Book News: Glades Heist

The fourth book in Ken McKea’s Jim Dallas series was released July 3:

BiblioFile: La Pendule d'Halloween

The House with a Clock in its Walls was first translated pour françaises in 2001 when it was published by Editions du Rocher Jeunesse. There it was known as La Pendule d'Halloween (The Halloween Pendulum), which is not a bad title – we get the gist of what the publisher was going for – but there’s something missing. The cadence of the original words and the comes-across-as-mundane-but-actually-isn’t mentality seems lost on the French readers.

Let Thee Play The Scribe

c Mark Dery is looking for help transcribing interviews with Edward Gorey for the biography he is working on about Gorey.  The stint is unpaid, but could be a good opportunity for one of you out there:

Time Capsule: June 23, 1973

June 23, 1973: Forty years ago today The House with a Clock in its Walls was published. That’s roughly 1,261,440,000 seconds ago – but who’s counting?

"House" at 40 Fan Art: The High Street Wizards

Where’s There: Barnavelt House

The residence at 100 High Street in New Zebedee, Michigan, is the home of Jonathan Barnavelt and his nephew, Lewis, who moves to the house in the summer of 1948 [The House with a Clock in its Walls; 3].

BiblioFile: The House with a Clock in its Walls (1973)

The Goreyana blog has been – and continues to be – a great source for information about collecting the artwork of Edward Gorey. Back in 2009 the blog’s author, Irwin Terry, began a series of posts about the artwork Gorey created for the books by John Bellairs and those completed and continued by Brad Strickland. It took about two years to get through it all but in the end there was some splendid insights shared into a side of the books many were not familiar with. All said, Irwin was at the top of our list of people we wanted to hear from about which of Gorey's interior artwork created for the original edition of House was the best.

Conflicting Elements Exposed in Curse

Not long ago we were going through the archives and found some of Brad Strickland’s notes on inconsistencies and other tidbits in The Doom of the Haunted Opera. Since then we’ve come across some of our internal notes we took on oddities in The Curse of the Blue Figurine (1983). The book turns 30 this year (this month, no less) and we thought we’d share some of our notes on some of the “screwy moments” we found.

BiblioFile: Das Haus das tickts (1977)

House was published in Germany as Das Haus das tickts and is described on the back cover of that book as being, “Ein spiritistisch-komischer Gruselroman mit richtigen Hexen and Zauberen unserer Zeit.” (“A spiritualist-comic horror novel with real witches and magicians of our time.”)

What’s What: Doomsday Clock

A device hidden in the walls of the Barnavelt House that, when wound properly, will bring about the End of the World (The House with a Clock in its Walls; 133-6).

"House" at 40 Fan Art: Remembering Texaco

Interview: Irwin Terry

We were surprised in the fall of 2008 to discover Goreyana, a blog detailing one person's collection of artwork by author and illustrator Edward Gorey.  We were even more surprised when a few years later that blog began a series of posts highlighting the artwork Gorey created for the books by John Bellairs and Brad Strickland.   Irwin Terry is the main behind Goreyana as well as the co-owner of Century Studios, a stained glass studio in St. Paul, Minnesota where he and partner Bill Campbell specialize in the creation of museum quality reproductions of Tiffany Lamps.  Raised in Wisconsin (hey - Lewis Barnavelt’s old stomping grounds!), Terry attended college at the Philadelphia College of Art, and completed his BFA at the Minneapolis College of Art & Design.  Terry and Campbell collect children’s literature and original illustration artwork, with a special emphasis on Edward Gorey, the Oz book series, and illustrator John R. Neill.

This is the first in a series of interviews with Irwin.

Something About a Heart-Shaped Padlock

I got a new complaint.

Review: Figure "Sits Squarely In Terror"

Book review: The Figure in the Shadows

Time Capsule: May 1, 1983

May 1, 1983: We’re celebrating thirty years of evil charms, disappearing priests, strange spiders, and – of course – the ushabti.  Dial Books published The Curse of the Blue Figurine on May 1, 1983 – thirty years ago today – and ushered in a whole new slew of characters and locations.