(For those who wish to share the gloom there’s a 10-copy assortment with The Curious Sofa. D is for Desmond thrown out of a sleigh…” The rhyming couplets of this grim abecedarian are familiar, of course, to devotees of macabre humor, but the darkly crosshatched drawings are (as Poe put it) “the soul of the plot.” Several years went by during which The Gashlycrumb Tinies: Or, After the Outing was not available in a small hardcover edition like this one, which is the true format for Edward Gorey’s specialty, the adult picture book. I give you, ‘The Gashleycrumb Tinies’, by Edward Gorey… enjoy!Īnd lastly, I leave you with this wonderful little video that someone made, animating this time-treasured book.A new, small-format edition of one of Edward Gorey’s “dark masterpieces of surreal morality” ( Vanity Fair): a witty, disquieting journey through the alphabet.

We leave ours on the coffee table for when the neighbor’s kids come to visit. They are extremely affordable, and it is a wonderful conversation starter. But if you like what you see, I highly encourage you to purchase your own copy here. I am going to attach scans of the book below, simply because I think it’s worth sharing in it’s entirety. It’s small size, which in it’s current iteration is just 5 inches tall, adds to the charm of this twisted little alphabet book. The Gashlycrumb Tinies is a rhyming alphabet unlike. Originally published as part of the three volume set entitled ‘The Vinegar Works: Three Volumes of Moral Instruction’, ‘The Gashleycrumb Tinies’ is a precious little gem, both in it’s execution and it’s stature. The cult book by Edward Gore, the genius who inspired Tim Burton, Neil Gaiman and Guillermo Del Toro. Originally published in 1963, it’s quite possible this amazing book has slipped passed your radar all this time. It was this book that first introduced me to his work, and still to date, is my favorite of his. As I was reading the article I thought back to the first time someone introduced me to Edward Gorey’s work, and it occurred to me that many readers may not be familiar with this illustration icon, partly due to his age. Aptly named, Gorey’s work tends toward the macabre, and few books are as perfect an example of his sensibilities as ‘The Gashlycrumb Tinies”. The New Yorker recently did a write up on Artist and Author, Edward Gorey.

The gashlycrumb tinies alphabet