Edward Gorey exhibition, Boston Athenaeum.

Cover of Amphigorey
Again (2007)

Lucky Bostonians get to see the new exhibition at the Boston Athenaeum "Elegant Enigmas: The Art of Edward Gorey." It runs until June 4. (Hat tip to PhiloBiblos)

Freddy the Pig brings pork at auction.

At the Dec 8 Bloomsbury auction, a 26-volume set of Walter R. Brooks's Freddy the Pig series went for $2000. A separate set of pulp novels, however, failed to sell.

Another auction on Dec 9 featured various Edward Gorey-related items.

Some of the Strand's rare mystery offerings.

Some of the Strand Bookstore's rare mystery-related offerings:

• Edward Gorey, 1st ed., Beastly Baby (1962): $750.

• Mickey Spillane, 1st ed., I, the Jury (1947):  $650.

• Rex Stout, limited ed., Corsage: A Bouquet of Rex Stout and Nero Wolfe (1977, includes article "Why Nero Wolfe Likes Orchids" by "Archie Goodwin" and last interview with Stout): $350.

• Black Mask "forgotten man" Raoul Whitfield, 1st ed., Silver Wings (1930):  $1100.

Gorey book reissued.

Today New York Review of Books Classics reissues Three Ladies by the Sea, a collaboration between Edward Gorey and Rhoda Levine that has been out of print since the 1970s. As Goreyana notes, the book is dedicated to Emma Watson (daughter of Julie Andrews) and composer Sandy Wilson (best known for The Boy Friend). NYRB Classics offers a preview of Gorey's drawings for the book here.

Happy birthday, Edward Gorey;
Edna St. Vincent Millay.

Noted artist with a bent for the macabre Edward Gorey was born today in Chicago in 1925. In addition to books such as The Wuggly Ump (1963), he produced the opening titles for the PBS Mystery! series and the stage design for the Broadway production of Dracula starring Frank Langella.

Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Edna St. Vincent Millay was born today in Maine in 1892. As I noted in my spring 2003 Mystery Scene article "'Me and Eddie Poe,'" Millay dabbled in mystery, producing a handful of stories that included "The Murder in the Fishing Cat," which was published in the May 1950 EQMM and a few anthologies.