To my unsinkably optimistic agent, Andrew Stuart of the Stuart Agency, who first believed in this book; to Little, Brown’s former executive editor Michael Sand, who bought it; and to Sand’s successor, Michael Szczerban, who did battle with the Leviathan, slashing it down to readable size with just the right mixture of sensitivity and steely resolve, must go pride of place. Thank you, gentlemen, for your faith in Gorey and his Boswell. (Michael Szczerban was ably assisted by Nicky Guerreiro, who attended to all the little—but all-important—details.) Barbara Clark’s impeccable copyedit, fastidiously grammatical yet thoughtful on questions of style, saved me from dangling participles and other crimes too monstrous to mention.
I owe an incalculable debt of gratitude to Skee Morton and Eleanor Garvey, who were unstintingly generous with their memories (and memorabilia) of their cousin, and to Ken Morton, who vouched for my bona fides with Gorey’s inner circle, scanned photos by the boatload, answered my endless questions with equanimity, and served as a reliably sane and perspicacious sounding board throughout the writing of this book.
To Rick Jones, executive director of the Edward Gorey House, I’m deeply indebted as well: Rick’s unfailing attentiveness to my unending questions, his willingness to open the Gorey House for my private perusal, and his many other kindnesses, large and small, were enormously helpful. (Gregory Hischak, who came aboard as the museum’s curator when I was putting the finishing touches on this book, was a gracious guide to all things Gorey, too.)
Christopher Seufert, the Cape Cod photographer and filmmaker whose documentary The Last Days of Edward Gorey (Mooncusser Films) sketches an intimate portrait of the man in his Yarmouth Port days, was lavishly kind in hosting private screenings of that work in progress; providing transcripts of his interviews with Gorey, Gorey’s Cape Cod circle, and Gorey aficionados such as Daniel Handler (Lemony Snicket); sharing hard-to-find recordings of Gorey appearances on radio and TV; and, more generally, extending Yankee hospitality.
Elizabeth Tamny’s incomparable skills as a researcher, along with her newshound’s knowledge of Chicago history, especially machine politics, proved invaluable, as did her Chicago Reader article on Gorey’s childhood.
Gorey’s friends from his Harvard and Cambridge days—Alison Lurie, Freddy English, and Larry Osgood—submitted to lengthy interviews (and a farrago of follow-up questions, in Osgood’s case) with good-humored forbearance. Their intimate impressions of Ted, still vivid after all these years, enriched my understanding of him considerably. Peter Neumeyer, whose Floating Worlds reveals a side of the man unknown to even his closest friends, offered searching reflections on their brief but intense, bordering on telepathic, collaboration. His answers to my questions, together with his book, deepened my understanding of Gorey’s inner life profoundly.
Robert Bock, Eric Edwards, Vincent Myette, Joe Richards, Cathy Smith, Genie Stevens, and Jamie Wolf—stalwart troupers, all, of the Aubergine Company and Le Théâtricule Stoïque—took me into their confidence, but Jane MacDonald, Jill Erickson, and Carol Verburg deserve special mention for the revealing light they shed on Gorey the playwright and Gorey the director.
Kevin Shortsleeve’s collegial generosity in sharing his unpublished interview with Maurice Sendak permitted me to tell, for the first time, the story of Sendak’s high regard for Gorey’s talent and his poignant sense of their kinship as gay men. I’m grateful, too, to Lynn Caponera and the Maurice Sendak Foundation for approving my use of excerpts from Professor Shortsleeve’s remarkable conversation with Sendak. Maureen O’Hara was wonderfully generous, as well, in her willingness to grant permission to quote from her brother Frank’s poem “For Edward Gorey.”
Ailina Rose, dance historian and founder of the Ailina Dance Archives, shared generously of her encyclopedic knowledge of ballet in general and the New York City Ballet in particular. Her excavation, from the buried history of pre-Balanchine ballet in America, of the first ballet Gorey attended was a eureka moment.
