Why in the holidays did I read a book about Edward Gorey, the ascendingly peculiar man whose works I have loved and found strange all my life? I don't exactly know. Goodreads recommendation algorithms, I guess. Then I knew he had these pieces, The Haunted Tea-Cosy and The Headless Bust, to be read during the holidays that were published in the late nineties in The New York Times Magazine and later collected in one of the Amphigorey collections. I found them in the library and then found this boo...

“My mission in life is to make everybody as uneasy as possible. I think we should all be as uneasy as possible, because that's what the world is like.” - Edward GoreyIf you've read any number of his morbid stories, you've probably familiar already with Edward Gorey's many obsessions - ballet, fur coats, the Victorian era, silent films, androgyny and of course, literature. (Gorey could've been an amazing Goodreads reviewer.)Ascending Peculiarity won't tell you anything new or surprising, but it i...

I thoroughly enjoyed this book with the exception of the redundancy of certain questions. Like many, I am a Gorey fan. I read this book to get to know the thinking behind the stories and ideas for his illustrationsMy favorite interview was "Edward Gorey and the Tao of Nonesense". I must say that this interview summed up all of the other interviews quite nicely. The interview I liked least is the Dick Cavett interview. Dick is a Moron. The interview took place in 1997 on television and the questi...

Not too long ago I was on my way to work wearing a winter coat and sneakers and I caught a glimpse of myself in a reflective elevator door. My winter coat is an oversized woolly boucle type of winter coat, a bit mannish about the shoulders, and my legs sticking out from underneath looked like little pretzel sticks. The overall silhouette struck me as oddly familiar. I kept thinking, "Who do I look like right now? Who do I remind myself of?" After an hour or two of reviewing documents, I realized...

Edward Gorey was much weirder yet more ordinary in some ways than I would have thought. His drawings were always wonderful & how could you resist a guy who always went to every performance of the NY Ballet & owned full length mink coats in colors like bright yellow?

Big surprise: Edward Gorey was reclusive, asexual, and liked cats and the ballet. And he sometimes dressed like his drawings. I love this man.

I've procrastinated writing this review long enough. I don't have a reason, because I absolutely loved it. Having recently read Elephant House by Kevin McDermott (Edward Gorey's home on Cape Cod) and also attended Gorey Stories at the JobSite Theatre, this book of interviews added to my Gorey immersion. I particularly loved Dick Cavett's interview. I came away with the feeling that I'd met Edward Gorey. I am bereft that really, I did not. In contrast to his morbidly funny art, I found him warm a...

As much as I love Gorey's work (and boy oh boy do I love his work), his true genius was devoted to the creation of a persona for the ages. John Waters? Psh, don't make me laugh! Andy Warhol? Please, go back to Kindergarten!This is one of the most entertaining biographical books that I have read, and I highly recommend it to anyone who has been compelled/fascinated/moved by Gorey's unique aesthetic. My one caveat is that this is not a biography in the conventional sense. Rather, it is a collectio...

A really satisfying read. Gorey says some lines that make me chuckle that I just have to read them aloud to anyone nearby. He's so interestingly odd yet boring at the same time. For example, he regularly wore large fur coats, gold earrings, numerous gold rings on his long fingers, and Keds sneakers. He was very tall and in later decades wore his white beard fairly long. Just a striking, eccentric vision. Reports from grade school friends said one time he painted his toenails green and walked alo...

This is a sort of mini-autobiography of artist/writer Edward Gorey (1925-2000), presented through the medium of interviews that took place over the years from 1973 to 1999. Edward Gorey has- and has had, for many years- a cult following for his slightly skewed, morbid but funny books. Working almost exclusively in pen and ink, his drawings most often present a late Victorian or Edwardian setting, frequently drawn with lush detail- particularly the backgrounds- where something is just off. Garden...

"Edward Gorey's extraordinary books are avidly sought and treasured thro9ughout the world, but until now little has been known about the man himself. While he was notoriously protective of his privacy, Gorey did grant dozens of interviews over the course of his life. And as the conversations collected here demonstrate, he proved to be unfailingly charming, gracious, and fascinating."Here is Gorey in his own words, ruminating on everything from French symbolist poetry to soap operas, from George

Gorey! I liked reading so many together. I liked that this one had illustrations spread throughout the interviews as well as pictures (Gosh but he looks like my old English teacher!) They should reprint his stuff in art book format vs the amphigorey collections.

