The Gloomy Gallery, A Centennial Exhibition

The Gloomy Gallery, an exhibition celebrating the centennial of Edward Gorey's birth is opening on September 2nd at Harvard University's Houghton Library. Showcasing holdings from the library's extensive collection of Gorey material, the exhibit will feature books, manuscripts, and original artworks, many of which have not been previously displayed.

The exhibit will also include a suite of more than a dozen recently acquired drawings created by Edward Gorey for a college roommate, Tony Smith. For more information on the exhibition, including registration to attend the opening on Thursday September 4th, go HERE.

Images courtesy The Edward Gorey Charitable Trust and The Houghton Library.
 

Theater News

Continuing the celebration of Edward Gorey's 100th birthday year, the Florida base acting troupe Pantasmagoria will be presenting PHANTASMAGORIA XVI "Hauntingly Whimsical Tales" from October 3rd through November 8th at various theaters in various cities in Florida.

Echoing Edward Gorey's own theatrical entertainments from the 1990's, Phantasmagoria combines "Evocative Storytelling, Phantastical Dance, Puppetry, Projections, Original Music and MORE" into an evening of entertainments based on Mr. Gorey's books.

To view the performance schedule and purchase tickets, go HERE. 

Limited Edition Print

Continuing the year long celebration of 100th anniversary of Edward Gorey's birth, the  Edward Gorey Charitable Trust is creating a special limited edition fine art commemorative print. Reproducing artwork from the Edward Gorey Archive, Skeleton Dance is a triptych executed in an expressive drawing style by Mr. Gorey. 

Skeleton Dance features a pencil thin femme fatale engaging in a Danse Macabre with an even thinner dance partner. The images crackle with movement and tension. Is she being lured to her ultimate destruction or is she seducing him to do her bidding?

Printed in exacting detail on fine art paper and presented in a custom archival matte, this exciting print is available for pre-order until Friday July 4. The final edition size will be determined by the number of prints pre-ordered. To reserve your copy go HERE. 

 

Auction News

Considering that 2025 is the centennial of Edward Gorey's birth, the auction market featuring original art by the artist has been a bit quiet. 

Notable exceptions include the Femme Fatale with a Cigarette drawing from Leaves From A Mislaid Album (Gotrham Book Mart, 1972) that sold at Bohnam's Auctions in April (see my post from April 13, 2025), and the collage of Vampire Bat Drawings and Sketches that sold at Swann Auction Galleries Illustration Art auction on June 18, 2025.

Edward Gorey designed the sets and costumes for the 1973 Broadway production of Dracula, visually referencing the 1931 movie that starred Bela Lugosi in the title role. Through his signature crosshatch drawing style Mr. Gorey created an environment that evoked the suspenseful look and feel of the black and white movie. 

In a burst of inspirational genius, Edward Gorey did not just recreate the movie sets, he filled the stage with a seemingly endless variety of bats. Virtually every architectural detail, piece of furniture and costume was decorated with a bat motif. To this end, Mr. Gorey filled sketchbooks with drawings of bats.

On June 5, 2018 several sketchbook pages with Dracula bat designs were sold at Swann.  

The artwork auctioned at Swann this week is a collage of more than half a dozen clippings of bat drawings. Some of the drawings are expressive sketches, while others are fully realized finished pieces of art. Collectively, they take the viewer on a visual journey of Edward Gorey's creative process to embellish the set for this singular production. This remarkable artwork sold for $13,750 (including buyer's premium).

Images courtesy Russell Lehrer, Swann Auction Galleries, Brady Schwind, and The Edward Gorey Charitable Trust. 

Actress Valerie Mahaffey

Actress Valerie Mahaffey has died at the age of 71. Amongst her extensive acting credits on screen, television and stage was her 1979 Broadway performance as Lucy Steward in the Edward Gorey Production of Dracula opposite Raul Julia in the title role. Ms Mahaffey replaced Ann Sachs, the original Lucy.

 

(Photograph by Kenn Duncan. For more images of Mahaffey and Julia in the play, visit the New York Public Library Digital Collections https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/search/index?q=valerie+mahaffey+dracula)

The Gorey Podcast from the BBC

Spend three quarters of an hour exploring a deep dive on the life and work of Edward Gorey. The podcast is peppered with a veritable who's who from the Gorey universe. Listen to it HERE.

A Gorey Tale from Rome

Fans of Edward Gorey can turn up anywhere, even in the Vatican. About fifteen years ago I was corresponding with Cuthbert Thambimbuttu (1945 - 2019), an insatiable book collector known to many dealers, fellow collectors, and authors as "Tubby" about all things Edward Gorey. Mr. Thambimbuttu was a devoted and persistent collector of signed editions by authors he admired and respected. Edward Gorey was among the authors whose works he sought out.

In an email dated February 21, 2011, Mr. Thambimbuttu told me an origin story about the image Edward Gorey created that has become known as The John Locke Quote. John Locke (1632 - 1704) was an English philosopher and physician whose work and views have influenced writers, philosophers and political thinkers to this day. 

The quote, hand lettered by Edward Gorey, tells of the perils of books in general, and the moral pitfalls that befall anyone who comes into contact with them professionally. Illustrated with a witty color image of an obsessive book collector clutching a volume just after he has caused the previous owner to fall over the edge of a cliff, this delightful image was printed as an oversized folded stationary card by The Gotham Book Mart. The 7" x 8.5" card is printed on regular paper stock and was issued without envelopes. 

Mr. Thambibuttu related that Andreas Brown (1933 - 2020), owner of The Gotham Book Mart and one of the original trustees of The Edward Gorey Charitable Trust, had been sent a copy of the Locke quote by Fr. William Sheehan (1937 - 2018). Fr. Sheehan was originally from New York and in 1986 had become the Director of the Incunabula Catalog Department - Printed Books at the Vatican Library in Rome. Fr. Sheehan had contacted Mr. Brown to see if Edward Gorey could "make anything fitting" using the quote as inspiration. The stationary card was Edward Gorey's response to the request.