M.R. (Montague Rhodes) James (1862-1936) was a noted scholar and author, best remembered for his ghost stories.

Influence on Bellairs

In the work M.R. James as well as that of John Bellairs the supernatural discovery is usually accidental, with the characters certainly never seeking out the weirdness or the horror. As with Bellairs, this is perhaps the furthest thing from their minds when they find themselves suddenly embroiled in a supernatural mystery that drips with weirdness and horror. Bellairs once said of his own work that he agreed with his "favorite ghost story writer, M.R. James, when he says that spooky tales are most effective when the ghastly things happen to people who are going about their business in an ordinary, matter-of-fact world [Locus, 1991]."

Some of Bellairs favorite things were tales of haunted houses, ghosts, secret rituals performed by the light of the waning moon, and other enchanted objects. Jack Sullivan writes that the characters in James's stories share a similar fascination with these types of objects and situations:

"The characters are antiquaries, not merely because the past enthralls them, but because the present is a near vacuum. They surround themselves with rarefied paraphernalia from the past-engravings, rare books, altars, tombs, coins , and even such things as doll's houses and ancient whistles-seemingly because they cannot connect with anything in the present. The endless process of collecting and arranging gives the characters an illusory sense of order and stability, illusory because it is precisely this process which evokes the demon or the vampire….their adventures represent a sophisticate version of the old warning that idleness is the devil's workshop." [Elegant Nightmares: The English Ghost Story from Le Fanu to Blackwood, page 75].

"He never went out of his way to shock, merely unnerve. His spirits had to be evil in intent, but never would he break the spell by describing them in detail. Only a few hints are necessary, and the reader's imagination does the rest. James used three basic rules. First and foremost was that the spirits had to be malevolent. There was no point in having a pitiful ghost since he believed the purpose of a ghost story was to frighten. Amiable ghosts were for legends, he maintained. His second rule was that the events had to be convincing, and this could be achieved not just by the writing but also by the setting: the more commonplace the surroundings the better. Finally the story had to be easily understood and not overloaded with occult jargon as if it were a thesis rather than fiction." [Shadows of the Master, c. 1979].

Sullivan also notes another stylistic point that James uses, that of humor, citing that "humor and horror...are often to sides of the same coin. The humor does not defuse horror so much as intensify it by making it manageable and accessible." These two extremes run rampart through Bellairs' The Face in the Frost, where scenes can change from laugh-aloud funny to nail-biting terrifying over the course of a few sentences. While these are both balanced in Bellairs' output, most notable The House with a Clock in Its Walls and The Figure in the Shadows, some of his later novels are not on the same level.

Sullivan finally notes that James gave the ghost story a new theme, where his ghosts materialize not so much from inner darkness or outer conspiracies as from a kind of antiquarian malaise.

"Remaining modestly within the confines of popular entertainment, his fiction nevertheless shows how nostalgia has a habit of turning into horror….In James, the antiquaries are stolidly normal, and their ghosts are real. Above all, James's collectors clearly enjoy what they are doing: those who survive these stories would not dream of giving up their arcane pursuits simply because they were almost swallowed up by unearthly presences." [Elegant Nightmares: The English Ghost Story from Le Fanu to Blackwood, page 90].

Brad Strickland continued the homage to James’ work in the novels he wrote after Bellairs’ death, going as far to reference the author by name on occasion [The Tower at the End of the World, 80; The Whistle, the Grave, and the Ghost, 30].

