Elephant House: Or, the Home of Edward Gorey (Pomegranate Catalog) [Hardcover]

Edward Gorey (Illustrator), Kevin McDermott (Photographer), John Updike (Introduction)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 2003

An intimate photographic journey through Edward Gorey's home.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This photographic tribute to the mordantly whimsical Edward Gorey captures the domestic life of an artist and writer who, in Updike's words, "never strayed from his curious, carefully crosshatched corner of sinister nostalgia, yet wound up widely on view." McDermott, a graphic designer and performer who appeared in Gorey's musicals Tinned Lettuce and Amphigorey, was allowed to photograph "Elephant House" just a week after Gorey's death in 2000, and his images open a rare window into the private life of an artist whose work was determinedly fantastical. Black and white photographs of a gray shingle house seen through clambering vines and fuzzy images of a dim library overflowing with stacks of books suggest scenes straight out of Gorey's gothic volumes. But MCDermott also includes color photos that reveal Gorey's pleasure in the beauty of little things-the arrangement of blue glass bottles on a sunny window ledge, the setting of cool quartz balls in a stone platter. "Edward loved to 'arrange' things," McDermott explains, and in his hands "pliers became dragons, shears were birds in flight." McDermott's descriptions of his good friend contain many amusing anecdotes (e.g., at one dinner party Gorey dyed each course a shade of blue) and the inclusion of quotations and etchings from Gorey's work help make this book a lovely elegy, one which will surely appeal to Gorey's many fans.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From the Publisher

Relatively few people had the opportunity to visit the enigmatic Edward Gorey in his home, and among those who did, even fewer were permitted to see the entire house. This kind an openhearted man was also a private man, usually preferring the company of his cats to that of his two-legged acquaintances.

But much about Gorey was revealed in his environment. His house in Yarmouthport, Massachusetts, on Cape Cod, was filled with his multifarious collections of objects, from books and bottles to finials and rings, stuffed animals and rocks. He arranged his clutter in an order that made sense only to him.

In "Elephant House: Or, The Home of Edward Gorey," Kevin McDermott elegantly documents in rich duotone and full-color photographs this chockablock house, room by room, just as Gorey left it when he died in April 2000. With each picture we obtain new insight into a man whose prolific creative genius was fed as much by his keen intelligence as by his flights of whimsy and absurdity. We are startled by the simple beauty of his arrangement of blue glass bottles in a library window. In noticing that his kitchen counter is almost completely covered by an arrangement of rocks, we wonder how he managed to entertain guests with a home-cooked dinner of all-blue food. And we linger over the picture of his desk, imaginging him at work there; it is such a small desk, blotted with ink (of course!) and crowded with pens, rubber stamps, a ruler - and a black old-style dial phone.

Elephant House may be the most intimate portrait of Edward Gorey ever published. McDermott's reminiscences and descriptions of the house accompany his engaging photographs, and more than a dozen of Gorey's etchings and drawings of elephants - never before published - are paired with quotes from the artist. Through this portrait, Edward Gorey becomes even more the man we all wish we had had the chance to meet, an artist whose brilliant and hilarious art and words will continue to charm and delight us for generations to come.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 128 pages
• Publisher: Pomegranate Communications (September 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0764924958
• ISBN-13: 978-0764924958
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 11.4 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #482,753 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

29 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Among Gorey's Favorite Things, October 4, 2003

By 

Glen Emil (www.goreyography.com) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Elephant House: Or, the Home of Edward Gorey (Pomegranate Catalog) (Hardcover)

As I prepare to walk up to the porch of Edward Gorey's home in Kevin McDermott's book Elephant House: or, the Home of Edward Gorey, I am prepared to be surprised. Images flash through memory - bizarre inert characters from Embley and Yewbert to the flamboyant Figbash. I expect to be greeted by Doubtful Guest dolls lurking behind dank Victorian sofas and lots of black umbrellas. I hold my breath.

Instead, I find stones. Lots of them, clustered along the stairs to the left. A line-up of antique irons marches around the corner of the house. And books. Thousands of books are piled high among balusters and finials - architectural embellishments long separated from their structures gracefully and imposingly placed upon windowsills and cabinets. Clusters of nearly every imaginable sort of bits used in everyday life are tenderly collected and assembled. Groups of texture and form - standing wooden kitchen utensils and bocce balls mixed with perfectly rounded beach stones. Everything is older, well used and would have normally been discarded after a long and useful life. A huddled gathering of pewter salt and pepper shakers remain steadfast upon a tray.

