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I recently spent alot of money on books... (cont.)

Edward Gorey produced books from the early 1950's right up to his death in 2000. During the 60's and 70's he produced two to three books a year.  Many of these books have been reissued, some as many as three times. Most of his output was widely available while not an insignificant amount was privately published. Scarce even upon release these books now brings hundreds if not thousands of dollars. The rest follow the typical pattern of the older the book the higher the cost. Then there are the collaborations, the work done under assumed names, and the work he did purely as an illustrator. It is a daunting catalog. I'm going to spend the rest of my life building it.

The work of Mr. Gorey still falls under the broad umbrella of Crime Fiction. Many of his books deal with disreputable people doing disreputable things. I enjoy them because of their relative brevity and their rather sweet nature despite their macabre settings. I buy serviceable copies that while not cheap cause me no worry of finding perfect copies at bankers prices. The best part is these books turn up everywhere. There is always a vendor at a show with a small handful or shop owner who has placed a few behind a glass door.

So at long last we have reached the point where these posts have been titled in the way they have.

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