The Edward Gorey House Museum in Yarmouth Port, MA is honored this milestone with its 2013 annual exhibit devoted to The Vinegar Works and a focus on the Tinies alphabet treasured by Gorey readers the world over. The Gashlycrumb Tinies was included with two companion volumes – The Insect God and The West Wing – billed by Gorey as "Three Volumes of Moral Instruction." The doleful moppets made their initial appearance within Simon and Schuster's 1963 slip-cased publication of The Vinegar Works. Indeed, The Gashlycrumb Tinies, over its fifty-year history, has never, ever, been out of print. Its images have graced postcards and posters, magnets and mugs: for Gorey lovers and for novices, affection for the Tinies endures. In 2013 we celebrated the golden anniversary of the publication of The Gashlycrumb Tinies, Edward Gorey’s most iconic alphabet book and likely his best known work. His work, which spans over six decades, is collected in four excellent volumes entitled Amphigorey - I, II, III, IV - a play on the word amphigory, meaning a nonsense verse or composition.“A is for Amy who fell down the stairs B is for Basil assaulted by bears…” That initial couplet, announcing the untimely demise of twenty-six very unfortunate children, has amused and horrified readers – often concurrently – for fifty years. The Gashlycrumb Tinies comes in a string of more than 40 gems Gorey published in his lifetime, including favorites like The Epiplectic Bicycle and The Doubtful Guest. Part Tim Burton long before there was Burton, part Edgar Allan Poe long after Poe, the book exudes Gorey’s signature adult picture book mastery, not merely adorned by the gorgeously dark crosshatched illustrations but narratively driven by them. D is for Desmond thrown out of a sleigh…” “A is for Amy who fell down the stairs,” The Gashlycrumb Tinies begins.
In 1963, prolific illustrator and author Edward Gorey (February 22, 1925–April 15, 2000) published an alphabet book so grimly antithetical to the very premise of the genre - making children feel comfortable and inspiring them to learn - that it took the macabre humor genre to a new level.
It’s no secret I have a massive soft spot for alphabet books.
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