Sight Unseen Forever: The Haunted Tea-Cosy by Edward Gorey

I was all ready to buy this book sight unseen: a crisp, clean, signed first edition of Edward Gorey's The Haunted Tea-Cosy: A Dispirited and Distasteful Diversion for Christmas (1998). The listing on AbeBooks was from Recycle Bookstore of San Jose, which priced the volume at $49.95, a price that can only be called unseasonably reasonable.

The book was represented by only a stock image—and not by what would have been a useful photo or scan of the signature. Hence it goes under the Sight Unseen category on this blog. Typically, in these posts, I purchase the book and soon find out whether it lives up to the listing's claims. I don't wish to boast, but usually I do all right.

Stock Image

There was just one thing to do before I placed my order. I needed to copy the listing for the blog.

Edward Gorey
AbeBooks listing accessed November 2, 2025

https://www.abebooks.com/signed-first-edition/Haunted-Tea-Cosy-Dispirited-Distasteful-Diversion-Christmas/32334307394/bd?cm_ven=nl&cm_cat=trg&cm_pla=want_CM&ref_=pe_aep_AEP_wants_buyer-wants&cm_ite=viewbook

Edward Gorey
AbeBooks item description

Edward Gorey
AbeBooks item description

Success! The listing was archived for the blog. The story had its beginning. But when I went back to AbeBooks to seal the deal, the book had just been sold.

So the item, sight unseen, is now reclassified as sight unseen forever. Of course, if the buyer would like to come forward with a pic or two, we might still get a real look at that signature.

The lesson of this whole thing is an improbable one. I seem to be putting my needs as a blogger ahead of my needs as a collector. So be it. What good is a book if one doesn't have a story to tell?

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Announcing The Haunted Tea-Cosy by Edward Gorey

A 1998 postcard published by the Gotham Book Mart in New York announces Edward Gorey's holiday book The Haunted Tea-Cosy: A Dispirited and Distasteful Diversion for Christmas. Who could possibly have resisted?

Edward Gorey
AbeBooks listing accessed November 2, 2025

https://www.abebooks.com/paper-collectibles/Edward-Gorey-Haunted-Tea-Cosy-1998-Publication/32165530501/bd

Edward Gorey
AbeBooks item description

Note:  The item is still available from A&D Books at post time.

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"Something Else Entirely: The Illustration Art of Edward Gorey" Opening Reception

Last night the Society of Illustrators hosted the official opening reception for the exhibition "Something Else Entirely: The Illustration Art of Edward Gorey." The crowd was enthusiastic; the artwork was inspired.

The display case houses published Gorey rarities, including copies of old copies of TV Guides graced by Gorey illustrations.

The real treasure, of course, is the original Gorey art:

Wouldn't you just know it? The cover art for A Clutch of Vampires is in the archives here.

Note:  There's still time to celebrate Edward Gorey's centenary. "Something Else Entirely: The Illustration Art of Edward Gorey" continues its run at the Society of Illustrators in New York through January 4.

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Fine Lines of Influence: The Very Fine Clock by Muriel Spark and Edward Gorey

The centenary of Edward Gorey is being celebrated with a wonderful exhibition at the Society of Illustrators. "Something Else Entirely: The Illustration Art of Edward Gorey" opened on October 4 and will run through January 3.

The show's first featured event was held last night. I was in attendance for "Fine Lines of Influence: The Very Fine Clock." It was a conversation between illustrator Lisa Brown and her husband, writer Daniel Handler about how Gorey influenced them and their work.

The Very Fine Clock is a 1968 children's book by Muriel Spark illustrated by Gorey. Transit Books has just reissued it in a sumptuous new edition.

Lisa Brown and Daniel Handler

The official opening reception will be held tonight. The following photographs should serve as a preview of some of what awaits at the Society of Illustrators.

Gorey's illustrations are very finely detailed, best observed in person and up close.

