Editing John Bellairs (section)

== Writings ==

=== Books for adults ===
Bellairs' first published work, ''[[St. Fidgeta and Other Parodies]]'' (1966), is a collection of short stories satirizing the rites and rituals of [[Second Vatican Council]]-era [[Roman Catholic Church|Catholicism]]. The title story of St. Fidgeta grew out of humorous stories Bellairs made up and shared with friends while living in [[Chicago]]. After committing one such story to paper, he sent it to the Chicago-based Catholic magazine ''The Critic'', which published the story in summer 1965. The following year, the [[hagiography]] of St. Fidgeta was supplemented by eleven other humorous stories, including an essay on lesser-known [[pope]]s of antiquity, a cathedral constructed over the course of centuries, and a spoof letter from a modern-day [[Francis X. Murphy|Xavier Rynne]] about the escapades at the fictional Third Vatican Council. ''Library Journal'' hailed ''St. Fidgeta'' as "religious burlesque" that delivered "strokes of inspired foolishness." A writer for the ''[[National Catholic Reporter]]'' called it a "gem."<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Washburn|first=Susanne|date=2004-10-29|title=The marvelous St. Fidgeta: Tales of a 7-year-old martyr are a gem of religious burlesque|journal=National Catholic Reporter|pages=16–17}}</ref>

''The Pedant and the Shuffly'', his second book, is a short illustrated fable featuring the evil magician Snodrog (the titular pedant), who ensnares his victims with inescapable (and nonsensical) logic until the kindly sorcerer, Sir Bertram Crabtree-Gore, enlists the help of a magical Shuffly to defeat Snodrog. The book was originally published in 1968 and rereleased in 2001<ref>{{Cite web|title=The Mythopoeic Society - Mythopoeic Press, The Pedant and the Shuffly|url=http://www.mythsoc.org/press/pedant-and-shuffly.htm|access-date=2021-08-31|website=www.mythsoc.org}}</ref> and 2009.<ref name=":3">{{Cite web|title=Magic Mirrors – NESFA|url=https://www.nesfa.org/book/magic-mirrors/|access-date=2021-08-31|language=en-US}}</ref>

Bellairs undertook his third book, ''[[The Face in the Frost]]'' (1969), while living in Britain and after reading [[J.R.R. Tolkien]]'s ''[[The Lord of the Rings]]''. Bellairs said of his third book: <blockquote>"''The Face in the Frost'' was an attempt to write in the Tolkien manner. I was much taken by ''The Lord of the Rings'' and wanted to do a modest work on those lines. In reading the latter book I was struck by the fact that [[Gandalf]] was not much of a person—just a good guy. So I gave Prospero, my wizard, most of my phobias and crotchets. It was simply meant as entertainment and any profundity will have to be read in."<ref>{{Cite book|last=Commire|first=Anne|url=https://archive.org/details/somethingaboutau02comm|title=Something About the Author|publisher=Gale Research|year=1971|isbn=978-0-8103-0052-1|volume=2|location=Detroit|pages=20|via=Internet Archive}}</ref></blockquote> Writing in 1973, [[Lin Carter]] described ''The Face in the Frost'' as one of the three best fantasy novels to appear since ''The Lord of the Rings''. Carter stated that Bellairs was planning a sequel to ''The Face in the Frost'' at the time.<ref>Lin Carter, ''Imaginary Worlds''. New York: Ballantine/Random House, 1973, pp. 1165-67 (Cites Carter's correspondence with Bellairs).</ref> An unfinished sequel titled ''The Dolphin Cross'' was included in the anthology ''Magic Mirrors'' ([[NESFA Press|New England Science Fiction Association Press]], 2009).<ref name=":3" />

