John Bellairs
Created | Updated Feb 27, 2002
Writer from Haverhill
What do tales involving shy and often lonely children befriended by scholarly and eccentric adults, wizards good and evil, powerful talismans, ghastly grimoires, monsters of the darkest order, secret passages inside old mansions, maddening riddles, time traveling street cars, and enchanted coat racks equipped with mirrors that offer forbidden scenes of life on other planets as well as lonely views of ancient earthly ruins all have in common? They are all the product of the wonderfully fertile and singular imagination of the "Wizard from Haverhill," author John Bellairs.
John Bellairs is perhaps best known as the author of some 15 gothic mystery novels for young adults. Along with these, he also produced three "adult" books: St. Fidgeta and Other Parodies, The Pedant and the Shuffly, and the Tolkien inspired fantasy The Face in the Frost. With the recent reprint of The Pedant and the Shuffly by Mythopoeic Press, St. Fidgeta and Other Parodies, his first book, remains the only title no longer in print.
Biographical Information
Born on January 17, 1938, John Bellairs grew up in the small town of Marshall, Michigan. These were wonderful years for Bellairs, and he looked back upon them with great fondness. In his novels he often included things that happened to him as a child as well as things he wish would have happened. John Bellairs began his career as an English professor teaching at the College of St. Teresa in Winona, Minnesota and then at Shimer College in Mount Carrol, Illinois. However, after the success of his first book St. Fidgeta and Other Parodies, Bellairs attempted to turn to writing full-time. After a six month stay in England he realized that writing alone would not sustain him and so returned to the U.S. and picked up his teaching career once more. After the success of some of his later books, Bellairs was able to return to writing full-time for good. He spent much of his adult life in Haverhill, Massachusetts and died there of cardiovascular disease, March 8, 1991.
The Brad Strickland Connection
At the time of his death, John Bellairs left behind two unfinished manuscripts and two one-page synopsis for future adventures. Long-time Bellairs fan and friend, author Brad Strickland was commissioned by the estate of Bellairs to complete the two unfinished manuscripts and to write novels based on the two one-page outlines. These would become The Ghost in the Mirror, The Vengeance of the Witch-finder, The Drum, the Doll, and the Zombie, and The Doom of the Haunted Opera, respectively. Since then, Strickland has gone on to write six more adventures based on the characters of John Bellairs.
Web Resources
For a most most comprehensive website devoted to the life and works of John Bellairs, please refer to: The Compleat Bellairs
And for a research oriented website focusing on the life and works of John Bellairs, please refer to: Bellairsia
The Bellairsian Canon
Below is a comprehensive list of the works of John Bellairs and those completed (+) and continued (*) by Brad Strickland:
1. St. Fidgeta and Other Parodies (1966)
2. The Pedant and the Shuffly (1968)
3. The Face in the Frost (1969)
4. The House With a Clock in its Walls (1973)
5. The Figure in the Shadows (1975)
6. The Letter, the Witch, and the Ring (1976)
7. The Treasure of Alpheus Winterborn (1978)
8. The Curse of the Blue Figurine (1983)
9. The Mummy, the Will, and the Crypt (1983)
10.The Dark Secret of Weatherend (1984)
11.The Spell of the Sorcerer's Skull (1984)
12.The Revenge of the Wizard's Ghost (1985)
13.The Eyes of the Killer Robot (1986)
14.The Lamp From the Warlock's Tomb (1988)
15.The Trolley to Yesterday (1989)
16.The Chessmen of Doom (1989)
17.The Secret of the Underground Room (1990)
18.The Mansion in the Mist (1992)
19.The Ghost in the Mirror (1993)+
20.The Vengeance of the Witch-finder (1993)+
21.The Drum, the Doll, and the Zombie (1994)+
22.The Doom of the Haunted Opera (1995)*
23.The Hand of the Necromancer (1996)*
24.The Bell, the Book, and the Spellbinder (1997)*
25.The Specter From the Magician's Museum (1998)*
26.The Wrath of the Grinning Ghost (1999)*
27.The Beast Under the Wizard's Bridge (2000)*
28.The Tower at the End of the World (2001)*
29.The Whistle, the Grave, and the Ghost (2003)*
Excluding The Pedant and the Shuffly, St. Fidgeta and Other Parodies, and The Face in the Frost, the remaining novels of John Bellairs can be divided into three separate series: that of Lewis Barnevelt set in New Zebedee, Michigan, that of Anthony Monday set in Hoosac Minnesota, and that of Johnny Dixon set in Duston Heights, Massachusetts. Listed below in the order in which they were published are the books in these series:
Lewis Barnavelt series
1. The House With a Clock in Its Walls
2. The Figure in the Shadows
3. The Letter, the Witch, and the Ring
4. The Ghost in the Mirror
5. The Vengeance of Witch-finder
6. The Doom of the Haunted Opera
7. The Specter From the Magician's Museum
8. The Beast Under the Wizard's Bridge
9. The Tower at the End of the World
10.The Whistle, the Grave, and the Ghost (forthcoming)
Anthony Monday series
1. The Treasure of Alpheus Winterborn
2. The Dark Secret of Weatherend
3. The Lamp From the Warlock's Tomb
4. The Mansion in the Mist
Johnny Dixon series
1. The Curse of the Blue Figurine
2. The Mummy, the Will, and the Crypt
3. The Spell of the Sorcerer's Skull
4. The Revenge of the Wizard's Ghost
5. The Eyes of the Killer Robot
6. The Trolley to Yesterday
7. The Chessmen of Doom
8. The Secret of the Underground Room
9. The Drum, the Doll, and the Zombie
10.The Hand of the Necromancer
11.The Bell, the Book, and the Spellbinder
12.The Wrath of the Grinning Ghost
