Edward Gorey Personal Library
About The Edward Gorey Personal Library
The Edward Gorey Personal Library is a special collection at San Diego State University library that comprises 26,000 books collected by Edward St. John Gorey (1924-2000). Over 9,000 catalogued volumes, or 35% of the collection are searchable. If you find a book you would like to examine from this collection, please contact Special Collections and University Archives at [email protected], or at 619-594-6791 or visit their service desk in Love Library 150. Books may only be viewed in the Special Collections area.
Edward Gorey
An American artist, Edward St. John Gorey's publications include over one hundred books. His most well-known works includeThe Gashlycrumb Tinies, The Doubtful Guest and The Wuggly Ump. Many of his illustrations appear in publications like The New Yorker and The New York Times. Gorey illustrations and book designs enhance editions of works by Charles Dickens, Edward Lear, Samuel Beckett, John Updike, Virginia Woolf, H.G. Wells, Florence Heide and Peter Neumeyer.
Gorey and the SDSU Library
The SDSU Library acquired the Edward Gorey Personal Library (EGPL) in 2009. Edward Gorey collaborated with Professor Emeritus Peter Neumeyer who founded the Children's Literature Program at San Diego State University. In the 1960s and 1970s Neumeyer co-authored books with Gorey, including Why We Have Day and Night (1970), Donald and the... (1969) and Donald Has a Difficulty (1970). In Neumeyer's groundbreaking 2011 book, Floating Worlds. The Letters of Edward Gorey & Peter F. Neumeyer, Neumeyer shares and annotates letters exchanged by the two men during the years they worked together, and his book includes never before published original envelope art by Gorey.
SDSU Notable Alumnus Andreas Brown envisioned that the SDSU Library's Edward Gorey Collection could be unique and distinctive collection on the West Coast. Once the owner of New York City's Gotham Book Mart, Brown was Gorey's friend in books To hear more about this connection to SDSU, listen to A talk given by Andreas Brown.
Inquiries and Donations
For inquiries about this collection, please contact L. Salem at [email protected].
More about the Collection
African art, art, art history, ballet, biography, British novels, children’s literature, detective fiction, fiction, general literature, games, garden, gothic literature, history, hymns, illustration, India Japan, mystery, poetry, France and culture, France and history, French literature and novels.
Jacob Abbott; J.R. Ackerly; Harold Acton; Louisa May Alcott; Hans Christian Andersen; Victor Appleton; Gillian Avery; Helen Bannerman; Djuna Barnes; Nina Bawden; Arnold Bennett; E.F. Benson; James Blish; Guy Boothby; Lucy M. Boston; Charlotte Bronte; Wilhelm Busch, Randalf Caldecott; Italo Calvino; Lewis Carroll; Willa Cather; Agatha Christie; Wilkie Collins; Maurice Stewart Collis; Water Crane; Franklin W. Dixon; Theodore Dreiser; Maria Edgeworth; Juliana Horatia Ewing; Eleanor Farjeon; J.S. Fletcher; Ronald Fraser; David Garnett; Stella Gibbons; Michael Francis Gilbert; George Gissing; Rumer Godden; Kenneth Grahame; Grahame Greene; Donald Hamilton; Patrick Hamilton; L.P. Hartley; Herge; Inez Haynes Irwin; Erich Kastner; Carolyn Keene; Andrew Lang; Edward Lear; William LeQueux; Gason LeRoux; E.V. Lucas; Walter de la Mare; Louis Marlow; Richard Marsh; William Mayne; Herman Melville (sets); Leonard Merrick; Mrs. Molesworth; M. Pardoe; Eden Phillpotts; Beatrix Potter Anthony Powell; John Rhodes; Edward and Vita Sackville-West; Walter Scott; Mary Sinclair; Robert Lewis Stevenson; Margaret Sutton; Sylvia Townsend Warner; Anthony Trollope; Henry Williamson; E. H. Young.
- The Edward Gorey House. Gorey kept much of his personal library here during his lifetime. Now Gorey House is a museum.
- Goreyography, a graphical galleria of gratuitous Gorey by Glen Emil.
- Goreyanna - A blog celebrating the works of Edward Gorey posted by Ampootozote.
- About the Edward Gorey Charitable Trust.
- Born to Be Posthumous. The Eccentric Life and Mysterious Genius of Edward Gorey. By Mark Dery. New York: Little Brown, 2018.
- Salem, Linda. (2016). The Edward Gorey Personal Library: Evidencing Insights. Section V, Chapter 15 in Frontiers in American Children's Literature, Eds. Dorothy Clark and Linda Salem. ISBN: 9781443887977. For purchase from B&N at Frontiers in American Children's Literature.
Curator Linda Salem has provided research support of the Edward Gorey Personal Library to the authors of the following books in aid of their publications.
- Gorey's Worlds. Erin Monroe. Princeton University Press. 2018.
- Born to Be Posthumous. Mark Dery. Little Brown & Co. 2018.
EGPL Associates
- Kiedra Taylor, English and Comparative Literature, Children's Literature
- Alexander Elliott, English and Comparative Literature, Children's Literature
- Chris Deming, SDSU, MA-English & Comparative Literature, Children's Literature
- Andrea Kade, SDSU, MA-English & Comparative Literature, Children's Literature
- Tracy Stegeman, San Jose State University, Library School Intern
- Christina Rivera, SDSU, MA English & Comparative Literature, Children's Literature
- Susan Shamoon, SDSU, MA English & Comparative Literature, Children's Literature
- Holly Russo, SDSU, MA English & Comparative Literature, Children's Literature
- Jerry Lindberg, San Jose State University, Library School Intern
- Kate Murtaugh, SDSU, MA English & Comparative Literature, Children's Literature
People who offer time and expertise to support this collection include Friends of the SDSU Library, literary, fine arts, comics arts and cultural researchers and writers, rare books specialists, and Gorey scholars and specialists. SDSU LIbrary - Special Collections and University Archives, Cataloging and Technical Services, Stack Maintenance Department, the Book Mendery, DIgital Services, Library Adiministration,, literary, fine arts, comics arts and cultural researchers and writers, rare books specialists, and Gorey specialists.
- Rick Jones
- Patricia Bruckmann
- Jeremy Dibbel
- Jennifer Anderson
- Carole Scott
- Mark Lester
- Anna Culbertson
- Amanda Lanthorne
- Tyler Rogers
- Jennifer Rogers
- Adam Burkhart
- Lucas Buresch
- Andreas Brown
- Morlin Brown
- Mark Dery
- Lynn Hawkes
- Alexis Herbias
- Keven Jeffery
- Steven Kiczek
- Steven Savage
- Ann Nevitt
- Mary Guo
- Patrick Flanigan
- Allyson Maure
- Peter F. Neumeyer
- Rob Ray
- Gale Etschmaier
- Patrick McCarthy
- Jon Cawthorne
- Connie Vinita Dowell
- Mark Stover
- Linda Salem
- Melissa Engleman
- Stark Raven Productions
- Joseph Thomas
- Jon Cawthorne
- Connie Vinita Dowell
- R. Andrew Boose
- The Edward Gorey Charitable Trust
- Thomas Michalak
- Erin Monroe
- The Edward Gorey House