Something About Backwards Day

Madam I'm Adam

Something About National Name Your Car Day

The suspension is killing me.

Bid Him Bring His Pen And Inkhorn To Auction

Last week the Goreyana blog posted this bit of news for collectors:

On Thursday January 23rd, Swann Auction Galleries in New York City is having its second 20th Century Illustration Auction. Previews begin Friday January 17th. This auction includes a nice selection of original artwork by Edward "Bill" Gorey. Of special interest are four full color paintings by Mr. Gorey created as dust jacket designs the John Bellairs book series.

BiblioFile: O Fantasma No Espelho

We mentioned earlier in the year that 2013 marks 20 years since The Ghost in the Mirror was published. We were looking at the book’s history recently, recalling something that had bugged us once in the past, and thought we’d ask the boys...eh, our amigos...in Brazil about this one.

BiblioFile: House/Ghost Flip Book (2002, Puffin)

Whoever said two books are better than one probably meant well. Then someone came up with tête-bêche and quite possibly blew the mind of that original person.

Time Capsule: April 5, 1993

April 5, 1993: We’re pleased to be celebrating the 20th anniversary of The Ghost in the Mirror this month - not just the celebrated return of Lewis Barnavelt and Rose Rita Pottinger but the debut of Brad Strickland’s association with the series, too.

Goreyana: The Ghost in the Mirror

Notes from Goreyana about The Ghost in the Mirror:

• This piece...is a masterpiece of suspense and terror. If you did not know that it was a piece of dust jacket artwork, you would view it as a wonderfully creepy painting by Mr. Gorey. Barely visible on the printed dust jacket are two faces which appear on the front cover inside the "O" of Ghost and Mirror. They can be seen a bit more clearly floating in the sky on the original art.
• The dust jacket painting was included in the 2001 Bromer Booksellers catalog of Gorey items. The hand-lettered type for the cover/spine was included as a separate piece of art. I am not aware of the frontis drawing being available from Bromer or Gotham Book Mart.

Dumpster Diving For Bellairs

I thought someone might find this of interest. Our library is starting to get rid of our audiobook on cassette collection. It seems our audiobooks on CD are rendering them obsolete. Our children's librarian was helping a 10-year-old child the other day find Harry Potter books on audio, and when she was informed all we had left on the shelves were cassette versions, the girl replied, "What's a cassette?"

Book Alert: Le Fantôme dans le Miroir

The French edition of the The Ghost in the Mirror, with cover art by Lalex, is to be published this October. This is book #4 in the Kévin et les magiciens series.

Book Alert: House/Ghost Flip Book

A new paperback combined edition of The House with a Clock in Its Walls and The Ghost in the Mirror has hit the shelves. The book is a flip book, if you will: you first read House through to the end (or middle), flip the book over and read Ghost. Or - and hear us out - you read Ghost first through to end (or middle), flip the book over and ... well, you get the idea.

The cover work is identical to the Puffin paperback editions with artwork by Bart Goldman.

Gorey at Bromer Booksellers

Edward Gorey's illustrations for The Beast Under the Wizard's Bridge, The Dark Secret of Weatherend, The Ghost in the Mirror, and The Vengeance of the Witch-finder are available from Bromer Booksellers. As Beast is Gorey's last completed bookwork before his death in 2000, one understands how and why the cost of this artwork - along with one swell copy of the published work - sells at $10,500.00.

And, no, the Bellairsia staff cannot make you any deals.

Book Alert: 鏡のなかの幽霊

The Japanese edition of the The Ghost in the Mirror (loosely translated as Ghost inside of the mirror) will be published next March.