Original Program for the Nantucket Stage Company Production of “Dracula”, signed by Edward Gorey, 1973

Original Program for the Nantucket Stage Company Production of “Dracula”, signed by Edward Gorey, 1973. The Nantucket Stage Company (which became the Straight Wharf Theatre, premiered this amazing production with stage sets and costume design by Edward Gorey, striking graphics by Fritz Eichenberg, and directed by John Wulp. The play featured John Shea in one of his earliest roles (best known later for starring as Lex Luther in the TV Superman series, as well as many film roles). In an interesting side note, Meryl Streep auditioned for the part of Lucy, but it had already been cast. After its successful opening on Nantucket, the production went on to it’s acclaimed run on Broadway. The program contains many photographs and Gorey designs, as well as great advertisements from island businesses of the day.

The program is in mint condition, hand autographed by Edward Gorey, and mounted in a carved and ebonized frame.

Measures: 11 in High x 8 in Wide

Framed: 13-1/2 in High x 10-1/4 in Wide

Fritz Eichenberg was born in Cologne, Germany in 1901, where the subsequent destruction of World War I helped to shape his anti-war sentiments. He worked as a printer’s apprentice, and studied at the Municipal School of Applied Arts in Cologne and the Academy of Graphic Arts in Leipzig, where he studied under Hugo Steiner-Prag. In 1923 he moved to Berlin to begin his career as an artist, producing illustrations for books and newspapers. In his newspaper and magazine work, Eichenberg was politically outspoken and sometimes both wrote and illustrated his own reporting. Eichenberg was a public critic of the Nazis, so the rise of Adolf Hitler convinced him to emigrate with his wife and children to the United States in 1931, where he settled in New York City for most of the remainder of his life.

He taught art at the New School for Social Research and at Pratt Institute, and was part of the WPA’s Federal Arts Project. He also served as the head of the art department at the University of Rhode Island and laid out the printmaking studios there. In his prolific career as a book illustrator, Eichenberg worked with many forms of literature but specialized in material with elements of extreme spiritual and emotional conflict, fantasy, or social satire. He was a long-time contributor to The Nation, and also wrote and illustrated books of folklore and children’s stories.

In 1947, he was elected into the National Academy of Design as an Associate member, and became a full Academician in 1949. He was a former director of Graphic Arts Center in Brooklyn and was on the faculty of Pratt Institute and later a former head of the art department at University of Rhode Island.

He died at home in Peace Dale, Rhode Island on November 30, 1990 at the age of 89.

Edward St. John Gorey (1925 – 2000) was an American writer and artist noted for his illustrated books. His characteristic pen-and-ink drawings often depict vaguely unsettling narrative scenes in Victorian and Edwardian settings. His work is so iconic and part of the American psyche that surely no further biography is called for here.