Quoth Bellairsia: #DarkSecretOfWeatherend

"My name is Yon Yonson,
Ay come from Vis-con-sin...."

John Johnson - The Dark Secret of Weatherend

Remembering Ursula K. Le Guin

Forty years ago The Face in the Frost was first released in paperback through Ace Books, a well-known publisher of science fiction and fantasy titles. In a June, 1978, letter to his friend Gerald Kadish, Bellairs briefly mentions his book and then shares the good news:

"[Face] is coming out in November in paperback! I was sent the lurid jacket sample by a girl who works for Ace Paperbacks. The jacket has blurbs by Lin Carter and Ursula K. Le Guin, and I am tickled."

Le Guin died last week at her home in Oregon, leaving behind a celebrated body of work, including the Earthsea series, stories in the Hainish Cycle, and numerous standalone novels and short stories. Awards for her work include the National Book Award, the Newbery Medal, and multiple Hugo and Nebula awards.

(For the record, Le Guin says Face is “authentic fantasy by a writer who knows what wizardry is all about.")

Time Capsule: Jan. 27, 1938

We noted John's eightieth birthday earlier this month on Jan. 17.  Today’s the eightieth anniversary of his coming home from the hospital.  It’s not surprising to see he was born in Oaklawn Hospital, likely similar to the hospital Lewis visits at the end of The Figure in the Shadows (1975).

Quoth Bellairsia: Schnee, eis, und scheistwetter

"I was fortunate enough to observe that phenomenon before which the Aurora Borealis are as Christmas lights - the Notre Dame snow ploughs. There is nothing quite so thrilling as seeing a fleet of these Dreadnoughts sweeping the plain, transforming the snow-covered wastes into ice-covered wastes for the convenience of the student."

John Bellairs - Notre Dame Scholastic (January 23, 1959)

These Eighty Years: #HappyBirthday #JohnBellairs

Celebrating what would have been the 80th birthday of John Bellairs, born this 17th day of January in 1938, in Marshall, Michigan.  Birthday wishes courtesy of:

#JohnBellairs, author of my fave book #HouseWithAClockInItsWalls would have been 80 today. Happy Birthday, sir. It's an honor & a life goal adapting your book into a movie. (Everyone! Read the book! Then see the movie this fall!) @eliroth #JackBlack #CateBlanchett https://t.co/vLkon8kxwL

— Eric Kripke (@therealKripke) January 17, 2018

John Bellairs' birthday is Jan 17! In celebration, I just posted about Tim Powers and Bellairs. @Bellairsia: #HouseWithAClockInItsWalls #johnbellairs https://t.co/uVw34q3uW2

— Ned Hayes (@nedwriting) January 17, 2018

Some of This Year's Book-to-Movie Adaptations

Amy Durant writes in the Watertown (NY) Daily Times of the various books being adapted for the screen this year, of which she's counted 15.  Titles include Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451, Shirley Jackson's We Have Always Lived in the Castle and The Haunting of Hill House (as Durnt points out, no "The Lottery"), and the classic A Wrinkle in Time by Madeline L’Engle.  Oh, and one this site and its fans are keenly aware of:

Playing the Torturer, By Small and Small

 

The notion of memorializing a crime in miniature caught our eye this Sunday morning, if only because it reminded us of the dollhouse room in the Childermass Clock, itself a rather macabre monument to Childermass family secrets.

The Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death are a series of intricately-designed dollhouse-style dioramas created by Frances Glessner Lee (1878–1962), a pioneer in forensic science.  Glessner Lee used her inheritance to establish a department of legal medicine at Harvard Medical School in 1936, and donated the first of the Nutshell Studies in 1946 for use in lectures on the subject of crime scene investigation. In 1966, the department was dissolved, and the dioramas went to the Maryland Medical Examiner’s Office in Baltimore, Maryland, where they are on permanent loan and still used for forensic seminars.  The 2012 documentary "Of Dolls and Murder" celebrates Glessner Lee and her creations, the latter of which were the focus of a story on CBS-TV's Sunday Morning.

Quoth Bellairsia: #EyesOfTheKillerRobot

"I'm cleaning out the back room of my study, something that has needed doing for ages."

Roderick Childermass - The Eyes of the Killer Robot

Quoth Bellairsia: #HouseWithAClockInItsWalls

"That’s all I need. An expert on Elizabethan ordnance."

Jonathan Barnavelt - The House with a Clock in its Walls

Poll: Your Favorite Judith Brown Artwork in #TreasureOfAlpheusWinterborn

Artist and illustrator Judith Gwyn Brown created 10 full page illustrations for The Treasure of Alpheus Winterborn and, in celebration of its 40th anniversary, we want to know which one is your favorite.

Perhaps it's Philpotts peering from behind the bars of the bank, or a dog barking in the dead of night, or maybe a scene from inside (or outside) the library, or just the enigmatic philanthropist himself, smiling in his portrait that hangs above the fireplace.

Or something else entirely?

Watch out for ol' Eagle Eye and pick your favorite from our list below and see how it ranks with other fans!

And of course, believe only half of what you read.

2018 Kicks Off with #JohnBellairsMonth, 'Pedant' Celebration

Happy 2018!

Right out of the gate, January is Richard Denney‏’s #JohnBellairsMonth in which he and other fans will read The House with a Clock in its Walls (he’s done this month-thing before, too, so he’s no novice).  If you want some discussion topics or need some past reviews we've got you covered.

It’s a good book to celebrate and a good month to celebrate, too, as the 17th would have been John’s 80th birthday.