Edward Gorey's Illustrated Covers for Literary Classics

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.

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

Cover and illustrations by Edward Gorey, Doubleday, 1953

Cover by Edward Gorey, Doubleday Anchor, 1953

Cover by Edward Gorey, Doubleday Anchor, 1953

Cover by Edward Gorey, Doubleday Anchor, 1953

Cover by Edward Gorey, Doubleday Anchor, 1953

Edward Gorey, Doubleday Hardcover edition, 1953

Cover by Edward Gorey, Modern Library, date unknown

Cover by Edward Gorey, Doubleday Anchor, 1954

Cover by Edward Gorey, Doubleday Anchor, 1955

Cover by Edward Gorey, Doubleday Anchor, 1955

Cover by Edward Gorey, Dolphin Books, date unknown

Cover by Edward Gorey, Doubleday Anchor, 1957

Cover by Edward Gorey, Doubleday Anchor, 1957

Cover by Edward Gorey, Doubleday Anchor, 1957

Cover by Edward Gorey, Doubleday Anchor, 1957

Cover by Edward Gorey, Doubleday Anchor, 1957

Cover by Edward Gorey, Vintage Russian Library, 1957

Cover by Edward Gorey, Doubleday Anchor, 1958

Cover by Edward Gorey, Doubleday Anchor, 1958

Cover by Edward Gorey, Doubleday Anchor, 1958

Cover by Edward Gorey, Doubleday Anchor, 1958

Cover by Edward Gorey, Capricorn, 1958

Cover by Edward Gorey, 1959

Cover by Edward Gorey, Doubleday Anchor, 1959

Edward Gorey, Doubleday Hardcover edition, 1960

Cover by Edward Gorey, Doubleday Anchor, 1960

Edward Gorey’s Looking Glass Library Hardcover edition, 1960

Cover by Edward Gorey, Vintage, 1961

Cover by Edward Gorey, Doubleday Anchor, 1964

Cover by Edward Gorey, London House & Maxwell, 1964

Cover by Edward Gorey, Vintage, 1966

Cover by Edward Gorey, Harper & Row, 1972

Illustrated by Edward Gorey, 1973

Cover by Edward Gorey, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1982

Cover by Edward Gorey, Signet Classics, 1984