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the complete review - correspondence

From Ted to Tom

by
Edward Gorey

general information | review summaries | our review | links | about the author

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Our Assessment:

(-) : doesn't allow for much biographical insight in this presentation, but the envelopes are wonderful works of art

See our review for fuller assessment.

  From the Reviews:

• "One of the small delights of reading From Ted to Tom is seeing the slight but significant variations in the design of these dogs, including font changes in which the “Ts” are inscribed. (...) From Ted to Tom is a charming addition to Gorey’s bibliography, but it is also a moving chronicle of one very particular friendship." - Tobias Carroll, The Art Newspaper
  
  
• "The letters themselves were brief typewritten accounts, often melancholic in tone, about Gorey’s life in Cape Cod (.....) Wherever they came from, these envelopes suggest that it was the perfect climate for growing the strange, beautiful flowers of Gorey’s imaginary world." - William Tipper, Wall Street Journal

Please note that these ratings solely represent the complete review's biased interpretation and subjective opinion of the actual reviews and do not claim to accurately reflect or represent the views of the reviewers. Similarly the illustrative quotes chosen here are merely those the complete review subjectively believes represent the tenor and judgment of the review as a whole. We acknowledge (and remind and warn you) that they may, in fact, be entirely unrepresentative of the actual reviews by any other measure.

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The complete review's Review:

