Edward Gorey, the craftsman of numerous little books for the child and childlike, is a unique figure in contemporary literature. It could be safely argued that his eminent domain within the world of children's fiction lies in particular in the realm of illustration, his stories pondered and sidestepped by the squeamish or the uninitiated. Yet, though his drawings have enhanced the work of John Ciardi, Edward Lear, and Edmund Wilson, among others, it is his own written works (many rather macabre little picture books) that sustain his uncanny fascination with the child and the adult. Though his drawings easily rank him with the most respected children's illustrators, these little books show that he also deserves recognition as this century's heir-apparent to the great tradition of Heinrich Hoffmann and Edward Lear--two of the nineteenth century's most esteemed practitioners of nonsense literature for children. And as with the best of...