American poet and professor Ennis Rees (1925–2009) was the author and translator of many books for adults and children. He also served a one-year term as South Carolina's Poet Laureate in 1984. These fables are from his 1966 book, Fables from Aesop.
American author and artist Edward Gorey (1925–2000) combined whimsy and dark humor in such illustrated books as The Doubtful Guest, The Gashlycrumb Tinies, and four Amphigorey anthologies. His distinctive style, featuring characters in Victorian dress in surrealistic settings, achieved wide recognition with his opening-sequence animation for the PBS Mystery! series.