John Bellairs
John Bellairs (born January 17, 1938 in Marshall , Michigan , † March 8, 1991 ) was an American author. He is best known for his gruesome youth novels, in which Lewis Barnavelt , Anthony Monday and Johnny Dixon are the main characters.
Life
After earning degrees in English literature from Notre Dame University and the University of Chicago , he taught English at various colleges in New England for several years . In 1971 he decided to make writing his main activity. He retained a lifelong interest in archeology , architecture , trips to England, history, and Latin. His favorite authors include Charles Dickens , Henry James , CV Wedgwood, and Garrett Mattingly , and MR James , from whose ghost stories he occasionally "borrowed" elements to use in his own work.
Bellairs died of heart failure at 53 and left behind two manuscripts he had begun and drafts of further volumes of his series. The books were completed on behalf of the heirs by the author Brad Strickland and published as Bellairs-Werke. After that, Strickland wrote other books with the same characters, which appeared under his own name.
plant
John Bellair's first publication, St. Fidgeta and Other Parodies , was a collection of short stories that mocked the rights and rituals of the Second Vatican Council . The first novel, The Pedant and the Shuffly , was an adult fairy tale. One of the classics of fantasy literature is his book The Face in the Frost , first published in 1969 , in which two wizards have to ally against a magical enemy. Unlike his following books, this novel is not intended for young people and is in the tradition of JRR Tolkien .
In 1973 he began a series of fantastic books for young people with adventurous content with The House with a Clock in Its Walls , on which he worked with the illustrator Edward Gorey . The film based on this, The House of Mysterious Clocks , was released in 2018 . Bellairs' last book, The Mansion in the Mist , was published posthumously.
After the great success of the Harry Potter books, Bellairs' stories about the orphan boy Lewis Barnavelt and his magical adventures in Germany were published in a very similar format to the Rowlings novels and with the sentence “A must for every Harry Potter fan " Applied.
Novels
- 1968 The Pedant and the Shuffly
- 1969 The Face in the Frost , German The Face in the Ice , new edition 2009 ISBN 978-3-924959-79-1
Youth book series
- 1973 The House with a Clock in Its Walls (Lewis Barnavelt series) The house that ticked , 1977; later republished as The Secret of the Magic Clock , 2000
- 1975 The Figure in the Shadows (Lewis Barnavelt series) dt. The magic shadow
- 1976 The Letter, the Witch, and the Ring (Lewis Barnavelt series), German The Riddle of the Enchanted Ring
- 1978 The Treasure of Alpheus Winterborn (Anthony Monday series), German The Treasure of Mister Winterborn
- 1983 The Curse of the Blue Figurine (Johnny Dixon series)
- 1983 The Mummy, the Will, and the Crypt (Johnny Dixon series)
- 1984 The Dark Secret of Weatherend (Anthony Monday series)
- 1984 The Spell of the Sorcerer's Skull (Johnny Dixon series)
- 1985 The Revenge of the Wizard's Ghost (Johnny Dixon series)
- 1986 The Eyes of the Killer Robot (Johnny Dixon series)
- 1988 The Lamp from the Warlock's Tomb (Anthony Monday series)
- 1989 The Trolley to Yesterday (Johnny Dixon series)
- 1989 The Chessmen of Doom (Johnny Dixon series)
- 1990 The Secret of the Underground Room (Johnny Dixon series)
- 1992 The Mansion in the Mist (Anthony Monday series)
Novels ended under the name of John Bellairs
- 1993 The Ghost in the Mirror (Lewis Barnavelt series), German Das Gespenst im Spiegel
- 1993 The Vengeance of the Witch-Finder (Lewis Barnavelt series), German The Spook in the Maze
- 1994 The Drum, the Doll, and the Zombie (Johnny Dixon series)
- 1995 The Doom of the Haunted Opera (Lewis Barnavelt series), German The curse of the old opera
Web links
- Literature by and about John Bellairs in the catalog of the German National Library
- Review of the Lewis Barnavelt series online [1]
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Bellairs, John |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American author |
| DATE OF BIRTH | January 17, 1938 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Marshall , Michigan , USA |
| DATE OF DEATH | March 8, 1991 |