John Bellairs

John Bellairs
Born	John Anthony Bellairs (1938-01-17)January 17, 1938 Marshall, Michigan
Died	March 8, 1991(1991-03-08) (aged 53) Haverhill, Massachusetts
Occupation	Novelist
Nationality	American
Education	University of Notre Dame, University of Chicago
Period	1966–1991
Genre	Fantasy, Horror, Humor
Website
www.bellairsia.com

John Anthony Bellairs (January 17, 1938–March 8, 1991) was an American author, best known for his well-respected fantasy novel The Face in the Frost as well as many gothic mystery novels for young adults featuring Lewis Barnavelt, Anthony Monday, and Johnny Dixon.

Biography

After earning degrees at University of Notre Dame and the University of Chicago, Bellairs taught English at various midwestern and New England colleges for several years before turning full-time to writing in 1971. He maintained a lifelong interest in archaeology, architecture, kitschy antiques, bad poetry, traveling to the UK, and studying history and Latin. His favorite authors included Charles Dickens, Henry James, C.V. Wedgwood, and Garrett Mattingly, as well as M.R. James, from whose ghost stories he occasionally borrowed elements to work into his own fiction.

His first published work, St. Fidgeta and Other Parodies, was a collection of short stories satirizing the rites and rituals of Second Vatican Council-era Catholicism. The title story of St. Fidgeta grew out of stories Bellairs made up and shared with friends while living in Chicago. After committing one such story to paper, he sent it to the Chicago-based Catholic magazine the Critic, which published the story in its summer 1965 edition. The following year, the hagiography of St. Fidgeta was supplemented by eleven other humorous stories, including an essay on lesser-known popes of antiquity, a cathedral constructed over the course of centuries, and a spoof letter from a modern-day Xavier Rynne about the escapades at the fictional Third Vatican Council. The book remained out of print for decades until it was rereleased in a 2009 anthology.

The Pedant and the Shuffly, his second book, was a short illustrated fable that detailed the chaotic encounter of the two title characters and logic. It was originally published in 1968 and rereleased in 2001 and 2009.

Bellairs undertook The Face in the Frost while living in Britain and after reading J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, but it is not much like that book, apart from sharing the idea of a wizard who is palpably human and not a literary stereotype. Bellairs said of his third book: "The Face in the Frost was an attempt to write in the Tolkien manner. I was much taken by The Lord of the Rings and wanted to do a modest work on those lines. In reading the latter book I was struck by the fact that Gandalf was not much of a person—just a good guy. So I gave Prospero, my wizard, most of my phobias and crotchets. It was simply meant as entertainment and any profundity will have to be read in." Writing in 1973, Lin Carter described The Face in the Frost as one of the three best fantasy novels to appear since The Lord of the Rings. Carter stated that Bellairs was planning a sequel to The Face in the Frost at the time. An unfinished sequel titled The Dolphin Cross was included in the 2009 anthology Magic Mirrors, which was published by the New England Science Fiction Association press.

The House with a Clock in Its Walls (1973), Bellairs's next novel, was originally composed as a contemporary adult fantasy, but at the time there was little market for such a thing. The second publisher to which it was submitted suggested rewriting it as a young readers' book; Bellairs did so, and thus determined the future course of his career. Bellairs wound up writing 15 young-adult novels.

Two books, The House with a Clock in its Walls and The Treasure of Alpheus Winterborn, were adapted for television in 1979 and 1980, respectively. A number of books have also been released in such languages as German, French, Japanese, and Polish, among others.

Death and afterward

Bellairs died of cardiovascular disease at his home in Haverhill, Massachusetts, in 1991. He was 53 years old.

At the time of his death, he left behind two unfinished manuscripts and two one-page synopses for future adventures. Author Brad Strickland was commissioned by the Bellairs estate to complete the two unfinished manuscripts and to write novels based on the two one-page outlines. These would become The Ghost in the Mirror; The Vengeance of the Witch-finder; The Drum, the Doll, and the Zombie; and The Doom of the Haunted Opera, respectively. Starting in 1996 with The Hand of the Necromancer, Strickland began writing his own stories based on the established characters. In 1992, a historical marker was placed in front of the Cronin House in Bellairs's hometown of Marshall, noting that the imposing Italianate mansion was the basis for his 1973 book. Bellairs was inducted posthumously into the Haverhill Hall of Fame in 2000.

