The Strange Case of Edward Gorey is the most authentic portrait yet of this truly enigmatic American artist and writer of macabre, ghoulish illustrated books. It is a respectful and insightful consideration not only of the intriguing pen-and-ink drawings but of the inventive, opinionated and eccentric person himself. A balletomane, cat-lover, unbelievably wide reader, collector of many and surprising objects, and mad filmgoer, Gorey had many selves. In this in-depth study of the man he had come to know over thirty years, Alexander Theroux, the novelist who has a literary genius all his own, examines every facet of this mysterious artist who left New York City to live year-round on Cape Cod for the last third of his life where for years, along with producing book after book, he found time to write and direct numerous evening-length entertainments, often featuring his own papier-mâché puppets in an ensemble known as La Theatricule Stoique.

No ordinary account could ever do justice to such an anomalous character, but Theroux with his depth of understanding, keen eye, literary gifts, and astonishing intelligence, never flinches and this loving but analytical account in its sympathy and range of one of America’s most complicated artists is unsparingly brilliant.

“Just read a few weeks ago your book on Gorey and enjoyed it very much.” – Cormac McCarthy, April, 2010

Praise for the first edition:

“An addictively readable book, stuffed with scandalous morsels of gossip, piquant table talk (Gorey and Theroux were friends), the author’s staircase wit, and his sharply perceptive insights into the mind and art of the incalculable, eccentric Gorey. A poisoned bon-bon of a book. To be read aloud to a friend, in bed, with a glass of absinthe on the night table.” — Mark Dery

“The Strange Case of Edward Gorey revels in Gorey’s intelligence, wit, and marvelous eccentricities.” — Alex Beam, The Boston Globe

“This is a loving memoir of a singular artist, written by a best friend, one of the most talented novelists in America.” — The Gay & Lesbian Review