Edward Gorey

Edward Gorey is an American author and illustrator, perhaps best known for the opening and closing sequences to PBS's Mystery!, or for his scores of short, illustrated books. His writing style is generally humorous, macabre, or both, and his drawing style is quite distinctive, making his scads of illustrations easy to identify.

Edward Gorey was born February 15 1925, died April 15 2000.

Yegads, I'd always assumed he was English. At least, his work had a certain Euro-ness to it.

In 1998, Edward Gorey told the Boston Globe: "I wanted to have my own bookstore until I worked in one. Then I thought I'd be a librarian until I met some crazy ones. I hoped to get into publishing, but at 28, my parents were still helping me out. Which wasn't good at all."

Gorey ended up publishing most of his own work at his own Fantod Press. "Fantod" is described by Merriam-Webster OnLine? Dictionary http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary as a state of

1 : irritability and tension : FIDGETS 2 : an emotional outburst : FIT

The online version of The Gashlycrumb Tinies illustrated alphabet book can be found at http://www.wishville.co.uk/gorey/f.htm