=== Books for children ===
Bellairs's next novel was originally written as a contemporary adult fantasy. To improve the novel's marketability, his publisher suggested rewriting it as a young readers' book. The result was ''[[The House with a Clock in Its Walls]]'' (1973), which was named as one of ''[[The New York Times]]'' Outstanding Books of 1973 and nominated for other awards.<ref name=":5">{{Cite journal |last=Heinecken |first=Dawn |date=2011 |title=Haunting Masculinity and Frightening Femininity: The Novels of John Bellairs |url=https://doi.org/10.1007/s10583-010-9127-7 |journal=[[Children's Literature in Education]] |language=en |volume=42 |issue=2 |pages=118–131 |doi=10.1007/s10583-010-9127-7 |issn=1573-1693 |s2cid=144558619}}</ref>

Following the success of ''The House with a Clock in Its Walls'', Bellairs focused on writing Gothic fantasy adventures aimed at elementary and middle-school children.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/childrensliterat37hedb|title=Children's Literature Review|publisher=Gale Research|year=1996|isbn=0810389517|editor-last=Hedblad|editor-first=Alan|location=New York|pages=1–29|chapter=John Bellairs|issn=0362-4145|via=[[Internet Archive]]}}</ref> "I write scary thrillers for kids because I have the imagination of a 10-year-old," remarked Bellairs. "I love haunted houses, ghosts, witches, mummies, incantations, secret rituals performed by the light of the waning moon, coffins, bones, cemeteries and enchanted objects."<ref name=":4" /> Bellairs also wrote his hometown influenced his creative bent: “In my imagination I repeatedly walk up and down the streets of the beautiful old Michigan town where I grew up. It’s full of old Victorian mansions and history, and it would work on the creative mind of any kid.”<ref name=":7" />

Writing for ''[[The New York Times]]'', [[Marilyn Stasio]] characterized Bellairs' children's books as fast-paced, spooky adventures involving "believable and likeable" characters, generally a child and an older person (usually a "lovable eccentric")<ref name=":6">{{Cite news|last=Gardner|first=Craig Shaw|date=1984-11-11|title=Reading on the Edge of Your Seat|newspaper=[[The Washington Post]]|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/entertainment/books/1984/11/11/reading-on-the-edge-of-your-seat|access-date=2021-09-08}}</ref> who are friends and must go on adventures and solve a mystery involving supernatural elements such as ghosts and wicked sorcerers. Beyond these supernatural elements, Bellairs's novels evoked "a child's concern with comfort and security in his ''real'' world," addressing childhood fears of abandonment, loneliness, and bullying, as well as coming of age.<ref name=":4" /> His stories are described as spooky but ultimately reassuring as the characters conquer evil through friendship.<ref name=":6" />

The books have proved especially popular among [[Middle school|middle-grade]] readers between the ages of 9 and 13 but also have significant young adult and adult readerships.<ref name=":4" />

===Posthumous sequels===

On his death in 1991, Bellairs left behind two unfinished manuscripts and two one-page synopses for future adventures. The Bellairs estate commissioned [[Brad Strickland]] to complete the two unfinished manuscripts and to write novels based on the two one-page outlines. These became ''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. Starting in 1996 with ''The Hand of the Necromancer'', Strickland began writing his own stories based on the established characters.<ref name=":1" />

Strickland announced in spring 2005 that new adventures of the Bellairs' characters were under way, following contract negotiations with the Bellairs' estate and a two-year absence since his last-published novel. The first of these new adventures was ''The House Where Nobody Lived'', which was published on October 5, 2006. All told, thirteen sequels to Bellairs' books have been written by Strickland.<ref name=":1" />

