Timeline: 1960-69
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| 1960 |
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Spring
Letter to Charles Bowen, with newspaper clipping attachment. Bowen: "The [newspaper article] story apparently continues, but this is all that has been torn out of the paper. If I know John, he would have sent this even if the story was less outrageous, just because it contained the name Feutus Snodgrass."
1960_jb-to-cbowen.pdf
1960_jb_snodgrass.pdf |
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September 2
Graduated, M.A. (English), University of Chicago, Illinois. |
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September
Part-time instructor in English Department at Indiana University, Gary, Indiana. On his application to teach at Indiana University, Bellairs was asked about furthering his formal education; noted he had "possible fellowships for study in England." |
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Fall
Bellairs meets Bernard Markwell at dorm meeting in Laughlin Hall {more...}. |
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Fall
Enrolled in classes at University of Chicago (fall quarter) |
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| 1961 |
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c. Spring
Bellairs meets Dale and Marilyn Fitschen. |
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May
Bellairs leaves International House, where he'd lived since September 1959. |
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Begins doctoral studies at the University of Chicago. |
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Enrolled in classes at University of Chicago (winter, spring and fall quarters) |
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c. Spring-Summer
Resides in an apartment on Woodlawn near 53rd street with Dale Fitschen, John Moriarty and Lewis McFarlane for a semester. |
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December
Leaves for England. |
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c. December, 1961 - January, 1962
Undated letter to Dale and Marilyn Fitschen, sent from England. Bellairs: "Expect me for the wedding." |
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| 1962 |
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c. January-February
Returns from England. |
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February 10
John attends Dale and Marilyn Fitschen's wedding in St. Louis. |
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Enrolled in classes at University of Chicago (winter and spring quarters). |
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Summer
Resides with Bernard Markwell at Alpha Delta Phi House. |
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December
Hand-written dedication to Al Myers in Sigrid Undset's The Master of Hestviken. Myers: "The inscription is of interest because John included a small but vintage Louis XI drawing in it, one of two that I still possess; he also signed it with a delightful little butterfly that he made out of his monogram."
1962_ded-jb_undset.pdf |
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| 1963 |
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Spring
John first tells his story of St. Fidgeta at a graduate student party in the Fitschen Hyde Park apartment. |
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April
Joined the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) at the rank of instructor. |
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June
Leaves English Department at Indiana University. |
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September
Begins Instructor of English, College of St. Teresa; Winona, Minnesota. |
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Enrolled in classes at University of Chicago (fall quarter) |
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Fall
Winona: Bellairs played the role of Joshua in Jean Anouilh's "Ring Round the Moon." |
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Leaves the doctoral program at the University of Chicago having completed all requirements except his dissertation. |
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| 1964 |
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Spring
Wnona: Bellairs played the role of Sir Toby Belch in "Twelfth Night" (1965 CST yearbook, 191). |
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unknown
Travels by train to Jacksonville, Florida to visit Al Myers. Visits Longboat Key, Jacksonville Beach, and St. Augustine. |
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June 5, 1964
Letter to Al Myers's mother. Myers: "Bellairs always gave my mother fanciful salutations, such as "Duchess." The letter is made doubly amusing by the campaign poster John drew on the reverse."
1964_0605_jb-to-myers.pdf |
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Enrolled in classes at University of Chicago (fall quarter) |
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November
Winona: Bellairs played the role of Paedagogus in "Electra," (1965 CST yearbook, 107). |
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Winter
While John was teaching, Marilyn and Dale Fitschen mailed "St. Fidgeta" to the Thomas More Association in Chicago in hopes it would be considered for publication in their Catholic literary journal, The Critic. Dan Herr, the publisher, responded that "against his better judgment" they would print St. Fidgeta. |
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| 1965 |
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Spring
Winona: Bellairs acts in the production of Shaw's "Heartbreak House" (1965 CST yearbook, 189). |
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c. March
undated letter to Dale and Marilyn Fitschen: "John speaks of his attendedance at a Yeats Conference in Duluth the weekend before. He mentions a review in the Winona Daily News commenting on his role as Boss Mangan, the 'captain of industry' in 'Heartbreak House.' He also tells me to take the final edited copy, and drawings of St. Fidgeta, to Dan Herr at The Critic. Signs letter 'Shavely, Lord Bleers.' |
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Spring
Winona: Bellairs had a role in Jean Giraudoux's "The Mad Woman of Chaillot." |
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May 24, 1965
Letter to Dale and Marilyn Fitschen: "John writes more about the Duluth Yeats Conference. Says he should be in Chicago on Monday and then catching a train to New York." |
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June
Leaves College of St. Teresa |
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c. June-September
Returns to Chicago, most likly enrolled at UC for thesis research; resides at 100 Bellevue Avenue. |
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June
"St. Fidgeta: Her Life and Amazing Times" made appearance in the June-July issue of The Critic. |
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c. June-August
Bellairs becomes godfather of newborn Romy Fitschen. |
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Fall
"Variations on a Vase" published in the Adelaide, South Australia Southern Reivew. |
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September
Contracts arrive for the production of The Grand Central Schism and Other Parodies for Catholics. |
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unknown
Frank Bellairs (father) steps down as owner of Elk's Cigar Store. |
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Winter
"An Anatomy of Abuses: Why Bad Poetry is Bad" published in the College of St. Teresa Censor. |
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| 1966 |
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Enrolled in classes at University of Chicago (winter and spring quarters) |
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June
Saint Fidgeta and Other Parodies published. |
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c. Spring-Summer
Hand-written dedication to Robert Yaple in St. Fidgeta and Other Parodies.
