Edward Gorey

photo by Christopher P. Stephens about 1978

Edward Gorey has a distinctive, idiosyncratic art style that intrigues many. His adults are unsmiling. His children are somber - their pale, drawn faces clearly expecting the very worst from life. Which is largely what they get.

The detailed pen and ink drawings look like etchings. He illustrates a joyless world. Unless you count the fiendish delight one almost can't help feeling at the deliciously dark pictures of catastrophic episodes happening, or about to happen, or ominously threatened.

Edward Gorey illustrated in Boston. When he came to New York City, he met Andy Brown of Gotham Book Mart. The two became great friends. Andy promoted Gorey's work through the store.

Chris took this candid picture of Gorey at the New York is Book Country book fair one year. Gorey's glasses were rose colored, but you wouldn't know it from his drawing subject matter.

I didn't know Gorey, but I knew someone who did. In 1982 I took a couple of classes at School of Visual Art. In a superb color class, I made some friends. I was 33. They were younger. One night a couple of them made the long trek from 23rd Street up past the GW Bridge to my house for dinner. Barbara Ellmann came and so did a good looking young man. I think his name was Tom. This picture was hanging in our living room. They hadn't been here long before Tom stopped short, gawking at it.

"Where did you get this picture of Ted?"

"It's Edward Gorey."

"Yes. I knew him as Ted."

They'd travelled together for a year, the young man said. We didn't talk of it, but the young man kept looking up at the photo. He was thinking of it even in another room while we ate.

So, though I never even met Edward Gorey, he was sort of a fifth person at my dinner.

Edward St. John Gorey: 1925 - 2000

goreyography - includes an interesting account by Alison Lurie

images with many links to Gorey connections

Gorey documentary

Closing - Gotham Book Mart

Andy Brown in his office at Gotham Book Mart

photo by Christopher Stephens, September 1979

The Gotham Book Mart did not shut down after its comprehensive sale of inventory. I thought it might. I thought people wouldn’t care much for new books on old shelves.
But Andy Brown knew modern literature. He had a good eye and the replacements he bought made a fascinating array of new books. Besides, the original manuscripts were still there. They had not been part of the sale to New Mexico. They lent prestige. And there were surplus copies of books that Gotham had published salted in amongst the new titles.

The history and the cache of the place where wise men had fished for so long helped maintain a momentum. The Gotham went on for 30 more years.
We were in the city for the rest of that decade. Christopher Stephens stopped into the Gotham frequently. He was pleased to see its continued success.

During the 1980s we moved our book operations north of the George Washington Bridge. We rarely visited.
There were rumors of money troubles, but who in the book business doesn’t routinely buy books beyond cash flow? There were hints of discord over the ownership of the building and other disagreements. We heard about it when Frances Steloff died and when Gotham changed locations and when financial difficulties got bad enough to threaten the store.

When Gotham finally did close its doors, there was plenty of loudly mournful reaction. (There might be a profound insight to be discovered in the fact that the media wailed when the store shut down in 2007, but not when it sold its guts in 1974.)

The people who wrote about the end and the gift to the University of Pennsylvania know a lot more about it than I do. I'm putting some links to their articles in. But Gotham closing is not really my story anyway.

There are ups and downs and various inevitable woes of commerce. For me the big story is that, in spite of everything, the grand Gotham Book Mart was open for business for almost 90 years.

NY Times auction coverage

2006 bad news

Village Voice article

historical review of Gotham with pictures and info about Penn State

gothamist's take on it

Edward Byrne, poet and editor of Valparaiso Poetry Review remembers

Whatever Happened to all those Book Gems? - Gotham Book Mart

      Andy Brown sold all the contents of the Gotham Book Mart to the University of New Mexico in 1974.  What contents that was!  We spent three 24-hour days packing up signed first editions, beautiful books, literary classics, literary mavericks, experimental fiction, poetry of all sorts, previously banned books, and high-quality non-fiction.

     At the end of each day John, the librarian representing New Mexico in this mammoth transfer of books, performed the ritual of sealing the huge box-filled truck.  Then that truck drove away and the all-night crew began packing and piling up more boxes for the next day's truck.

     Some of the most priceless items were too physically slight to go into a box.  A thousand broadsides and countless pamphlets and other ephemera were carefully tucked into a wooden case for extra protection.  That case was the last thing packed onto the last truck.  It wasn't easy getting it on either because that last truck was packed tight.  We all watched.  It was the ending ceremony. 

     A short time later the NY Times quoted Jim Dyke, head librarian in NM, from a telephone interview.  Dr. Dyke said that he liked to think they had moved the Gotham Book Mart from the shores of the Hudson River to the shores of the Rio Grande.  I like rivers and I like books.  The quote particularly appealed to me.  But was it entirely true?   Did young scholars in New Mexico have access to those truckloads from NY?

     No.  Not all of them.  The wooden case was the first loss.  It didn't make it to New Mexico.  John's seal was more than broken.   That truck didn't even get there.  It broke down in Kansas City and the cargo  had to be completely unloaded and reloaded onto a new truck.  The stuff in the wooden case was irreplaceable.  Chris went slightly berserk.  He wanted New Mexico to sue the  trucking company.  The missing case accounted for about 10% of the total value.   Chris was sure that someone associated with the trucking company stole those treasures.  It didn't have to happen that way, but I know why Chris is so sure.  The idea of theft is so much more palatable than the idea of all that collectible ephemera being carelessly destroyed.  Even now, 35 years later, Chris fantasizes about those broadsides and pamphlets surfacing.

     The terms of the bond issue with which NM bought Gotham stipulated that the money must go for material, not accessioning costs.   This meant there wasn't money available to process the books.  Years later almost half the boxes were still unpacked.  That information whetted Chris interest.

     "Well Jim, if you aren't using them, why don't I buy them back from you?" Chris suggested.  I admired James Dyke.  He was intelligent and competent, self assured and upright.

     "No.  Can't do that," Jim explained.  "Those books are assets that belong to the people of New Mexico.    Legally and morally I'm prevented from selling those assets unless the people pass a referendum to condemn them."

     So the boxes remained as they were until Dyke retired.  His replacement was, no doubt, every bit as upright but he interpreted things differently.  He sold all those boxes to the respected and knowledgeable Peter Howard of Serendipity Bookstore in Berkeley, California. 

     So in the end the Frances Steloff/Andreas Brown Gotham Book Mart stock was scattered.  It didn't settle as a collection on any riverbank.

     

NM University System - Gotham Book Mart

     Mid 20th century brought rapid population expansion to the American southwest.  Suburban infrastructure was laid down over desert wilds.  In Arizona, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas roads and sewage lines and electricity were brought in.  Schools were built.

     In the 1970s massive bond issues were passed in these states for money to fill new university library shelves.  It was a good decade in the book market for dealers like Christopher Stephens.  Stephens enjoys building subject collections and he is good at it.  He had a solid relationship with university librarians.  They trusted his expertise and his vision.  He sold one collection after another.

     In 1974 one of the New Mexico librarians who had purchased many collections from Chris told him they'd like to buy a really good bookstore crammed full of great books.  Did he know of one that might be available?

     riverrun would have been perfect but it didn't exist yet.   Chris thought of Gotham Book Mart.   Andy Brown's interest was piqued but he wasn't sure.  Maybe.  Probably.

     Jim Dyke flew in from New Mexico. We took him out to eat at a fancy NY restaurant.  The restaurant gate keeper refused to recognize the regional formality of the western braided leather string tie with the turquoise slide that Jim wore.  They made him put on a broad, silk NY tie with stripes.  It was embarrassing.  For me.  Jim Dyke looked mildly amused at the pomposity of it.  He was completely at his ease.

     The dinner was delectable.   Chris talked up Gotham.  The next day Chris and Jim spent the day at the bookstore.  Jim walked slowly past every shelf.  He took photos of the books and spoke notes into a recording device.

     After Jim returned to New Mexico, Chris and I visited Andy to firm up plans.  We met upstairs in a conference room with shelves partway up the walls and very interesting pictures above the shelves.  There were four of us.  A man was with Andy, maybe a lawyer, maybe an employee.  We sat a a long table.  The doors were closed.  Chris Stephens and Andy Brown talked.  The guy with Andy and I listened to them.

      Andy had left strict instructions that he was not to be disturbed.  I found out later from Tim and Sandy Shortt, friends of ours and very dear school friends of Andy's, that they had visited Gotham at the very moment we were cloistered upstairs.   They'd asked to see Andy and were denied.  Their feelings were slightly hurt.  What could be so important that Andy couldn't break away to see old friends?

     Well, working out the emotionally charged details for selling a 50 year old literary treasure trove to a desert state 2000 miles away for lots of money.  That's what was so important.  We couldn't explain to Tim and Sandy because the deal was still in a fluid stage.

     There were a couple of other visits from New Mexico librarians, a few more superb dinners at arrogant NY restaurants.  Chris met with the principals a few more times.  I took one of the librarians to see the Cathedral of St John the Divine.  A deal was finally struck.

