Who's Who: Rocky Marciano

After sleepless nights from worrying about the Keller family in the Hawaii House, Jonathan says his nephew looks like he went a few round with this world heavyweight champion (The House where Nobody Lived; 116).

Staging "Heartbreak House"

The fifth - and we assume final - in a series of articles about Bellairs performing with the College of Saint Teresa Drama Department.

Swift As A Shadow, Short As Any Dream

Since we're celebrating The Figure in the Shadows this year we thought we might as well point out that today in the United States and Canada - February 2 - is the only day of the year when "figure in the shadows" refers to a rodent named Phil.

Survey: Your Favorite Mercer Mayer Artwork in "Figure"

Mercer Mayer created 13 full page illustrations for The Figure in the Shadows and, in celebration of its 40th anniversary, we want to know which one is your favorite.

Richard Dyer-Bennet: Modern Troubadour Covers Wide Range

It's been fifty years since musician Richard Dyer-Bennet visited the College of Saint Teresa campus in Winona, Minnesota, which is where Bellairs taught during 1964-65 school year.  Bellairs first encountered Dyer-Bennet when the singer visited the University of Notre Dame campus during the 1957-58 school year.

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.

Richard Dyer-Bennet: Tenor, Guitarist To Sing at College

It's been fifty years since musician Richard Dyer-Bennet visited the College of Saint Teresa campus in Winona, Minnesota, which is where Bellairs taught during 1964-65 school year.  Bellairs first encountered Dyer-Bennet when the singer visited the University of Notre Dame campus during the 1957-58 school year. Dyer-Bennet performed on the Saint Teresa campus on Jan. 20, and we'll discuss the event in a few days.

Who's Who: Charles Atlas

Experiencing bully problems of his own, Lewis sees an ad in the back of a comic book featuring this bodybuilder and decides to mail in the coupon with a quarter to begin his muscle building program [The Figure in the Shadows; 44].

Time Capsule: Jan. 2, 1925

It's the ninetieth anniversary of the death of former Marshall librarian and John's great aunt, Victoria Monk (1869-1925).  Victoria’s brother was John Monk; his daughter, Virginia, was the mother of John Bellairs.

Bellairs-Related Gorey Artwork At Auction

Right off the bat this year we have news of a forthcoming auction that includes some gems created by Edward Gorey.  Goreyana reports the auction on January 22, 2015 at Swann Galleries in New York City features three pieces of original art by Edward Gorey, two of which have ties to the Bellairs corpus of books.

Patton Oswalt: By the Book (NYT)

Finally from us tonight - and for the year - the New York Times has published an interview with actor and comedian Patton Oswalt. Oswalt has praised the work of John Bellairs in the past and does so again in this December 31 article when recalling some of his favorite childhood books:

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:

That Thou Shalt Like An Airy Spirit Go

Last year we celebrated forty years of The House with a Clock in its Walls by highlighting some of the people, places, and things that John mentioned in the text, including this about celebrated John Dee:

After moving into his uncle’s house Lewis Barnavelt spends time going through a lot of books, including one whose frontispiece is an engraving of this person raising the spirit of a dead woman [The House with a Clock in its Walls; 67-8].

Interview From Beyond the Grave

Last month John Bellairs joined the likes of A.A. Milne, Frank L. Baum, and J.D. Salinger and other authors as being one of Young Adult Mag's Interviews from Beyond the Grave:

Researching the PMLA Again

Not too long ago we found ourselves with access to JSTOR and we thought, on a whim, we might finally nail down the long-running PMLA question.