John Bellairs: Gothic Fiction For The Kid In All Of Us

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Ranked #903 in Books, #84,418 overall

He Loved To Write Stories That Children Loved To Read...

Years before Harry Potter came on the scene, John Bellairs was writing gothic fiction for young adults. Sadly, in March of 1991, at the young age of 53, John died of cardiovascular disease in Haverhill Massachusset and is buried in Haverhill's Greenwood Cemetery.

He left behind some wonderful characters and stories that I will make an attempt to introduce you too in this lens. I will also offer up up some commentary where I have something of "value" to comment on. :) Please enjoy your visit.

Blog Posts About John Bellairs 

Read What People Are Saying About John All Over The Net

The House with a Clock in its Walls
Review: The House with a Clock in its Walls from the Great Big Nerd's Summer Reading List.
The Spell of the Sorcerer's Skull
Review: The Spell of the Sorcerer's Skull from Rodents Of Unusual Size.
The Mansion in the Mist
Review: The Mansion in the Mist from Rodents Of Unusual Size.
The Face in the Frost
Review: The Face in the Frost by Brian Murphy.
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Fate Changes John's Plans 

The Face In The Frost

I have heard it said that Fate has a way of changing or rearranging our plans in some strange, wonderful and mysterious ways. We end up going places, doing and experiencing things that we never imagined. That is what happened to John. He didn't start out as a writer of fiction for kids. While living in Britain, he read Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings and got the idea to write a book of his own in the Tolkien style. His attempt was called The Face In The Frost which has been called by some, one of the best fantasy novels of all time.

I believe the cover of the book used as illustration is from 1981 edition of John's story. It is interesting to note that the original title for the book was simply "Prospero" which is the name of the lead character in the book, a wizard.

Revamping Adult Sci Fi Fantasy Novel Into Kids Gothic Fiction 

In 1973, John's book The House With A Clock In It's Walls was written as an adult fantasy story. But, at that time, there wasn't much of a market for that kind of story and it was suggested to John that he do a rewrite and gear it toward the young adult audience. Following that advice, John's career of writing fiction for young adults began.

John Passes Away In 1991 

But His Characters Live On!

After John's death, his estate contacted writer Brad Strickland in the hopes that he could finish a few of manuscripts that John has left behind incomplete. There were also a few outlines for new books and it was hoped that Brad would be willing to take on the daunting task of completing John's work and he agreed. Brad has also written his own books, using the characters created by John.

Let Me Introduce To Some of John's Characters 

Lewis Barnavelt: We are first introduced to Lewis in the book, The House With A Clock In It's Walls. He is 10 years old and an orphan after his parents are killed in a car accident. He goes to live with his Uncle Jonathan in New Zebedee in 1948. He is chubby and socially awkward. He isn't very good at sports and he gets picked on by bullies. Although timid and shy, Lewis can be counted on to do the right thing. It is said in the House with A Clock In It's Walls that Lewis grows up to become an astronomer and works at Mt. Palomar.

Jonathan Barnavelt: Lewis's uncle and a is a wizard. He had never met Lewis prior to having to take him in after his brother was killed in an auto accident. Jonathan lives on High Street in a three story stone mansion with a tall turret in the front.

Rose Rita Pottinger: We first hear about Rose Rita in the book, The House With A Clock In It's Walls , but we don't get a full introduction until John's second book, The Figure In The Shadows. She lives on Mansion Street and what really impresses Lewis is that she knows all the different kind of cannon.

Florence Zimmerman: Neighbor and friend to Uncle Jonathan. She is a real witch and she is crazy about the color purple. She makes a mean chocolate chip cookie and she likes to call Uncle Jonathan names (in a good way) like "Brush Mush" and "Weird Beard".

Anthony Monday: A tall and awkward looking boy with a thin pinched face and long pointed nose. At 14 years of age, he works, part time, at the Hoosac Public Library in Minnesota, along side his best friend, Miss Eells.