       As the subtitle has it, From Ted to Tom collects The Illustrated Envelopes of Edward Gorey -- fifty of them, sent by Gorey ("Ted (as his friends called him)") to Tom Fitzharris in 1974 and 1975. They are beautiful -- generally featuring two dogs wearing sweaters with a capital-'T' on them (for 'Ted' and 'Tom') --; some envelopes also have some illustration on the back side. (This volume includes full-page reproductions of both the front and the back of each envelope -- even when there is nothing on the back.).
       Gorey was clearly aware that he was doing something more than doodling on envelopes -- mentioning also in one of the letters excerpted here that he had: "a notebook for coping with the Fitzharris Envelope material"; he was also able to make copies -- which were not mailed but apparently handed over in person (they don't have a stamp or postage mark) -- of two envelopes that were lost in the mail, with Fitzharris explaining in his Introduction that among Gorey's notebooks was one that: "contained detailed sketches of every envelope he sent me; when two envelopes he sent got lost in the mail, he was able to redraw them exactly". Fitzharris must at some point have complained about or lamented the art-works being spoiled by the postmarks, with Gorey remarking in one of the letters: "As to postmarks, look at it this way. They add a Proustian dimension of time". Gorey also took to numbering the envelopes, starting with the fourth one, suggesting a sequence and the making of a full set. (Gorey numbered the envelopes in Roman numerals -- though the first one he did, the fourth, is numbered: "IIII" (rather than the proper IV); he repeats the slip in the fourteenth but acknowledges it there, writing: "XIIII (sic"; after that, he gets the fours right (XXIV, XXXIV, XLIV).)
       The illustrations are works of art -- playful, sometimes fairly simple but with several quite elaborate and often colored. Occasionally there is additional writing on the envelope, while Fitzharris' address is written in a variety of styles, sometimes relatively straightforwardly and other times made part of the illustrations. On one envelope Gorey adds Fitzharris' address a second time, typewritten -- worried that: "After I had settled on the lettering and it was too late, I realized its legibility was doubtful" -- but, in keeping with his awareness that the envelopes were works of art: "The typed address is removable, if you wish" (it apparently being written on some sort of adhesive strip -- which Fitzharris did not, in fact, choose to remove). (Interestingly, Gorey never wrote a senders-address on the back of his envelopes -- though later ones do have his address embossed.)
       Fitzharris notes that Gorey: "loved quotations and would often include one (or two) in his letters or inside the envelopes [...] They were all written in his distinctive, gorgeous hand-lettering on heavy stock note cards" -- which are also reproduced here (with Gorey, interestingly, not illustrating these -- just presenting the words and author-name). As to the letters themselves, Gorey typed those -- mentioning also at one point that: "If ever you get a letter from me all handwritten, cursive or otherwise, you will know I have gone round the bend". (The rare handwritten note that is included is very much the exception.)
       From Ted to Tom is not a collection of correspondence; most of what Gorey wrote is apparently not presented here, but rather just, at best, a few typed excerpts -- with many of the envelopes (especially the later ones) presented without any other contents. Fitzharris does note that Gorey wrote -- apparently at some length -- "updating me on what was new with him" or "his musings on what he was reading (often Proust)" -- but there is practically none of that here. The nature and extent of Fitzharris and Gorey's relationship remains largely a mystery -- though, for example, Fitzharris reports that they: "traveled the countryside for a few weeks" together in Scotland -- a rare trip abroad for Gorey. The friendship seems to have petered out fast as well, presumably after the fiftieth envelope was done, Fitzharris only noting: "The intensity of our correspondence inevitably ebbed. At some point, I just stopped hearing from Ted".
       The limited endnotes do provide occasional context and insight -- "The red leaf on the back of the envelope is the same color as the leaf I'd picked up as Ted and I hiked down the Flume Gorge in the White Mountains in New Hampshire on Saturday, October 19, 1974" (#26), or: "This is the most personal envelope Ted sent me. It was of my new apartment, filled with some of my favorite things" (#46) -- but for the most part the envelopes and what little of their contents is shared are left to stand on their own. Only very occasionally does Fitzharris show a glimmer of Goreyesque playfulness, as in commenting on Gorey opening a letter: "I hope that this incident will teach you not to try and have fun with people" (#29), to which Fitzharris' endnote-comment is: "I don't remember what the 'incident' was, but it did not teach me that".
       The endnotes are, on the whole, disappointing. Fitzharris offers translations of, for example, the French quotes and mentions -- "Toujours les tripes", for example, helpfully explained in the endnotes as: "The quote translates to: 'Always tripe'" but also, typically, with nothing more said about it, despite it being presented as an (unlikely-seeming) Ezra Pound quote. (In fact, Pound apparently did utter these words, in response to a companion wondering: "What on earth do young pelicans tearing at the old bird's entrails have to do with Wagner ?" when they admired the Fritz Schaper-Richard Wagner monument in Venice, with its pelican-adorned plinth -- a scene and exchange one can well imagine Gorey appreciating.)
       The endnotes also provide biographical information about those quoted (but not the sources of the quotes) -- and, sure, maybe it's helpful (or necessary, for contemporary readers ?) to be told, e.g.: "Carl Jung (1875-1961) was a Swiss psychiatrist and psychotherapist who founded the school of analytical psychology" and "René Magritte (1898-1967) was a Belgian surrealist artist", but .... sheesh ..... (Most peculiarly, Fitzharris' note regarding the notecard included with letter #16 featuring the lovely quote: "Many a mad magenta moment / Lights the lavender of life / SANDYS WASON" reads: "Ted wrote this about the note card: 'Sandy Wason (probably) was an eccentric English clergyman who wrote (hopelessly unattainable) light verse, a novel called, if I recollect, Palefox, about which all I know is that it is always snowing in it (v. The Unstrung Harp), and the only book I have of his, an anthology of prefaces and introductions he compiled with someone else'". All well and good -- except perhaps that Fitzharris can't be bothered finding out Wason's dates (1867 or 1868 to 1950) --, but, yes, 'Ted' did indeed write (this) about the note card, as this quote from Gorey is then also presented in its entirety in letter #19 (with the handwritten addition to the '(probably) was' of: "rather than is"), a peculiar sort of duplication (all the more annoying because Fitzharris misspells Wason's first name in the note, even though Gorey printed it correctly (as 'Sandys') on both the note card and then in the later letter (though Gorey flubbed the title slightly: Wason's 1927 novel was titled Palafox).)
       From Ted to Tom isn't just a collection of envelope-reproductions, but the limited inclusion of what the envelopes contained isn't anywhere near enough to make it a volume of correspondence; indeed, there are barely more than hints of a correspondence here. Perhaps it would have been better served leaving the letters out entirely and including only the other inserts, such as the notecards-with-the-quotes (and the few other odds and ends presented here); certainly, either way, more extensive endnotes would have been welcome. But the main attraction isn't, in any case, the words but rather the drawings, and these of course are splendid, and the volume is well worth having for these alone.

- M.A.Orthofer, 21 August 2025

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Links:

• New York Review Books publicity page
• Excerpts

• The Art Newspaper
• the arts fuse (scroll down for review)
• The Comics Journal
• The Conversation
• Goreyana
• Mary Beth Klatt
• Los Angeles Review of Books
• Oblivioni
• WSHU

• Edward Gorey Charitable Trust
• The Edward Gorey House

• Other books from New York Review Books

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About the Author:

       American artist Edward Gorey lived 1925 to 2000.

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© 2025 the complete review

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