Johnny Dixon is a fictional American boy featured in a series of twelve children's gothic horror novels, 1983 to 1999, written by John Bellairs or his successor Brad Strickland. In each book, 12-year-old Johnny and his group of friends face and overcome evil forces usually bent on ending the world. [1] [2] [3] Alternatively, Johnny Dixon is the book series ("Johnny Dixon and the Professor" in ISFDB). [4]
The series is set in the early 1950s. Johnny lives with his paternal grandparents in fictional Duston Heights, Massachusetts. His mother has died of cancer some time prior to the beginning of the series, and his father is a fighter pilot in the United States Air Force during the Korean War. Johnny's best friend, history professor Roderick Childermass, lives across the street. In The Mummy, the Will and the Crypt, Johnny meets a boy his own age, Byron Q. "Fergie" Ferguson, at a Boy Scouts camp. Thenceforth, Johnny, Fergie, and Professor Childermass (who is typically referred to as simply "the professor") are the three principal characters of the series.
| # | Title | Month | Year | Chapters | Pages | Writer | Illustrator |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | The Curse of the Blue Figurine [5] | May | 1983 | 12 | 200 | John Bellairs | Edward Gorey |
| 02 | The Mummy, the Will, and the Crypt [6] | Nov | 1983 | 16 | 168 | John Bellairs | Edward Gorey |
| 03 | The Spell of the Sorcerer's Skull [7] | Nov | 1984 | 11 | 170 | John Bellairs | Edward Gorey |
| 04 | The Revenge of the Wizard's Ghost [8] | Nov | 1985 | 15 | 147 | John Bellairs | Edward Gorey |
| 05 | The Eyes of the Killer Robot [9] | Oct | 1986 | 17 | 167 | John Bellairs | Edward Gorey |
| 06 | The Trolley to Yesterday [10] | Jul | 1989 | 18 | 183 | John Bellairs | Edward Gorey |
| 07 | The Chessmen of Doom [11] | Nov | 1989 | 16 | 155 | John Bellairs | Edward Gorey |
| 08 | The Secret of the Underground Room [12] | Mar | 1990 | 13 | 127 | John Bellairs | Edward Gorey |
| 09 | The Drum, the Doll, and the Zombie [13] | Sep | 1994 | 15 | 153 | John Bellairs (outline) and Brad Strickland (written by) † | Edward Gorey |
| 10 | The Hand of the Necromancer [14] | Sep | 1996 | 18 | 168 | Brad Strickland | Edward Gorey |
| 11 | The Bell, the Book, and the Spellbinder [15] | Oct | 1997 | 16 | 149 | Brad Strickland | Edward Gorey |
| 12 | The Wrath of the Grinning Ghost [16] | Sep | 1999 | 15 | 166 | Brad Strickland | Edward Gorey |
Diana Wynne Jones was a British novelist, poet, academic, literary critic, and short story writer. She principally wrote fantasy and speculative fiction novels for children and young adults. Although usually described as fantasy, some of her work also incorporates science fiction themes and elements of realism. Jones's work often explores themes of time travel and parallel or multiple universes. Some of her better-known works are the Chrestomanci series, the Dalemark series, the three Moving Castle novels, Dark Lord of Derkholm, and The Tough Guide to Fantasyland.
John Anthony Bellairs was an American author best known for his fantasy novel The Face in the Frost and many Gothic mystery novels for children featuring the characters Lewis Barnavelt, Rose Rita Pottinger, Johnny Dixon, and Anthony Monday. Most of his books were illustrated by Edward Gorey. Thirteen unfinished and original sequels to Bellairs' books have been written by Brad Strickland. At the time of his death, Bellairs' books had sold a quarter-million copies in hard cover and more than a million and a half copies in paperback.
The Heechee Saga, also known as the Gateway series, is a series of science fiction novels and short stories by Frederik Pohl. The Heechee are an advanced alien race that visited the Solar System hundreds of millennia ago and then mysteriously disappeared. They left behind bases containing artifacts, including working starships, which are discovered and exploited by humanity.
Lester del Rey was an American science fiction author and editor. He was the author of many books in the juvenile Winston Science Fiction series, and the editor at Del Rey Books, the fantasy and science fiction imprint of Ballantine Books, along with his fourth wife Judy-Lynn del Rey.
The Internet Speculative Fiction Database (ISFDB) is a database of bibliographic information on genres considered speculative fiction, including science fiction and related genres such as fantasy, alternate history, and horror fiction. The ISFDB is a volunteer effort, with the database being open for moderated editing and user contributions, and a wiki that allows the database editors to coordinate with each other. As of April 2022, the site had catalogued 2,002,324 story titles from 232,816 authors.
