The author of 18 books including "St. Fidgeta and Other Parodies" (1966); "The Pedant and the Shuffly" (1968); the Tolkien-inspired fantasy "The Face in the Frost" (1969); and fifteen young-adult gothic supernatural thrillers staring such characters as Lewis Barnavelt, Johnny Dixon, and Anthony Monday. In 1955, after graduating from Marshall High ...
January 17, 1938, Marshall, Michigan, United States
Died
March 8, 1991, Haverhill, Massachusetts, United States
Place Of Birth
Marshall, Michigan, USA
Profession
Writer
Education
University of Chicago, University of Notre Dame
Nominations
Edgar Award for Best Juvenile
Star Sign
Capricorn
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Trademark
1
Gothic novels with a supernatural element that feature a young protagonist and his much-older, bubbie-like best friend.
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Quote
1
I had a compulsive need to fantasize. I was overweight and the other kids thought I was weird and I liked to read. I was pretty much a loner until I made some lifelong friends in the Boy Scouts. I would walk back and forth between my home and Catholic school and have medieval fantasies featuring me as the hero. I was a little ashamed of it and wondered why I did it. I cherish my childhood. It was true I was lonely but the more I look back on it I see how fortunate I was. I was never abused or wanted for anything. I did not lead a hard life. I was just a kid who had a lot of trouble relating to other people. I have the imagination of a 10-year-old. I like coffins and bones and secret panels. Someone asked Dr. Seuss that question and his answer was personal retardation, his imagination was stuck around age 7. Same with me I pay taxes and have all the adult problems but my imagination is that of a 10-year-old.
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All of my children's books are autobiographical. They're a combination of the everyday and the fantastic, like the books of my favorite author, Charles Dickens. The common ordinary stuff - the bullies, the scaredy-cat kid Lewis, the grown-ups, the everyday incidents - all come from my own experience. I grew up in a beautiful small town in Michigan. Marshall is full of strange and enormous old houses, and the place must have worked on my imagination, because I turned it into New Zebedee, the town in my trilogy about Lewis and Rose Rita. I've written about other places I've lived in, like Winona, Minnesota, which becomes Hoosac in The Treasure of Alpheus Winterborn. Gradually, I seem to be working in the details of my childhood, my dad's saloon, my mom's money worries, and so on. Writing seems to be (for me) a way of memorializing and transforming my own past. I write about things I wish had happened to me when I was a kid.
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Writing seems to be (for me) a way of memorializing and transforming my own past. I write about things I wish had happened to me when I was a kid.
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I write because I like to fantasize, and because I love to talk. Also I have violent opinions which few will listen to, although they will respectfully plough through a book with these opinions.
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Fact
1
Inducted into the Haverhill (Massachusetts) Citizens Hall of Fame.
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Common to all of Bellairs's mysteries is an unspoken stress on the need for friendship. Most of the dangers faced by Bellairs's young investigators come about due to their misuse of magical properties or objects. The protagonists then learn how to face their dilemmas with the help of a wise and loving older friend or relative.
Writer
Title
Year
Status
Character
CBS Children's Mystery Theatre
1980
TV Series 1 episode
CBS Library
1979
TV Series story "The House With a Clock in its Walls" - 1 episode
Self
Title
Year
Status
Character
The General Electric College Bowl
1959
TV Series
Himself
Known for movies
The House with a Clock in its Walls as Writer
CBS Library (1979) as Writer
CBS Children's Mystery Theatre (1980) as Writer
The General Electric College Bowl (1959) as Himself
$200,000
