The Book of Weird

Barbara Ninde was the middle of three children of Harry Warrington Ninde, Jr 1899 1980 , who worked as the manager of a mortgage and loan company, and Elizabeth Rudisill, n e Freeman 1899 1986 , who were married in Fort Wayne, Indiana, on 14 November 1925 Barbara had an older sister and a younger brother.Barbara attended the University of Wyoming for two years, 1947 49 She married Hugh W Byfield 1922 1984 in Chicago on 19 April 1956 They had two daughters, but the marriage did not last long and they were divorced Byfield signed all of her books as by Barbara Ninde Byfield Through the 1960s 70s she lived in New York City Her first book, of several self illustrated juveniles, was The Eating in Bed Cookbook 1962 , and it was followed by a series comprising The Haunted Spy 1969 , The Haunted Churchbell 1971 , The Haunted Ghost 1973 and The Haunted Tower 1976 An unrelated self illustrated book was Andrew and the Alchemist 1977 retitled The Man Who Made Gold, 1980 Byfield wrote the text for Smedley Hoover, His Day 1976 , based around photographs by Sara Krulwich, and four adult mystery novels appeared as Solemn High Murder co written with Frank L Tedeschi, 1975 , Forever Wilt Thou Die 1976 , A Harder Thing than Triumph 1977 , and A Parcel of Their Fortunes 1979 These four novels center around an Episcopalian high churchman, the Reverend Dr Simon Bede, and his friend, photographer Nancy Bullock Byfield also illustrated a handful of works by other authors, and had a half dozen contributions to Alfred Hitchcock s Mystery Magazine between 1982 and 1986.Byfield s most significant publication relating to the fantasy genre is The Glass Harmonica A Lexicon of the Fantastical New York Macmillan, 1967 , which was retitled The Book of Weird when it was republished by Doubleday in 1973 It is a witty, illustrated compendium of just over one hundred alphabetical entries, on topics ranging from Advisors and Alchemists , on through Castles and Palaces and Crones and Hags to Dragons , Dwarves spelt like, and similar to, the Tolkienian sort , Kings , Queens , Serfs and Peasants , Vampires and finally Wizards There is a vein of humor to the entries, as in the one for Mangel Wurzel which is defined as a type of beet which should, like all beets, be used only to feed cattle It is a crop which seldom fails and is much planted by Serfs and Peasants p 98 And there is a lot of useful information for the deviser of quasi medieval fantasy worlds, telling of the various landscapes and what grows on them as well as nice illustrations for various vessels like flagons, goblets, blackjacks, horns and tankards It several ways in can be seen as a precursor to Diana Wynne Jones s The Tough Guide to Fantasyland 1996, revised 2006.