Something About a Purple Wooden Fish

Without purple-hued malt-worms.

I’ve read many books by John Bellairs, and I’ve read a lot about John Bellairs. The Bellairsia admins have done an excellent job documenting various things over the last twenty years, highlighting little anomalies here and there or putting a new spin on the books and characters. Still, one thing I’ve also been curious about is something Bellairs himself once mentioned. The Fifth Book of Junior Authors published an autobiographical sketch in which Bellairs casually mentioned the following:

And I love the fan letters I get: Some are decorated, some have drawings of scenes from my books. Recently I’ve been sent such things as a piece of mica, a sports quiz game, and a purple wooden fish.

The copyright on the article is 1983. Here it is, 35-plus years later and I’m still curious about this purple wooden fish. Where did it come from? What did it look like? Did someone make this as a gift? Is there any association with Mrs. Zimmermann? Does it still exist? Is the person who gifted it to him still around to tell its tale?

This trio of items Bellairs mentioned also reminds me of the three strange objects in the Glomus museum, precisely the chess set, the Greek newspaper, and the weathered signboard as seen in The Mummy, the Will, and the Crypt (1984). I doubt there was any connection between the three items Bellairs rattled off in his article. Unless....

Really, where is that fish?