The Gashlycrumb Tinies

The Gashlycrumb Tinies: or, After the Outing is an alphabet book written by Edward Gorey that was first published in 1963 as the first of a collection of short stories called The Vinegar Works, the eleventh work by Gorey. The book tells the tale of 26 children (each representing a letter of the alphabet) and their untimely deaths. It is one of Edward Gorey's best-known books^[1] and is the most notorious amongst his roughly half-dozen mock alphabets.^[2] It has been described as a "sarcastic rebellion against a view of childhood that is sunny, idyllic, and instructive".^[2] The morbid humor of the book comes in part from the mundane ways in which the children in the story die, such as falling down the stairs or choking on a peach. Far from illustrating the dramatic and fantastical childhood nightmares, these scenarios instead poke fun at the banal paranoias that come as a part of parenting.^[3]

The Gashlycrumb Tinies

Author	Edward Gorey
Genre	Alphabet book
Published	1963

Gorey has stated the book to be inspired by "those 19th-century cautionary tales, I guess, though my book is punishment without misbehavior".^[4]

Description

The book tells of the deaths of twenty-six children in thirteen rhyming dactylic couplets, accompanied by the author's distinctive black-and-white illustrations. The book incorporates several elements common to alphabet books, such as naming each child in the book after a letter in the English alphabet and including illustrations for each entry. It describes the cause of death for each child, such as being set on fire, being run over by a train or being attacked by wild animals.

Legacy

While reading The Gashlycrumb Tinies, Sue Grafton was inspired to write a series of crime novels with titles each starting with a letter of the alphabet.^[5] The first novel was "A" Is for Alibi and the final novel before her death was "Y" Is for Yesterday.

See also

• Cautionary Tales for Children
• A Series of Unfortunate Events