Untitled (Envelope Decorated with Man Facing a Burning Head)

1946–1950 · Education

Harvard University

1946–1950

Harvard: French and the poet Frank O’Hara as roommate

He enters Harvard University in 1946, studies French and graduates in the class of 1950. His roommate is the poet Frank O’Hara.

early 1950s

Co-founds the Poets’ Theatre with friends

With a group of recent Harvard and Radcliffe alumni, including Alison Lurie, John Ashbery, Donald Hall and Frank O’Hara, he founds the Poets’ Theatre in Cambridge. It was supported by the Harvard faculty members John Ciardi and Thornton Wilder.

1951–1953

Illustrates Merrill Moore’s poetry for Twayne

From 1951 he illustrates poetry books by Merrill Moore for Twayne Publishers, among them “Case Record from a Sonnetorium” (1951, with many illustrations by Gorey) and “More Clinical Sonnets” (1953).

1953

His first independent book, “The Unstrung Harp”, is published

Gorey’s first independent work, “The Unstrung Harp”, is published in 1953. He also published under pen names that were anagrams of his own name, such as Ogdred Weary, Dogear Wryde and Ms. Regera Dowdy, as well as the German-language pun Eduard Blutig.

1953–1960

Manhattan: the art department of Doubleday Anchor

He lives in Manhattan and works in the art department of Doubleday Anchor, illustrating book covers, adding illustrations to text and providing typographic design. His work there includes Bram Stoker’s “Dracula”, H. G. Wells’s “The War of the Worlds” and T. S. Eliot’s “Old Possum’s Book of Practical Cats”; over his career he illustrated more than 200 book covers.