Edward Gorey’s Yarmouth Port house provides insight into the eccentric’s genius talent.
by James P. Freeman
Photographs from Edward Gorey Museum in Yarmouth Port
What was the motivational genesis behind the madness of author, illustrator, collector, puppeteer, playwright, and costume designer Edward Gorey?
Sitting on the front porch of the Edward Gorey House in Yarmouth Port, Greg Hischak, curator at the museum celebrating the artist’s life and work, offers an explanation: “In a word, ‘surrealism.’ ”
Housed in the late artist’s home on Strawberry Lane, the museum is seeped in sui generis surrealism. A concept proof illustration by Gorey hilariously reads: “Innocence, on the Bicycle of Propriety, carrying the Urn of Reputation safely over the Abyss of Indiscretion.”
Surrealism began in the 1920s as a cultural and artistic movement. It’s a style that attempts to challenge reality by depicting a new warped, irrational universe with ludicrous features. Gorey savored surrealism throughout his career.
Today, the Gorey imprint is ubiquitous if not largely anonymous.
A precise accounting of Gorey’s multimedia portfolio is impossible to tally. Nevertheless, his known magazine submissions total at least 1,000. His own authored books number 116 (unless more are found). But his most iconic work may be the animated introduction to Boston’s public television Mystery! series, an international sensation.
Born in Chicago in 1925, Gorey started drawing at the age of 18 months and taught himself to read by age 3. He had family on Cape Cod and visited most summers. After graduating from Harvard University in 1950, he became an important figure in the New York design world.
In 1973, he designed a production of Dracula for a small theater on Nantucket Island. It attracted considerable interest and, in 1977, opened on Broadway as Edward Gorey’s Dracula. A huge commercial success with extraordinary reviews, it garnered two Tony Awards (“Best Revival” and “Best Costumes”) and ran for almost three years to global acclaim. Unheard of for a non-actor, Gorey negotiated a five percent commission on production revenues, earning him millions of dollars.
Those proceeds enabled him to buy “Elephant House” in 1979. He hadn’t stepped foot in the house before the purchase but quickly realized it had no heat and raccoons as residents. After extensive repairs, he became a full-time Cape resident from 1986 until 2000.
Gorey was a twice-daily fixture at Jack’s Outback restaurant. Yet, the approachable eccentric toiled relentlessly.
He was a prolific letter writer. Many of the envelopes of his correspondence were decorated with peculiar etchings and scribblings, a kind of personal postal graffiti. The museum was inspired by the concept, and more than a decade ago it created the “All Ages Envelope Art Contest.” This year, more than 500 enthusiasts from around the world are expected to submit their artistic homage to Gorey. Scrapbooks on a kitchen table in the house showcase the wildly imaginative winners of past contests.
The extent of Gorey’s prodigious work allows the museum to reveal niche anthologies.
For instance, the 2024 exhibition “Exquisite Corpse” explores Gorey’s creative experiments with the visual and narrative possibilities inherent in manipulating the physical design of a book. He revered books but, paradoxically, as Hischak explains, “Gorey tortured books,” too. He dismembered them, fused pieces back together, and reimagined the format, the idiom. It’s as if he were a literary punk rocker, shredding niceties and conventions for the sake of his craft. Consequently, many such endeavors were, Hischak says, “profoundly unmarketable.”
Still, Gorey’s quirky experimenting and tinkering were hugely significant to fans of unorthodox artistic expression and gleeful subversion. He was clearly a progenitor in the burgeoning field of graphic novels, flash fiction stories, and “zines,” now more mainstream than ever. In short, Gorey was a proto-influencer well before social media.
This may help explain the mystery behind Gorey’s broader allure. While his work is full of Victorian-era flourishes, it’s malleable, temporal, and ambiguous enough to appeal to modern sensibilities.
And since he was a lifelong lover of animals—cats in particular—the estate continues to fund the welfare of various creatures. And it’s only fitting that a “tuxie” named Embley lives upstairs.
In retrospect, the canon of Gorey’s work is a sensory blitzkrieg of the macabre tinged with humor. And the Edward Gorey House offers a curious, fascinating glimpse into his wide-angled psyche and enduring creative legacy.
Upon his death in 2000, some of Gorey’s ashes were placed on a small, flowered float off Sandy Neck Beach in Barnstable. Somehow, this seemed entirely appropriate for an artist who described himself as “sinister cozy.”
He literally went out with the tide.
Edward Gorey House
8 Strawberry Lane, Yarmouth Port
508-362-3909
April 4 – June 30
Th-Sat — 11 a.m. – 4 p.m.; Sun — 12 p.m. – 4 p.m.
July 3 – October 13
Wed-Sat — 11 a.m. – 4 p.m.; Sun — 12 p.m. – 4 p.m.
October 18 – December 29
Fri & Sat — 11 a.m. – 4 p.m.; Sun — 12 p.m. – 4 p.m.