Strickland announced in spring 2005 that new adventures of the Bellairs characters were under way, following contract negotiations with the Bellairs estate and a two-year absence since his last-published novel. The first of these new adventures was The House Where Nobody Lived, released on October 5, 2006.

Illustrators

Edward Gorey provided covers and frontispieces for all but three of Bellairs's 15 children's works, and continued to provide them for the Strickland novels until his death in 2000. The novel The Beast Under the Wizard's Bridge featured Gorey's last published artwork before his death. Artists S. D. Schindler and Bart Goldman have created cover art for the books published since 2001.

The Gorey covers are no longer in print, though some books still contain interior Gorey illustrations.

Marilyn Fitschen provided the covers and illustrations for Bellairs's first two books, "St Fidgeta and Other Parodies" and "The Pedant and the Shuffly".

Movies

On November 18, 2011, Mythology Entertainment, founded by Brad Fischer, co-president of production at Phoenix Pictures; Laeta Kalogridis; and James Vanderbilt announced that they hired Eric Kripke, creator of Supernatural and Revolution, to write and produce a feature film based on John Bellairs' work through a partnership with John's estate. "Jamie, Laeta and I are thrilled to launch Mythology Entertainment and to be partnering with Eric Kripke and the estate of John Bellairs for our first feature project,” Fischer said. “As a kid, Eric was inspired by Bellairs’ work and these books have stayed with him through the years…. As a company, we aspire to be a haven for artists and friends who believe in the power of myth and remember that feeling we all got as kids, when the lights went down and the images came up and anything was possible.”

Awards

#	Book Title	Award	Year
01	The House with a Clock in its Walls	American Library Association Children's Books of International Interest Award	1973
02	The House with a Clock in its Walls	New York Times Outstanding Books of 1973 Award	1973
03	The House with a Clock in its Walls	South Carolina Children's Book Award Nominee	1978–1979
04	The House with a Clock in its Walls	Michigan Young Readers Award Nominee	1980
05	The House with a Clock in its Walls	Maude Hart Lovelace Award Nominee (Minnesota)	1982
06	The Letter, the Witch, and the Ring	South Carolina Children's Book Award Nominee	1979–1980
07	The Letter, the Witch, and the Ring	Utah Children's Fiction Book Award	1981
08	The Treasure of Alpheus Winterborn	Maud Hart Lovelace Award Nominee (Minnesota)	1983
09	The Curse of the Blue Figurine	Utah Children's Fiction Book Award Nominee	1985
10	The Curse of the Blue Figurine	Indian Paintbrush Book Award Nominee (Wyoming)	1986
11	The Curse of the Blue Figurine	Virginia Young Readers Award, Middle School Division	1986–1987
12	The Curse of the Blue Figurine	Read-Aloud Books Too Good to Miss List (Indiana Library Federation)	1990–1991
13	The Mummy, the Will, and the Crypt	Iowa Teen Award Nominee	1985–1986
14	The Dark Secret of Weatherend	Utah Children's Fiction Book Award Nominee	1987
15	The Eyes of the Killer Robot	Rebecca Caudill Young Readers Book Award Nominee (Illinois)	1991
16	The Lamp from the Warlock's Tomb	Edgar Allan Poe Award, Best Juvenile Division, Nominee	1989
17	The Specter from the Magician's Museum	Georgia Author of the Year Award, Young Adult Division	1998
18	The Specter from the Magician's Museum	New York Public Library "Best Books for the Teen Age" Awards

