Born To Be Posthumous: The Eccentric Life And Mysterious Genius Of Edward Gorey

"The late Edward Gorey was many things – an artist, a writer, a set designer, an illustrator. Also: reclusive, idiosyncratic, macabre, surreal and profoundly queer. He became a beloved fixture of American literary life, but “beloved” is not the same thing as “appreciated.” That’s why Mark Dery’s deep, clear-eyed biography of Gorey is so welcome. He pulls at the disparate threads running through Gorey’s art – influences from fusty Edwardian novelists to lusty pre-Stonewall counterculture – and unearths the artist’s gay identity, though any fan of Gorey’s work will tell you that that particular act of excavation amounts to brushing off a light layer of topsoil."