<b><a href="http://bellairsia.com">John Bellairs</a></b> (1938–1991) was an American novelist working primarily in the Gothic genre. He is best-known for the children's classic <i>The House with a Clock in its Walls</i> 1973) and for the pathbreaking fantasy novel <i>The Face in the Frost</i> (1969). Bellairs held a bachelor's degree from Notre Dame University and a master's in English from the University of Chicago. He combined writing and teaching from 1963 to 1971, including a year at <a href="http://shimer.edu">Shimer College</a> that coincided with that school's storied <a href="http://www.bellairsia.com/the_life/il/gis.html">Grotesque Internecine Struggle</a>. After 1971, he took up writing as his full-time work. (from <a href="http://shimercollege.wikia.com/John_Bellairs">Shimer College Wiki</a>)