"All is Discovered!" A review of the 4th Anthology Amphigorey Again Available Oct 31 2006 Hardcover: 260 pages Publisher: Harcourt Books ISBN: 0-15-101107-9 Amphigorey series now complete Reviewed 28 Sept 2006 by Glen Emil For more information about Amphigorey Again, visit the Harcourt Books Order from Amazon.com

1 October 2006      Special to Goreyography A mphigorey Again is the fourth, and possibly last, anthology of works by American author and artist Edward St. John Gorey (1925-2000). Picking up where the previous anthology Amphigorey Also (1983) left off, Amphigorey Again reaches as far back as 1968 with the inclusion of The Other Statue and Categor y in 1974, at the same time encompassing the last of Gorey’s work with The Headless Bust (1999). Even with the 29 works in this volume, there’s still a tidy handful of his books left waiting in the wings. Several popular titles may have been excluded because they were collaborations or movable or cut-apart books, thereby tough to represent in 2D. It may be a while henceforward before we see another like compendium. With that in mind – get it! – be it indispensable or naught. What lies within?    The Galoshes of Remorse, a periodical illustration    Signs of Spring, a newspaper feature    Seasonal Confusion, a newspaper feature    Random Walk, a newspaper feature    Categor y, trade publication    Bibliophile (unlisted pen and ink and watercolor illustration)    The Other Statue, trade publication    10 Impossible Objects (abridged), pen and ink illustrations    The Universal Solvent (abridged), privately published    Scènes de Ballet, privately published postcards    Verse Advice, a newspaper feature    The Deadly Blotter: Thoughtful Alphabet XVII,    privately published    Creativity, a periodical pen and ink illustration    The Retrieved Locket, privately published    The Water Flowers, trade publication    The Haunted Tea-Cozy, trade publication    Christmas Wrap-Up, a pen and ink and watercolor illustration    The Headless Bust, trade publication    The Just Dessert: Thoughtful Alphabet XI, privately    published    The Admonitory Hippopotamus, a previously unpublished    work    Neglected Murderesses, privately published postcards    Tragédies Topiaries, privately published postcards    The Raging Tide, trade publication    The Unknown Vegetable, privately published    Random Walk, a newspaper feature    Serious Life: A Cruise, a newspaper feature    Figbash Acrobate, privately published    La Malle Saignante, a previously unpublished work    The Izzard Book, by Mrs. Regera Dowdy, a previously    unpublished work Two previously unpublished works, The Admonitory Hippopotamus and The Izzard Book, are supposedly unfinished. The other unpublished work, La Malle Saignante is wonderfully conceived and realized; I wonder why it never made it to the bookshelves. But it is The Admonitory Hippopotamus I am especially fond. A compact epic, a touching and vivid portrayal, it is all text. Originally announced in the first Amphigorey back in 1972, I always kept a third eye out for its debut. Though it lacks illustrations, I easily let my mind cast the parts of Angelica and Sneezby with Gorey demoiselles and hippo in the manner of The Nursery Frieze (1964) – and am pleased as punch it’s included. The newspaper and periodical features are pleasing treasures. Unless one was diligently clipping NY Times Magazine and NY Times Book Review and the like, one would’ve missed most of these. These seasonal limericks and short stories remind me how versatile Gorey was with the English, and occasionally French, languages. His Dogear Wryde postcard series, like Tragédies Topiaries, are strong examples of Gorey’s ability to tell stories in a similarly abbreviated medium, nearly all resemble well-articulated storyboards. Amphigorey Again can also be called The Colorful Compendium – it has twelve works in full spectrum Gorey palette. Works in color previously appeared only once in the first anthology, twice in the third. The twelve works in this volume vary wildly in range and palette, but I find Gorey’s subdued tints very nicely done, especially in Galoshes and Random Walk. But what I really like is Gorey’s acres of black & white, pen & ink hatching & cross-hatching – and Gorey went to town in La Malle Saignante. The story could have fallen from a Louis Feuillade notebook, but the artwork is thick with graphic motifs used in earlier works like The West Wing (1963) and The Gilded Bat (1966). The density of hatch & x-hatch, if measured in strokes-per-inch, seems as painful as it is beautiful to regard. One can only hope Gorey enjoyed creating these as much as we enjoy soaking them in. Like so many other Edward Gorey classics, the closer one looks, the more one is drawn in.     “ The hippopotamus peered out at her from       behind the altar.       ‘Fly at once!’ he said. ‘All is discovered.’ ”     -- from The Admonitory Hippopotamus: or, Angelica and     Sneezby by Edward Gorey Glen Emil, Goreyography Special thanks to Kevin McDermott and Andreas Brown and David Hough at Harcourt their kind assistance. ©2006 Goreyography+WZP. All rights reserved.