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Born to Be Posthumous

The Eccentric Life and Mysterious Genius of Edward Gorey

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Born to Be Posthumous

Written by: Mark Dery
Narrated by: Adam Sims
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About this listen

The definitive biography of Edward Gorey, the eccentric master of macabre nonsense.

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 more than 20,000 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 more than 100 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.

©2018 Mark Dery (P)2018 Hachette Audio
Art & Literature Arts & Entertainment Funny Witty
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This book is a must for all Edward Gorey fans. I didn't know the man, and from what this book tells us, very few got close enough to understand some of him. An enigma in a racoon coat, Gorey's complexities assured him arms distance from discovery. The tale of his emergence into the writing world, and the subsequent art world, was well written and very informative. Although the author believes he understood Ted's proclivities, nothing is assured, and the speculation continues. A jolly good read.

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