O Lamentable Day

Earlier this summer something made me realize that we need a holiday. No, not a holiday like Arbor Day or Pirate Week but something Bellairs related. Why? A number of other literary people, places, and things seem to have a day set aside for fans to rally around and show their appreciation. For example (and this list is by no means inclusive):

BiblioFile: Luis Barnavelt I Widmo Z Muzeum Magii

We’re about due for another stirring of the pot that is the Polish editions of the Lewis Barnavelt series. Yes, we’re going about these very gradually because too much głupota tends to wear us (and our readers) down.

What's What: Seven Runic Alphabets

It is said that Prospero and Roger Bacon knew “seven different runic alphabets” [The Face in the Frost; vii], which is pretty good considering the characters from runic alphabets sort of look like they could be interchangeable.

48th Annual Historic Home Tour

The Marshall, Michigan Historic Home Tour has been called the Granddaddy of Midwest Home Tours and is famous all over the country for its traditions and heritage. The 48th annual tour will be offering exquisite private homes and businesses for public viewing and enjoyment.

Alert: Johnny Dixon & eReads

We often wonder what John’s reaction would have been to the Internet (to Wikipedia, to YouTube, to iSchtuff, and even the CompleatBellairs) and the rise of mobile electronic devices.

For someone who wrote a celebration of olfaction by describing a book as smelling like Old Spice talcum powder (and adding that “books that smelled that way were usually fun to read” [The House with a Clock in its Walls; 19]), it might be unfathomable for a book to exist without smells, without textures, without the chance of paper cuts, and without...well...paper.

Reviewing Strickland: Shadowshow

Review: ShadowShow

An Heir To Our Affections

Parker Peevyhouse (!) posts about books finished posthumously and a majority of her text is devoted to John Bellairs and, more so, Brad Strickland:

"This isn’t exactly an unusual occurrence, and it has also taken place in children’s publishing. The series that starts with the quirky and Gothic The House With A Clock In Its Walls, by John Bellairs, was completed by author Brad Strickland after Bellairs’ death. Strickland finished two manuscripts Bellairs had started before his death: The Ghost in the Mirror and The Vengeance of the Witch-Finder. He also wrote two more books based on Bellairs’ notes, and then wrote four more novels of his own using Bellairs’ characters.

...when I hear that an author is finishing a book or series created by another author, I get very suspicious. Is this an act of generosity to readers who want more...Bellairs? Is it a plan to take advantage of a dead author’s good name? We can’t know how...Bellairs would react to Strickland’s commandeering of his series–but we do know that these authors’ estates felt it wise to approve these new books.”

The Downtown Tourist visits Marshall

Andy Fitzpatrick writes in the Battle Creek Enquirer about the popularity of Marshall:

Goreyana: The Beast under the Wizard's Bridge

Notes from Goreyana about The Beast under the Wizard's Bridge:

Thou Seest The Twilight

I caught a few episodes recently of The Twilight Zone marathon that was on one of the cable channels. Airing I think twice over the course of the marathon was was the classic "Time Enough at Last" (1959). The program tells the story of a Henry Bemis, a bank teller "who loves books, yet is surrounded by those who would prevent him from reading them." Then something happens and he finds himself with more than enough time to read. And then something else happens and we’re left with one of the most popular and parodied episodes of the original run of Twilight Zone episodes. (I won’t tell you what happens – you’ll have to go out and spoil it for yourself or, better yet, watch the program.)

Goreyana: The Wrath of the Grinning Ghost

Notes from Goreyana about The Wrath of the Grinning Ghost:

This Isn’t Your Usual Alpheus Winterborn

In fact, we don’t know exactly what this is. Anyone?

Goreyana: The Specter from the Magician's Museum

Notes from Goreyana about The Specter from the Magician's Museum:

BiblioFile: La lettera la strega e l'anello

The original House trilogy, as published in the United States during the mid-1970s, was illustrated by three different and distinct artists: Edward Gorey, Mercer Meyer, and Richard Egielski.

Egielski’s illustrations for The Letter, the Witch, and the Ring (1976) were only his second published bookwork and are a marked departure from the widely-known pen-and-ink work of Gorey that has come to define most of Bellairs’ novels. Such was the difference that one reviewer took to call the gray-washed images “dark Americana" – something that immediately brought to our mind Grant Wood’s classic, American Gothic. Maybe it’s the way the perfectly round frames of Rose Rita’s glasses reminded us of the circular trees in his Wood’s paintings? Anyway, Regionalism as an art form may not have been on the forefront in the 1970s when Letter was published, but the illustrations work to describe a story that originates in the American heartland and takes us into a nightmarish world of witches and magic.

Review: Face "Quirky, Hodge-podgey Style"

Book review: The Face in the Frost