Bibliography

Novels

#	Title	Month	Year	Series	# Chapter	# Page	Author	Illustrator
01	St. Fidgeta and Other Parodies	Jun	1966		12	123	John Bellairs	Marilyn Fitschen
02	The Pedant and the Shuffly	Feb	1968		NA	79	John Bellairs	Marilyn Fitschen
03	The Face in the Frost		1969		11	174	John Bellairs	Marilyn Fitschen
04	The House with a Clock in its Walls	Jan	1973	Lewis Barnavelt	11	179	John Bellairs	Edward Gorey
05	The Figure in the Shadows		1975	Lewis Barnavelt	13	155	John Bellairs	Mercer Mayer
06	The Letter, the Witch, and the Ring	Jan	1976	Lewis Barnavelt	13	188	John Bellairs	Richard Egielski
07	The Treasure of Alpheus Winterborn	May	1978	Anthony Monday	17	180	John Bellairs	Judith Gwyn Brown
08	The Curse of the Blue Figurine	May	1983	Johnny Dixon	12	200	John Bellairs	Edward Gorey
09	The Mummy, the Will, and the Crypt	Nov	1983	Johnny Dixon	16	168	John Bellairs	Edward Gorey
10	The Dark Secret of Weatherend	Jul	1984	Anthony Monday	15	182	John Bellairs	Edward Gorey
11	The Spell of the Sorcerer's Skull	Nov	1984	Johnny Dixon	11	170	John Bellairs	Edward Gorey
12	The Revenge of the Wizard's Ghost	Nov	1985	Johnny Dixon	15	147	John Bellairs	Edward Gorey
13	The Eyes of the Killer Robot	Oct	1986	Johnny Dixon	17	167	John Bellairs	Edward Gorey
14	The Lamp from the Warlock's Tomb	May	1988	Anthony Monday	14	168	John Bellairs	Edward Gorey
15	The Trolley to Yesterday	Jul	1989	Johnny Dixon	18	183	John Bellairs	Edward Gorey
16	The Chessmen of Doom	Nov	1989	Johnny Dixon	16	155	John Bellairs	Edward Gorey
17	The Secret of the Underground Room	Mar	1990	Johnny Dixon	13	127	John Bellairs	Edward Gorey
18	The Mansion in the Mist	Aug	1992	Anthony Monday	17	170	John Bellairs	Edward Gorey
19	The Ghost in the Mirror	Apr	1993	Lewis Barnavelt	13	169	Co-Authored	Edward Gorey
20	The Vengeance of the Witch-finder	Sep	1993	Lewis Barnavelt	15	153	Co-Authored	Edward Gorey
21	The Drum, the Doll, and the Zombie	Sep	1994	Johnny Dixon	15	153	Co-Authored	Edward Gorey
22	The Doom of the Haunted Opera	Sep	1995	Lewis Barnavelt	16	153	Co-Authored	Edward Gorey
23	The Hand of the Necromancer	Sep	1996	Johnny Dixon	18	168	Brad Strickland	Edward Gorey
24	The Bell, the Book, and the Spellbinder	Oct	1997	Johnny Dixon	16	149	Brad Strickland	Edward Gorey
25	The Specter from the Magician's Museum	Mar	1998	Lewis Barnavelt	16	149	Brad Strickland	Edward Gorey
26	The Wrath of the Grinning Ghost	Sep	1999	Johnny Dixon	15	166	Brad Strickland	Edward Gorey
27	The Beast Under the Wizard's Bridge	Sep	2000	Lewis Barnavelt	15	151	Brad Strickland	Edward Gorey
28	The Tower at the End of the World	Sep	2001	Lewis Barnavelt	15	146	Brad Strickland	S. D. Schindler
29	The Whistle, the Grave, and the Ghost	Aug	2003	Lewis Barnavelt	14	152	Brad Strickland	S. D. Schindler
30	The House Where Nobody Lived	Oct	2006	Lewis Barnavelt	18	173	Brad Strickland	Bart Goldman
31	The Sign of the Sinister Sorcerer	Oct	2008	Lewis Barnavelt	13	168	Brad Strickland	Bart Goldman

Author of "Co-Authored" denotes books outlined by John Bellairs, completed by Brad Strickland.

