Shelf Life: June 22

The Wonders of EHAG
The June 2009 theme for the Eclectic Halloween Artist Group (EHAG) is tributes to Edward Gorey. There’s a plethora of Gorey-inspired wickedness and other great Halloween artistry to lose yourself for an hour or so...so get crackin’! Jennifer MacNeill-Traylor has a nice Washington Irving-inspired piece and Laurie Hardin has created a majestic orb.

The Graveyard Book
Blogger bedsight mentions Bellairs’ name in his review of Neil Gaiman’s The Graveyard Book.

Portraying the real Myra Eells
The Fort Walla Walla Museum has hosted a few Living History performances recently including one of pioneer missionaries Cushing and Myra Eells. No, it's not the Myra Eells you think we're talking about, and, yes, there really was a real-life Myra Eells.

A Visit to Edward Gorey’s House
Twisted Susan tells the tale.

Time Capsule: 68 AD

July 9, 68 AD: The Roman Emperor Nero committed suicide after he was deposed by the Senate 1,941 years ago today (we think it was a Saturday). Nero is best remembered all these years later for his tyranny and lavishness – that he “fiddled while Rome burned” and later constructed a golden palace.

As for the fiddling, the Great Fire of Rome started on a July night in the year 64 AD. Who or what caused the fire is up for debate but popular legend placed the emperor playing his lyre and singing whilst the city burned (fiddles weren’t popular at the time, partially due to their non-existence). Following the fire Nero sought to construct a palace to show off his wealth and give the greatest parties the world had seen. The resulting Golden Palace, or Domus Aurea, was brick and mortar but took its name from the gold leaf that covered its walls. In addition to the interior of gold and jewels and paintings, Nero had a massive golden statue of himself installed outside the palace in the event anyone forgot where they were going or the name of their host.

During the 1960s, Bellairs was quite familiar with both Nero and the extravagances of his reign as emperor. John’s aborted doctoral dissertation was an analysis of The Tragedy of Nero (1624) written by an anonymous author in the midst of the Elizabethan era. While some of the historical names and places from this play popped up later in his fiction (i.e. Melichus and Sporus and even the Golden Palace), we’re told that once St. Fidgeta became a published reality, whatever remnants there were of the thesis were destroyed and John “never looked back.”

We cracked a smile at this bit of trivia: Nero is a major character in the film The Sign of the Cross (1932) where he is portrayed by actor Charles Laughton. A number of people we’ve interviewed over the years have responded with Laughton’s name* when we’ve asked for a description of Bellairs.

* Laughton and that Hitchcock fellow.

Bibliofile: June 1

With the Memorial Day weekend – the unofficial beginning of summer – behind us, we thought it best to start thinking about summer reading choices. Here’s a few suggestions that we’ve come across:

The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett
The Salisbury Cathedral angle caught our eye on Laura Casey’s blog about this “...historically accurate [book] set at Salisbury Cathedral built around 1220 in Salisbury, England.”

An Enemy at Green Knowe by Lucy Boston
Nick Campbell posted a comment in our Bellairsia newsgroup about An Enemy at Green Knowe:

..."Enemy..." is about demons and witches and things that go bump in the night – I think it's deliberately [M.R.] Jamesian (there's a hideous white hopping thing, just like in "Casting The Runes") and it definitely gave me a shiver, whilst obviously being something very individual, a children's novel, and with a happy ending - for the goodies, that is....

The Last Apprentice: Revenge of the Witch by Joseph Delaney
John Hornor says he has

...an unapologetic love for John Bellairs books. Bellairs was really a precursor to all these magical orphan YA novels you see coming out, the Potter books, the Lemony Snicket. Bellairs, to me, established a tone remarkable for its clarity and quirky characters decades before J.K. Rowling cobbled together Hogwarts from the stones of previous fantastic worlds.

He also discusses The Last Apprentice: Revenge of the Witch, also known as

The Spook's Apprentice (which is the UK title - I don't understand why everybody thinks Americans need the bombastic, Hollywood titles)....

