“Memento Gorey: The Last Interviews with Edward Gorey,” by Christopher Seufert, Book Now Released
Memento Gorey: The Last Interviews with Edward Gorey, a new illustrated volume by Christopher Seufert, is published
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Memento Gorey: The Last Interviews with Edward Gorey, a new
illustrated volume by Christopher Seufert, is published today by Schiffer Publishing
(ISBN 978‑0764371271). The 224‑page hardcover collects 17 previously unpublished interviews (including five conducted with Edward Gorey himself) and features more than 250 previously unpublished photographs, offering rare primary material that illuminates Gorey’s life, creative process, and relationships with contemporary writers and artists.
Chatham, MA August 20, 2026 –(PR.com)– “Memento Gorey: The Last Interviews with Edward Gorey, a new illustrated volume by Christopher Seufert, is published today by Schiffer Publishing (ISBN 978‑0764371271). The 224‑page hardcover collects 17 previously unpublished interviews (including five conducted with Edward Gorey himself) and features more than 250 previously unpublished photographs, offering rare primary material that illuminates Gorey’s life, creative process, and relationships with contemporary writers and artists. The book includes a foreword by prolific American novelist and travel writer Paul Theroux, also an Edward Gorey friend.
When filmmaker and photographer Christopher Seufert first stepped into Edward Gorey’s rambling Yarmouth Port home in the late 1990s, he expected eccentricity. He
did not expect intimacy. “I thought I was coming to film a legend,” Seufert says.
“Instead, I found a man who was funny, shy, and endlessly curious — someone who
wanted to talk about everything except himself.”
The interviews in Memento Gorey are drawn from Seufert’s work on a feature length
documentary shot with Edward Gorey’s involvement and encouragement from 1996 to 2000, the year of Gorey’s untimely passing at his home on Cape Cod. That film, 30 years in the making is slated for release in the coming year. “Originally the film was going to be completely driven by Gorey’s interviews, however we decided to take on the further production of interviews with, not only friends and family, but significant artists who were inspired by his work.”
That list of artists included perspectives and recollections from Neil Gaiman, Lemony
Snicket, Terry Gilliam, Danny Elfman, Julie Harris, and more. “Once Edward passed,”
recounts Seufert, “even though we had many hours of footage we still had significant production to accomplish, traveling the world to track down those additional interviews featured in this book.” Seufert creates an intimate visual documentation that will interest Gorey’s readers in the humously macabre sensibility that defines Gorey’s legacy and also those who’ve yet to encounter his work, which includes the opening animation to the Mystery! Series on WGBH and a Tony Award for his costumes and sets on the 1978 broadway production of Dracula. The combination of this rare trove of unpublished interviews along with the intimate photographs makes the book a strong candidate for those looking for an intimate look of the person behind the artwork.
“I thought I had more time, says Seufert. “There’s so much more I’d personally want to know. I mentioned to estate executor Andreas Brown that Edward seemed to me, from an anthropological perspective, the last of a long lost race. He said, ‘Have you considered that it’s the reverse, rather he was the first of a new race, or generation of artists?’ It’s with those ideas in mind that I push this out to the world after this long with enough of the raw information for people to hopefully make up their own minds.”
Twenty six years after Gorey’s passing Memento Gorey’s transcripts and photos, which document Gorey’s house and possessions, even including the contents of his
refrigerator, is a new piece in the Edward Gorey puzzle.
It may offer the most personal portrait yet of the famously enigmatic illustrator.
“I didn’t set out to write a biography,” Seufert explains. “I set out to preserve the
experience of being in a room with Edward. The book is really about that — the
atmosphere, the humor, the oddness, the warmth.”
Early reviews include Peter Neumeyer, a Gorey friend and collaborator, “Seufert paints a vibrant and lively picture of that man that I knew, not only through his previously unpublished interviews with Ted at his favorite places but also with the gloriously intimate photographs of Edward’s house and personal belongings . . . through Seufert’s book I get to relive Ted again as I knew him, witty, intelligent, and endlessly creative.”
Musician Suzanne Vega provides this blurb. “A fascinating, unique and intimate look at the life and social world of the goth illustrator Edward Gorey . . . I recommend it.”
The book trailer can be seen here
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nj1u6aeL5Ts&t=43s
About the Author
Christopher Seufert is a filmmaker and documentarian who worked closely with Edward Gorey in his final years, producing the only documentary shot with and approved by Gorey. He has worked on film projects with Walter Cronkite, Albert Maysles. He lives with his children on the beach in Chatham, Cape Cod.
Review copies; high‑resolution images; author interview availability; press sheet available at www.ChristopherSeufert.com.
For review copies and media inquiries contact:
Elizabeth Peters
Email: elizabeth.p@schifferbooks.com
https://schifferbooks.com/products/memento-gorey?_pos=1&_sid=572acbb3c&_ss=r
Publisher note: Additional permissions and image assets are available through Schiffer Publishing’s publicity department upon request.
Contact Information:
Christopher Seufert Photography
Christopher Seufert
508 241 5555
Contact via Email
http://www.CapeCodPhoto.net
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