<i>Floating Worlds: The Letters of Edward Gorey & Peter F. Neumeyer</i> (review)
2012; Johns Hopkins University Press; Volume: 37; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1353/chq.2012.0022
ISSN1553-1201
Autores Tópico(s)Themes in Literature Analysis
ResumoReviewed by: Floating Worlds: The Letters of Edward Gorey & Peter F. Neumeyer Linda Salem (bio) Floating Worlds: The Letters of Edward Gorey & Peter F. Neumeyer. Edited by Peter F. Neumeyer. San Francisco: Pomegranate Communications, 2011. In one of the letters published in Floating Worlds, Edward Gorey writes that he is aware he works on books for children which “turn out to be totally unsuitable according to everyone else” (140). Gorey, known for his illustrations for the PBS series Mystery!, died in 2000. He created over one hundred works, including [End Page 244] The Gashlycrumb Tinies (Simon and Schuster, 1963), The Doubtful Guest (Doubleday, 1957), and The Wuggly Ump ( J. B. Lippincott, 1963). He also made illustrations for books by many authors including Edward Lear. Peter Neumeyer, known for his critical annotations for The Annotated Charlotte’s Web (Harper, 1994Harper, 2006), here offers a collection of letters, notes, and illustrated envelopes exchanged by the two men between September 1968 and October 1969. Neumeyer wrote many children’s books in the 1960s; Gorey illustrated three of these, Donald and the . . . (Addison-Wesley, 1969), Donald Has a Difficulty (Fantod Press, 1970), and Why We Have Day and Night (Young Scott Books, 1970). This collection offers insight into the collaboration between author and illustrator. It documents Neumeyer’s and Gorey’s differences of opinion about what story qualities are important to include in a book that appeals to children. The art design of this book, by Patrice Morris of Pomegranate Communications, is gorgeous. Color reproductions of illustrated envelopes, handwritten letters, and personal photographs are elegantly presented amid the text of letters. This work is strongly recommended for scholars interested in the relationship between authors and illustrators, in philosophy about appropriateness of story and image in children’s books, and in Jorge Luis Borges and unreality in literature. It is also recommended for collectors of art books, primary source researchers, and anyone with interest in books by Gorey and Neumeyer. Gorey’s artistic disagreements with both Neumeyer and publisher Harry Stanton revolved around Stanton and Neumeyer’s view that for children, a “simple bucolic tale coming to an end pleases them better” (100). Even so, Neumeyer writes that “inconclusiveness characterizes all the Gorey/Neumeyer books and that they are not directly children’s books” (94). Readers learn that this is not a new experience for Gorey, who confirms that he is “always in the same mess” when it comes to his books for children (96). Gorey agrees with Geoffrey Brereton that Charles Perrault’s tales “taught children what the world was like, bad and dangerous as well as good. To overcome the bad, it was not always enough to be good oneself. One must also be wary and clever” (205). The letters include Neumeyer’s critiques of first-draft Gorey drawings, and his requests for artistic changes to drawings for the Donald books. They include Gorey’s responses to those requests, sometimes heated, sometimes blasé. For example, Neumeyer writes to Gorey that he thinks his Donald character’s face is drawn too much like an adult’s in one instance. In another letter, Gorey wonders what meaning the Donald books would have if they were published for adults instead of for children. In the end, Gorey writes he would fight for some of his books as children’s books, for a while, but that what he wants most is that his works get into print. He warns Neumeyer against associating with him if he wants commercial success in the children’s book market. Readers learn about Gorey’s Borgesian-Zen philosophy in his approach [End Page 245] to books for children. His frequent reference to Borges inspired the title of Floating Worlds. The book’s introduction opens with a Borges quote: “Dreams, symbols, and images pierce the day; a disorder of imaginary worlds flow incessantly into this world” (7). Gorey also quotes from sculptor David Smith, who writes that “everything imagined is reality” (110). Reading, writing, and drawing are a kind of reality for Gorey; for example, he suspects that he is more in the envelopes than he is in his letters (67). Other gems here include “E. Gorey’s Great Simple Theory About Art...
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