John Bellairs Biography

John Bellairs – American mystery novelist, 1938-1991.

American mystery novelist, 1938-1991. The American mystery writer and master storyteller John Anthony Bellairs has enthralled countless fans with his intriguing tales that pit ordinary characters against extraordinary situations.

Bellairs’s stories include all the trappings of the genre—haunted houses, coffins, bones, ghosts, and wizards—but they are distinguished by the use of what Bellairs calls “the common ordinary stuff—the bullies, the scaredy-cat Lewis, the grown-ups, the everyday incidents.” Drawing from his own experience, Bellairs found that

writing seems to be a way of memorializing and transforming my own past. I write about the things I wish had happened to me when I was a kid.”

Born in the small town of Marshall, Michigan, John Bel­lairs turned his hometown into the setting of New Zebe-dee in The House with a Clock in Its Walls (1973), the novel that started his first series. Other places where he has lived are used as settings for later books. His charac­ters, like the author, are intellectual, bookish loners who worry about finding friendship, and his protagonists are helped by an older relative or friend who offers wisdom, understanding, and more often than not a dose of eccentricity

Bellairs’s first frolicsome novel was the popular, well- received fantasy The Face in the Frost (1969), which recounts the tale of two magicians and their attempt to stop a third sorcerer who has acquired a deadly book of spells.

With The House with a Clock in Its Walls, Bellairs achieved even greater popularity and established him­self as one of the most compelling mystery writers for children. The book introduces Lewis, who goes to live with his Uncle Jonathan after his parents die in an acci­dent. From the moment of his arrival, Lewis suspects that there is something strange about his uncle and Mrs. Zimmermann, the kindly next-door neighbor. When he discovers they are both witches, Lewis experiments with some magic forces, setting in motion a wild chase with two dead wizards that threatens to bring about the end of the world. In subsequent books, a common feature is the protagonists’ accidental mishandling of magical properties.

Lewis returns in The Letter, the Witch and the Ring (1976), which also features Mrs. Zimmermann and Lewis’s cohort, Rose Rita Pottinger. With his second series, the “Blue Figurine,” Bellairs introduced Johnny Dixon, his grandparents, and the cantankerous Profes­sor Childermass, who confront a slew of ghosts and evil sorcerers. Johnny Dixon and Lewis reappear in a num­ber of his books, which have some of the qualities of a series without repeating the same format.

When asked why he chose to write for children, Bel­lairs responded,

Bellairs’s work is marked by an adroit balance between tension and humor. Spooky tales move be­tween the insecurities and foibles of his protagonists and the chilling descriptions of apparitions and evil enemies, providing one of the key dynamics in Bellairs’s writing.

Bellairs’s books will forever be linked with the dis­tinctive black-and-white artwork of Edward Gorey, whose illustrations capture perfectly the subtle humor and eerie nature of the author’s mysteries.

C.L.

Source: Children’s Books and their Creators, Anita Silvey.

John Bellairs Books

Lewis Barnavelt Series

1. The House with a Clock in Its Walls (1973)
2. The Figure in the Shadows (1975)
3. The Letter, the Witch, and the Ring (1977)
4. The Ghost in the Mirror (1993)
5. The Vengeance of the Witch-Finder (1993) (with Brad Strickland)
6. The Doom of the Haunted Opera (1995) (with Brad Strickland)

Anthony Monday Series

1. The Treasure of Alpheus Winterborn (1978)
2. The Dark Secret of Weatherend (1978)
3. The Lamp from the Warlock’s Tomb (1988)
4. The Mansion in the Mist (1992)

Johnny Dixon Series

1. The Curse of the Blue Figurine (1983)
2. The Mummy, the Will, and the Crypt (1983)
3. The Spell of the Sorcerer’s Skull (1984)
4. The Eyes of the Killer Robot (1986)
5. The Revenge of the Wizard’s Ghost (1985)
6. The Trolley to Yesterday (1989)
7. The Secret of the Underground Room (1990)
8. The Chessmen of Doom (1989)
9. The Drum, the Doll, and the Zombie (1994) (with Brad Strickland)