Review by Booklist Review
Habitual watchers of PBS TV's long-running Mystery! may constitute the largest number of Edward Gorey fans--provided, of course, that they all love the show's animated introduction, for it is Gorey's contribution. Long before the show, Gorey had attracted a staunch band of admirers with his gravely humorous rhymed stories set in an Edwardian never-never land and illustrated in children's picture-book fashion, one drawing per page or line of verse. If your child had a somewhat morbid sense of humor, they could be marvelous children's books, but they were basically for adults fascinated by Gorey's literary and artistic allusions and the droll dreariness of his densely crosshatched style (although he rarely uses color, his thicket of lines ineluctably conjures them in the mind's eye; of course, all are the hues of dusk). Besides a little gallery of his work, this sampler includes a literate admiration by Wilkin and a splendidly amusing tete-a-tete with the artist by Ross. --Ray Olson
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
This is a glorious collection of Gorey-ana, complemented by an interview by painter and photographer Ross with the artist himself and commentary on his work by art critic WIlkin. ``I don't think I've done anything terribly scary,'' Gorey says to Ross. ``People think of me as much more macabre and Gothic than I really am.'' A dubious denial to those who adore Gorey's creepy ``crypto- Edwardians,'' as Wilkin calls them. And, conversely, for others, fanatics of Gorey's pseudo-classical ballet, The Gilded Bat, it will come as no surprise to find the artist admit that George Balanchine ``was the great, important figure in my life . . . sort of like God.'' ($29.95; Oct. 1996; 192 pages; ISBN 0-8109-3988-6)
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
