Edward Gorey (1925-2000) – the puzzle appeared on the exact centenary of his birth – was an American illustrator of whom it was said, late last century, that his admirers thought him (a) English and (b) dead, only one of which was able to achieve. But it was the case, I think, that he got to read one of his obituaries, published in error – a very Gorey scenario.
He lies somewhere on a hitherto unappreciated line between Edgar Allen Poe and Lewis Carroll and is both more sinister and more charming than the perhaps better-known Charles Addams. Gorey designed a lot of theatre sets and TV titles, and he illustrated Old Possum and The War of the Worlds, but he is best known for a series of small books such as The Gashlycrumb Tinies and The Doubtful Guest (which would be my recommended starting-points).
While many of the stories have prose captions, he also wrote light verse – often rhyming couplets – to accompany his pictures, and over 60 of the books have been collected in four volumes: Amphigorey, Amphigorey Too, Amphigorey Also, Amphigorey Again. (Nice that the word ‘amphigory’ meaning ‘nonsense verse’ contains Phi, I always think.)
A lot of his books are alphabets. They have unusual titles and varied formats. One starts:
A was an Author who went for a walk
B was a Bore who engaged him in talk.
Another is a mystery story in which each panel employs a different adverb. Others, the Thoughtful Alphabets (helpfully numbered 2, 3, 4, 10, XI, 14, 15 and XVII – I haven’t yet found any others), are simply 26-word narratives.
There is something of a Gorey industry – new books and calendars appear, especially in the centenary year, his home is a museum, while one of his friends has written a series of cosy mysteries in which Edgar Rowdey (Gorey loved anagrams and Agatha Christie) is the detective. See also this site for another centenary celebration (and much else).
But however active that industry is, and however much verbal content his works may contain, using him as the theme of a crossword means considering how to ensure that solvers who have not heard of him can find their way in to the puzzle. I have used GASHLYCRUMB as a Playfair codeword previously but with additional pointers to his name (update, after checking own website: no, I didn’t, apparently). Here I went for the redundant words from two of the alphabets spelling out his name in clues to eleven of the unfortunate Gashlycrumb infants. (Unlike his creation, the artist himself has repeated letters!)
Fortunately, the names are largely short, so fitting eleven of them into a standard grid wasn’t too difficult. My major error was deciding that the nosebleed was curious rather than glorious, necessitating one subsequently adjusted clue. The oddest part, which emerged as I proofread, was the order of the names spelling one thing while the order of the redundant words spelled something else. Just checking it all off to make sure there were no errors kept the brain active!
Not a difficult puzzle, I think, and perhaps a stroll for the Gorey aficionado. But I can hope to have introduced Edward Gorey to some new readers.
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