1966_ded-jb-ryaple-sfp.pdf |
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Summer
Bellairs' current address and Louis XI drawing, sent to Robert Yaple
1966_jb-to-ryaple-address.pdf |
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July 14
Date on UC Career Counseling and Placement booklet; address given as Bellevue Avenue. |
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July 18
Letter to John Drew; notes new address is 100 Bellevue Place, Chicago.
1966_0708_jb-to-jdrew.pdf |
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July 25, 1966
Letter from Robert Blackburn, Dean of Faculty of Shimer College to Shimer President Joseph Mullin.
1966_0725_blackburn.pdf |
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July 27
Bellairs takes the train to Mount Carroll and meets Robert Blackburn and later President Mullin. |
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July 28
Letter to Bellairs in Chicago, from President Mullin of Shimer College offering him an appointment as a full-time member of the college faculty for the academic year 1966-67. Dutuies would include teaching and faculty counselor for one of the men's dormitories in the regular academic semesters.
1966_0728_mullin_contract.pdf |
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August 5
Shimer President Joseph Mullin in a memo to Shimer faculty and staff; this is page one, page two appears lost.
1966_0805_mullin_fyi.pdf |
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Augsut 24
Letter from Marshall Draft Board.
1966_0824_mi_db.pdf |
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August 25
Letter from John Bellairs to Denis Cowan, Acting Dean of Faculty, in response to his draft notice.
1966_0825_jb-to-cowan.pdf |
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August 27
Letter from Denis Cowan to Marshall Draft Board.
1966_0827_dcowan.pdf |
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September
The September PMLA (Publication of the Modern Language Association) (Vol. 81, No. 4, page 91) lists John as a member of the MLA; address given is International House (Apt. 667). |
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September
Begins as member of Humanities faculty; Shimer College; Mount Carroll, IL. In addition to teaching, Bellairs serves as Resident Head of McKee Hall. |
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September 15
First meeting of John's Humanities class, according to Pat Thomas. |
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November 7
Shimer College: Bellairs reviews Wilder's "The Skin of Our Teeth" for the Excalibur, Shimer College, November 7, 1966. |
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November 30
Resigns from Shimer College, effective the end of the current school year (spring 1967).
1966_1130_jb-resign.pdf |
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December
Membership in the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) ends. |
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December 12, 1966
Shimer President Joseph Mullin in a memo to Shimer faculty and staff.
1966_1212_mullin_memo.pdf |
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c. 1966-67
Undated letter from Bellairs to John Drew.
1966_jb-tojdrew.pdf |
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c. 1966-67
Memorandum from the Shimer Registrar's office detailing the college's grading system.
No real Bellairsian tie-in but something to explain more about the school.
1966_sc_curriculum.pdf |
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c. 1966-67
Fly-leafs of book of New Yorker cartoons, originally owned by Bellairs and borrowed by Shimer College student Warner Johnston during spring semester of 1967. Johnston: "I borrowed the book from him but was never able to return it as he left campus unexpectedly because of the death of his mother. What remains are a half dozen sketches that I believe pre-dated his first book."
1966_jbart_wj.pdf |
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| 1967 |
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Death:Virginia C. Monk; (b. 1910, age 57) | Grave
(John's mother) |
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c .1967
Report of the Dean of Students (this is page one, page two appears lost).
