About This Exhibit
The purpose of this exhibit is to share ephemera found in the personal library books collected by Edward St. John Gorey (1925-2000) in celebration of the centenary of Gorey’s birth. The exhibit title comes from Gorey’s childhood version of Now We Are Six, in which Gorey copies out the verse “Let Every Day Produce Some Curious Lines That May Commend Thy Genius & Thy Pen.” This verse appears on a Georgian arithmetic book held at the Royal Albert Memorial Museum & Art Gallery.1 According to the Museum, Georgian arithmetic books included “ornate illustrations which show the student’s artistic skill and penmanship.” As you will see, Gorey used his copy of Now We Are Six and his other Milne titles in a similar way, to practice his artistic skill and penmanship. In the spirit of artists who copy out the work of those they admire as a form of drawing study, Gorey copies E.H. Shepard’s drawings into his Milne books. The meaning of the quote itself “Let every day produce some curious lines” seems to be something Edward Gorey lived. Echoing his process, these exhibit images offer evidence of Gorey’s never-ending brainstorming. His ephemeral notations reveal his love of humor, writing, creating art, authors, reading, and learning. His scribblings read at times like a running narrative to his personal library collection. They reveal him, always thinking, jotting notes, composing, or drawing images.
Anyone examining this exhibit should rightly raise questions about evidence, especially related to the amendments made to the A.A. Milne books. Indeed the descriptions offered for each exhibit image are my own. The bookplates in the Milne books document Gorey’s ownership of these books in 1928, 1929, and 1930 when he would have been three, four and five years of age. The signatures throughout are strong evidence that they are in Gorey’s hand as a young person. The variance in sophistication in images copied in them suggest he may have come back to these books when older and continued using them as sketch book primers. For example, the fancy woman’s head resembles drawings Gorey did in his teen years. How can we know that some other child didn’t annotate these books? We cannot know for sure. We can each of us only observe, surmise and imagine based on our knowledge, and we can ask Gorey experts what they think and why. When I observe how Gorey colors little Mary Jane’s dress in red, I immediately think of the red cape in Gorey’s Red Riding Hood. Others may think of something else.
And so there is an evidentiary caveat when using any personal library collection of an artist or author to arrive at research insights. Researchers are fortunate that many of Gorey’s library books are notated with his reading dates. Researchers can compare this evidence of when he read particular books to when he created/published certain of his own works. This date comparison method can be used to support or refute a supposed influence.
I hope you enjoy exploring the exhibit and I hope you let me know of any insights, corrections, or ideas you may have about its contents. I thank William Baker for help in identifying Gorey’s handwriting when I was uncertain. Thanks to Raquel Serebrenik for her encouragement.
Linda Salem, Librarian, Edward Gorey Personal Library, San Diego State University Library
San Diego State University Library1 ”Georgian arithmetic books were more than a record of work. Among the pages of calculations are ornate illustrations which show the student’s artistic skill and penmanship. This book is the work of a pupil called William Ellis.”(https://rammcollections.org.uk/collections/37ffc39d-d8a0-3ccc-b075-3cb815117cf3/).