The Bellairs Archive, Part 4 - The Figure in the Shadows

The House With A Clock In Its Walls was published in the summer of 1973 and was a success for author John Bellairs and Dial Publishing. The publisher was eager for a second book from the author and Mr. Bellairs was busy writing two manuscripts for consideration, the first being a sequel to House and the other a stand alone story for teens. The success of House meant that the stand alone story eventually was set aside and The Figure In The Shadows, which was intended as the central book in The Lewis Trilogy, became the priority project. Anxious to repeat the success of the first book, Dial retained Edward Gorey to illustrate this title.

A Halloween deadline was agreed upon for the author to submit a completed manuscript. A letter dated September 23, 1973 to the editor begins:

By April 1974, the manuscript had been completed and had been forwarded to Edward Gorey. There was now a new editor working on the Bellairs' project as Mrs. Gavril was on maternity leave. On April 25, 1974, Senior Editor Regina Hayes wrote with ominous news concerning the Gorey illustrations:

The June 14th report from Dial:

And finally, on August 27th Dial sent this to the author:

John Bellairs reply a few weeks later:

Victoria Chess did submit examples of her work for consideration, but Dial was not overly enthusiastic with her samples. This, coupled with the fact that Ms. Chess was currently living in Lebanon which would have complicated the logistics, eliminated her from the project. By the end of September illustrator Mercer Mayer was engaged to illustrate Figure.

Why didn't Edward Gorey come through with the illustrations for this book? While there is no first hand explanation in the Bellairs Archive, there are several factors that would have certainly influenced his decision to withdraw from the project. 

1973 had been an exceptionally prolific year for Edward Gorey wherein he published six of his own books, completed illustration projects for other authors, wrote movie reviews for The Soho Weekly News, and designed the sets and costumes for a production of Dracula in Nantucket that would move to Broadway in 1977 on the strength of his designs. 

A large portion of Edward Gorey's time and energy in 1974 was taken up with two major exhibitions of his work. The Graham Gallery in New York City exhibited new works by Edward Gorey, showing forty-six pieces created expressly for the show. This was Mr. Gorey's first fine art gallery show. He would participate in only two other gallery shows of his art (also at Graham), but these shows would feature far fewer new works and be filled in with art he created for his books.

Mr. Gorey also agreed to the first major retrospective exhibition of his works. The exhibition was titled Phantasmagorey and was mounted at Yale University. 

All of these factors came together making 1974 a year where Edward Gorey did not publish a book of his own* and he took on very few illustration projects. Some illustration projects fell to the wayside and The Figure In The Shadows was one of those projects. 

*CATEGOR Y has a publication date of 1974, but only due to printing/binding delays. All of the prep work for this title was completed in 1973.

The Bellairs Archive, Part 3 - Edward Gorey

Jean Gavril, Senior Editor at Dial Books informed author John Bellairs on June 1, 1972 that Edward Gorey had been contracted to illustrate The House With A Clock In Its Walls. From this point onwards, the production and publication of the book was dependent upon Edward Gorey completing the artwork.  

In a letter dated August 10, 1972, Mrs. Gavril writes:

Unfortunately, the expectations of the publisher expressed in this letter that they would receive sketches to approve were a bit optimistic. Edward Gorey was quoted in more than one interview to state that he really didn't collaborate in the traditional sense. After accepting a commission Mr. Gorey would read the material, decide what to illustrate based on his response to the writing, then sent the completed artwork to the publisher. He would rework or redraw an illustration if there was an issue with an image, but he usually just got to work and submitted the finished artwork without a lot of back and forth feedback.

The next mention of artwork comes in a letter dated November 10, 1972:

The * refers to a hand written p.s. stating that the art had already been sent to the printer but describes the drawing, "it's the final bonfire scene + it's smashing, complete with chocolate chip cookies."

This letter also confirmed that the author would receive official notification from Dial about the royalty change in his contract. Mr. Bellairs' originally agreed upon 10% royalty "will be divided with Edward Gorey on the basis of 9%-1% split." This news was most likely not received by the author with enthusiasm and probably reinforced the need to hire a literary agent to represent him, which he secured by April 1973. 

By December 14, 1972 Edward Gorey had completed the wrap around cover/dust wrapper design for the book:

In the 1990's I saw the original artwork for the House cover/DJ and remember it as being not so much drawn as composed. The various floating elements were individually drawn, cut out and pasted in place on the master drawing. Edward Gorey drew the art for the book at the finished size it would be printed and this piece was quite impressive in person.

The first few months of 1973 yielded no additional drawings from Edward Gorey and everyone was getting edgy as the publisher had been promoting and taking orders for the book and were anxious to get the presses running. 

Over time, the letters between author and editor had become increasingly personal as their working relationship progressed. In his letter dated February 26, 1973, John Bellairs adds an interesting personal note on his request for a reading copy of House:

Crossing one another in the mail, this letter was sent to John Bellairs on February 28, 1973:

March 16:

And just shy of one year after Edward Gorey was contracted to illustrate The House With A Clock In Its Walls, this letter was sent to the author on April 18, 1973:

An amusing July letter regarding the House artwork reads in part:

This is the chapter title drawing that flummoxed the editor:

The remaining letters in the folder referencing House discuss how the book is being received and reviewed, but most of the content is related to notes for the second book in "the Lewis Trilogy". A mention in an earlier letter following a Dial sales conference congratulates the author on the positive prepublication reception House was receiving for the story itself and "not just the Gorey illustrations".

Coming next: Edward Gorey signs on for book 2.