John Updike and Edward Gorey: The Twelve Terrors of Christmas

Two American masters team up to tickle your funny bone in this little stocking stuffer. Pulitzer Prize–winning novelist John Updike wrote the text, which, among other holiday musings, questions the motives of Santa Claus: “A man of no plausible address, with no apparent source for his considerable wealth, comes down the chimney after midnight while decent, law-abiding citizens are snug in their beds—is this not, at the least, cause for alarm?” And Updike’s jaundiced take on Christmas is perfectly complemented by the darkly humorous drawings of Edward Gorey, whose trademark anxious naifs are here beset by ubiquitous yuletide misfortune. Ho-ho-ouch!

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.