Learn about former Wilmette resident Edward Gorey, an American author, illustrator, playwright, and set and costume designer.
Critics never quite knew what to make of Edward Gorey (1925-2000), author, artist—and, from 1934-’37, a resident of Wilmette, where his eighth-grade classmate was Charlton Heston.
Gorey’s darkly droll tales of murder, mayhem, and discreet depravity, illustrated with densely crosshatched pen-and-ink drawings that evoke Victorian engravings and Surrealist collages, have influenced Tim Burton, Lemony Snicket, Neil Gaiman, and Guillermo Del Toro, among others. Crossing camp-macabre wit with unsettling subject matter, Gorey’s little books are arsenic-laced bonbons: The Loathsome Couple was inspired by the true-crime exploits of a pair of child-killers; The Gashlycrumb Tinies is an ABC book that reels off the deaths of 26 little dears in rhyming couplets.
In this illustrated lecture, Mark Dery, author of Born to Be Posthumous: The Eccentric Life and Mysterious Genius of Edward Gorey reveals the surprisingly serious themes woven through Gorey’s gothic nonsense: death, sexuality, the human condition, the meaning (or meaninglessness?) of life. As well, he explores the obscure influences—and Freudian shadows—haunting Gorey’s whimsically sinister body of work.
From the south: Go north on Green Bay Road. Turn left on Wilmette Ave. Turn right on Park Ave. Library is located on the corner of Wilmette Ave. and Park Ave. Parking lot is on the north side of the building.
From the north: Go south on Green Bay Road. Turn right on Wilmette Ave. Turn right on Park Ave. Library is located on the corner of Wilmette Ave. and Park Ave. Parking lot is on the north side of the building.
From I-94 (Edens Expressway):from the South - exit at Lake Ave. East. Go east on Lake Ave. a little over 2 miles. Turn right on Park Ave. • from the North - exit at Rt. 41/Skokie Blvd. Turn left (east) on Lake Ave. Go east on Lake Ave. a little over 2 miles. Turn right on Park Ave.
Mass transit options include CTA, Metra, and Pace.
