Born in Chicago, Gorey came from a colourful family; his parents, Helen Dunham Garvey and Edward Lee Gorey, divorced in 1936 when he was 11, then remarried in 1952 when he was 27. One of his step-mothers was Corinna Mura, a cabaret singer who had a brief role in the classic film Casablanca. His father was briefly a journalist. Gorey's maternal great-grandmother, Helen St. John Garvey, was a popular 19th century greeting card writer/artist, from whom he claimed to have inherited his talents. He attended a variety of local grade schools and then the Francis W. Parker School. He spent 1944–1946 in the Army at Dugway Proving Ground in Utah, and then attended Harvard University from 1946 to 1950, where he studied French and roomed with future poet Frank O'Hara. Although he would frequently state that his formal art training was "negligible", Gorey studied art for one semester at The School of The Art Institute of Chicago in 1943, eventually becoming a professional illustrator. From 1953 to 1960, he lived in New York City and worked for the Art Department of Doubleday Anchor, illustrating book covers and in some cases adding illustrations to the text. He has illustrated works as diverse as Dracula by Bram Stoker, The War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells, and Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats by T. S. Eliot. In later years he illustrated many children's books by John Bellairs, as well as books in several series begun by Bellairs and continued by other authors after his death.
Series
Books
The Nursery Frieze
1964
The Object-Lesson
1958
Bienvenidos al Sabbath
Antología de relatos de satanismo y brujería
2017
Edward Gorey Coloring Book
2017
The Gilded Bat
1966
Three Classic Children's Stories
Little Red Riding Hood, Jack the Giant-Killer, and Rumpelstiltskin
2010
The Pious Infant
1966
The Water Flowers
1982
The Gashlycrumb Tinies
1963
Gorey's Worlds
2018
Amphigorey
1972
Ascending Peculiarity
Edward Gorey on Edward Gorey
2001
Fletcher and Zenobia
1967
The Shrinking of Treehorn
1971
The Bug Book
1959
The Eclectic Abecedarium
1985
The Awdrey-Gore Legacy
1972
The Beastly Baby
1995
Amphigorey Again
2006
Edward Gorey
His Book Cover Art and Design
2015
The Tunnel Calamity
1984
Hloupý žert a jiné příběhy
2015
The Recently Deflowered Girl
The Right Thing To Say On Every Dubious Occasion
1965
The Raging Tide
Or, the Black Doll's Imbroglio
1987
The Blue Aspic
1968
Saint Melissa the Mottled
2012
Edward Gorey's Dracula
A Toy Theatre
1979
Dancing Cats and Neglected Murderesses
1980
Amphigorey Also
1983
The Insect God
1963
A Halloween Treat & Edward Gorey’s Ghosts
2012
The Willowdale Handcar
1962
The Epiplectic Bicycle
1969
The West Wing
1963
The Glorious Nosebleed
1974
The Listing Attic
1954
Octárna a jiné příběhy
2010
Figbash Acrobate
1994
Sopping Thursday
1971
The Broken Spoke
1976
The Headless Bust
A Melancholy Meditation on the False Millennium
1999
The Helpless Doorknob
A Shuffled Storybook
1989
Fletcher And Zenobia Save The Circus
1971
The Secrets
Volume One: The Other Statue
1968
The Fatal Lozenge
1960
The Unstrung Harp
1953
The Unknown Vegetable
1995
The Utter Zoo Alphabet
1967
The Disrespectful Summons
1971
Edward Gorey
The Angel, The Automobilist, and Eighteen Others
2020
The Lost Lions
1973
The Remembered Visit
1965
The Deranged Cousins, or, Whatever
1971
L'Heure Bleue
2001
The loathsome couple
1999
Edward Gorey, une anthologie
2019
The Black Doll
2009
The Hapless Child
1961
Amphigorey Too
1975
The Fantod Pack
1969
The Haunted Tea-Cosy
A Dispirited and Distasteful Diversion for Christmas
1997
Sinking Spell
1965
The Wuggly Ump
1963
The Osbick Bird
2012
The Evil Garden
1997
The Iron Tonic
Or, A Winter Afternoon in Lonely Valley
1969
The Doubtful Guest
1957
