In case you wondered …

… Why American author Edward Gorey is more influential than ever, two decades after his death? (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

… Gorey’s England was an island of the mind not to be found on any map. Recalling her friendship with Gorey in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the critic and novelist Alison Lurie observed, ‘[We shared] a love of British literature and poetry and films… Back then, when neither of us had been abroad, it was a kind of fantasy world.’