Something About Moss Men

The fens way.

Something About Various Voynich Owners

Divine provenance?

Something About Another Fan of 'Face’

Where was Bellairs going with it?

Something About the Bassoon

Wrapping at my chamber music door.

Something About Squirrel Appreciation Day

Sciuridae Scurrying Day

Something About Showing vs. Telling

Will he tell us what this show meant?

Finding "The Two Magicians" after 50 Years

Several decades (or so) ago, in a country whose name matters and is already known, there was an author named John Bellairs, and very much the one you are thinking of. He wrote about two characters named Prospero and Roger Bacon:

Prospero lived in the South Kingdom and...stayed at home a great deal, and his trips to other places in the North and South were made on odd occasions and (sometimes) by still odder modes of travel. [...] Roger Bacon, who spent most of his time in England, was more familiar with the border country between the North and the South than Prospero was.

This story crammed with wizards was The Face in the Frost. In 1973, author Lin Carter wrote in his Imaginary Worlds: the Art of Fantasy of his three choices for the best fantasy novels to appear since The Lord of the Rings. His selections were The Last Unicorn (1968) by Peter S. Beagle, Red Moon and Black Mountain (1970) by Joy Chant, and The Face in the Frost (1969). Carter included the following passage about Bellairs following his analysis:

...in fact, [Bellairs] has produced for my yet-unpublished anthology of juvenile fantasy, entitled Magic Kingdoms, a new short-story which tells how his diabolic duo [Prospero and Roger Bacon] first became friends.

Something About Being Purple-in-the-Face with Olmstead Press

A page from our bibliofiles.

Something About A First Printing of “Face”

From the collector’s corner.

Cover Critic: The Face in the Frost (US, 1991)

Cover Critic is our periodic survey of readers and fans about the various artwork and illustrations of the books in the Bellairs Corpus.

Something About Millhorn’s Michigan

If you seek a strange encounter with whosis, look about you!

Something About Visting the Southern Kingdom

Where would you rather go?

Survey: Your Favorite Marilyn Fitschen Artwork in #FaceInTheFrost

Marilyn Fitschen, artist and illustrator - and one of John Bellairs's oldest friends - created 12 full page illustrations for The Face in the Frost.  In celebration of its 50th anniversary this year, we want to know which one is your favorite.

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.")

Skellig Michael Awakens

CBS News recently discussed the popularity of Skellig Michael, an island in the Atlantic off the southwest tip of Ireland, after being featured in Star Wars: The Force Awakens. The island, an UNESCO World Heritage Site, is now being stormed by fans of the Jedi.

This Is My Birth-Day

We celebrate the 77th birthday of John Bellairs with this posting from Suzanne Fischer at HiLoBrow.com, whose members pay tribute to high- or low-brow heroes on his or her birthdays. Or something like that, we suppose.

Cat Rambo: You Should Read This

Fantasy and science fiction author Cat Rambo shared some thoughts recently in one of her You Should Read This posts about John Bellairs, specifically what she feels makes The Face in the Frost so special:

Interview: Quentin Dodd

Not too long ago we came across Snake Year Press and recognized this as being a reference to The Face in the Frost. It’s a small independent publishing outfit created by author Quentin Dodd who also happens to be a fan of John and his books. Anyone whose book titles include Beatnik Rutabagas from Beyond the Stars and Tommy Frasier and the Planet of the Slugs probably has something to say and - as that’s the name of the blog - we asked Quentin about life, reading, writing and why he chose that for a name from anything else he could have chosen.

And Then There's John Bellairs

Author John Rateliff paid some kind words to John Bellairs and The Face in the Frost earlier this month, noting how much the book has affected him:

Time Capsule: Imaginary Worlds (1973)

This year not only marks the fortieth year of The House with a Clock in it Walls (as has been noted throughout the blog’s last twelve months) but also of Imaginary Worlds: the Art of Fantasy, the study of the modern literary fantasy genre authored by Lin Carter (1930-88).