Publishers

#	Title	Amber	Artist House	Bantam Skylark/BDD	Barnes & Noble	Corgi	Dell Yearling/BDD	Dial/Penguin	Editions du Rocher	Editora Record	Gallimard Jeunesse	Harcourt Brace Jovanovich	Heyne	Macmillan	Mythopoeic Press	NESFA Press	Puffin/Penguin	Shueisha Publishing
01	St. Fidgeta and Other Parodies													Y
02	The Pedant and the Shuffly													Y	Y
03	The Face in the Frost													Y
04	The House with a Clock in its Walls	Y	Y				Y	Y	Y	Y	Y		Y				Y
05	The Figure in the Shadows	Y	Y				Y	Y	Y	Y	Y		Y				Y
06	The Letter, the Witch, and the Ring	Y	Y				Y	Y	Y	Y	Y		Y				Y
07	The Treasure of Alpheus Winterborn			Y								Y
08	The Curse of the Blue Figurine	Y		Y		Y		Y	Y								Y
09	The Mummy, the Will, and the Crypt	Y		Y		Y		Y	Y								Y	Y
10	The Dark Secret of Weatherend			Y				Y									Y
11	The Spell of the Sorcerer's Skull	Y		Y		Y		Y	Y								Y	Y
12	The Revenge of the Wizard's Ghost			Y				Y	Y								Y	Y
13	The Eyes of the Killer Robot			Y				Y	Y								Y
14	The Lamp from the Warlock's Tomb			Y				Y									Y
15	The Trolley to Yesterday			Y				Y	Y								Y
16	The Chessmen of Doom			Y				Y									Y
17	The Secret of the Underground Room							Y	Y								Y
18	The Mansion in the Mist							Y									Y
19	The Ghost in the Mirror	Y	Y					Y	Y				Y				Y
20	The Vengeance of the Witch-finder	Y	Y					Y	Y				Y				Y
21	The Drum, the Doll, and the Zombie							Y	Y								Y
22	The Doom of the Haunted Opera	Y	Y					Y	Y				Y				Y
23	The Hand of the Necromancer							Y									Y
24	The Bell, the Book, and the Spellbinder							Y									Y
25	The Specter from the Magician's Museum	Y	Y					Y	Y				Y				Y
26	The Wrath of the Grinning Ghost							Y									Y
27	The Beast Under the Wizard's Bridge	Y	Y					Y	Y				Y				Y
28	The Tower at the End of the World							Y	Y								Y
29	The Whistle, the Grave, and the Ghost							Y
30	The House Where Nobody Lived							Y
31	The Sign of the Sinister Sorcerer							Y
32	Magic Mirrors															Y
33	The Best of John Bellairs				Y
34	The Best of John Bellairs 2				Y

Audiobooks

#	Title	Year	Publisher	Narrator
01	The Face in the Frost	1995	Recorded Books	George Guidall
02	The Ghost in the Mirror	1995	Recorded Books	George Guidall
03	The House with a Clock in its Walls	1995	Recorded Books	George Guidall
04	The Lamp from the Warlock's Tomb	1995	Recorded Books	Betty Low
05	The Mansion in the Mist	1995	Recorded Books	Betty Low

TV shows

#	Show Title	Book Title	TV Producer	Year
01	Once Upon a Midnight Scary	The House with a Clock in Its Walls	VideoGems	1979
02	The Clue According to Sherlock Holmes	The Treasure of Alpheus Winterborn	VideoGems	1980
03	The House with a Clock in its Walls	The House with a Clock in its Walls	Barr Films	1991
04	The Treasure of Alpheus Winterborn	The Treasure of Alpheus Winterborn	Barr Films	1991

External links

• Bellairsia | blog | forum
• Behind The Books: A Closer Look At John Bellairs
• Bellairs's grave in Greenwood Cemetery, Haverhill
• John Bellairs at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database

See also

• Lewis Barnavelt (series)
• Johnny Dixon (series)
• Anthony Monday (series)
• List of horror fiction authors