It had been too long since my previous cartoonist pilgrimage, to the Billie Ireland Cartoonist Museum in 2016, one of the first posts on this blog.
Edward Gorey was a pen and ink illustrator who wrote and illustrated more than 100 small books. He may be best known for the opening credits of Mystery on PBS.
He lived in Cape Cod from 1986 until his death in 2000. Before he bought the house, he'd been living in New York and traveling to Cape Cod every summer to see his cousins.
On Tuesday, I went to Martha's Vineyard and on Wednesday, drove to the museum. The museum's tour guide was kind enough to show me around the house even though I'd arrived between groups of people, the only guest at the time.
She answered all my questions and shared a lot of great stories. Among the many artifacts on display are samples of Gorey's cover illustrations, his art supplies, sketchbooks, and the Tony he won for best costume design for his work on the Broadway run of Dracula in the late 70's. I got a particular kick out of his final illustration, The Last Waffle of the Millennium.
Gorey was a collector of trinkets and they're all still in the house, arranged as they were at the time of his death. He liked frogs and lizards, and there are shelves of them.
References to his most popular book, The Gashlycrumb Tinies are set up throughout the house. That's "U is for Una who slipped down a drain" in the sink. Guests are invited to try to find all twenty-six of the doomed youths.
The Edward Gorey House is a lot of fun and everything in it is in the spirit of his work. For fans, it's well worth the trek to see it.
