Fans campaign to get artist Edward Gorey on a postage stamp to mark 100th birthday
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The "Doubtful Guest" peeking out from your letters? Maybe a mysterious black-cloaked “Mystery!” figure standing watch over the address? Or a top-hatted skeleton gazing out at creditors?
That type of artwork by Edward Gorey could potentially be stuck on letters, cards, bills and solicitations all over the country, if supporters are successful in convincing the U.S. Postal Service that the late Yarmouth Port illustrator and writer should get his own stamp.
The ideal timing would be 2025, marking what would have been Gorey’s 100th birthday.
The campaign to convince federal officials of that was launched on Gorey’s Feb. 22 birthday (the palindromic 2/22/22) in the first joint project by the Edward Gorey Charitable Trust in New York City and the Edward Gorey House museum that's in his former 8 Strawberry Lane, Yarmouth Port residence.
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The process from proposal to stamp unveiling typically takes about three years, so the two organizations are getting the ball rolling now.
“Not a moment to lose,” said Gorey House curator Gregory Hischak.
Officials from both organizations are asking fans to write letters — paper letters are required — explaining why Gorey should get a postage stamp. They’ve set a submission deadline of March 31. (For details on how to create a letter, see below.)
“We would like to see (the 100th birthday) celebrated with a U.S. postage stamp recognizing (Gorey) as one of America’s most inventive and influential cultural figures,” the online plea from the Charitable Trust reads. “And, we need your help!”
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It’s been done before. In June 2021, for example the U.S. Postal Service celebrated the art of Emilio Sanchez on the centennial of his birth with four new stamps featuring his colorful architectural lithographs and paintings.
Hischak said artist-oriented stamps usually have four designs, plus a photo and information on the artist on each pane of stamps.
The Postal Service issues 25 to 30 commemorative stamps each year, said its senior public relations representative Sue Brennan — but that’s from 25,000 to 30,000 annual requests related to “stamp subjects that celebrate the American experience.”
Why should Edward Gorey be on a stamp?
Gorey fans seem to be excited by the stamp idea, based on response to social media posts and some letters already sent, according to Hischak as well as Charitable Trust archivist Will Baker and trustee Eric Sherman.
“We’ve been pleasantly surprised,” Baker said of the response on Facebook and Instagram, and said they were told of more than a dozen letters sent in the first week and have gotten “a lot of nice little emails of encouragement about what we're doing.”
“It's so heartening to see the outpouring of support for Edward Gorey and the willingness of his fans, who are really loyal fans, to actually sit down and take out a piece of paper and write something down and then put it in an envelope and put a stamp on it and send it out,” Sherman said. “That’s not like dashing off an email, which requires a lot less effort. So we've been really touched by the support we've seen and we hope it continues.”
The letter sent from the Gorey House, Hischak said, explains more about why Gorey might merit the national honor and “acknowledgement of his influence in American arts and culture today.”
In part, it reads:
“There are few artists who have left a mark in such varied fields as Children’s Literature, young adult works, and gothic horror — as well as in film and stagework as Edward Gorey. Communities as diverse as graphic novelists, fabric artists, animal welfare groups and transgender communities all embrace Edward as their own. Few artists have managed to build such universal appeal while remaining distinctly American as Edward Gorey.”
Gorey illustrated more than 100 books and stories, including many he wrote himself, with favorites including "The Gashlycrumb Tinies," "The Doubtful Guest" and "The Wuggly Ump."
His distinctive, usually amusing but macabre, pen-and-ink drawings were filled with minute details, intricate shadings and often old-fashioned people in desperate situations. He was known for his unusual wordplay and language, and a humor that some might consider ghoulish.
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Gorey’s work gained a wider audience through anthologies like 1972’s “Amphigorey,” through his dark illustrations to introduce the PBS “Masterpiece Mystery!” series, and through his sets and (Tony Award-winning) costumes for “Dracula.” That show began as a production on Nantucket and went on to Broadway in 1977 starring Frank Langella.
Gorey’s “Dracula” royalties allowed him in 1979 to buy the Yarmouth Port home close to where he’d long spent summers with his family, according to a short biography by Karen Wilkin on the Charitable Trust website. Gorey worked with several Cape theater companies on “entertainments” and puppet shows, and lived in the Cape house full-time for nearly 20 years before his death in 2000, at age 75, according to the biography.
Gorey’s ‘mail art’
The idea to seek a Gorey stamp came from Patrice Miller, an artist, collector and member of the Gorey House board of trustees.
“We were trying to think of something to do for Edward’s centennial, at least for a start, and this seemed to be the perfect project to sink our teeth into,” Hischak said.
“This project fits very nicely within the mission of the Trust, which is to honor Edward's creative and philanthropic legacy through promoting his literary and artistic works,” Sherman said. “So I think this will hopefully introduce him to a much larger audience.”
He mentioned a 2013 Google doodle on Gorey’s birthday that attracted a new group of “admirers and fans,” noting the stamp idea “is in that same spirit.”
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And Gorey actually had a connection to mail — which may or may not carry weight with the U.S. Postal Service.
He illustrated the envelopes of his correspondence — some of which are at the Gorey House, more in the archives of the Charitable Trust, and some held by his correspondents. The 2011 book “Floating Worlds” details the friendship between Gorey and author Peter Neumeyer through letters, and includes images of 38 of Gorey’s illustrated envelopes to his friend.
While “mail art” was first widely recognized and coined as a term in the 1960s for small artworks sent through the mail, Hischak said Gorey was ahead of his time by doing just that in the 1940s and 1950s.
“He was doing it as a lark, but the illustrations on his envelopes really kind of predate a lot of the mail art movement that happened,” he said.
“Along with all the other reasons why” Gorey deserves a stamp, Baker said, “as an artist, writer and animal rights advocate, for his theatrical work and all that, he was one of the people really pioneering mail art in the mid-20th century in the U.S. So that would make honoring him with a postage stamp that much more appropriate.”
Do you want Edward Gorey stamps? Here’s how fans can help
What’s the deadline for nominating Edward Gorey for a postage stamp?
March 31. It typically takes about three years from nomination to actual stamp for those ideas that win approval.
Where do you write about an Edward Gorey stamp?
The address to send nominations is Stamp Development; Attn: Citizens’ Stamp Advisory Committee; 475 L’Enfant Plaza SW, Room 3300; Washington, DC 20260-3501
What do you say to petition for an Edward Gorey stamp?
The requests must be made as letters on paper (“They don’t want emails at the postal service,” Hischak joked) and nominations must include “pertinent historical information and important dates associated with the subject.”
Each nomination must include the years of Gorey’s birth and death (1925 and 2000), the fact that 2025 is the centenary of his birth, and examples of his contributions in at least two of these categories, according to the Charitable Trust’s campaign webpage: Writing, fine art, book illustration, book cover design, theatrical design (set and costume), mail art, fashion, and support of animal welfare causes (continuing today through the Charitable Trust and the Gorey House museum).
The webpage has links to Gorey’s biography and accomplishments to help writers determine what to include
https://edwardgorey.org/2022/02/22/edward-gorey-centennial-postage-stamp-campaign/
What else can you do to promote the idea of an Edward Gorey stamp?
Both the Trust and the museum ask fans to share the idea and details widely on social media, and share letters and information through direct messages with both organizations. Officials plan to use fans’ letters all month to continue to promote the campaign on Facebook and Instagram.
Contact Kathi Scrizzi Driscoll at kdriscoll@capecodonline.com. Follow on Twitter: @KathiSDCCT.
This article originally appeared on Cape Cod Times: Edward Gorey on a postage stamp? Fans start 100th birthday campaign
