FORGOTTEN BOOKS #366: Edward Gorey: His Book Cover Art and Design

edward gorey
Edward Gorey provided cover artwork for hundreds of hardcovers and paperbacks from 1953 to 2000. This wonderful book collects a small fraction of that artwork but what’s here is breath-taking! The book was edited by Gorey enthusiast Steven Heller who is the co-chair of the MFA Design: Designer as Author program at the School of Visual Arts, New York. Heller’s informative introduction shows the range of artistic subjects Gorey tackled in his covers. Also, one of my favorites, The Dark Beasts (1964) by Frank Belknap Long, is included in this marvelous volume. If you’re a fan of paperback artwork, this is a must-buy!

18 thoughts on “FORGOTTEN BOOKS #366: Edward Gorey: His Book Cover Art and Design

  1. mary mason

    I love it. I used to have a very large gorey collection. I had a lot of those pbs still have some. My treasure was the dracula set book, and a tunnel book. On a couple of trips to NYC, went to gotham book mart and got a lot of stuff, signed, for a pittance.

    When I was working in the book room around 2000, with my friend dave, we saw a couple of boxes underneath a shelf. Dave asked about them and I didn’t remember what they were. One had signed firsts of walter mosely’s first 3 books (just in time for denver bcon). the other was goreys.

    a couple of years ago, i found some unopened packages from gotham book mart, and inside one was gorey wallpaper!! scott sold them for me at an abaa fair

    Reply
    1. george Post author

      Maggie, great Gorey stories! I have a few dozen of his paperback covers. But I was amazed at how many book covers Gorey provided over the decades.

      Reply
  2. Beth Fedyn

    I’ve loved Gorey’s artwork since I first noticed it on PBS Mystery!

    I didn’t realize he was so prolific though.

    Reply
    1. george Post author

      Beth, same here! I loved Gorey’s work on PBS and I own a couple dozen paperbacks with his artwork on the cover. But I had no idea Gorey did hundreds of book covers!

      Reply
  3. John

    For a couple of years I was obsessed with trying to collect all the John Bellairs books with Gorey DJ artwork. It’s still not complete! Trying to acquire that subset of his enormous output in DJ art is a daunting task. Forget about trying to have a full collection of everything he did! Any time we’re out book buying I keep my eye out for Gorey DJ art, but especially on the Bellairs books and also Joan Aiken’s books.

    Reply
    1. george Post author

      John, I have some Gorey DJ copies of John Bellairs books. Let me know which books you’re looking for. I have duplicates I’d be happy to send you.

      Reply
  4. Wolf Böhrendt

    A bit OT:

    The last cover in the first row is for Franz Kafka’s unfinished novel “Amerika” – I have to confess I hadn’t heard about that yet, so I loked it up:
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amerika_%28novel%29
    Fascinating, how modern Kafka was!

    Thanks, George for this, really unexpected gem!

    There just are too many books to read …

    Reply
  5. Todd Mason

    Though the joy of a book like this is how quickly or slowly we can go through it…and how many memories it sparks. I first encountered Gorey, I think, though the cover and illustrations for Henry Mazzeo’s anthology HAUNTINGS around 1973. Was very happy to find Gorey’s own horror anthology, as chestnut-heavy as it was, about ten years ago…

    Reply
    1. george Post author

      Todd, I have plenty of great memories of Edward Gorey’s works. Every time I found a book with his distinctive artwork on the cover, it was a thrill!

      Reply

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