Edward Gorey: Thoughtful Alphabets: The Just Dessert & The Deadly Blotter

Astonishingly brief, captivating, decidedly engaging, for Goreyphiles: here. Its jolly, keen language meanders neatly. One ponders, quietly, rather strange tableaux. Uses verbs winsomely. Excited, you? Zowee! What's this all about? In the mid–1990s Edward Gorey launched a numbered series of "Thoughtful Alphabets" featuring cryptic 26-word stories wherein the first word begins with A, the last with Z. The first six Thoughtful Alphabets published (numbers 2, 3, 4, 10, 14, and 15) were hand-lettered posters with clip-art illustrations. Numbers XI and XVII, however, emerged as signed limited-edition books featuring—happily for us—Gorey’s own drawings. These two gems are revived in Thoughtful Alphabets: The Just Dessert and The Deadly Blotter. In each, Gorey’s inimitable drawings weave a tale of suspense and intrigue; the story proceeds as the alphabet progresses.

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.