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Charming and macabre, Edward Gorey House welcomes visitors PDF Print E-mail
Written by DeadGirl   
Thursday, 20 July 2006
By Brandie M. Jefferson
Associated Press Writer  
July 19, 2006


YARMOUTH, Mass. --Two little legs, one slightly askew with a sneaker lace undone, poke out from underneath the blue living room rug. Sitting on a shelf, a little girl peers out from the ice block in which she's encased. Another little boy is the target of a ravenous group of mice.

The 26 doomed children at the Edward Gorey House are characters "The Gashlycrumb Tinies," written and illustrated by Gorey.

His story begins "A is for Amy, who fell down the stairs, B is for Basil, assaulted by bears," and continues through a series of fatal scenarios - "W is for Winnie, embedded in ice, X is for Xerxes devoured by mice."

Dolls posed as the children are scattered around the house, the illustrator's home from 1986 until 2000, when he died at age 75 of a heart attack. The Highland Street Foundation, an organization that funds non-profits, bought the house for just over $400,000 and reopened it as a museum showcasing all things Gorey.

Gorey's random collections, including one of cheese graters, have been turned into exhibits, displayed carefully next to glass shelves showing off original drawings, toys and a Tony Award Gorey he won for the costume and set design for the Broadway production of Dracula.

His work in the theater inspired the museum's upcoming exhibit, Edward Gorey's Dracula, which opens Aug. 2. The exhibit will feature original art, set designs and costumes -- including the evolution, in sketches, of the flowing black outfit that Frank Langella wore on state as the count.

And on Aug. 24-25 the museum will host a Dracula-themed blood drive. The morbidly philanthropic event will feature technicians in black capes and donors with the bite mark of Dracula -- in paint -- on their necks.

Gorey illustrated hundreds of other books, and drew the opening and closing scenes for PBS's Mystery! where shifty characters glide back and forth across the screen and three identical detectives follow their trail.

Rick Jones, the director and curator of the museum, was also a friend of Gorey's for 15 years. Going through his friend's sketchbooks and manuscripts, he said, gave him the chance to learn more about his friend's work.

He found a note from Derek Lamb, the animator who put Gorey's pictures in motion for Mystery! It asked Gorey to change the size the asylum drawing.

"It's actually not a mansion," Jones said of the building in the show's credits, although for decades he and most viewers assumed it was.

Of all of Gorey's creations -- costumes, set designs, puppets -- his drawings most give the feeling of an artist working feverishly in solitude. His crosshatch style incorporated incredibly thin, crisscrossed pen lines to create gradual shade variations from barely there gray to pitch black.

Although his house in Yarmouth Port has more than 10 rooms, Gorey did most of his drawing in a second-floor room the size of a small walk-in closet. His desk faced a window that looked out at a giant Southern Magnolia tree.

"I think the reason is he drew precise and small things. He didn't want all that space," Jones said.

There is hardly any actual violence depicted in the books or displays at the Gorey House. Knickknacks and oversized drawings make it a blast for children.

Gorey also devoted his last 20 years to the animal welfare movement. Some of the displays touch on that aspect of his life including, ironically, an oversized raccoon coat that was once his trademark. Although he didn't wear it later in life, Jones said the decision to put it on display highlighted a turning point in Gorey's life.

Outside, under the magnolia, are graves for the Tinies children. A few other characters, including the Doubtful Guest, a creature from a Gorey book of the same name, linger in the yard.

Jones said it would have been difficult spend so much time in his friend's house right after he died, but he finds joy in his work.

"It's been a long time now," he said, sorting through pieces for the upcoming exhibit. "It feels good to perpetuate Ed's legend."

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2006/07/19/charming_and_macabre_edward_gorey_house_welcomes_visitors/
 
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