The arms that signify our house
Radiate from an octopus;

The arms which signify our house
Are                        of the octopus

Undated letter—fall semester, senior year, 1949:

[Return]           Helen G. Gorey
2620 Lakeview Avenue
Chicago 14            Illinois

Saturday

Mon Fils, plus cher,

Was awfully glad of your letter when I came in last night…

I suppose the box I mailed has arrived—as you noted no doubt, I didn’t have nearly enuf for the big box, so just had to tote it back down to the basement. Which reminds me, I am making a bold and noble effort to get order out of the chaos that is our accumulation of magazines, etc. I am putting all the N. Yorkers in one of those wooden boxes, I should say I am going to. So far I only have them all piled up to take down, and the idea almost daunts me! Do you really and truly want to keep all these Town and Country’s? They are so fiendishly big and heavy and I just don’t see how they can ever be moved. However if you insist, I will put them in the wooden box too, but I do wish mightily that you would let me get rid of them. I am really afraid of the fire hazard all those things present, especially magazines that are so heavy and are bound to get packed down with little circulation.

I hope the narsty headache is a thing of the past—I suppose it was your usual reaction, what?

I have to go to the dentist this afternoon, and I notice that Gone with the Wind is at some movie out on Devon, so I might go.

Your schedule sounds good, and Ciardi certainly will take you—let me know.

There isn’t a thing of interest to tell you pet—of course I need not say, and no doubt should not, that it has been deadly lonesome around here.

Tout mon amour, comme toujours—
Votre Maman

•

•

Sunday

Dearest Bebe,

Am wracking (?) my poor little brains for some items or even an item of interest, but there just doesn’t seem to be any.

Did you listen to Henry Morgan on his new time? It is 7:00 our time Friday nites. He was quite funny this week I thot.

That’s fine that you have a room etc., that suits you so well—it sounds quite ideal.

You didn’t answer me about the Town and Country’s—pliz, oh pliz let me get rid of them, as I just don’t know what we will do with all this stuff. The N. Y.’s more than filled up completely one of those wooden boxes—in fact, most of another one. Have you seen the new magazine Flair? That is the one I thot you might have a chance to contribute something to.

Say Hello to Vito for me—do you know who you will get to come in with you when he graduates?

Such a stupid missive as this is, but it is the best I can do at the moment.

Anyway, je vous aime beaucoup—
Maman

•

Dear Mr. Gorey:

Thank you for letting us see your drawings. While I readily recognize their merit, I’m afraid they are not suitable for the New Yorker. The people in your pictures are too strange and the ideas, we think, are not funny. I would be pleased to meet you and discuss your drawings with you any Wednesday or Thursday that you happen to be visiting this city. I don’t feel, however, that there is enough interest to warrant a special or an immediate trip.

By way of suggestion may I say that drawings of a less eccentric nature might find a more enthusiastic audience here.

Sincerely,
Franklyn B. Modell

Tuesday

Mon cher fils,

Your little friends seem to be getting in the paper with great regularity—enclosed two more items.

I haven’t mailed cookies yet this week, but will try to get them off before the weekend—you mentioned that the Brownies came on a Monday, and that seems a long time, as they were mailed first thing the Monday morning before.

Believe it or not, Nell and I are going to Gone With the Wind tonight. I didn’t get to it when it was out north, and today it is at the Monroe, right up the street, so I asked N. if she would like to see it again, and the woman never even saw it once—and what’s worse, she never even read the book! So I got the battered old volume out for her.

Weren’t you going to find out what the balance of your bills were at the Co-op and the book store and have me send checks? I hope it isn’t any more than you thought, as the way I find no money left is getting vurr tiresome—oh well, maybe a miracle will happen one of these days…

If you haven’t already done so, wilt try to remember to answer in your next communication, about the Town & Country’s, and also whether you want me to get any shorts? I did notice the number of T & C, which was its 100^th anniversary number, and thot that even if you would get rid of the others you might want that. Dorothy and I are both madly writing letters while our boss is out—and she must be about due back, so will get this out before I find myself unable to finish it.

Tout mon amour mon petit,
Votre Maman

•

Mr. Edward S. Gorey
Eliot F-13
Cambridge, Mass

Dear Sir:
Your charges date back to May 1949 and amount to $88.65. We
must ask that you give this balance your immediate attention.

