Celebrating Edward Gorey’s Legacy: A Summer Cocktail to Remember

The Edward Gorey Charitable Trust is grateful to everyone who joined us at the July 31st Summer Cocktail Party Fundraiser at The Strand’s Rare Book Room and everyone who bid – in-person or online – at our silent auction. A great high point of the event was the featured talk of writer, playwright, and theater director Carol Verburg, a long-time friend and collaborator of Edward Gorey’s in his 1990s Cape Cod “entertainments.” Her book on Gorey’s life behind the stage, The Theatrical Adventures of Edward Gorey, is being released next month (pre-orders can be made at the websites of The Strand and Chronicle Books).  Accompanying Carol’s appearance was an exhibition of original art, puppets, and printed ephemera relating to Gorey’s stage work.

Also on display were the lots featured in this year’s silent auction, including a drawing pen of Edward Gorey’s and other personal effects and various pieces of art and ephemera. The original pen and watercolor art for the book cover of THINGS : Stories of Terror and Shock by Six Science-Fiction Greats (Belmont, 1964) achieved the highest bid of the evening, at $6,250. A crowd favorite, won for $800, was a small rabbit Gorey designed, stuffed, and stitched and thirty years ago gave to Carol Verburg as a gift, who, in turn offered it to the Trust this year to support its mission.

The generosity of those who participated helped us exceed our goal of $45,000 with a total of $63,335 raised. These funds will help dogs and cats at rescue shelters in Massachusetts elephants at a wildlife sanctuary in Tennessee and bats insects and other essential but often overlooked members of our delicate ecosystem worldwide. And, they will help our organization maintain the original art manuscripts and papers of Edward Gorey’s in our care benefit future scholars artists and others drawing inspiration from his life and work.