From the opening welcome of "Greetings, Dear Reader!" this clever biography invites children to share the experiences and influences that shaped the unique creative output of writer and illustrator Edward Gorey. From a precocious boy who taught himself to read, to an army clerk, and then an eccentric Harvard student, Edward wasn't sure what he wanted to do with his life ("Alas and alack, he did not"), but through it all, he wrote. It wasn't until working in a publisher's art department that Edward began writing and illustrating his own books. Although everyone was not a fan of his "odd and unfortunate endings," Edward "liked writing and illustrating stories that made readers uneasy." Dark hues and elongated figures pair comfortably with a distinctive conversational narrative, working together to capture Edward Gorey's sensibility as a writer and artist while celebrating his singular intersection of silly and sinister. (Ages 6-10)