, and wholly imaginary relatives to fifty seasons of the New York City Ballet!
THE DISREPECTFUL SUMMONS: A tale of the occult!
THE ABANDONED SOCK: All about the saga of a sock that decides it's life is tedious and unpleasant, and goes for an adventure.
THE LOST LIONS: About a handsome man named Hamish, whose life is suddenly changed when he one day opens the wrong envelope!
STORY FOR SARA: A cute story about a slightly wicked little girl, who captures two little birds in her small bag, and her meeting with a very large prowling cat!
THE SALT HERRING: An odd tale written to make all serious men mad, mad, mad!
LEAVES FROM A MISLAID ALBUM: A wordless collection of interesting pictures.
A LIMERICK: Absolutely cute, very SHORT limerick about poor little Zooks, of whom no one was fond.
The people in his illustrations usually resemble silent movie stars, the women always look elegant and mysterious, the men dashing and stately. His stories also include lots of fanciful creatures and adorable (but usually hapless) children.
About the Author
Born in Chicago, Edward Gorey (1925-2000) was one of the most renowned artists and writers of our time.
Will Gorey's curious Victorian households scenes of disconcerting, dastardly deeds and "crypto-Edwardian" characters fade into obscurity with his death? Not a chance. Cultish popularity has yielded to international fascination with this fecund author-artist's carefully crosshatched drawings, quaint enchiridions and fey fiction. Curator/art critic Wilkin expands on The World of Edward Gorey (1996), which she coauthored, with this illustrated collection of 21 interviews that reveal Gorey's interests, foibles and habits. Gorey (1925-2001) studied at the Art Institute of Chicago, was drafted in 1943 (training in Utah, he began his writing career with "unpresentable... closet dramas") and majored in French at Harvard. He initially published his books through his own Fantod Press. More than 100 titles followed The Unstrung Harp (1953), and his readership expanded in 1972 with the first of the Amphigorey anthologies. Interviews culled from magazines (Cats, Dance, Vanity Fair), newspapers, NPR and TV (Dick Cavett) reveal Gorey's cultural influences and inspirations (cats, crime narratives, Louis Feuillade, Buster Keaton, the New York City Ballet, Ivy Compton-Burnett) along with minutiae and insights into his erudite, eccentric humor. Best of all, readers glimpse Gorey's creative processes: the texts almost always preceded the drawings, for instance. On his work he was characteristically irreverent: "I get a certain enjoyment out of doing it; but after it's done, I have no feeling for it at all." Stephen Schiff's 1992 "Edward Gorey and the Tao of Nonsense" (from the New Yorker) provides an outstanding overview. This is an exhilarating excursion into an extraordinary imagination (with numerous artistic tips and resources). 8 photos, 150 drawings.
Gorey's ominous, inimitable artwork is captivating to both children and adults, and Donald's difficulty is sure to be intensely felt by all.
It's very possible that the only thing more peculiar and arresting than Edward Gorey's books and illustrations is Gorey himself. This collection of chronologically arranged interviews with Gorey (1925-99) spans three decades and shines light into many corners of his eccentric life and work. Gorey ponders his own bizarre dress (floor-length fur coats and sneakers), his obsession with the New York City Ballet, and his life with six cats and even manages to delve into some of the inspirations that fuel his enigmatic and strangely endearing work. This assembly by Wilkin (an art historian, independent curator, and critic, as well as coauthor of The World of Edward Gorey) reveals a charming, extremely intelligent, articulate, and eminently likable artist and writer. A thoughtful self-portrait thus emerges from the mist of questions and answers, one that helps to counter the paucity of recent Gorey scholarship. Gorey's own words clarify his peculiar and macabre worldview more succinctly than any biographer could hope to. Recommended for public and academic libraries.
According to many statements in this sterling collection of interviews, the late creator of nonpareil illustrated books thought of himself primarily as a writer. The stories came to him more easily than his densely crosshatched drawings, each of which normally took a week's labor. His literariness shouldn't surprise us, considering that he majored in French at Harvard and most of his friends were writers; he roomed with poet Frank O'Hara for two years; and novelist Alison Lurie was long a familiar. Reclusive by nature, Gorey yet attended every New York City Ballet performance for 25 years, becoming a fixture to the company, thanks to the fur coats, sneakers, and jeans he habitually wore, and late in life devoted much time to community productions of his plays. It seems as though he read everything, and his pronouncements on writers constitute one of this book's most acute pleasures. He was also a movie buff who preferred silent films, averring that they, more than any other artwork, influenced his style and choice of subjects. As delightful as a Gorey storybook.
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