1966

Spring

• Bellairs is in enrolled in classes at the University of Chicago for Spring quarter [1].

June

• Saint Fidgeta and Other Parodies published.

July

• 14 - Date given on Career Counseling and Placement booklet; address given as Bellevue Avenue [2].
• 27 - Bellairs takes the train to Mount Carroll to meet Shimer College President F.J. Mullin and Dean of Faculty Robert Blackburn [3].
• 28 - Bellairs is offered a contract to teach at Shimer College and live in one of the men's residence h halls, effective September 1, 1966, through August 31, 1967 [4].

August

• Approximate date for Ph. D. [2]

September

• The Publication of the Modern Language Association (Vol. 81, No. 4, page 91) lists Bellairs as a member of the MLA; the address given is International House (Apt. 667).
• Bellairs begins work as a full-time member of the Humanities faculty at Shimer College in Mount Carroll, Illinois; serves as Resident Head of McKee Hall.
• 15 - John's first Humanities III class [5].

November

• 7 - "Bellairs Reviews Wilder" - Bellairs's review of the Green Curtain production of Thornton Wilder's "The Skin of Our Teeth" - is printed in the Excalibur.
• 7 - The article "Church Scholar Hall on St. Fidgeta Question" appears in the November 7 edition of the Excalibur in which Reverend Robert Hall, the church scholar in residence at Shimer College, pens a mock-scholarly analysis of Saint Fidgeta and Other Parodies.
• 30 - Bellairs resigns from Shimer College effective the end of the school year (Aug. 31, 1967) [6].

December

• John's Membership in the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) ends; he's been a member since 1963 [7].
• 12 - Shimer faculty member and course chairman Dr. John Hirschfield recommends the Spring 1967 Humanities II course include Saint Fidgeta and Other Parodies as an example of parody.  Bellairs will also teach the class [8].

Winter

• John is in enrolled in classes at the University of Chicago for Spring quarter [1].

Reference

• [1] Correspondence with University of Chicago Library Special Collections Research Center.
• [2] University of Chicago Career Counseling and Placement booklet (July 14, 1966).
• [3] Correspondence from Robert Blackburn to Francis Joseph Mullin (July 25, 1966).
• [4] Correspondence from Francis Joseph Mullin to John Bellairs (July 28, 1966).
• [5] Correspondence with Patricia Thomas (2002).
• [6] Correspondence from John Bellairs to Denis Cowan (Nov. 30, 1966).
• [7] Correspondence with American Association of University Professors (2003).
• [8] "Hirschfield Chooses Piece; Bellairs, Filled with Lust"; the Excalibur (Dec. 12, 1966).