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Title details for Born to Be Posthumous by Mark Dery - Available

Born to Be Posthumous

The Eccentric Life and Mysterious Genius of Edward Gorey

by Mark Dery
Adam Sims
Audiobook
1 of 1 copy available
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1 of 1 copy available
The definitive biography of Edward Gorey, the eccentric master of macabre nonsense. 'A genius book about a bookish genius' Daniel Handler, author of A Series of Unfortunate Events From The Gashlycrumb Tinies to The Doubtful Guest, Edward Gorey's wickedly funny and deliciously sinister little books have influenced our culture in innumerable ways, from the works of Tim Burton and Neil Gaiman to Lemony Snicket. Some even call him the Grandfather of Goth. But who was this man, who lived with over twenty thousand books and six cats, who roomed with Frank O'Hara at Harvard, and was known – in the late 1940s, no less – to traipse around in full-length fur coats, clanking bracelets, and an Edwardian beard? An eccentric, a gregarious recluse, an enigmatic auteur of whimsically morbid masterpieces, yes – but who was the real Edward Gorey behind the Oscar Wildean pose? He published over a hundred books and illustrated works by Samuel Beckett, T.S. Eliot, Edward Lear, John Updike, Charles Dickens, Hilaire Belloc, Muriel Spark, Bram Stoker, Gilbert & Sullivan, and others. At the same time, he was a deeply complicated and conflicted individual, a man whose art reflected his obsessions with the disquieting and the darkly hilarious. Based on newly uncovered correspondence and interviews with personalities as diverse as John Ashbery, Donald Hall, Lemony Snicket, Neil Gaiman, and Anna Sui, Born to be Posthumous draws back the curtain on the eccentric genius and mysterious life of Edward Gorey.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    November 1, 2018

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9780008329839
      • File size: 425808 KB
      • Duration: 14:47:05

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • AudioFile Magazine
      Oh, what fun! An audiobook biography of Edward Gorey, whom most people know through his drawings, especially those used in the opening credits of PBS's "Masterpiece Mystery." Those works are famously dark, spare, black and white, and evidence of a mind that moved in a different direction from most people's. As an artist, he's whimsical, but many times his work crushes those with whom we sympathize. Narrator Adam Sims uses his deep, deliberate voice to create a dark atmosphere supportive of Gorey's vision. In some ways he succeeds, but overall his narration is scratchy and slow. Sims certainly pronounces every word and tries to keep listeners moving through what was a complicated life. Too often, though, his voice loses distinction, his tone gets too low, and he doesn't have the range to enliven the author's words. R.I.G. © AudioFile 2019, Portland, Maine
    • Publisher's Weekly

      October 1, 2018
      Avant-garde writer and artist Edward Gorey comes across as almost odder, if less adventurous, than his characters in this atmospheric biography. Gorey, a native Chicagoan and an Anglophile, innovated by looking back to vintage British illustrations, stocking his drawings with bearded gentlemen, bustled ladies, flappers, and crepuscular mansions; his groundbreaking short picture books featured droll send-ups of Victorian melodrama, replete with dying children, bizarre creatures invading parlors, and dark figures haunting lonely landscapes. Culture critic Dery (Flame Wars) shrewdly plumbs Gorey’s work, which inspired goth fashions, Tim Burton movies, and Lemony Snicket’s children’s books. In his telling, Gorey’s personality is also a showy exterior with an enigmatic interior: Gorey sported a bristling beard, long fur coats, jewelry, and Wildean mannerisms; though he was prone to at times having “all-consuming crush” on men, he proclaimed himself asexual. Gorey’s uneventful, solitary life can be less than exciting, and the narrative sometimes bogs down in his collections and love of George Balanchine’s ballets. Fans will like the immersion in Gorey-ana, but others may feel that this colorful protagonist lacks a compelling plot. Photos. Andrew Stuart, Stuart Agency.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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