Once asked what frightened him most, Edward St. John Gorey '50 replied, "Life. Everything about life."

Artist, writer and stage designer who gained infamy through crosshatched macabre-style artwork, Gorey died from a heart attack this April 15. He was 75.

Edward Gorey seemed to live in a world of his own. Not only because he was reclusive and remained a bachelor for life, but because he isolated himself from conventional art trends. His drawings were fanciful and ambiguous, and he refused to explain them. He shunned publicity and Hollywood fame. He expressed strong convictions and behaved in ways that did not necessarily jibe with conventional belief.

But a look at the artist's life and artwork may reveal a greater worldview than mere macabre. And Gorey's artwork is now the only true remaining source for the many questions Gorey left unanswered.

Alison Lurie '47, a close friend of Gorey's for many years, sums up in a memoriam published in the New York Review of Books, her tribute to Gorey's lifetime accomplishments: "Often, characters in Gorey's books who die or disappear leave only a void behind: empty cross-hatched streets and withered formal gardens and rooms with strange wallpaper. We are luckier."

The Gorey Files

Gorey wrote over 90 books and illustrated more than 60 others. His black-and-white illustrations, crosshatched and intricate, were beautifully precise and distinct.

His style soon became associated with the macabre themes of his drawings. He was asked to illustrate the opening credits of the PBS television series "Mystery" as well as many other book covers. Gorey also designed the set and costumes for the Broadway show Dracula, for which he received a Tony Award in 1978.

Gorey's literature was also a bit Surrealist. The text of his short books was often as ambiguous as his illustrations. The short verses often did not follow each other smoothly. But most characteristic of Gorey's literature was his unique ability to describe tragic events with bizarre humor.

Gorey liked to write about death and random disappearances and other ghastly happenings. He often made children the subject of these occurrences. He illustrated the English alphabet in several variations, depicting an unusual, grim or humorous way that children may die for each letter.

The Gashlycrumb Tinies, one of Gorey's most famous books, is one such illustrated alphabet. It begins: "A is for Amy who fell down the stairs, B is for Basil assaulted by bears."

Karen Wilkin, who co-authored the book The World of Edward Gorey with Clifford Ross, suggests Gorey's drawings were superficially grim, but their bizarre aspects added a humorous tone.

She recalls an Oscar Wilde witticism: "One must have a heart of stone to read the death of Little Nell without laughing."

Frankenstein in Chicago

Edward Gorey was born in Chicago in 1925, to a Roman Catholic newspaper report and Episcopalian mother. He began to read and draw at a very early age; he first picked up a pencil at only 18 months, drawing passing trains. But he told the Christian Science Monitor that he was not quite impressed by those drawings.

"I hasten to add they showed no talent whatsoever," he said. "They looked like irregular sausages."

He taught himself to read by age three, and by five he had read Shelley's Frankenstein. By eight he had read all of Victor Hugo's works.