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| Sign for the Edward Gorey House. Photo by Elizabeth Foxwell. |
I recently visited the Edward Gorey House in Yarmouth Port, MA, which was a fascinating place—full of collections compiled by the distinguished artist and author (winner of the Tony Award for set design and costume design for Dracula—the docent referred to the Gorey House as "the house that Dracula built"). His book collection included some 26,000 volumes and is now housed at San Diego State University (about 35 percent of it can be searched here).
Gorey (1925–2000) was a devoted mystery fan. A short browse through his library yields 41 works by Agatha Christie, 39 works by Wilkie Collins, 30 books by Guy Boothby, 24 books by Margaret Sutton [Rachel Beebe], 16 Nancy Drew books, 16 novels by Phoebe Atwood Taylor, 11 works by Jane Langton, 8 books by Patricia Wentworth, 7 books by Catherine Aird, and 6 books by Ross Macdonald [Kenneth Millar].
Some sample titles:
- Catherine Aird [Kinn Hamilton McIntosh], The Religious Body (1980 ed.); Henrietta Who? (1981 ed.); The Stately Home Murder (1980 ed.)
- Grant Allen, Miss Cayley's Adventures (1899)
- Agatha Christie, Death in the Air (1935); Miss Marple: The Complete Short Stories (1985); Mort Sur Nil [Death on the Nile] (1948; note that Gorey earned a degree in French literature from Harvard); Murder in Three Acts (1934)
- Wilkie Collins, Armadale (1866); No Name (1978 ed.); The Dead Secret (1979 ed.)
- J.S. Fletcher, The Markenmore Mystery (1923); Ravensdene Court (1922)
- Michael Gilbert, The Black Seraphim (1985); End-Game (1983)
- Patrick Hamilton, Hangover Square (1941); Mr. Stimpson and Mr. Gorse (1953)
- Jane Langton, Divine Inspiration (1994 ed.); Emily Dickinson Is Dead (1985); Murder at the Gardner (1989)
- Ross Macdonald, The Doomsters (1958); The Blue Hammer (1976)
- A.E.W. Mason, They Wouldn't Be Chessmen (1985 ed.)
- Ed McBain [Evan Hunter], Lightning (1985)
- Phoebe Atwood Taylor, The Cape Cod Mystery (1965 ed., 1988 ed.); The Criminal C.O.D. (1972 ed.); Death Lights a Candle (1989 ed.), Diplomatic Corpse (1986 ed.); The Left Leg (1988 ed.)
- Patricia Wentworth, Grey Mask (1952 ed.); Poison in the Pen (1980 ed.); She Came Back (1981 ed.)
Edward Gorey in his kitchen, Aug 1999.
Wikimedia Commons,
Photographer: Christopher Seufert
