''The Mysteries of Harris Burdick'' is a 1984

picture book A picture book combines visual and verbal narratives in a book format, most often aimed at young children. With the narrative told primarily through text, they are distinct from comics, which do so primarily through sequential images. The images ...

by the American author

Chris Van Allsburg Chris Van Allsburg (born June 18, 1949) is an American illustrator and writer of children's books. He has won two Caldecott Medals for U.S. picture book illustration, for ''Jumanji'' (1981) and ''The Polar Express'' (1985), both of which he al ...

. It consists of a series of images, ostensibly created by Harris Burdick, a man who has mysteriously disappeared. Each image is accompanied by a title and a single line of text, which encourage readers to create their own stories. Many famous writers have tried to put their own twists on the pictures. The book is available in a Portfolio Edition which includes another image/caption pair from the story "Missing in Venice". In 2011 a book titled ''The Chronicles of Harris Burdick: Fourteen Amazing Authors Tell the Tales'' was published, composed of stories inspired by the book’s illustrations by noted writers, including

Stephen King Stephen Edwin King (born September 21, 1947) is an American author of horror, supernatural fiction, suspense, crime, science-fiction, and fantasy novels. Described as the "King of Horror", a play on his surname and a reference to his high s ...

and

Louis Sachar Louis Sachar ( ; born March 20, 1954) is an American young-adult mystery-comedy author. He is best known for the ''Wayside School'' series and the novel ''Holes''. ''Holes'' won the 1998 U.S. National Book Award for Young People's Literature

Premise

In an encounter between a children's book editor named Peter Wenders and an author and illustrator named Harris Burdick – who says he has 14 stories that he has written – Burdick brings one picture from each story with a caption. He leaves with a promise to deliver the complete manuscripts if the editor chooses to buy the books. The next day, Burdick did not show up. Burdick had mysteriously disappeared. Over the years, Wenders tried to find out who Harris Burdick was, but he never found out. Burdick was never seen again, and the samples are all that remain of his supposed books. Readers are challenged to imagine their own stories based on the images for the books. In 1984, Chris Van Allsburg visited Wenders' office, and Wenders showed him Burdick's drawings. Van Allsburg decided that if he were to publish the drawings, they might find out who Harris Burdick was. Both Wenders and Van Allsburg were sure that someone would come forward with information about Burdick. Then, in 1993, a dealer in antique books told them that he had purchased an entire library that had previously belonged to a recently deceased woman, including an antique mirror with portraits of characters from ''

Through the Looking-Glass ''Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There'' (also known as ''Alice Through the Looking-Glass'' or simply ''Through the Looking-Glass'') is a novel published on 27 December 1871 (though indicated as 1872) by Lewis Carroll and the ...

''. The mirror fell from the wall and cracked open. Neatly concealed between the wooden frame and the mirror was an image similar to Burdick's other works; its caption identified it as being from the Burdick story "Missing in Venice". As stated on the Burdick website, Peter Wenders died in 2000 at the age of 91.

Pictures

* Archie Smith, Boy Wonder * Uninvited Guests * The House on Maple Street * Missing in Venice * Under the Rug * The Harp * A Strange Day in July * Another Place, Another Time * Mr Linden's Library * Oscar and Alphonse * Just Dessert * The Seven Chairs * The Third Floor Bedroom * Captain Tory * Missing in Venice (second picture)

Influence

The short story " The House On Maple Street" which appears in

's ''

Nightmares & Dreamscapes ''Nightmares & Dreamscapes'' is a short story collection by American author Stephen King, published in 1993. Stories Dedication King dedicated this collection of stories to Thomas Williams, a writing instructor who taught for many years at t ...

'' is inspired by the last image/caption in ''The Mysteries of Harris Burdick''.

Film adaptation

Walt Disney Pictures Walt Disney Pictures is an American film production company and subsidiary of Walt Disney Studios, which is owned by The Walt Disney Company. The studio is the flagship producer of live-action feature films within the Walt Disney Studios uni ...

and

20th Century Fox 20th Century Studios, Inc. (previously known as 20th Century Fox) is an American film production company headquartered at the Fox Studio Lot in the Century City area of Los Angeles. As of 2019, it serves as a film production arm of Walt Dis ...

announced in July 2019 that they have acquired the film rights to "The Mysteries of Harris Burdick" with

Rafe Judkins Rafe Lee Judkins (born January 8, 1983) is an American television writer, television producer, and screenwriter. He is the showrunner for the Amazon Prime Video television series ''The Wheel of Time'' and appeared as a contestant on the 11th ...

as screenwriter and Mike Weber, Bill Teitler,

Ted Field Frederick Woodruff "Ted" Field (born June 1, 1953) is an American media mogul, record executive, entrepreneur and film producer. He co-founded Interscope Records with Jimmy Iovine and founded Interscope Communications to develop and produce fi ...

Shawn Levy Shawn Adam Levy (born July 23, 1968) is a Canadian film director, film producer, actor, and founder of 21 Laps Entertainment. He has worked across genres and is perhaps best known as the director of the ''Night at the Museum'' film franchise an ...

and Dan Cohen producing. This announcement came after Disney and Fox acquired the film rights to another Van Allsburg book, ''

The Garden of Abdul Gasazi ''The Garden of Abdul Gasazi'' () is a best-selling children's picture book written in 1979 by the American author Chris Van Allsburg. ''The Garden of Abdul Gasazi'' was the first book written by Van Allsburg, for which he won a Caldecott Honor ...

'', but unlike that adaptation, Van Allsburg is not an executive producer for this film.

References

External links

The official site
- Has a section where readers can write their own stories for the pictures. Winners get a copy of the Portfolio Edition of the book.
Additional drawing signed by Allsburg
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mysteries of Harris Burdick, The 1984 children's books American picture books Novels by Chris Van Allsburg Picture books by Chris Van Allsburg Lost literature