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Edward Gorey House: Watch Your Step

By Will Willingham 5 Comments

A rainy day on Cape Cod is a perfect day to skip the beach and visit the Edward Gorey House in Yarmouth, Massachusetts

Packed full of life-sized cutouts of the beloved artist and author’s quirky pen-and-ink illustrations and memorabilia, the house-turned-museum is a delightful trip into the mind and vision of Edward Gorey. The illustrator (who was also a playwright and costume designer) purchased the 200-year-old sea captain’s house in 1979. I should note it was the house that was 200 years old, not the sea captain. At least not a living sea captain. Though with this house it could be hard to tell.

Edward Gorey, who died in 2000, is known for over 100 works including The Gashlycrumb Tinies,  a series of alphabetical rhyming couplets chronicling the demise of 16 children. He also had illustrations in The New Yorker and New York Times, designed the sets of Bram Stoker’s Dracula on Broadway, and created illustrations for books by authors from Charles Dickens to Edward Lear to Virginia Woolf.

Can’t make it to Cape Cod yet this summer? Enjoy our photo tour of the Edward Gorey House. We do recommend you avoid the back stairs and stay clear of the windows. Just in case.

edward gorey house

Edward Gorey Door

Edward Gorey House Fireplace

Edward Gorey Cat Couch

edward gorey doll in window

edward gorey doll on stairs

 

edward gorey doorknob

edward gorey license plate

Gorey’s V.W. Rabbit had personalized plates bearing one of his pseudonyms, Ogdred Weary, the pen name under which he wrote The Curious Sofa, a book some might find to be mildly naughty.

Edward Gorey Boa

edward gorey skeleton

edward gorey puppets

 

edward gorey with puppets

Edward Gorey Cards

Edward Gorey Cat Bookmarks

Edward Gorey Dracula

Edward Gorey portrait with Cats

edward gorey fur coat

Well known for his passion for animals and animal welfare, Edward Gorey was also known to wear this full-length fur coat until around the mid-1980s when, according to the museum literature, he faced a “moment of truth” that wearing them “was no longer in keeping with his philosophy of supporting animal welfare.” He put all of his coats in storage at that time, but the the image lives on in many of his drawings.

Edward Gorey with Raven Illustration

Browse more Cape Cod Literary

Browse more Edward Gorey

Photos by L.L. Barkat, author of The Novelist: A Novella. Additional photos and post by LW Lindquist.

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Will Willingham
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Will Willingham
Director of Many Things; Senior Editor, Designer and Illustrator at Tweetspeak Poetry
I used to be a claims adjuster, helping people and insurance companies make sense of loss. Now, I train other folks with ladders and tape measures to go and do likewise. Sometimes, when I’m not scaling small buildings or crunching numbers with my bare hands, I read Keats upside down. My first novel, Adjustments, is available now.
Will Willingham
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Latest posts by Will Willingham (see all)
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Filed Under: Blog, Cape Cod Literary, Literary Tour, Massachusetts Literary

About Will Willingham

I used to be a claims adjuster, helping people and insurance companies make sense of loss. Now, I train other folks with ladders and tape measures to go and do likewise. Sometimes, when I’m not scaling small buildings or crunching numbers with my bare hands, I read Keats upside down. My first novel, Adjustments, is available now.

Comments

  1. Maureen Doallas says

    August 21, 2013 at 9:55 am

    What a fun visit this must be!

    Reply

Trackbacks

  1. The Horribly Tragic Deaths of Many of My Favourite Characters—Poem 1, Holmes and Watson | says:
    October 2, 2013 at 10:08 am

    […] the spirit of Edward Gorey, this is a series of illustrations and poems that chronicles the concocted demise of Sara […]

    Reply
  2. Horribly Tragic Deaths Poems: Merlin and Arthur says:
    July 24, 2014 at 7:51 am

    […] the spirit of Edward Gorey, this is a series of illustrations and poems that chronicles the concocted demise of Sara […]

    Reply
  3. The Best in Poetry: This Month's Top 10 Poetic Picks - says:
    November 5, 2015 at 8:01 am

    […] (And if you really think you are from an Edward Gorey book, then be sure to check our tour of the Edward Gorey House and see what happened when the Edward Gorey cats took on the Cape Cod […]

    Reply
  4. The Horribly Tragic Deaths of Many of My Favourite Characters—Poem 2, Kirk, Spock & Doc - says:
    March 13, 2017 at 11:15 pm

    […] the spirit of Edward Gorey, this is a series of illustrations and poems that chronicles the concocted demise of Sara […]

    Reply

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