The Bone Key by Sarah Monette
Charlotte recommends The Bone Key:

In this collection, ten old-fashioned ghostly stories are connected by their unwilling and frequently-appalled narrator, the unfortunate Kyle Murchison Booth. Awkward, insomniac, painfully shy, the archivist participates in just one badly-orchestrated necromantic ceremony and now the dead won’t leave him alone.

Inspired by the antiquarian ghost stories of M.R. James, Monette’s elegant prose delivers shivers without gore, Lovecraft without the bombast.

Huh...sort of sounds like the Bellairsia archivist raising Cain at staff meetings.

Wicked Will by Bailey MacDonald
Finally, Bailey MacDonald’s debut book – Wicked Will: A Mystery of Young William Shakespeare – will be published June 23, 2009:

When some wandering actors stroll into his home town of Stratford to perform their plays, Will Shakespeare thinks that he is going to have a lot of fun. He doesn't count on someone murdering Edmund Speight, an ill-tempered old farmer. Nor is he prepared when one of the actors, young Tom Pryne, needs Will's help because Tom's uncle has been falsely accused of the murder!

MacDonald is a professional actress and playwright who lives near Atlanta, Georgia and when she is not writing, she performs under a different name in a theater group in that city.

How about you? What's your summer reading schedule looking like?

Shelf Life: May 25

Goreyana: The Curse of the Blue Figurine
The Goreyana blog moves ahead several squares to discuss Edward Gorey’s artwork in The Curse of the Blue Figurine, which established the beloved format of wraparound dust-jackets in color and black-and-white frontispieces.

Stone Cold Crazy
In the novel Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell there is a wonderful passage in which the statues in York Minster Cathedral are brought to life by magic and begin to speak. The “Into My Own” blog speculates what the “statues and figures that can be seen in Edinburgh” might be pontificating about.

And this Irving Finkel, mentioned in the article in regard to the Lewis Chessmen? He’s real...though probably not Edward Gorey’s doppelganger, this inspired curio of the British Museum (“an Assyriologist specializing in Mesopotamian magic and medicine...also interested in the history of board games throughout the world...”) reminded of us of Murgatroyd Freel, the man ran-afoul by Professor Childermass’ temper.

Links:
britishmuseum.org
time.com
photo at flickr

Science Fiction and Fantasy Ethics
The Science Fiction and Fantasy Ethics blog goes live June 1st, with contributors Tony Ballantyne, Eric Brown, James Lovegrove, Jeffrey Thomas, and many others. Their mission is to “celebrate everything positive, funky and exciting in the Fantasy, Science Fiction and Horror Universe!”

A most massively useful thing
Oh...and it's Towel Day, by the way. Share and...oh, never mind.

Shelf Life: May 18

Photographic Memories
Andrew Devenney writes on his blog that he’s decided to “do an art/history project of some sort that'll be a mixture of photography and personal memoir...the subject will be my old hometown of Marshall, Michigan....” We look forward to seeing John's hometown through another pair of eyes.

Collecting the elusive Bellairs
Brer at the Power of Babel blog writes about his growing collection of Bellairs books: “Thirty years on I am grateful that my instinct and luck led me to buy that first Bellairs.” There is also a plug for the Magic Mirrors omnibus to be published...well, best we can tell now August. How about we say (and hope) “this year.”

Bookmarking the late John Bellairs
We couldn’t help but scratch our heads this week when we received an interesting email from people soliciting bookmarks for a Chicago-area celebrity bookmark auction. It began innocent enough but the message soon took an odd turn:

We...would LOVE it if John could sign a bookmark for us to auction off. It would be great if he could make the bookmark, but if you already have one he could sign and send that's great too. All proceeds go directly to our programs that teach adults the joys of literacy.

We think a lot of people would love it if John could sign anything, let alone a bookmark. The only such item we’ve ever seen is one released by Dial in the early 1990s that promotes the “mysterious worlds of John Bellairs.” There may have been some variations on this bookmark - we've heard of one that said "chillers" or something - but this is the first of any we've ever seen.