The New Yorker
A cover submission rejected by the magazine in 1992 but published posthumously in 2018

The New Yorker
A rejected cover from 1992 that was later published inside the magazine, posthumously, in 2000

The Doom of the Haunted Opera by John Bellairs

The Very Fine Clock by Muriel Spark
Four original illustrations

Bantam Books's 1995 Summer Reading Campaign

Cover art for Dead Ends:  An Irreverent Field Guide to the Graves of the Famous by David Cross and Robert Bent, 1991

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Lucretia J. Weed's Copy of Omnibooth: The Best of George Booth

Lucretia and Peter Weed of Congdon & Weed, Inc., oversaw the publication of a number of cartoon book collections by some of the New Yorker cartoonists whose work we fondly recollect. They include George Booth, Frank Modell, George Price, Charles Saxon, and James Stevenson—quite possibly others as well. What's interesting about Lucretia's copy of Omnibooth: The Best of George Booth, his 1984 collection, is not so much the inscription but the small archive of letters, clippings, and stationery that accompany it.

Imagine being the recipient of a handwritten letter from Booth. Despite the informal tone, he does talk some business. There is humor here as well.

Isn't it just like Booth to use a Laurel & Hardy stamp?

In 1993, Booth contributed an energetic drawing and some encouraging wordage, both equally unique, to the Smith College Alumnae Fund, of which Lucretia was apparently cochair for the Class of '59. Booth offers "an occasional apology to E. Gorey" which I find baffling. Is he giving a tip of the hat to Gorey for The Curious Sofa (1961)? For this?

Personally, I don't know how anyone threw away this 1987 copy of the New York Times Book Review.

The same thing goes for the "Weekend" section of The Missourian, although I probably don't know any subscribers.

It would have been a blast to see Norene and George's work side by side at the Davis Gallery, no?

The Omnibooth front cover—more is more:

George Booth and cat:

Endpaper extravaganza:

Inscribed, "For Lucretia!
George Booth."

Title page

George Booth
eBay listing ended June 10, 2025

https://www.ebay.com/itm/405533252708?_skw=Omnibooth+signed&epid=5154231&itmmeta=01JZPFPVEMVGN3PSYZQCKHKYGX&hash=item5e6baa5c64:g:P1wAAOSwyx1nqOla&itmprp=enc%3AAQAKAAAA8FkggFvd1GGDu0w3yXCmi1eduzQWvqbA4jUaVcgNZai3CTA5UaAc0hsxXYASagqJPWmXJCpOLMFqSBUJiT%2FhhXENo3llOlBsUr5pgWmob2a0UFZk%2

BDxWmxjzc%2F0fmzu%2BfbvHuacwtXDEe6h6GB66BCeL4%2B9lEXvI%2Ft9UcXnylS5ODgE4YTLXvMsCo3VnR4mKChQgVZkD7h8Q5rQ%2BYdUj5z0%2FeCah4zqnd03TPN70yw4jc0g%2BuzY%2BCCD%2FEPfJW1NpAm%2FGEeqWrP6LEb2a2yQxMIkq2GgOcYgh%2BgXB1RTCwbjBi1CyxZaFILaHjkYAIyjo0w%3D%3D%7Ctkp%3ABk9SR7C328_9ZQ

". . . signed by [editor] Kenneth R. Hine." Are we looking at the same book?
George Booth
eBay item description

August 23, 2025 Update:  The book has now made its way from eBay to AbeBooks, where it is listed by Jan's Collectibles of Bethany, MO. There are far better photographs of the Weekend article and The New York Times Book Review cover which I append below. Oh, and the price for the ensemble is now $400.

George Booth
AbeBooks listing accessed August 23, 2025

https://www.abebooks.com/signed-first-edition/Omnibooth-Best-George-Booth-Congdon-Weed/32275199230/bd

George Booth
AbeBooks item description

September 25, 2025 Update:  Now at ten percent off.

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