E is for Edward - Book Launch Fête

Get Your Advance Tickets Here via credit card

Advance online tickets: $25 (all fees included!)

Gorey House members receive 10% off | Patron and above members receive 15% off online tickets (use your code at checkout)

$30 (cash or check only) at the door!

E is for Edward

A Centennial Celebration of the Mischievous Mind of Edward Gorey

Join the Edward Gorey House and the Edward Gorey Charitable Trust as they take over Thacher Hall for the official book release of E is for Edward. A sweeping, frequently epic, and generally irreverent celebration of beloved American author, artist, and illustrator Edward Gorey. 

Author and Gorey House Director, Gregory Hischak, will take to the stage with historian curmudgeon, Gregory Williams, to banter on Edward’s life on Cape Cod and the lasting legacy he splashed across the arts.

A dessert reception ('Just Desserts') will follow the program and copies of E is for Edward will be available for purchase and signing by the author.

More about the book: Published by Black Dog & Leventhal, E Is for Edward celebrates Gorey's capacity as author, illustrator, humorist, playwright, printmaker, fabric artist, and theatrical designer, and pokes around the vast array of material he created between 1953 and his death in 2000. Including both iconic as well as never-before-seen works, E is for Edward is organized by major themes and topics that characterize Gorey’s self-authored output, including unfortunate children, uncomfortable creatures, Dance, Fashion (both ill-fitting and to die for), the genres of Murder Mysteries and Nonsense, and the recurring motifs and latent symbolism that underlie these subjects. Writer Gregory Hischak offers both a poet’s and a designer’s sensibility in discussing Gorey’s art. Celebrating Gorey’s centennial year, E is for Edward is a joint project of The Edward Gorey House and the Edward Gorey Charitable Trust in New York who have opened their archives to allow dozens of rarely viewed notebooks, manuscripts, and artworks to appear in this volume. 

About the author: Gregory Hischak has not held public office — and for good reason. He is a poet, playwright, designer, book artist and the Director/Curator of the Edward Gorey House in Yarmouth Port where he has worked since 2013. His writing and stagework has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize, included in the Smith & Kraus anthologies Best 10-Minute Plays of 2009 and 2010. In addition to being a grant recipient of the Massachusetts Cultural Council, and the Cape Cod Arts Foundation, his play The Center of Gravity was winner of the Clauder Prize for New England Playwrights. Hischak has written and curated all exhibits at the House since 2015 and this work is the basis for E is for Edward.

About the interviewer: Gregory Williams was a Massachusetts trial-court justice for 15 years, including serving ten years as First Justice of Edgartown District Court. Before taking the bench, he was an Assistant Attorney General, lastly Deputy Chief of the Western Massachusetts Division, and before that, a lawyer in private practice. He holds degrees from: Western Maryland College (now McDaniel College) (B.A., English); Queen Mary College, University of London (M.A., English [20th-century British Literature]), and Washington and Lee University School of Law (J.D.). He speaks on such topics as Massachusetts historical crimes, notable Cape Cod figures, and the romantic-macabre.

Parking Note:  There is no parking at Thacher Hall. Parking is available just across Route 6A from Thacher Hall around the Common, as well as at the Edward Gorey House, Post Office, and Chapter House Inn. Crossing attendants will be available to assist with crossing Route 6A at the designated crosswalk in front of Thacher Hall. If you need accessible parking information, please email events@thacherhall.org.

Accessibility Note:  Thacher Hall is a historic building and is not accessible via wheelchair - a short flight of stairs is required for entrance into the Hall and the restrooms are located on the lower level (accessed via stairs).

Ticket revenue supports The Edward Gorey House and Thacher Hall (both are non-profits serving the public).

Get Your Advance Tickets Here via credit card

Advance online tickets: $25 (all fees included!)

Gorey House members receive 10% off | Patron and above members receive 15% off online tickets (use your code at checkout)

$30 (cash or check only) at the door!