=== Critical analysis ===
Critical attention has focused on ''The House With the Clock in Its Walls'' as exemplar of Bellairs' literary merit and style. Critics have argued that Bellairs wrestled with notions of masculinity, femininity, and [[queer]]ness in his works.<ref name=":5" /><ref>{{Cite web|last=Huskey|first=Melynda|title=A Specter is Haunting New Zebedee: Reading John Bellairs as Queer-Kid Gothic|url=https://research.wsulibs.wsu.edu/xmlui/bitstream/handle/2376/2357/Huskey%20-%20Specter%20is%20haunting.pdf?sequence=1|access-date=2021-09-05|archive-date=September 5, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210905234857/https://research.wsulibs.wsu.edu/xmlui/bitstream/handle/2376/2357/Huskey%20-%20Specter%20is%20haunting.pdf?sequence=1|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Skowera|first=Maciej|date=2019-07-24|title=Lewis Barnavelt and the Rainbow over New Zebedee: Queering The House with a Clock in Its Walls|url=https://www.journals.polon.uw.edu.pl/index.php/dlk/article/view/29|journal=Dzieciństwo. Literatura i Kultura|language=en|volume=1|issue=1|pages=85–108|doi=10.32798/dlk.29|issn=2657-9510|doi-access=free}}</ref> Professor [[Gary D. Schmidt]] contended that Bellairs' Lewis Barnavelt and Rose Rita Pottinger trilogy traced the "emerging acceptance of self" by the two main characters, who struggled with internalized [[Gender role|gender norms]].<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Schmidt |first=Gary D. |date=1987-03-01 |title=See how they grow: Character development in children's series books |url=https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01135437 |journal=[[Children's Literature in Education]] |language=en |volume=18 |issue=1 |pages=34–44 |doi=10.1007/BF01135437 |issn=1573-1693 |s2cid=143265245}}</ref> [[Elizabeth E. Wein|Elizabeth Wein]] analyzes Bellairs's use of the [[haunted house]] motif in ''The House With a Clock in Its Walls''.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Wein |first=Elizabeth |date=2000 |title=Mystery in a House |url=http://muse.jhu.edu/content/crossref/journals/lion_and_the_unicorn/v024/24.2wein.html |journal=[[The Lion and the Unicorn (journal)|The Lion and the Unicorn]] |language=en |volume=24 |issue=2 |pages=248–249 |doi=10.1353/uni.2000.0024 |issn=1080-6563 |via=[[Project MUSE]]}}</ref> One of the most substantial academic treatments of Bellairs comes from Dawn Heinecken, professor of [[Women's studies|women's and gender studies]] at the [[University of Louisville]]. Heinecken situates Bellairs in 1970s-era anxieties about gender and changing discourses around masculinity, which were reflected in the era's children's literature.<ref name=":5" />

Conservative critic William Kilpatrick observed of Bellairs that "While his books are quite frightening, they are well written and undergirded by a moral vision" and recommended them to parents who wish to expose their children to age-appropriate literature that both entertains and edifies.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Kilpatrick|first=William|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/937954417|title=Books that build character: A guide to teaching your child moral values through stories|publisher=Simon & Schuster|year=1994|isbn=978-0-671-88423-9|location=New York|pages=217|language=English|oclc=937954417}}</ref> English education instructor Randi Dickson suggested that Bellairs' oeuvre evidenced greater literary merit than the works of [[R. L. Stine]], whose horror fiction appeals to a youthful demographic similar to Bellairs's.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Dickson|first=Randi|date=1998|title=Horror: To Gratify, Not Edify|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/41484083|journal=Language Arts|volume=76|issue=2|pages=115–122|doi=10.58680/la199812 |jstor=41484083|issn=0360-9170}}</ref> Educators have used ''The House With the Clock in Its Walls'' as a case study for using storytelling techniques to draw in reluctant readers<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Raymond|first=Kettel|date=1994|title=Motivating the Reluctant Reader: Using the Storytelling Episode Model|url=https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED404628|journal=Storytelling World|volume=3|issue=1|pages=31–33|via=[[ERIC]]}}</ref> and assigned ''The Curse of the Blue Figurine'' to students in a book club.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Lewis |first1=Mark A. |last2=Zisselsberger |first2=Margarita Gómez |date=2019 |title=Scaffolding and Inequitable Participation in Linguistically Diverse Book Clubs |journal=[[Reading Research Quarterly]] |language=en |volume=54 |issue=2 |pages=167–186 |doi=10.1002/rrq.234 |issn=1936-2722 |s2cid=149462377 |doi-access=free}}</ref>

Bellairs' books have been translated into Czech, French, German, Japanese, Polish, and Spanish, among other languages.