My son really loves the Edward Gorey book The Doubtful Guest, which is great for me, because I also love Edward Gorey, and I hate reading dumb children’s books! But I noticed today, when reading it for the umpteenth time, that when the creature is said to like “peeling the soles off his white canvas shoes,” it appears he is wearing… Converse All Stars?
Cute!
I was like, is that possible? I checked the copyright: the book was published first in 1957. Converses had to be from the 1970s, no?
No! Chuck Taylors were first designed in 1917 and then redesigned in 1922, and have basically looked the same since then. Isn’t it great when a company is like, we do this one thing really well and so we think we’ll just continue doing it this way? (Cough *Gmail* cough.)
Some fun facts about Edward Gorey, while we’re on the subject:
*His roommate at Harvard was poet Frank O’Hara
*Although people often thought he was British for obvious reasons, he only traveled outside the US once in his life
*He was probably asexual
*The music video for Nine Inch Nails’s “The Perfect Drug” was designed to look Gorey-esque (didn’t succeed if you ask me, but I guess you didn’t)
Itinerantdaughter's Blog 
Leave a Reply