Edward Gorey: Neglected Murderesses Boxed Notecard Assortment

Presented with tongue firmly in cheek, Neglected Murderesses features delightfully wicked specimens of “the fairer sex” whose homicidal acts have faded into obscurity, including bowler-turned-basher Miss Q. P. Urkheimer and crochet-hook skewerer Mrs. Daisy Sallow. If not for the sleuthing of Edward Gorey, whose fearless rehabilitation of better-known murderers such as Dracula, the Wuggly Ump, and the malfeasants presented in PBS’s Mystery! earned the admiration of countless law-abiding citizens, we might have gone to our graves without a proper appreciation of the important part women have played in the history of homicide. Contains five each of the following notecards: Mrs. Daisy Sallow eviscerated her daughter-in-law with a No. 7 hook, afterwards crocheting, over the course of three evenings, her shroud in a snowflake pattern (1921). Miss Q. P. Urkheimer brained her fiancé after failing to pick up an easy spare at Glover’s Lanes, Poxville, Kansas, 1936. Miss Emily Toastwater smothered her father after evening prayers, London S.W.7 (1916). Natasha Batti-Loupstein pulverized a paste necklace and sprinkled it over a tray of canapés, Villa Libellule, Nice, 1923.

Edward Gorey

Artist and author Edward Gorey (American, 1925–2000) is beloved for the boundless imagination and sharp humor exhibited in his more than 100 published works. Gorey was also a set and costume designer for innumerable theater productions, including a staging of Bram Stoker’s Dracula, for which he won a Tony. He had a profound affection for literature, film, ballet, and animals. Cats and other odd creatures appear in many of his crosshatched illustrations. His humorously unsettling drawings of vaguely Victorian innocents facing unfortunate ends became familiar to a wide audience after appearing in the opening credits of the PBS television series Mystery! Gorey’s Cape Cod home, a veritable cabinet of curiosities, is now a museum celebrating his life and work.