American authors from Paul Auster to Rebecca Brown; from Charles Bukowski to Steve Erickson; and from Steven Millhauser all the way to Edward Gorey.

Shibata does not rely on anyone's instincts but his own: he chooses the authors that capture his fancy and imagination and goes on from there, creating a market for them in Japan where, in some cases, there would not have been one otherwise. Such is the wonderful power of an insightful and gifted translator." [excerpted from It's Better If I'm Not There, Roger Pulvers, Shukan ST, JapanTimes.com, 9/22/2003].

In fact, Gorey’s books have shown up on Japanese shores before, if at first a little undercover so to speak. Hayakawa's Mystery Magazine, an anthology periodical created by Hayakawa Publishing, introduced The Awdrey-Gore Legacy in 1976, The Sinking Spell and The Gashlycrumb Tinies in 1978, and The Stupid Joke [translated by Masahiro Hirose] as included in the Dark Forces 2 anthology in 1982. After a long hiatus, the periodical returned to Gorey with The Willowdale Handcar [translated by Toshinobu Hamanaka] in 2006, and most recently The Other Statue [also translated by Hamanaka] in May 2007. Before translating 'Willowdale' and 'Statue', Toshinobu Hamanaka found himself in the enviable position of drawing upon his own love of collecting Gorey first editions to work as editor on The Wonderful World of Edward Gorey, published in 2002 by Kawade Shobo. It serves as an in-depth biography and bibliography, a reference volume and pleasure cruise of Edward Gorey-ana, and is suffused with lots of color photographs.