BiblioFile: Puffin Publishes Monday

And now, a few words on the paperback editions of the Anthony Monday series from the 1990s.

Something About Puffin Paperbacks in the 1990s

Auk words.

Something About Minnesota Avenue

A road of clear blue water?

Something About Sonorous Busses

Hush that fuss.

Something About Borkman

Someone rotten in the state Minnesota.

Something About the Monday Club

So good to me?

Something About Some Sphinxes

Riddle ye this.

Something About Winona Post Road

If you don’t know where you’re going, any road may get you there.

Something About Ohio Matches

It's a fire starter. Blue-tipped fire starter.

Something About Red Idols

Babylonian Idol: the search for a superstar!

Something About Hey, Ho, the Wind and the Rain

Weathering heights of prices.

Survey: Your Favorite Judith Brown Artwork in "Treasure"

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.

Spooky Stories Haunt the Shelves of Winona Public Library

Ben McLeod wrote to us last decade to tell how Bellairsia finally helped him connect the dots between Hoosac and Winona:

I cannot describe to you the frisson of reading a book about a mysterious library and a treasure hidden within while sitting in the very library being described. As I read more of the Anthony Monday books certain particulars made it very, very clear that Hoosac was in fact Winona. When I tried to point out to parents and librarians that these books were about our town, I was met with disinterested disbelief. Adults simply assumed that I was projecting myself onto the characters of the books.

McLeod discovered through the site that Bellairs had taught at the now-defunct College of Saint Teresa in the early 1960s, prompting him to finally find his white whale.  Or his Winterborn.  Or Weatherend.  Whatever.   Now he's back (McLeod, that is), this time with an article in the Winona Post just in time for Halloween that further explains the connection and celebrates the four-book Anthony Monday series:

Survey: Your Favorite Anthony Monday Book?

Here's your chance to vote for your favorite book in the Anthony Monday series.

Alert: Anthony Monday & eReads

Spend your holiday season in Hoosac!  eReads, the oldest independent digital publisher in the field bringing out-of-print books back in electronic formats, has released the first book in the Anthony Monday series.

And Friendship Shall Combine

Every once in a while a fan asks what would happen if there was a crossover and Lewis, Anthony, and Johnny teamed-up. Jason wrote into our mailing list recently and put a different spin on the question, wondering if the books would have been even more successful had Bellairs only wrote one single series, instead of three separate ones?

Portraying The Real Myra Eells

We caught this bit of news from the Fort Walla Walla Museum World blog about its Living History Company and individuals portraying some of the Seventh Day Advenstist pioneers in the Walla Walla region dating to the latter half of the 19the century.

Among those being portrayed were pioneer missionaries Cushing and Myra Eells (shown here portrayed by Rogers Miles and Barbara Coddington).  No, it’s not the Myra Eells you think we’re talking about, and, yes, there really was a real-life Myra Eells.

Goreyana Presents John Bellairs

The Goreyana blog is a great source for information about collecting the artwork of Edward Gorey and we’re pleased to see author Irwin Terry will begin a series of posts about the artwork created for the books written by John Bellairs and those completed and continued by Brad Strickland.

Tea Exhibits My Tongue - Most Beautiful

It’s always interesting seeing where John’s name pops up. This time it was at the end of a discussion of tea, specifically mentioning lapsang souchong:

Discovering Hoosac

by guest contributor, Ben McLeod:

When I was about nine or ten years old, in the very early 1980's, I checked out the Winona Public Library's copy of The Treasure of Alpheus Winterborn. I probably took it back into the stacks, which is where I liked to curl up with creepy finds. But before you write this off as another fan's first-time discovery of Mr. Bellairs work, let me explain. I felt like Bastian in Michael Ende's The Neverending Story because as Anthony Monday wandered around the Hoosac Public Library, I began to think it was strangely familiar. As I read further and the novel's description of Hoosac developed, I came to realize that it was, in fact, Winona, Minnesota under a different name.