1967_report_of_dean.pdf |
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c. Febraury 22
Bellais leads a Funeral March for Shimer College. |
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c. February 22, 1967
Undated letter to John Drew
Drew: "Vicarage Cottage (V.C.) was my mother's cottage at Farningham in Kent, a village less than 20 miles southeast of London. Once the vicar's gardener's cottage (between the Vicarage and the pub) my parents converted the small stabling-end into a separate one-up, one-down for my granny. I cannot now remember whether John wanted to stay there as a paying guest with my mother."
1967_02_jb-to-jdrew.pdf |
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March 6
Shimer College: Bellairs writes "Catalog a Provocative Work" for the Excalibur, Shimer College, xxxxx. |
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March 10, 1967
Signed letter from the members of the Shimer faculty to the Shimer College Board of Trust. First column: James Green, Curtis Larsen, "Mac" Gatch (not sure of his real first name -- maybe Milton?), John Hirschfield, Warren Miller, Elinor Miller, Alan Dowty. Second column: Harry Golding, Robert Jordan, Nancy Dowty, Donna Shaw, William Wendlandt, John Bellairs, Robert Hall, William Kreijci. Third row: Helen Dixon, Andy Armstrong, Stafford Davis.
1967_0310_faculty-sign.pdf |
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March 10, 1967
Letter from a Shimer College student to President Mullin
1967_0310_sc_student_concern.pdf |
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March 18, 1967
Various extracts from the minutes of 1966 and 1967 faculty meetings.
1967_0318_minutes_extract.pdf |
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April 8, 1967
Letter to Charles Bowen
Bowen: "The bottom of the page is decorated with a face wearing a hat inscribed 'Lilliburlero Bowen A La.' Lilliburlero is an attractive Irish tune, whose nonsense-word chorus goes 'Lero, lero, lilliburlero; lilliburlero bullen a la.' John neatly substitutes 'Bowen' for 'bullen.' 'Happy childhood' I assume is not a reference to anything special, but a wish for the baby."
1967_0408_jb-to-cbowen.pdf |
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unknown
Leaves Shimer College |
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c. June-July
John leaves for England. |
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July 16, 1967
Postcard to Charles Bowen, sent from London
A painting in the National Gallery titled A Man seated Reading at a Table in a Lofty Room. The room is in shadow, except for sunlight falling on one wall. John has added a caption at the bottom: "If the light were better in here, I could read." Once attributed to Rembrandt, the work, which is on display in The National Gallery in London, is now thought to be a work of an early, perhaps contemporary, follower of Rembrandt.
1967_0716_jb-to-cbowen.pdf |
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August 23
Mt. Carroll: Offical letter of recommendation for Dale from John, who signs as "Member of Faculty, Shimer College (1966-67)." |
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c. October-November 1967
Undated letter to Dale and Marilyn Fitschen, from England (probably Bristol)
Notes that he sent two copies of Prospero to "Lizavita," his editor. |
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December 3 and 5, 1967
Letters to Dale and Marilyn Fitschen, from Bristol
Sent Dale manuscript of The Paranoid Sunglasses for his opinion. Doesn't care for Dale's opinion and says he may come home before the end of the year. He signs the second letter "Tragically, Tufnell Park Pewsterhold." |
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December 9, 1967
Letter to Dale and Marilyn Fitschen, from Bristol
Says "Lizzy" sent a letter today which amounts to acceptance of the Prospero book. She wants revisions, but is going to set up a contract. Says he'll be home in February, "but where to live? Boston?" Marilyn: "We bake and mail a fruit cake and other goodies to John in Bristol, but he returns before Christmas and never receives it." |
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| 1968 |
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January 11
Letter to Gerald Kadish, from England,says that he will be sailing back to the US from England on January 19, on the Queen Elizabeth (which, he notes, looks "disturbingly like the Titanic") and that the publication of The Pedant and Shuffly is imminent. |
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January 16
Letter to John Drew. |
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January 18-19
Bellairs leaves England on Queen Elizabeth II. |
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January 24
Queen Elizabeth docks. |
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January
Returning from England, John settled in Boston. |
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February 8
Letter from Elizabeth Bartelme, the Macmillan Company, New York, to Dale and Marilyn Fitschen: she writes that she had lunch with John in New York. They "discussed The Face in the Frost at some length and he is going to do revisions." She notes that The Pedant and the Shuffly will be published on February 26th. |
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February 26
The Pedant and the Shuffly published. |
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March
Hand-written dedication to Pat Thomas in The Pedant and the Shuffly. Thomas: "There is a drawing of a goofy bishop and banner proclaiming, 'Greed is the Foundation of Love.' On the same page is a black-tinted fist clutching a picket sign emblazoned 'Mary See is a Honky.'