Johnny Dixon: Johnny is about 13 years old with short blond hair and a pale complexion. He is a bit on the timid side. His mother has passed away and his father is an officer in the Air Force. Johnny lives with his grand parents in Dustin Heights Massachusetts.

Bryon "Fergie" Ferguson Johnny's best friend. He gets involved in a lot of the strange capers that Johnny finds himself involved in.

Professor Roderick Childermass: A short man with a strawberry nose and wildly sprouting muttonchop whiskers. He is Johnny Dixon's best friend and lives right across the street from Johnny.

Myra Eells: The head librarian at the Hoosac Public Library. An odd bird like little woman with a messy nest of white hair and gold rimmed glasses. She is Anthony Monday's best friend.

Father Thomas Higgens: A priest at St. Michael's Catholic Church in Dunston Heights. A good friend to both Johnny and Professor Childermass.

The House With A Clock In It's Walls 

The Thing Was Ticking Away, Markin Off The Minutes Until Doomsday

A Little Bit of Commentary: I have to admit that stories about old spooky houses with secret rooms and stair cases has always had a special place in my heart. It was the description of Lewis' uncles house that fit perfectly in with my idea of the kind of house I always wanted to live in. I related to Lewis in a way, how he is described as being over weight, and clumsy always picked last for the sports teams at school, being picked on for how he looked and more. I think that there was a little bit of John Bellairs in Lewis, that he was based on experiences that John had first hand as a kid. That is what makes some writers have the ability to connect with their audience, because they have, in a sense "been there, done that". I think that most of us, at some point in our childhood knew a Lewis or worse yet, actually was a Lewis. But, like Lewis most of us turn out to be "ok" eventually. :)

Another thing that is memorable, to me about this book, is the description of the long slow car chase between Uncle Jonathan, Lewis and Mrs. Zimmerman and some unknown driver..." Jonathan came running back to the car. He slammed the door and started the motor. With a squealing of tires, he turned the car around and headed back the way they had come.....but no matter how fast he drove, the two cold circles of light still burned in his rear view mirror."
The House With a Clock In Its Walls (Lewis Barnavelt)

Books Description: Lewis always dreamed of living in an old house full of secret passageways, hidden rooms, and big marble fireplaces. And suddenly, after the death of his parents, he finds himself in just such a mansion--his Uncle Jonathan's. Unfortunately, what Lewis doesn't bank on is the fact that the previous owner of the mansion was a wizard--- an evil one who has placed a tick-tocking clock somewhere in the bowels of the house, marking off the minutes until the end of the world. And when Lewis accidentally awakens the dead on Halloween night, the clock only ticks louder and faster. Doomsday draws near--unless Lewis can stop the clock..

The Figure In The Shadows 

Venio....I Come

A Little Bit of Commentary I read this book as a kid and here it is all these years later, I still can remember, in the copy I had, a drawing done by Edward Gorey of a figure cresting the top of the hill. The figure, walking, was wrapped in a long coat and you could see it was blowing in the wind. This figure was not something ordinary, no way indeed, it or he was the one responsible for sending Lewis those little scraps of paper with the Latin word Venio" written on them....the Latin word for "I come". As I looked at that drawing and read John's description of what was happening, I could just imagine myself right there watching that "man" walk down that hill toward me, in no hurry, taking his time, one step, two steps, getting closer and closer, and me listening to wind blow, hearing the downed leaves scatter on the ground making their getaway and there I stood, rooted to the spot. Geesh, it still gives me goose bumps.
The Figure In the Shadows (Lewis Barnavelt)

The Figure In the Shadows (Lewis Barnavelt)

by: John Bellairs

Book Description: Lewis returns in another scary adventure. While investigating his Grandfather Barnavelt's trunk, he finds an old coin that he hopes is an amulet that will protect him from bullies. With the help of his friend, Rose Rita, Lewis performs a magic test to find out the coin's powers, but he isn't prepared for the strange events that begin to happen to him after his test. What scares him most is the figure that he see lurking in the shadows, and the scrapes of paper with the word, "Venio" written on them in Latin... just what is it that is telling Lewis "I come"

The Letter, The Witch and The Ring 

A Little Bit of Commentary:Probably the image that best stays with me from this book is when Mrs. Zimmerman, while out on a drive (In Bessie her car) with Rose Rita, gets ill and ends up not being able to drive the car back home. Who has to plop herself down into the driver's seat....that's right Rose Rita and as she slowly works her way back home, up and down the hills, around twists and turns on the old dark road, she looks into the rear view mirror she see reflected back the outline of a head and two glittering eyes. I think John touches on a common fear that we all share, even if just in a small way... the idea of some unknown person or thing behind us in a scary dark place.
The Letter, the Witch, and the Ring

The Letter, the Witch, and the Ring

by: John Bellairs

Book Description: Rose Rita is dreading summer. Her best friend, Lewis is away at Boy Scout camp and it looks as though summer will be long and boring. But, when Mrs. Zimmerman, Lewis's next door neighbor and witch receives a strange letter from her uncle, they decide to set out on a trip to discover it's meaning. When they reach their destination, what they find is a ransacked farm house, a missing ring and shadowy figures that appear in the night.

This is the third book in the Lewis Barnavelt series, but with heavy emphasis on Rose Rita and Mrs. Zimmerman.

The Treasure of Alpheus Winterborn 

A Little Bit Of Commentary: I always thought that Anthony's mom was a rather mean person with her harping about money all the time and generally not being very kind to Anthony. That is why he had developed such a friendship with the town librarian Miss Eells who behaved just the opposite, she listened to Anthony, taught him how to play chess, took him places and the like. I sometimes wonder if John, growing up, had someone like Miss Eells in his life and patterned her on that person.
The Treasure of Alpheus Winterborn: An Anthony Monday Mystery

The Treasure of Alpheus Winterborn: An Anthony Monday Mystery

by: John Bellairs

Book Description: Has Alpheus Winterborn, Hoosac's eccentric millionaire really hidden a treasure in the Hoosac town library? Anthony Monday is sure that there is something to the story and sets out find the treasure. But, he isn't the only one who is searching for the old man's millions, Hugo Phipotts, Alpheus' nephew has his sight set on the treasure too and is willing to let Anthony do all the work and then when the time is right, he will just snatch the treasure away!

The Curse of The Blue Figurine 

A Little Bit of Commentary: It seems that John liked to create a surrogate parent of sorts for his characters and that is no exception here with Johnny Dixon; his mother has died and his father is away being a pilot in the Air Force during the Korean War. This leaves Johnny to live with his grandparents, two people who love Johnny dearly, but because of their advanced years aren't your typical parent material. So, Johnny finds as a friend and sort of mentor, his neighbor across the street, the sometimes ill tempered, but very kind man, Professor Childermass. I wonder what drove John to write about characters like this....characters who take on, as their friends, older people. Again, is this something left over from his life and writing about it in the characters he created was a form of therapy for him?
The Curse of the Blue Figurine (Johnny Dixon)

The Curse of the Blue Figurine (Johnny Dixon)

by: John Bellairs

Book Description: One day while Johnny Dixon is looking around in the town church basement, he finds and old blue figurine that has a message scrawled inside of it whoever removes these things from the church, does so at his own peril. By accident, Johnny takes the figurine home and odd things begin to happen. He calls on his friend and neighbor, Professor Roderick Childermass to help him figure out what is going on and how to put things right.

The Mummy, The Will and The Crypt 

1983 A Johnny Dixon Mystery

A Little Bit of Commentary: The beauty about John's books is that all of his heroes are just plain ordinary people with real ordinary problems and situations; Lewis is chubby and picked on, Rose Rita is a tom boy, Anthony is tall and awkward, Johnny Dixon is shy and intelligent....well you see my point... real honest to goodness traits that are familiar to us because we either have some of those traits ourselves or know someone who does. This book is also touted as a sequel to the "Curse of The Blue Figurine"
The Mummy, the Will, and the Crypt (Johnny Dixon)

The Mummy, the Will, and the Crypt (Johnny Dixon)

by: John Bellairs

Book Description: Wealthy H. Bagwell Glomus's will is missing and there is a $10,000 reward that will go to anyone who can find it. Johnny Dixon wants the reward and believes that the clues to it's hiding place is in Glomus's diary but that is filled with strange and weird riddles that Johnny intends to solve. Johnny thinks that clues to solving the riddles can be found in Glomus's spooky mansion and decides to sneak in and look around.... once inside, a sudden bright flash of light stops him in his tracks and he discovers he is not alone in this mansion.....

The Dark Secret of Weatherend 

An Anthony Monday Mystery 1984

A Little Bit of Commentary: We get to meet Emerson Eells in this story, although he has been mentioned before briefly. Emerson is Miss Eells younger brother and he is a lawyer by trade with a bit of a know it all attitude. He is also a little bit scared of his big sister. :) He smokes pipes, cigars and cigarettes and likes to drink beer. See what I mean about creating characters that are real people with real traits. :)
The Dark Secret of Weatherend: An Anthony Monday Mystery

The Dark Secret of Weatherend: An Anthony Monday Mystery

by: John Bellairs

Book Description: Anthony and his best friend, Miss Eells discover the diary of J.K. Borkman, a mad man who wanted to bring about the end of the world via a horrible ice age. In his diary, Borkman, had created a spell that he carefully hid in cryptic riddle form. When Anthony innocently solves some of the riddles, the ice age is set into motion. Anthony is convinced though, that there is a counter spell also hidden in the riddles in Borkman's diary... can he figure it out before the entire world and everyone in it, freezes.

The Spell of The Sorcerer's Skull 

Johnny Dixon Mystery 1984

A Little Bit of Commentary: This book is a direct prequel to "The Revenge of The Wizard's Ghost". Oh, and something to keep in mind is that even though John wrote his books in the 70's and 80's.... the setting of his books were always during the 1950's which of course would be the time frame that he was growing up in.... so, again, I think we are seeing bits of his childhood realities and dreams coming to life on the pages of his books?
The Spell of the Sorcerer's Skull (Johnny Dixon)

The Spell of the Sorcerer's Skull (Johnny Dixon)

by: John Bellairs

Book Description: Johnny Dixon and his friend Professor Roderick Childermass discover an old clock. Inside it, Johnny discovers a miniature room that is exactly like the room that a murder had taken place a long time ago. Inside this room, Johnny finds a miniature skull that has magical powers, but the minute he picks it up he unleashes demonic forces. Worse yes, his friend Professor Childermass has vanished and this leaves Johnny having to ask his best friend Fergie and the town's priest Father Higgens to help him stop the diabolical plan set in motion by the Sorcerer's Skull!

The Eyes of The Killer Robot 

A Johnny Dixon Mystery 1986

A Little Bit Of Commentary: The beauty of reading a series of books using the same characters is that as time passes and the characters develop we get to learn new things about them, which makes for a great friendship between the reader and the characters. We learn in this visit with Johnny that his grandfather was, years before, the star pitcher on the local baseball team. I know that doesn't sound very exciting, but it's still nice to know that we haven't learned everything there is to know about a character---that would be boring, wouldn't it...having a character stay the same again and again and again.... we don't behave like that in real life, do we...don't we grow and mature and learn new things about the people we know and care about?
The Eyes of the Killer Robot (Puffin Novels)

The Eyes of the Killer Robot (Puffin Novels)

by: John Bellairs

Book Description: Johnny Dixon and Professor Childermass, along with their friend Byron "Fergie" Ferguson, are back in another imaginative chiller. Here the three are pitted against Evaristus Sloane, an insane wizard and inventor who some 50 years earlier had invented a robot to look like a baseball player and to pitch balls. But, there is a darker side to the invention as the Professor, Johnny, and Fergie discover when they find the dismantled robot and put it back together.. But after placing its eyes back in the empty sockets, the Professor realizes too late that he has resurrected a killer machine. Not only must the robot be stopped but also its mad inventor before Johnny loses his eyes and his life to a terrifying scheme...

The Lamp From The Warlock's Tomb 

An Anthony Monday Mystery 1988

A Brief Snippet From The Book: His blood froze. There seated in the rocker, was the pale, withered corpse of Mr. Yurchak. He was dressed in his rumpled blue watchman's uniform, and his glazed, unseeing eyes stared straight ahead. That should get your attention? :)
The Lamp from the Warlock's Tomb (Anthony Monday Mystery)

The Lamp from the Warlock's Tomb (Anthony Monday Mystery)

by: John Bellairs

Book Description Anthony Monday's best friend, town librarian, Miss Eells buys an old Dutch oil lamp only to discover that it had been stolen years before from an underground tomb where occult rituals had been held. Anthony borrows the lamp for a school project and lights it which unleash demonic forces that threaten to take over the world unless he and Miss Eells can figure out a way to stop them.

The Trolley To Yesterday 

A Johnny Dixon Mystery 1989

A Little Bit of Commentary: I have to admit that the idea of time travel into the past or even into the future has never been a favorite topic of mine. This isn't one of my favorite books by John, but that doesn't make it a bad book.
The Trolley to Yesterday (Johnny Dixon)

The Trolley to Yesterday (Johnny Dixon)

by: John Bellairs

Book Description: Johnny, Fergie and Professor Childermass leave their native New England far behind when they ride an old trolley back in time to 15th-century Constantinople. The Professor dreams of saving the ancient city's citizens from slaughter at the hands of the Turks. Johnny and Fergie are more concerned with simply keeping their crotchety old friend out of trouble. Among the companions' adventures are an encounter with the ghosts of long-dead Crusaders, the opportunity to outwit a would-be Inquisitor, a run-in with another 20th-century time-traveler and the chance to explore Constantinople's supernaturally guarded reservoir....

The Chessmen of Doom 

A Johnny Dixon Mystery 1989

A Brief Snippet From the Book: Without any more talk, Johnny and the Professor followed Fergie to the base of the column where the bust had once stood. Among the weeds lay pieces of broken plaster, and in the middle of everything, staring grimly up at them, was a human skull.
Chessmen of Doom (Johnny Dixon)

Chessmen of Doom (Johnny Dixon)

by: John Bellairs

Book Description Professor Childermass and his young friends Johnny and Fergie are swept up in a madman's plot to rule the Earth. Childermass stands to inherit his brother Peregrine's multimillion dollar estate, but only if he can stay on the estate all summer, plus interpret a cryptic rhyme. As usual, apparitions, vague warnings, deep forebodings, magic effects, tombs, corpses, and the like abound in this story.

The Secret of The Underground Room 

A Johnny Dixon Mystery 1990

A Little Commentary: I miss the Edward Gorey illustrations. The newer printings of John's stories lack Gorey's wonderfully creepy artisitic touches and that's a shame because Gorey had a the ability to get right to the heart of John's character descriptions.
The Secret of the Underground Room: A Johnny Dixon, Professor Childermass Book

The Secret of the Underground Room: A Johnny Dixon, Professor Childermass Book

by: John Bellairs

Book Description:Professor Childermass is stunned when Father Higgins claims that a ghost is trying to contact him. Then the priest disappears. When the professor and Johnny catch up to him, they make a terrifying discovery -- Father Higgins is possessed by Masterman, the spirit of a long-dead knight determined to rule the world. And it looks as if Masterman is going to get his way

The Masion In The Mist 

An Anthony Monday Mystery 1992

A Little Bit of Commentary: This was the last book that John wrote and was published in 1992, a year after his death.
The Mansion in the Mist (Anthony Monday)

The Mansion in the Mist (Anthony Monday)

by: John Bellairs

Book Description: Anthony and his klutzy librarian friend, Miss Eells, plan to spend an uneventful summer with her brother Emerson in an isolated old cottage in Canada. Events quickly take a sinister turn when Anthony finds a mysterious old chest that turns out to be a doorway into a parallel world in which a mad group of beings are plotting the destruction of Earth. The key to their success is a magical object, the Logos cube. Unfortunately for the Autarchs, a former member of their society has realized their evil ways and hidden the cube. Anthony, Miss Eells, and Emerson experience a series of harrowing adventures as they explore the strange world of the Autarchs and search for the object so that they can save the Earth

The Ghost In The Mirror 

Completed By Brad Strickland 1993

A Little Bit of Commentary: It had been a long while since we had seen much from Rose Rita, in fact, it had been over 20 years since we tagged along on one of her adventures.
The Ghost in the Mirror (Lewis Barnavelt)

The Ghost in the Mirror (Lewis Barnavelt)

by: John Bellairs, Brad Strickland

Book Description: Having lost most of her magic in the The Letter, The Witch and The Ring, Florence Zimmerman travels back in time to recover it, taking along her friend Rose Rita Pottinger. Together, the two rescue a Pennsylvania Dutch family from an evil sorcerer, uncover an old chest of Revolutionary War gold, and activate a crystal ball that restores Mrs. Zimmerman's powers--not, of course, without negotiating plenty of cryptic instructions, apparitions, lurking evils, spells, and narrow escapes, plus a slavering demon or two.

The Vengeance of The Witch-Finder 

Completed By Brad Strickland 1993

A Little Bit Of Commentary: The Ghost in The Mirror takes place in 1951 as does "Vengeance"... two different stories, happening to different characters during the same year. Pretty cool, and isn't that how life works, you are off doing your thing and your friends are off doing theirs? In a way, doesn't that almost make you believe that these characters really lived... and in fact, in a way, I believe they did, if on paper for us and in John's mind.
The Vengeance of the Witch-Finder

The Vengeance of the Witch-Finder

by: John Bellairs, Brad Strickland

Book Description: This is the 4th book in the series that features Lewis Barnavelt and his magician uncle, Jonathan. When Uncle Jonathan and Lewis go to England to visit a distant cousin at their ancestral home, Lewis unwittingly releases a ghost who cursed his family centuries before and now threatens to destroy them. This book was completed by author Brad Strickland after John's death.

The Drum, The Doll and The Zombie 

A Johnny Dixon Mystery Completed By Brad Strickland 1994

A Little Commentary: Dr. Coote is a minor character in past books and is a friend of Professor Childermass'. He lives in New Hampshire and is a professor at the University of New Hampshire.
The Drum, the Doll, and the Zombie (Johnny Dixon)

The Drum, the Doll, and the Zombie (Johnny Dixon)

by: John Bellairs, Brad Strickland

Book Description: During a party, noted folklorist Dr. Coote shows Professor Childremass, Johnny Dixon, and his friend Fergie a small drum and tells them a strange story about voodoo cults in Haiti and the Caribbean. A few casual taps on the drum set in motion a tale of terror that includes zombies, evil spells, and death threats.

The Doom of The Haunted Opera 

Completed By Brad Strickland 1995

A Little Bit of Commentary: Brad Strickland and the editors at Dial Books had a bit of a disagreement about the title of this book. The editors thought that the word "opera" would turn off potential readers as kids wouldn't want to read anything about an opera. An alternative title offered was was "The Doom of The Haunted Theater" which Brad didn't like.
The Doom of the Haunted Opera

The Doom of the Haunted Opera

by: John Bellairs, Brad Strickland

Book Description: A school assignment leads Lewis and his best friend Rose Rita to visit an old abandoned theater in the heart of New Zeebedee. While looking around, Lewis, finds some sheets of music stuffed inside a piano that turns out to be an unpublished opera. Soon the entire town is excited about debuting the hidden treasure, but when the music plays, it sets free an evil spirit that is determined to take over the world. Can Lewis and Rose Rita stop it before it succeeds?

Books Written By Brad Strickland Using John's Characters 

Thank You, Brad, For Keeping John's Memory and Characters Alive And Well!

Brad is an author has is known mostly for his books written in the science fiction and fantasy genre. He has written or co written over 60 novels and more than 100 short stories. He is a Professor of English at Gainesville State College in Oakwood, Georgia. His wife, Barbara Strickland is also a successful writer in her own right.

Learn more about him by visiting Brad at his website.

* The Whistle, The Grave and The Ghost
* The Sign of the Sinister Sorcerer
* The Tower at the End of the World
* The Specter From the Magician's Museum
* The House Where Nobody Lived
* The Beast Under the Wizard's Bridge
* The Drum, the Doll, and the Zombie
* The Wrath of the Grinning Ghost
* The Hand of the Necromancer
* The Bell, the Book, and the Spellbinder

Learn More About John 

Bellairsia
The life and work of John Bellairs
Great Science-Fiction & Fantasy Works: John Bellairs
The speculative-fiction work of John Bellairs evaluated as literature.
The John Bellairs Review
The John Bellairs Review is a compilation of reviews and commentaries of the books by John Bellairs and those completed and continued by Brad Strickland.

Edward Gorey

Blog Posts About Eward Gorey 

Read What Folks Are Saying About Edward All Over The Net

A peek at Gorey's macabre world
A number of public programs are scheduled in conjunction with the exhibit "Elegant Enigmas: The Art of Edward Gorey." "Gashlycrumb Tinies Fun Day Out," 1-4 ...
MK Perker's Insomnia Café
... in ?Gothic Comics Theater,? which the artist described as an Edward Gorey-esque anthology of black-and-white stories with a darkly humorous approach. ...
The Debut - Tonya Hurley, Ghostgirl
Your sources of inspiration seem to extend from Oscar Wilde to Edward Gorey to Tim Burton. I'ma diehard Edward Gorey fan; he just ignites me. ...
Tom Bloom's Illustrations for Between the Covers
The relationship is reminiscent of the one Edward Gorey developed with the Gotham Book Mart. Dan Gregory has begun to document this relationship with a ...
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Learn More About Edward Gorey 

Edward St. John Gorey was born February 22, 1925. He always said that he inherited his artistic talents from his mother side of the family, in particular, his great grandmother,Helen St. John Garvey, who was a greeting card illustrator during the 19th century. He never claimed to have much formal art training, but he did attend for one semester, The School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1943. From 1953 to 60 he worked in the art department at Doubleday Publishing and illustrated many book covers. In his later years he would illustrate many of John's books. The Beast Under the Wizard's Bridge is the last published artwork of Edward's before is death in 2000.
MYSTERY!: Edward Gorey
The macabre, yet merry world of Edward Gorey has provided the backdrop for MYSTERY! since the series began in 1980.
Edward Gorey House
Celebrating the life and works of American author & illustrator Edward Gorey
Edward Gorey
I first encountered the works of Edward Gorey in 1972, with the publication of a collection of fifteen of his small books, called Amphigorey. I was immediately enchanted by his macabre, witty, enigmatic drawings and words, and tried to interest all my friends as well.
The Edward Gorey Documentary by Mooncusser Films, LLC
Updated information for the documentary shot with and about the late illustrator Edward Gorey by Mooncusser Films, LLC.
The MYSTERY! of Edward Gorey
Derek Lamb spent many afternoons with the amazing Edward Gorey. Here he discusses the contradictions of an intensely talented man.
Edward Gorey Intro Page
The pages that follow are a tribute to Edward Gorey.There are several complete works currently available for viewing.

Edward Gorey On Youtube 


The Tuning Fork by Edward Gorey

The Epipleptic Bicycle by Edward Gorey

Edward Gorey's Famous book
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Leave A Note If You So Desire 

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gestyr wrote...

Gotta love it!

ReplyPosted May 05, 2009