Time Capsule: 1979

It’s hard to believe but thirty years ago The House with a Clock in its Walls made it to television.

Review: Letter "Focuses On A Personal Issue In Addition To The Main Plot"

Book review: The Letter, the Witch, and the Ring

Review: Figure "Plot...More Cohesive"

Book review: The Figure in the Shadows

Review: House "Everyday Dimension Gives Young Readers A Fallible Hero"

Book review: The House with a Clock in its Walls

In Small Square Letters, Were These Words: ‘Lucky You!’

Honestly - after we had a good chuckle and contemplated doing something similar - we couldn't help but think of ol' Alpheus Winterborn.

Our friends over at the Museum of Hoaxes recently shared the story of a woman who found "a small envelope in a rocking chair she bought at auction. In the envelope [were] a key and a note giving her directions to where $250 in U.S. gold coins was supposedly buried in a lead chest...The note was signed 'Chauncey Wolcott.'"

Review: Face "Chock-full Of Some Of The Most Perfectly Imaginative Ideas Ever"

Book review: The Face in the Frost

2009 Living History Portrayal Walk

Marshall's Oakridge Cemetery, one of the oldest continuously operated cemeteries in Michigan, is home again this year to the 9th Annual "If These Stones Could Talk..."  This Living History Portrayal walking tour will feature actors portraying significant people from Marshall's past at his or her's gravesite.

Portrayals this year include Beatrice H. Babbitt (1870-1959), an eccentric, penny-pinching, heiress and world traveler; Winston Schuler (1908-1993), the second family owner of the 100-year-old Schuler’s Restaurant (dubbed the “Consummate Host”); plus a host of others.

• Saturday, October 10, 7PM

For more information, including associated costs, please contact the Marshall Chamber of Commerce.

Bellairs Cam: Your Eyes On Thy Picture

Is there something strange in your neighborhood, a mysterious house or odd sculpture that either resembles or reminds you of something from John or Brad’s books? Then get your camera ready!

Where My Land And Living Lies

John Bellairs taught for only one school year at Shimer College, back when it was stationed in Mount Carroll, Illinois. The college left the small community in the 1970s for bigger pastures and the grounds became home of the Campbell Center for Historic Preservation (not quite the place to go if you want to find out how to get that century-old tobacco stain out of your Civil War-era floor rug).

Something About the (Other) Cronin House

Some comments on the Cronin House of Marshall...and some bit of history on the Cronin House in Hayward, California. There’s no relation between the two aside from the name but the one out west sounded as if it had an interesting history, too.

Time Capsule: The Face...at 40

We would do all Bellairsdom a great disservice if we did not acknowledge this year is the fortieth anniversary of The Face in the Frost. It is still the first (and the only compleat) story to feature the wizards Prospero and Roger Bacon who live in a strange land known only as the Southern Kingdom. And what a book it is.  Bellairs actually composed a lot of the book in another kingdom – the United Kingdom...England – in his years after teaching at Shimer College. How far along in Prospero's tale Bellairs was before he arrived in England is uncertain but the ambiance there surely inspired him – note the similarities of local flavor found in the Gorgon's head in Bath and Somerset's Five Dials Inn to some of the encounters in Face.

Dan Poblocki: The Stone Child

The Stone Child is the first book of author Dan Poblocki, who confesses to being a fan of Mr. Bellairs:

46th Annual Historic Home Tour

The Marshall, Michigan Home Tour is in its 46th year of offering exquisite private homes and businesses for public viewing and enjoyment. The tour will feature vintage homes and historic museums covering diverse specialties such as unusual architecture, antique home furnishings, and more. The Home Tour was voted the Best Home Tour by the readers of AAA's Michigan Living magazine.

• Saturday, September 12, 9:00 to 5:00
• Sunday, September 13, 10:00 to 5:00

For more information, including associated costs, please contact the Marshall Historical Society or Chamber of Commerce.

Elsewhere:

• Laura Martone shares some comments on the tour and some of the historical residences in Marshall
• Historical Ken discusses some of the other tours around Michigan.
• Some pictures of Marshall courtesy Scott Diussa and David Bowser.

Review: Weatherend "Probably the Worst So Far"

Book review: The Dark Secret of Weatherend

Time Capsule: 1959

August 21, 1959: Fifty years ago today, President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed a proclamation making Hawaii the 50th state. Hawaii had been considered for a state as far back as 1919 but it took another four decades to make it happen (read more about that here).