1968_thomas-ded-ps.pdf |
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March
Hand-written dedication to Al Myers's family in The Pedant and the Shuffly. Myers: To the Duchess of Desmond, seine Herr, Timothy J. Katt, le Bébé, love, greetings, & Happy St. Patrick's Day. "The Duchess is my mother; seine Herr, my father; and their two cats. This is garnished with a drawing of a shamrock and a hostile-looking bishop with 'zed' written on his hat. The bishop is saying, 'I can still beat you at scrabble.'"
1968_ded-jb-myers-ps.pdf |
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April 22, 1968
Letter to Dale and Marilyn Fitschen: "Al Myers visited and they rented a car and went to Cape Cod. Says he took the corrected Prospero to Mary-Claire Stubbs to get it typed. He also says he just "wrapped up The Paranoid Sunglasses and The Pouty King and my bishop drawings and sent them to Joel Wells, editor of The Critic." |
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May 10
John and Priscilla went out on a first date. |
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c. June, 1968
Wedding Announcement sent to Dale and Marilyn Fitschen.
Marilyn: "I think Priscilla hand-lettered the card and John wrote the personal note - but it is John's humor. The bishops or clerics changed with every piece of correspondence." |
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June 24
Married Pricilla Braids. |
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June 26, 1968
Letter to Dale and Marilyn Fitschen, from Boston:
"Got a tumble from Emmanuel College, a good Catholic girls school out on the Hagway in Boston near Hagway Park." Went to a rally for Eugene McCarthy where Alan Arkin read from Catch 22. |
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June
John moves into Priscilla's apartment (#6) on Ellery Street, Cambridge, where she had been living for two years. |
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c. Fall
Begins Instructor of English, Emmanuel College, Boston, MA |
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c.1968-69
John Bellairs' illustrated version of Samuel Taylor Coleridge's "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner."
Marilyn Fitschen: "These drawings were made in blue ink on both sides of cheap typing paper. While the text is verbatim from Coleridge, we're sure John wrote it from memory."
1968_rime_ancient_mariner.pdf |
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| 1969 |
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March 5
Article "Exterminating Negroes; or, Situation Bears Watching" appears in the National Catholic Reporter. |
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March
Death: George Henry Bellairs; (b. 1891)
(John's uncle) |
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c. April-May
John and Priscilla move to a new, larger apartment in the same building (#11) on Ellery Street, Cambridge. Lived at this location until May 1970. |
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unknown
Leaves Emmanuel College |
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Summer
Begins English faculty, Merrimack College, North Andover, MA. |
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June
Brad Strickland marries Barbara Ann Justus |
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August 29
Letter to Gerald Kadish from John and Priscilla.
John: Right now my long night of unpublishment is ending: I am virtually certain of writing a weekly column in the Cambridge Phoenix, a weekly starting in Boston this fall. It will try hard to be a local Village Voice. Without a village that may be hard, but what the hell. Also, I seem to have made a hit with the Managing Editor of the National Catholic Reporter. I wrote a piece bitching about the fact that I couldn't get my Catholic-porno novel, Papa Peter's Seat, published. The piece is a lot of nasty comments on Catholic tolerance for blasphemy, but it may serve its primary purpose, to get me in print one way or another. The editor to whom I talked on the phone is going to try to get me a publisher for the novel, which is complete. So in the future you may refer to me as "my friend, the columnist". Any subjects you want ranted about?
Priscilla: John's year of teaching at Emmanuel was a dismal failure. Four sections of freshman comp that didn't seem to have one intelligent student per class, and scarcely an amiable one. Although there were some reasonably interesting younger faculty, the department was run by nuns who make St. Fidgeta seem like a whitewashing of the possibilities of Catholic education. |
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September
The Face in the Frost published. |
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September 12
Birth: Frank J. Bellairs; Boston, MA (d. 1999)
(John's son) |
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October 9, 1969
"Graffiti," a humor column, is written for the first edition of Cambridge Phoenix {more...}. |
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December
Hand-written dedication to Al Myers's mother in The Face in the Frost: "To the Duchess of Desmond, Der Herr, the Timothy, the Bébé, and other any Myerses I may have forgotten. Blessing on you all and happy, carefree New Year. John." |
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