•

Edward Gorey, pen on blue Harvard University Coupon Book, $5, No. 18515:

Edward Gorey, typed page, loose sheet:

Edward Gorey, pen and pencil on back of blue Harvard University Coupon Book:

Tuesday

While Mrs. B. is out I shall try and finish this bit of a note—I have piled all the T & C’s away for your perusal Christmas—it is not such a vital thing—it’s just that I would like….

The telephone is now back up in the front hall, only on the table by your door, and it can be put under the door, the cord I mean, so that it can be in the bedroom if desired.

Your school mates sure do seem to be stepping off with great abandon. Hope your party, and the whole weekend was fun—those things can be either colossal flops or successes.

I got two shorts today and will mail them first thing in the morning—I mailed cookies yesterday. I got only two pairs of shorts, to see if they will do. The man at Fields suggested getting a larger size and they would not be quite so high up the waist, but it didn’t seem such a good idea, as the crotch measured just the same on the 34 and the 36. If these will not do send them back and I will rip out the name and return them. If they will, I will get as many more as you say.

Did you see the squibb in the N. Yorker, about “this is a Hell of a time to go around being normal.” I thot it quite amusing.

Would you like a box of different kinds of food at Thanksgiving time? I thot with more time on your hands and maybe not all meals being served, or are they? maybe you would want something more. Let me know in time. I wish you would get invited somewhere—you might, to Ben’s if you would see Eleanor. Altho when it comes to them…

From “Edward Gorey” by Simon Henwood, Purr, 1995:

“But then I look back and try to figure out what my family was like and I’m completely blank on the subject. I mean, I could never write an autobiography because I wouldn’t have the slightest idea of what to say about anything.”

Thursday

I did mail a box this morning containing two pairs shorts and one pillow slip, wrapped around the bottles of Theracebrin and two of Feozol. I put them in because I thot it a good time to send them when there was something to wrap them in…

Is Vito going home for Christmas? I’m asking because I thot you might want to ask him to come home with you. If you do want to, it’s O.K.—we can manage the sleeping arrangements some way. And I would hate to have him there all by his little onesies.

When the need for vitamins is acute, prescribe

G   E   L   S   E   A   L   S
T  H  E  R  A  C  E  B  R  I  N
(PAN-VITAMINS, THERAPEUTIC, LILLY)

—a complete, highly potent, and scientifically
balanced therapeutic vitamin combination for oral use.

•

Friday nite

Dearest Fils,

Am enclosing that ad that was in the paper today for that lighter like Ed sent you—he gave me one too, and I went and bought some Mystic tape and put a small piece over the political part and you’d never know it is there.

There seems to be not one thing of interest to tell you I am sorrow to say—things just go along.  I will get a batch of cookies off this weekend. Guess I told you I spent last one making fruit cakes which are all bedded down waiting for the holidays.

Pliz let me know if you got the shorts and if you could use them—I will hold this letter till tomorrow in case I should get a letter from you—hope I will.

Sunday

Nothing from you you little varmint. Thot you might like to see that Harvard made last night’s News headline. Ed called to ask if I thot little Oscar might be in the clink—but I told him I did not think you engage in such rowdyism.

[Enclosed clipping from unknown newspaper: “SEIZE 16 IN HARVARD GRID RIOT; Rooters Clash With Cops; Party Girls Join Fray; CAMBRIDGE, Mass.—(UP)—Exuberant Harvard and Princeton students staged a wild pregame football demonstration early Saturday that turned into a near-riot and resulted in the arrest of 16 undergraduates…. SCORES of girls who had attended pregame dances in Harvard houses just a short while before participated in the demonstration that included numerous fist fights and pranks. Tuxedo-clad students snake-danced through the square.  One undergraduate climbed atop a bank marquee. Motorists attempting to drive through had their cars rocked. A trackless trolley was marooned when its power line was jerked from an overhead connection…. Harvard students said the trouble started when some Princeton rooters entered the Harvard yard near Gray Hall and threw a water ‘bomb.’”]

Beatrix E. R_____ (surname uncertain) to Edward Gorey, typed letter:

Sylvia Simons Sights to Edward Gorey, pen on unruled “SSS” letterhead:

Edward Gorey to Consuelo Joerns, typed letter:

Vito Sinisi to Edward Gorey, typed letter:

Beatrix E. R_____ to Edward Gorey:

Edward Gorey to Consuelo Joerns:

Sylvia Simons Sights to Edward Gorey, typed letter:

Edward Gorey, two typed pages, loose sheets: