The Eclectic Abecedarium »

In addition to writing and illustrating more than one hundred works, the renowned artist Edward Gorey (1925-2000) was also a playwright, an award-winning set and costume designer, and the creator of the animated introduction to the PBS series Mystery!

Edward Gorey's first miniature book, The Eclectic Abecedarium is an illustrated adventure through the English alphabet, accompanied by rhyming couplets penned by Gorey, who described his creations as "literary nonsense." Inspired by popular moral primers for children, Gorey created an updated version of Isaac Watts's alphabetic aphorisms. Part sweet songs of unseen birds and part cautionary tales, this abecedarium fully lives up to the epithet "eclectic."