Linwood Vrooman Carter was an American author of science fiction and fantasy, as well as an editor, poet and critic. He usually wrote as Lin Carter; known pseudonyms include H. P. Lowcraft and Grail Undwin. He is best known for his work in the 1970s as editor of the Ballantine Adult Fantasy series, which introduced readers to many overlooked classics of the fantasy genre.
Robert Lawrence Stine, sometimes known as Jovial Bob Stine and Eric Affabee, is an American novelist, short story writer, television producer, screenwriter, and executive editor.
Leo Dillon and Diane Dillon were American illustrators of children's books and adult paperback book and magazine covers. One obituary of Leo called the work of the husband-and-wife team "a seamless amalgam of both their hands". In more than 50 years, they created more than 100 speculative fiction book and magazine covers together as well as much interior artwork. Essentially all of their work in that field was joint.
Charles Lewis Grant was an American novelist and short story writer specializing in what he called "dark fantasy" and "quiet horror". He also wrote under the pseudonyms of Geoffrey Marsh, Lionel Fenn, Simon Lake, Felicia Andrews, Deborah Lewis, Timothy Boggs, Mark Rivers, and Steven Charles.
Martin Harry Greenberg was an American academic and anthologist in many genres, including mysteries and horror, but especially in speculative fiction. In all, he compiled 1,298 anthologies and commissioned over 8,200 original short stories. He founded Tekno Books, a packager of more than 2000 published books. He was also a co-founder of the Sci-Fi Channel. Greenberg was also an expert in terrorism and the Middle East. He was a longtime friend, colleague and business partner of Isaac Asimov.
William Bradley Strickland is an American writer known primarily for fantasy and science fiction. His speculative fiction is published under the name Brad Strickland except for one novel written as Will Bradley. By a wide margin his work most widely held in WorldCat participating libraries is The Sign of the Sinister Sorcerer, which concluded the Lewis Barnavelt series created by John Bellairs (1938–1991).
Dougal Dixon is a Scottish geologist, palaeontologist, educator and author. Dixon has written well over a hundred books on geology and palaeontology, many of them for children, which have been credited with attracting many to the study of the prehistoric animals. Because of his work as a prolific science writer, he has also served as a consultant on dinosaur programmes.
The Two Steves are British collaborative writers of children's books Steve Barlow and Steve Skidmore. They have written more than 70 books together. Their books are published as by Steve Barlow and Steve Skidmore except two Dragonriders of Bresal novels as by Salamanda Drake.
The House with a Clock in Its Walls is a 1973 juvenile mystery fiction novel written by John Bellairs and illustrated by Edward Gorey. It is the first in the series of twelve novels featuring the fictional American boy Lewis Barnavelt.
Richard Wayne Peck was an American novelist known for his prolific contributions to modern young adult literature. He was awarded the Newbery Medal in 2001 for his novel A Year Down Yonder. For his cumulative contribution to young-adult literature, he received the Margaret A. Edwards Award from the American Library Association in 1990.
The Magicians of Caprona is a children's fantasy novel by British author Diana Wynne Jones published by MacMillan Children's Books in 1980. It was the second published of seven Chrestomanci books.
The Harper Hall trilogy is a series of three science fiction novels by the American-Irish author Anne McCaffrey. They are part of the Dragonriders of Pern series as it is known today, 26 books by Anne or her son Todd McCaffrey or daughter Gigi McCaffrey as of 2018. They were published by Atheneum Books in 1976, 1977, and 1979, alongside the Dragonriders of Pern series. Omnibus editions of the two trilogies were published by the Doubleday Science Fiction Book Club in 1978 and 1984, titled The Dragonriders of Pern and The Harper Hall of Pern respectively.
A Gift Of Dragons is a 2002 collection of short fiction by the American-Irish author Anne McCaffrey. All four stories are set on the fictional planet Pern; the book is one of two collections in the science fiction series Dragonriders of Pern by Anne and her son Todd McCaffrey.
Anthony Monday is a fictional 14-year-old American boy featured in a series of four children's gothic horror novels by John Bellairs that were published from 1978 to 1992. Anthony and his friends generally overcome evil forces bent on ending the world. Alternatively, Anthony Monday is the book series, as in ISFDB. Brad Strickland, who has completed Bellairs' works posthumously and written new novels based on his characters, has noted that Anthony Monday was disliked by those in charge of publishing and any book ideas with Anthony as the character were rejected. This is why there has not been an Anthony Monday book since John Bellairs died.