In all seriousness, there is more about the event online (www.bookmarkauction.org) and the sponsoring organization (www.literacychicago.org). It sounds like a worthy and exciting cause...just not one John will be able to participate in.

However...what would you do if you could create a Bellairsian bookmark? Got an ideas?

Photographic Memories: Staunton Harold

Here’s a great picture from Richard Trim of the Staunton Harold manor house near Leicestershire, England. Imagine young Johnny Dixon racing from the church to the Glomus manor house in a blinding rain all the while the Guardian is close on his heels. And then our soupy friend Godfrey de Bouillon shows up....

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Celebrating Michigan Week 2009

Michigan Week was created in 1954 to unite members of local communities and promote the good things the state has to offer. The Battle Creek Enquirer reports that “Marshall is one of the few cities across the state that puts on a host of activities celebrating Michigan's past, present and future.”

As part of the week-long calendar of events, the city will open many of their local museums to the public free of charge on Saturday, May 16 – or Hospitality/Tourism Day. From 10 AM to 5 PM one can visit the Honolulu House Museum, the American Museum of Magic, the Capitol Hill School, the Governor’s Mansion, and the Grand Army of the Republic (G.A.R.) Hall, among other locations.

At 11:00 the Brooks Memorial Fountain Rededication ceremony will take place at the intersection of Kalamazoo and Michigan Avenues. The Enquirer says that “over the past eight months, the fountain has undergone an extensive restoration, which included removing and replacing its historic columns. [...] A fundraising effort called Give to the Fountain Today, or GIFT, [raised] $257,000 in donations from groups and individuals in the community.”

Links:
Marshall Area Chamber of Commerce

Memoriam: Dominic DiMaggio

Dom DiMaggio, the former center fielder for the Boston Red Sox from 1940 to 1953, and the younger brother of Yankees center fielder Joe, died Friday, May 8. He was 92.

DiMaggio was special favorite of Johnny Dixon's because both wore glasses and Johnny had been to Fenway Park to hear the kids chant:

He’s better than his brother Joe,
Do-mi-nic Di-Mag-gi-o!

(The Mummy, the Will, and the Crypt, 39).

Goreyana: The House with a Clock in Its Walls

Our friends at Goreyana present the first post (of hopefully many) about the artwork found in the work of John Bellairs. Today it's the book that started everything, The House with a Clock in Its Walls.

Shelf Life: May 4

John Bellairs and Edward Gorey
The Goreyana blog discusses the artwork Gorey used to illustrate John Bellairs and Brad Strickland's books. We also learn that "In 1994, Edward Gorey found that his home needed extensive repairs which could be put off no longer. To this end, EG decided to sell many of the original illustrations he had been commissioned to create for various projects and authors over the years. Gotham Book Mart offered the original art, which included many of the Bellairs illustrations."

Memoriam: Tom Deitz
Author Tom Deitz has died; he was 57. He was the author of the Soulsmith Trilogy and nine books staring David Sullivan. The Gainesville Times discusses his memorial services:

It was not your typical memorial service, but probably one that [fantasy author] Tom Deitz would have wanted.

Brad Strickland, a longtime friend, colleague and fellow fantasy writer, put on a blue flowery shirt that he said he wore a couple years ago at a faculty picnic. "Tom came up to me and said, ‘Professor Strickland, that is a cool shirt. Only you’re not cool enough to wear it,’" Strickland said, drawing laughter from the crowd.

Always take the weather vane with you
Learnteach’s weather vane 1) apparently does not make snarfling noises, and 2) is a whale, not a hippo. Sort of like Prospero's house.

The Book in the Bathroom
Makebelievedude says he "was trying to remember the name of a children's book I read years ago last week. Tonight, I stumbled upon the first book in the series, randomly in a bathroom." Sure.

And finally, May the 4th be with you.