The Longevious Centennial

We're celebrating the 100th birthday of Edward St. John Gorey (1925-2000) today.

What Influenced Edward Gorey

The Gothic Dispatch (Feb. 19) ran through a list of some of Edward Gorey's influences:

Edward Gorey’s “Great Simple Theory About Art”

Emily Temple discussed this week (Feb. 19) at Literary Hub those trying to "figure out" what makes some people - like Edward Gorey - tick. 

Ghastly and Great: Edward Gorey at 100

David Templeton, the Community and Arts and Entertainment Editor of the Petaluma Argus-Courier (California) shared some thoughts about Edward Gorey earlier this month (Feb. 10):

10 Outrageous Acts Committed by Renaissance Popes

John Bellairs’s long-time friend from college, Alfred Myers, shared with us once how he and John were both “attracted to the rogues, eccentrics, and general foul balls of the papacy than the much more numerous austere, competent and virtuous examples.” Bellairs wrote a few fictional hagiographical studies of popes belonging to the former categories in Saint Fidgeta and Other Parodies (1966) (title character pictured).

The Library of Congress Celebrates Edward Gorey

First, some souring news --

It seems that the campaign for a 2025 Gorey postage stamp, to be issued on Feb. 22, the centennial of his birth, was unsuccessful. ... In 1979, Gorey purchased an 18th-century sea captain’s home, now the Edward Gorey House...when the museum opens for the season on April 10, its namesake’s 100th birthday will have passed. Likewise, it appears that a documentary by Christopher Seufert, who interviewed and filmed the author in the last five years of his life — Gorey died of a heart attack at age 75 on April 15, 2000 — won’t be finished in time.

However --

Ironton Celebrates a Century of Edward Gorey

Some recent comments (Jan. 15, 2025) about noted author and illustrator Edward Gorey from the Ironton (Ohio) Tribune:

Happy "Figure in the Shadows" Day

Actually, it's Groundhog Day here in the United States. February 2 is the only day of the year when "figure in the shadows" refers to a rodent named Phil. According to folklore, if it is cloudy when a groundhog emerges from its burrow on this day, then spring will come early; if it is sunny, the groundhog will supposedly see its shadow and retreat back into its burrow, and the winter weather will persist for six more weeks. I wonder if there were groundhogs on the Weatherend estate.