It should go without saying that a book this long, written over the course of seven years, is in some sense a collective effort, involving the proverbial cast of thousands. I’m truly grateful to everyone who lent a hand. (Roll credits.)
Al Vogel (public affairs office, US Army Dugway Proving Ground, Utah); Alex Gortman; Alexander Theroux; Amy Taubin; Andy Kaplan (archives director, Francis W. Parker School, Chicago); Ann Beneduce; Anna Sui; Annabelle Schierman; Anthony Schierman; Antonia Stephens (Sturgis Library, Barnstable, Massachusetts); Arlene Croce; Bambi Everson (and her husband, Frank Coleman); Barney Rosset (and his wife, Astrid Myers-Rosset); Belinda Cash (Nyack Library reference desk); Ben Muse; Beth Kleber (School of Visual Arts archives); Betty Caldwell; Carolyn Tennant; Charlie Shibuk; Chris Garvey; Christi and Tom Waybright (Woodland Cemetery, Ironton, Ohio); Christina Davis (curator, Woodberry Poetry Room, Harvard University); Cindy Zedalis; Daniel Handler (a.k.a. Lemony Snicket); Daniel Levans; David A. Brogno, MD, FACC; David Hough; Dennis Rosa; Dev Stern; Diana Klemin; Dianna Braginton-Smith; Donald Hall; Dore Sheppard, PhD, LCSW (whose psychotherapeutic insights and wry wit saw me through more than a few dark nights of the soul); Ed Pinsent; Ed Woelfle; Edmund White; Edward Villella; Eileen McMahon; Eugene Fedorenko; Faith Elliott; Florence Parry Heide; Genie Stevens; Glen Emil (Goreyography.com); Greg Matthews (special collections librarian, Holland and Terrell Libraries, Washington State University); Guy Trebay; Haskell Wexler; Helen Pond; Howard and Ron Mandelbaum; Irwin Terry (Goreyana.blogspot.com); J. W. Mark; Jan Brandt; Jane Siegel (Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Columbia University); Janet Morgan; Janet Perlman; Janey Tannenbaum; Jason Epstein; Jean Lyons Keely; Jillana; John Ashbery; John Solowiej; John Wulp; Johnny Ryan; Joseph Stanton (University of Hawaii); Joyce Lamar (née Reark); Judith Cressy; Julius Lewis; Justin Katz (the Edwardian Ball); Kathleen Sullivan (Nyack Library reference desk); Keith Luf (WGBH archives); Kevin McDermott; Kevin Miserocchi (executive director, Tee and Charles Addams Foundation); Laura Romeyn; Lynn Pecktal; Margaret Heilbrun; Maria Calegari; Mark Romanek; Martyn Jacques; Mary Joella Cunnane (archivist, Sisters of Mercy West Midwest Community); Maura Power; Mel Schierman; Michael Goldstein; Michael Vernon; Neil Gaiman; Normand Roger; Patricia Albers; Patricia McBride; Patrick Dillon; Patrick Leary (Wilmette History Museum); Paul Richard; Peter Anastos; Peter Sellars; Peter Wolff; Rachel Quist (cultural resources management officer, US Army Dugway Proving Ground, Utah); Rhoda Levine; Richard Wilbur; Robert Bruegmann (distinguished professor emeritus of art history, architecture, urban planning, University of Illinois at Chicago); Robert McCormick Adams; Rosaria Sinisi; Ross Milloy; Roy Bartolomei; Steve Silberman; Steven Heller; Ted Drozdowski; Tom Berman (Nyack Library reference desk); Tom Zalesak; Tomi Ungerer (and his wife, Yvonne Ungerer); Tony Williams; Tony Yanick; Uta Frith; Victoria Chess; Warren MacKenzie; William Garvey; Yvonne “Kiki” Reynolds (and her son Gregory Reynolds).
Lastly, to Thea Dery, who gamely endured seven years’ worth of anecdotes, allusions, and dinner-table disquisitions on the man, goes special commendation. In a very real sense, she grew up with Gorey.