Nonsense! The Curious Story of Edward Gorey (2020) by Lori Mortensen, with illustrations by Chloe Bristol, offers a delightfully offbeat introduction to the macabre genius behind The Gashlycrumb Tinies and The Doubtful Guest. This picture book biography—published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt—captures Gorey’s eccentric spirit through rhyming couplets that dance with anapestic meter, mirroring his love of Victorian verse, while Bristol’s artwork pays homage to Gorey’s signature crosshatched gloom with a softened, child-friendly palette.
The narrative whimsically traces Gorey’s life from his Chicago childhood (where he taught himself to read at age three) through his Harvard years, wartime service, and eventual reign as the 20th century’s master of genteel horror. Clever visual Easter eggs reward Edward Gorey devotees: a black-and-white cat lurking in the margins nods to his feline obsession, while a spread of alphabetized children references his most famous work. Though simplified for young readers, the book doesn’t shy from Gorey’s quirks—his collection of 20,000 books, his ballet slippers worn daily, and his Emmy-winning Dracula set designs.
