From Ted to Tom: The Illustrated Envelopes of Edward Gorey

On the envelopes of letters sent to a dear friend, the famed artist and writer Edward Gorey drew dozens of original illustrations--illustrations now collected in this volume along with marvelously playful selections from the correspondence, all never before seen by the public until now.

From Ted to Tom will be published in the centenary year of Edward Gorey’s birth.

When Tom Fitzharris met Edward ＂Ted＂ Gorey in 1974, the two quickly struck up a friendship. Over the next year Gorey sent a total of fifty letters to Fitzharris. Every envelope Fitzharris received was illustrated by Gorey, and filled with surprises: typewritten letters with news and opinions from Gorey’s life, handwritten note cards with unexpected quotes, sketches, inside jokes, and a host of other joyous miscellany.

Assembled here for the first time, these envelopes and their contents deliver all the humor, imagination, gossip, and wonder that came with being Edward Gorey’s pen pal.

Edward Gorey (1925-2000) was born in Chicago. In 1953 Gorey published The Unstrung Harp, the first of his more than one hundred books. In addition to illustrating his own stories, Gorey provided drawings for many books for both children and adults. Of these, New York Review Books has published The Haunted Looking Glass, a collection of Gorey’s favorite ghost stories; The War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells; Men and Gods by Rex Warner; The Unrest-Cure and Other Stories by Saki; and Three Ladies Beside the Sea by Rhoda Levine. He cowrote the NYRB Kids book Fletcher and Zenobia with Victoria Chess.

Tom Fitzharris was a close friend of Edward Gorey in the 1970s. He currently lives in New York City and East Hampton and gives tours at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.