• Edward Gorey’s Illustrated Covers for Literary Classics

    Spooky Treatments of Kafka, Dickens, Conrad, and More

    Between 1953 and 1960, before he was a household name as the master of the cutely macabre, Edward Gorey worked as a book designer and illustrator for Doubleday Anchor. During his tenure, he designed some fifty book covers (and in some cases, drew inside illustrations) for their new paperback series, which was aimed at “serious” readers and students. (He also illustrated and designed for lots of other writers’ books outside of the Doubleday gig, of course, in addition to writing and illustrating over a hundred of his own.) As collector Lance Casebeer wrote, “there is a haunting thematic consistency about the Gorey-drawn covers.

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    Nearly always there is an implied relationship between a “character of innocence”, often depicted as being apart from a group and a “man in black” character. Occasionally this dark embodiment is represented as a mansion (The Wanderer) or sinister statue (The Secret Agent). The best of these covers demonstrate the same whimsical morbidity found in Gorey’s narrative works delineated in his meticulous crosshatch style reminiscent of Nineteenth Century book illustration. They are true pendants to the larger body of his work.

    Below, some of Gorey’s best book covers for literary classics—other than his own, of course.

    Edward Gorey's first cover for Doubleday Anchor: André Gide’s Lafcadio’s Adventures, 1953 Edward Gorey’s first cover for Doubleday Anchor: André Gide’s Lafcadio’s Adventures, 1953 Cover and illustrations by Edward Gorey, Doubleday, 1953 Cover by Edward Gorey, Doubleday Anchor, 1953 tristan iseult gorey Cover by Edward Gorey, Doubleday Anchor, 1953 loving edward gorey Cover by Edward Gorey, Doubleday Anchor, 1953 Edward Gorey conrad Cover by Edward Gorey, Doubleday Anchor, 1953 Edward Gorey lucky jim Edward Gorey, Doubleday Hardcover edition, 1953 edward gorey tom jones Cover by Edward Gorey, Modern Library, date unknown Edward Gorey what maisie knew Cover by Edward Gorey, Doubleday Anchor, 1954 Edward Gorey kafka amerika Cover by Edward Gorey, Doubleday Anchor, 1955 Edward Gorey, colette Cover by Edward Gorey, Doubleday Anchor, 1955 edgar allan poe edward gorey Cover by Edward Gorey, Dolphin Books, date unknown Edward Gorey melville Cover by Edward Gorey, Doubleday Anchor, 1957 proust Edward Gorey Cover by Edward Gorey, Doubleday Anchor, 1957 Cover by Edward Gorey, 1957 Conrad Cover by Edward Gorey, Doubleday Anchor, 1957 conrad gorey Cover by Edward Gorey, Doubleday Anchor, 1957 gogol gorey Cover by Edward Gorey, Doubleday Anchor, 1957 edward gorey pushkin Cover by Edward Gorey, Vintage Russian Library, 1957 lermontov edward gorey Cover by Edward Gorey, Doubleday Anchor, 1958 WB Yeats Gorey Cover by Edward Gorey, Doubleday Anchor, 1958 edward gorey awkward age Cover by Edward Gorey, Doubleday Anchor, 1958 edward gorey the ambassadors Cover by Edward Gorey, Doubleday Anchor, 1958 edward gorey rilke Cover by Edward Gorey, Capricorn, 1958 chekhov gorey Cover by Edward Gorey, 1959 gorey masters Cover by Edward Gorey, Doubleday Anchor, 1959 edward gorey john barth Edward Gorey, Doubleday Hardcover edition, 1960 Edward Gorey kierkegaard Cover by Edward Gorey, Doubleday Anchor, 1960 Edward Gorey’s Looking Glass Library Hardcover edition, 1960 Chernyshevsky gorey Cover by Edward Gorey, Vintage, 1961 Edward Gorey barthelme Cover by Edward Gorey, Doubleday Anchor, 1964 edward gorey hubbard Cover by Edward Gorey, London House & Maxwell, 1964 Edward Gorey chaucer Cover by Edward Gorey, Vintage, 1966 edward gorey freaky friday Cover by Edward Gorey, Harper & Row, 1972 Illustrated by Edward Gorey, 1973 edward gorey practical cats Cover by Edward Gorey, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1982 edward gorey the woman in white Cover by Edward Gorey, Signet Classics, 1984

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    Emily Temple
    Emily Temple
    Emily Temple is the managing editor at Lit Hub. Her first novel, The Lightness, was published by William Morrow/HarperCollins in June 2020. You can buy it here.
    https://www.emilytemple.net/





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