When the first letter came, Tom Fitzharris was in no doubt as to who sent it. Drawn on the outside of the envelope was a clapboard house with an open window. Standing in the window was a little white dog, posed with great purpose. The dog had odd black stripes and a large T penciled on its side, as if it were wearing a college letter sweater. The simplicity, the wit, the elegant design—the sender was Fitzharris’s new friend, the American writer, artist, and Tony-winning theater designer Edward Gorey, known as “Ted” to those close to him.
Fitzharris met Gorey in 1974, outside the Town Hall in Midtown Manhattan. Gorey was wearing a large fur coat tucked under his distinctive gray beard, and the young photo researcher went up to him to ask about the French humorist Alphonse Allais, whose Story for Sara Gorey had illustrated. Did he have an English copy of the original? Gorey didn’t, but he did have the French edition and told Fitzharris to call him.
