Teaching Literacy Through the Arts Book

Note: A longer and revised version of this book was published in 2011, eleven years after this slimmer version was published through Alex's current publishing home, Fantagraphics.

A delightful freeform eulogy for Edward Gorey, the (sometimes) reclusive and eccentric creator of deceptively simple gothic picturebooks. Instead of approaching a biography in any conventional manner, Theroux tackles the enigmatic nature of his subject by relaying a constant stream of personal anecdotes and asides collected from over twenty-five years of friendship with the big-bearded man. Yes, there are some standard facts sprinkled throughout, such as the whens and wheres of Gorey ("Ted" to his closest friends) birth and death, but most of the book slinkies about Gorey's heady mixture of highbrow and lowbrow interests, such as his favorite actors (he loved John Wayne but hated Al Pacino), what books he adored (couldn't stand Henry James but had read and loved every goddamn word plopped on a page by Trollope and Christie), what kind of clothes he favored, how he binged on bad daytime television, his love for kitties (a staple for all mentally unbalanced authors), his obsession with true crime yarns and grade-Z slasher flicks, his opinions of people's facial hair, and many other et ceteras. By no means an authoritative chronological point-by-point breakdown of every fart Gorey blessed the world with, this book is more of a personal remembrance of all the things Theroux admired in his friend Gorey and, of course, is written in the master's usual spellbinding gallop of words across the page. The Strange Case of Edward Gorey is an inviting and friendly introduction to Gorey's work and, more importantly, it is a touching tribute to the passing of a friend. We should all be so lucky to have such a good friend.