References to James in the Bellairs Corpus

• An Episode of Cathedral History
  • The whistle Lewis finds while hiking with his Boy Scout troop carries the mysterious inscription "Hic Iacet Lamia" [The Whistle, the Grave, and the Ghost; 7]. During alteration on a cathedral, an altar tomb is discovered and opened that provides an exit for a trapped demon; after it has been left empty, the tomb has a metal cross attached to it inscribed with “Ibi cubavit lamia.”
• Canon Alberic's Scrap-Book
  • Lewis receives a mysterious piece of mail that contains an illustration of King Solomon and a shadowy creature distinguished only by its matted, shaggy black hair [The Tower at the End of the World; 28]. The Englishman Dennistoun find a similar illustration in the scrapbook once owned by the titular canon.
• Casting the Runes
  • After running afoul of Father Baart, Mr. Herman dies unexpectedly when a piece of St. Michael's Church, under construction, topples down and kills him [The Curse of the Blue Figurine; 18-9]. It would seem Mr. Karswell meets a similar fate at when visiting St. Wulfram's Church.
  • A piece of parchment seems to have a life of its own – wriggling and fluttering to break free of its constraints – and forewarns Lewis he has but just a month to live [The Tower at the End of the World; 30, 64]. Mr. Dunning has a similar fate after coming in contact with a strip of thin light paper.
• Count Magnus
  • Lewis' ceremony to raise the dead - specifically Selenna Izard - culminates in the rattling of a chain and a "clunk on the pavement. The [heart-shaped] padlock had fallen off [The House with a Clock in its Walls; 87]." A similar incident occurs when Mr. Wraxall visits the tomb of the late titular character.
  • The Windrow Familiar is a short, hunched figure associated with the black magic of its presumed creator, or at least master, Zebulon Windrow. Little description is attained due to a robe covering its face. From one of the long, draping sleeves you could see something that dangled like an octopus's tentacle [The Revenge of the Wizard's Ghost; 67]." The titular Count also maintains such a companion, discovered after embarking on the Black Pilgrimage - and, no, this was hardly a humanitarian endeavor. The very mysterious yet very handy (tentacley) companion soon sets out to do the Count's dirty work.
• The Haunted Dolls' House
  • Professor Childermass’ father builds a clock with a special doll-house shadow box, memorializing the strange death of his brother, Lucius. After the professor accidently touches a miniature skull in the display, Johnny has a vision of how Lucius met his death [The Spell of the Sorcerer’s Skull; 13-4, 18]. Mr. Dillet comes across a larger than life dollhouse and, after touching its contents, has a similar vision of revenge.
• Mr Humphreys and his Inheritance
  • The charming phrase “Penetrans ad interiora mortis” appears in the haunted salt caves on the Windrow estate [The Revenge of the Wizard's Ghost; 81].
  • Lewis and Bertie explore the grounds of Barnavelt Manor and get lost in its eerie hedge maze, eventually finding the center and the secret hidden within [The Vengeance of the Witch-Finder; 26, 44]. Mr. Humphreys finds trouble at the enter of the maze he recently inherited.
• Lost Hearts
  • There is a passing similarity to the orphaned Lewis coming to live with his eccentric uncle, Jonathan, that mirrors young Stephen coming to live with his relative, Mr. Abney (though Jonathan turns out nothing like Stephen's relation) [The House with a Clock in its Walls; 4-6].
• Oh, Whistle and I'll Come to You, My Lad
  • The Flimsies of the Flapping Forest are reminiscent of old linen napkins and “slip into open windows at night and try to smother sleeping people” [The Pedant and the Shuffly; 14-5]. Described as such, they are similar to the revenant that invades the spare bed of Parkins’ hotel room and fashions itself a body out of the sheets.
  • Prospero is frightened by an old cloak in his basement that comes to life and “with empty flapping arms it floated across the cellar floor, swaying in a sickening nightmare rhythm” [The Face in the Frost; 7]. After blowing the whistle he found buried near an ancient temple, Professor Parkins is visited in the night by an apparition that lurches around his bedroom in similar fashion.
  • Lewis finds a strange whistle whilst hiking in the woods near New Zebedee [The Whistle, the Grave,and the Ghost]. Parkins finds a whistle “shaped very much after the manner of the modern dog-whistle” that he finds “full of a fine, caked-up sand or earth, which would not yield to knocking, but must be loosened with a knife.” This whistle, too, has an inscription and when blown starts a “tremendous gust” of wind, later calling forth an apparition.
• The Tractate Middoth
  • A strange man – described as having a bald head and being covered in cobwebs – appears to John Eldred in the library. Later, a story is told of a “horrid old man” whose burial took place in a brick room in an underground field near the man’s house. The spectral remnant of Willis Nightwood – bald, cobwebbed face – is spotted around Hoosac. A lawyer by trade, Nightwood’s cremated remains were sealed in specially sealed brick underground room [The Lamp from the Warlock's Tomb].
• The Treasure of Abbot Thomas
  • Stained glass windows at Germany's Steinfeld Abbey of three Biblical figures – Job Patriarcha, Johannes Evangelista, and Zacharias Propheta – are prominent clues. Johnny comes across a similar stained glass, though displaying the agents of evil that he is to encounter [The Revenge of the Wizard's Ghost]. Each figure holds a book or scroll; the scroll in Job's hand was inscribed: “Auro est locus in quo absconditur” (for “conflatur”). Zebulon Windrow holds a similar scroll, his reading “Zebulon Patriarcha” [The Revenge of the Wizard's Ghost; 4]. Bellairs used the Latin phrase (“there is a place for gold where it is hidden”) as a clue to reach the Autarch’s other-worldly dimension [The Mansion in the Mist; 20-1].
• Wailing Well
  • Two members of a troop of Scouts come across a strange section of land near their camp. The scene is similar to the way Johnny and Fergie come across the Staunton Harold estate whilst away at Scout camp [The Mummy, the Will, and the Crypt].