As I gaze through the entrance room, through the living room and the kitchen, I find the author's black and white photographs eerie, haunting. Kevin McDermott's pages takes me from room to room, filling in the cluttered corners with anecdotes and reminisces of Gorey's life here, as one who knew him closely could only do. Not as a remote docent at the Van Gogh exhibit reciting textbook fare, but as a friend relating peculiarities about a companion.

The journey of Gorey's Elephant House is mostly black and white, with splashes of color photographs accenting the pages with surprising bursts of pigment. A cluster of bright blue glass bottles in a well lit window gives as much insight into Gorey's playful inventiveness as any four-page interview has attempted. I do find Figbash and the Doubtful Guest - they are not central but instead ancillary to a greater collection of flotsam and jetsam, worn stuffed animals and books, music and artwork, that filled Gorey's mind. Well, one theme appears central - books. The Elephant House was bloated with 25 thousand of them. I laughed out loud when I reached the library, as it looked to be only an extension to every other room. I have several friends whose homes are similarly endowed, so I understand its pleasure.

As far as the title goes - Elephant House - I happily find no token ceramic Asian elephant end tables, but rather an ancient commode with an abstract nod to a pachyderm. A chunk of driftwood in the kitchen is very elephant-like. Speculation falls on the aging scaly gray shingles on the house's exterior (Gorey could have easily called it the Frog House, however, for his love of frogs appears everywhere.) A sobering image of modern plastic pill bottles, artfully placed on a window sill, reminds me of Gorey's frailty in the later years and I am again saddened at our loss on that April day in 2000. This excellent book closes the tour with a haunting image that I could not part with for a good fifteen minutes. As John Updike notes in the forward, "Kevin McDermott's photographs bring us closer to Gorey than his art..." Closer indeed. Unforgettably closer.

Glen Emil,
www.Goreyography.com
1 September 2003

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars At Home With Edward Gorey, November 19, 2003

By 

R. McNally (Brooklyn, NY United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Elephant House: Or, the Home of Edward Gorey (Pomegranate Catalog) (Hardcover)

Kevin McDermott's Elephant House is an impressive new photography book. The photographs, taken only days after Edward Gorey's death, afford us an intimate portrait of the man as he lived. The book contains insightful photographs that capture the fine details of the way Edward lived and worked in his own space. Gorey clearly had a fascination with light and texture. He scattered a massive array of objects all about his home with a nearly curatorial eye. McDermott's well composed photos not only capture this aspect of Gorey but illustrate a common thread between these two artists: texture. One photograph depicts groups of small stones as they congregate idly on the rough wood of the porch. The cityscape of salt and pepper shakers and a plate of gourd-like, spherical shapes are beautiful studies in the texture and form of ordinary objects abstracted from their normal contexts, while many others are still lives made of the house's windows and the eclectically arranged objects in front of them. The blue bottles in a few images glow like stained glass as the washed-out light of a cloudy day streams in through them. What makes many of the color images so interesting is the spare, nearly monochromatic palette of colors in the rooms which are offset by only the blue luminosity of bottles or the green leaves of spring showing in the background. These are beautiful photographs independent of their connection to Edward Gorey, but serve also to enhance our understanding of him. The text is an entertaining and candid glimpse of Gorey as a friend knew him, and provides a nicely guided tour through each room. This book is handsomely crafted and thoughtfully designed, and I highly recommend it to anyone with an interest in photography or Edward Gorey.

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Thoughts from a friend, November 1, 2003

By 

rick jones (Cape Cod Ma.) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Elephant House: Or, the Home of Edward Gorey (Pomegranate Catalog) (Hardcover)

For Edward Gorey fans who think they know a lot about the world-famous author and artist, this remarkable new book of photographs and text about Gorey's residence on Cape Cod will come as a suprise. Photographer (and friend of Gorey) Kevin McDermott was granted permission to photograph the inside of the Gorey house which contained massive collections of art, books, rare objects and found treasures from flea markets,
antique shops and yard sales. (The hunt for most of these objects was a Gorey favorite pastime). The fascinating part of this photographic adventure is in seeing how Gorey carefully arranged objects among his 25,ooo books and thousands of musical recordings. This unique experience was lost forever when the contents of the house were were sorted and dispersed after the photographs were taken. So, here is your chance to visit Gorey's home as he personally arranged it. There is a fine forward by Pulitzer Prize writer John Updike who knew Gorey when they were both students at Harvard. McDermott's text is also filled with a generous number of his amusing and interesting anecdotes about Gorey, plus some choice ones gathered from friends and relatives. ELEPHANT HOUSE is a must for anyone who enjoys Gorey's unique work.