January 13, 2025

"These cryptic smears are nevertheless meaningless, nor do I know how they got there.... Mess, not mystery."

From "The Illustrated Envelopes of Edward Gorey" (Paris Review/no pay wall).

A nice selection of Gorey drawings — on envelopes — from what will be a book, out in February, "From Ted to Tom: The Illustrated Envelopes of Edward Gorey" (commission earned).


Have you ever drawn on envelopes? I have... enclosing fan letters when I was a teenager... long ago.

17 comments:

Aggie said...

Charming.

Peachy said...

Be sweet cookie if Bob Dylan still had your fan mail envelopes.

tim maguire said...

Same--as a teenager.

n.n said...

Young Ann.

Last night's rats

Mature Ann forever young.

Robert Cook said...

I have drawn on one large manilla envelope I was sending a friend, and on some regular-size mailings, (a half-dozen or fewer).

Ann Althouse said...

I can’t remember who I wrote fan letters to, but somehow the one person who stands out — and I know this seems crazy — is Peter Asher.

NKP said...

Gorey's stuff causes a lot of people to say "WTF"? These are the same people who often don't get my jokes.




Deep State Reformer said...

Yah. However, speaking only for myself, I don't send out many letters and basically none of a personal nature. Except for a few bills like tax payments and such that require signature by hand, that practice petered out and then ended when we stopped sending out Christmas cards about 2000 A.D. or so. Except for cards announcing weddings, graduations, anniversaries, and such like are the only personalized mail i receive now. And that's only because the mavens of etiquette and Hallmark™ keeps that practice going. For now. Doodling on envelopes is like sealing letters with wax. These elegant practices from different time are today quentisential SWPL effluvia.

Jupiter said...

I used to take large photos out of magazines and fold them into envelopes. You have to arrange an uncluttered spot for the address.

Narr said...

I got illustrated envelopes and letters from my friend Bobby in the summer of '69, when I was stuck in Alexandria VA. I looked for them after he died in 2013, so his wives and daughter could see how funny and talented he was, but didn't find them among my oldest papers.


rehajm said...

Are you persnickety wordsmiths okay with calling them illustrations instead of doodles?

Ralph L said...

I haven't opened my Amphigorey books in decades, but I may be compelled to buy this one. Strangely, Amazon didn't try to sell me those compilations.
Something tells me there was more than friendship involved--and a big age difference.

Joe Bar said...

That's neat.

Narr said...

"Cryptic Smear" would be a good name for a band.

Rabel said...

It was the bangs. Made her go to pieces.

Rabel said...

It's quite possible that Mike Myers took his Austin Powers look from Asher.

Rabel said...

And it's true!

I congratulate myself.