Thoughtful Alphabets (2012)

Thoughtful Alphabets: The Just Dessert / the Deadly Blotter (2012)
Edward Gorey
H136 x W136 mm, 118 pages. Acquired from Revaluation Books, 1 August 2021.
Photos of the work: Books On Books Collection.

No serious collection of alphabet books or alphabet-related artists’ books can be complete without some representative of Edward Gorey’s work. This volume brings together Thoughtful Alphabets XI and XVII, two detective stories in which the plots must be deduced from pithy alphabetized directions or alphabetized descriptions underlying static black-and-white cartoon tableaus.

Just one representative — even two for one — seems hardly adequate though. Surely another is needed to qualify this collection as serious. If not a fine first edition of The Eclectic Abecedarium, the first Gorey alphabet, perhaps a variant in homage? To judge for yourself, click

Further Reading

“Abecedaries I (in progress)“. Books On Books Collection.

“Patrice Miller“. 26 July 2022. Books On Books Collection.