I have adored Edward Gorey for years, since childhood no doubt when I first saw his work animated for the opening to PBS's Mystery! I couldn't say what the connection was then and I'm not always sure what the draw is now save for my own love of things Victorian, Edwardian and Gorey's pen and ink crosshatched images. Still, it's difficult to find fault with such marvelous little stories like The Gastlycrumb Tinies or the Doubtful Guest and others. Not to mention Dracula which I remember having a

A collection of interviews with Gorey from the early 70s up to the late 90s. Probably the best way to get a sense of the man behind the uncanny little books. As he's uncomfortable attempting a summary of his life, these little snapshots of him discussing his current obsessions give a sense of the sweep of his career. It's also possible to sense the limits of the constructed personality ("half a put-on," he repeatedly admits) and see the real Gorey peeking out, by seeing which stock answers he us...

I've read a fair amount of Edward Gorey in my life and as a kid I appreciated the beginning of PBS' Mystery! more than I did the actual show. I've never wondered much about the writer though - probably because for years I thought he was from an older era and dead. He was American, attended every performance of the New York City Ballet for 23 seasons, lived with his cats, wore a fur coat with tennis shoes, and died in 2000. His work may make you think Edwardian but he was not of that time.Mr. Gor...

This guy isn't as much of a creepy weirdo as i had hoped. The interviews get a tad redundant but here's the jist. He's never been to England, he owns a lot of cats, he dresses in sneakers and a big fur coat with lots of rings on his fingers and elaborate African necklaces, he compulsively goes to every ballet performance of the NY ballet (even if that means 20-50 performances of the Nutcracker), he compulsively watches bad TV sitcoms ( Golden Girls, Star Trek, Dallas), he's "asexual".

Interviews with illustrator and artist Edward Gorey, edited and compiled by Karen Wilken, curator of the Gorey museum in Cape Cod and author of "The World of Edward Gorey" and the exhibition catalogue "Elegant Enigmas" (the art of Edward Gorey).-A great selection of interviews with an artist who rarely granted them, giving us some insight into his interests. He gave his best discussions with people who were equally interesting, such as Annie Nocenti for Scenario magazine in 1998. Great discourse...

Editing articles, interviews, remembrances, etc. published a year after Gorey's death. There is a lot of repetition in his interviews--Thanksgivings at the movie theatre with breaks at Howard Johnson's, his passion for decades with George Balanchine and the ballet. But you pick up other interesting tidbits including what he likes to read, the paper and pen nibs he uses (Strathmore Matte Flat #2 and Hunt #204 nibs. Higgins India Ink. Pictures never seen of Gorey as a young man and one taken later...

I want to be this man. I love this man. He is endlessly fascinating, this, the perfect accoutrement to his work. Here is a gateway, one that illuminates his mind and processes, his beliefs and sources of inspiration; his obsessions, obscurities, curiosities.Honestly, this can be read without even knowing the work of Gorey. It is rich, velveteen, lush, necessary.

I particularly enjoyed this book because I felt like I really got to know Edward Gorey. The only downside was some of the interviews were a bit repetitive and I found my self skipping through them. Overall it was very interesting.

Interesting read but very repetitive.

Absolutely loved this charming little book! Hands down a must-read for any Gorey fan! Such an incredible and amusing glimpse into one of the most unique literary minds of our time!

This is a collection of interviews with Edward Gorey. Not really surprising considering the format, it was a bit repetitive. But Gorey being a quirky dude, it was nonetheless a fun read.

very good book, I like it

one of may favorite books

These interviews are fascinating to me!

This book is so original. :D

First of all, this won't make much sense if you haven't read Gorey. And if you haven't, you need to, please. Oh heavens.I was a bit skeptical, the first few interviews being primarily about the love of ballet. But in the end, Gorey was very Gorey and confirmed my love of him and echoed the guiding sentiments his books provided in my formative years. While I was reading this book people would say what are you reading who is this guy? And I would say, well, um, he's sort of gothic...cartoonish...s...

I picked up Ascending Peculiarity at the local bookstore a few weeks ago & finally worked my way down to it in the To Read pile.The book is a collection of interviews with Gorey, spanning the last 30 years of his career. Some of the same questions are asked multiple times, but it's interesting to see the different ways he answers them. I had no idea he was such a ballet aficionado - having attended 50 seasons of the New York City Ballet. He left the city for Cape Cod - living in a dilapidated co...

I always liked Gorey's work, though I was never really in his cult (probably driven away by the cult members who had "The Gashlycrumb Tinies" memorized and would recite the whole thing at every opportunity - the same thing that soured me on Monty Python). I'm pretty sure there were a couple of his books around the house when I was growing up; they're exactly the kind of thing my dad would have brought home. I hope they're in the garage somewhere. Anyway, this is a book of interviews. I really en...