     It was basically this:  the university system of the state of New Mexico purchased all stock in the Gotham Book Mart with a single exception.  In the basement there were still many copies of certain titles that Frances Steloff had published.  NM wanted the first and best 6 copies of every state of every edition, but in the few cases where there were more than 6, those would stay in the basement.

     Andy wanted to continue running Gotham after the sale.  Chris and I agreed to get all the books packed and out in 3 days.  He was closed for less than a week.  He covered the front windows with brown paper.  A large sign said "Closed for Inventory"  which was cryptic and somewhat alarming to Gotham's devoted customers.

     We hired 3 shifts of temporary workers to pack and label around the clock.  Chris and I each worked 12 hours  thereby covering all 24.  We oversaw the temporary workers, packed and labeled.    One of the NM librarians stayed to be sure they got everything.  We arranged for 3 of those gigantic 18 or 24 wheel trucks and we packed up one each day.  We hadn't anticipated well.  On one of the days the St. Patrick's Day parade took over New York City and complicated the driving life of the trucker who was trying to drive that load out of the city and out onto our nation's highways.

     In the meantime, Andy had purchased scads of new books from publishers and wholesalers and remainder houses.  They arrived on skids.  As we emptied, Andy's staff filled.

     It was an exhausting but very exciting adventure.  On a personal note, we bought our own wonderful house amongst the trees with our commission.  Chris didn't have time to help look for the perfect house.  He commissioned me for that job.  I couldn't dawdle.  He was a bookman after all.  While I was shopping houses, Chris was busy spending away that commission pretty fast to buy up yet more marvelous collections of books.   

     

Andreas Brown - Gotham Book Mart

photo from the NY Times

April 24, 1975

credited to Larry Morris

     Frances Steloff founded the wonderful Gotham Book Mart in 1920.  Gotham was her life, but when she was 80 years old maybe it seemed prudent to let go a little.  She sold the store to Andy Brown in 1967.

    Steloff was picky about the conditions of the sale.  She approved of Andy Brown.  He was a knowledgeable book lover himself. He'd been one of her many enthusiastic customers.

     And Steloff didn't let go completely.  She attached certain stipulations to the sale.  1.) She could continue to live in her apartment upstairs for the rest of her life.  2.)  She would continue to manage the occult section of the store herself.  3.)  She was to be free to poke around in the sales floor as she wished.

     Steloff's tastes had the store for almost 50 years.  There were books and broadsides and magazines stored in the basement that had been there almost that whole time.  In spite of her continued involvement, Gotham's character changed a bit.  Andy Brown brought his own enthusiasms and extensive book knowledge to add to hers.  It made the store even better.

     Brown grew up in Texas and went to school in California.  After college he came to New York.  He bought books.  As a young man, he had already assembled a remarkable D.H. Lawrence collection.

     Brown knew younger authors and poets to add to the to the store.  In the same way that Steloff had promoted favorite authors, Brown published and promoted Edward Gorey.

     In 1967, the same year that Andy Brown bought the Gotham Book Mart from Frances Steloff, Christopher Stephens graduated from college and moved to NYC.  He took a job on 54th Street just blocks from Gotham.  Chris spent much of the free time he awarded himself (for the speedy work he did on 54th Street) at Gotham.  He knew the store well.  He got to know Brown and Steloff.  I met them too that year.

     I remember the first time I went to the Gotham.  I was meeting Chris there.  Even though NYC is laid out in a grid and you can't really get lost, I got lost.  When I arrived at the place where wise men shop, Chris was deeply immersed in books and didn't notice how late I was.

     I liked the smell of Gotham.  I liked the shelves and tables cobbled together, obviously added gradually to accommodate more and more books.  And of course I liked the books.  I was intimidated, though, by the intellectual intensity of the place.  Maybe because I was just a kid back then.  

     Over the next few years I got more comfortable with the Gotham.  And then I came to appreciate the inventory.  And then I came to really appreciate it.

     Gotham had a small but notable staff.  Phil Lyman had been in the store for a long time.  He knew the stock. he knew the authors. 

     In the late 1960s and into the 1970s, when I knew it, Gotham was quite a store.   Frances Steloff flitted around like a magical fairy godmother.  Even when you didn't see her, you felt her in the books.  Andy Brown was also a strong presence in the books and in the store. He brought a breadth and vision of these times' writers.

     Gotham Book Mart was a treasure house.

blog about book collecting - post about Gotham