WITTY SPOOFS OF ARTISTS’ LIVES

INSTANT LIVES & MORE

By Howard Moss; Drawings by Edward Gorey

The Ecco Press, 97 pages, $11

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Emily Dickinson secretly distills witch hazel, Claude Debussy gets seasick in a rowboat trying to learn the music of waves, and Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley confronts the monster of her creation, a cheeky fellow who resists Mary’s attempts to return him to the attic by quipping, “That’s easier Sade than Donne.” This pithy collection combines witty spoofs of artists’ lives with Edward Gorey’s trademark satiric drawings.