Manly Wade Wellman -to emrbace or to shun?

[lobolover]

I know nothing about this "profilic writer of sf, fantasy andf mystery", other then having, sadly read his "The terrible parchment" , so I dont know if he is worth seeking out or not, because you cannot makee a very good impresion with that story .

[doug]

Hi!
By all means read as much Wellman as you can get your hands on. He has/had a very distinct regional voice. He wrote many stories taking place in the American south. His most famous stories are about "John the Balladeer". Imagine a young Johnny Cash wandering through the Smokey Mountains of North Carolina with a silver strung guitar and doing battle with supernatural evil.
And is nice is that he never treats his rural characters as idiots or hillbillies.





Lots of his earliest stories had urban settings were as most of his later stories had rural setting with were/so descriptive that the sense of place is amazing.

His "Silver John" stories used a lot of American folklore. He even wrote some Sword& Sorcery stories back in the 1970's for the "Swords against Darkness" anthology series along with Ramsey Campbell.


"Where Angels Fear" , "The Valley is Still" (which was filmed as a Twilight Zone "episode) and "School for the Unspeakable" are some of his most anthologized stories.


www.manlywadewellman.com/

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manly_Wade_Wellman

www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/w/manly-wade-wellman/

Nightshade books has released a 5 volume collection of his best stories! Volumes2-5 are still fairly easy to find and a few are available at ebay.co.uk

www.amazon.com/Owls-Hoot-Daytime-Other-Omens/dp/1892389231

Volume 5 of the series contains all of the "John the Balladeer"stories

Piazo Publishing will be reprinting the old Arkham House "John the Balladeer" anthology this fall as part of it's "Planet Stories" reprint library.. It's called "Who Fears the Devil".
This only contains the "Silve John" stories that appeared up to the early 1960s. The cover shown at the Piazo homepage is only a prototype/mock up.

secure.paizo.com/planetStories/v5748btpy85jz

This would be a cheaper alternative to the Night Shade hardbacks.

www.fantasticfiction.co.uk/w/manly-wade-wellman/

I can't recommend any of these stories highly enough.
I realize that it's all a matter of taste, but I find the only other author who is as satisfying as Wellman is M. R. James
SO YES! HE IS WORTH CHECKING OUT!!!

Take care and enjoy the week end.
Doug

[Dr Strange]

Totally agree with Doug - definitely worth checking out. As well as interesting characters and plots, his horror stories have a really nice sense of time and place. Quite hard to get hold of though - unless you want to shell out some serious cash for recent hardback collections. All I've got is a battered old Star paperback of "Who Fears The Devil". He also wrote SF and Westerns.

[doug]

Hi Doc,
the new Wellman hardbacks were/are expensive enough that I honestly gave up smoking so that my wife would allow me to buy them and the Clark Ashton Smith hardbacks.
Amazon.co.uk is listing the new edition of "Who fears the Devil" for 10.79 (Pounds).
I don't know though if this is a reprint of the Arkham house edition or if it includes all of the later stories also.

"Where angels Fear" creeped me out as a kid waaaay back in the very early 70's when I read it for the 1st time and I had no idea back then who Wellman was and it's stayed with me all my life.

It was in an anthology called Hauntings with a really cool Edward Gorey cover and illustrations. The book also had "The Lonesome place" by Derleth which also ranks as one of my all time favorite stories.


I can't explain why, but I've always found Wellman's stories very satisfying. I wish that I could explain that better. I guess it could be that the "homeyness" of many of his stories just appeals to me.
well sorry for rambling on.

Take care and enjoy the weekend!
Maybe spring will start one of these days.

Doug

[Dr Strange]

Recently stumbled on this trailer for a short (20 minute) film based on a Wellman story. Don't know if I'll ever get to see the whole thing, but I can hope...

www.upundertheroof.com/

[cauldronbrewer]

Wellman is one of my all-time favorite writers of horror and supernatural fiction. I'll admit to being biased: I used to live in his adopted hometown of Chapel Hill, North Carolina, and I grew up in the Appalachian Mountains, where many of his best stories--including the "Silver John" stories--are set. Wellman gets the "voice" of the region just right, and he does an outstanding job of blending the local folklore and music tradition with his own creative vision.

Like Doug, I sprang for the Nightshade set. I was too late to buy the first volume, however, so I got Lonely Vigils instead (a beautiful Carcosa Press book that covers much of the same ground; Carcosa publisher Karl Edward Wagner was a friend of Wellman's). Paizo's edition of Who Fears the Devil? would be a great introduction to Wellman's work--I believe that it includes all of the stories in the original edition, plus two stories that don't feature John by name: "Frogfather" and "Sin's Doorway." I've also read all of his supernatural novels (five Silver John books and two John Thunstone books); they're fun reads, but he was most effective in the short story form.

Doug, I observe that we share a similar taste for Southern gothic/horror!

[dem]

This thread should really be in the fantastic pulps section, but I don't suppose anybody cares too much.

Manly Wade Wellman - John The Balladeer (Baen, July 1988)

Cover art by Steve Hickman

Foreword; Manly In The mountains - David Drake
Introduction: Just Call Me John - Karl Edward Wagner

O Ugly Bird!
The Desrick On Yandro
Vandy, Vandy
One Other
Call Me From The Valley
The Little Black Train
Shiver In The Pines
Walk Like A Mountain
On The Hills And Everywhere
Old Devlins Was A-Waiting
Nine Yards Of Other Cloth
Wonder As I Wander: Some Footprints On John's Trail Through Magic Mountains
Farther Down The Trail
Trill Coster's Burden
The Spring
Owls Hoot In The Daytime
Can These Bones Live?
Nobody Ever Goes There
Where Did She Wander?

Blurb:
Travel with Silver John on his magical journeys ... feel the power that flows from his silver-strung guitar. Meet a reanimated skeleton, a nameless, lonesome nasty in a cave, and other enchanted, chilling inhabitants of the back hills of North Carolina. And when you are quite, quite ready, say hello to George Washington's ghost.

The only complete collection of Silver John!

This was among all the trashy Zebra & Leisure stuff that made it across from the States and straight into the bargain bins of London newsagents in the early 'nineties. Best thing i ever found in them, give or take a copy of Chetwynd-Hayes' The Other Side.

Mar 27, 2009 15:28:33 GMT Dr Strange said:

Totally agree with Doug - definitely worth checking out. As well as interesting characters and plots, his horror stories have a really nice sense of time and place. Quite hard to get hold of though - unless you want to shell out some serious cash for recent hardback collections. All I've got is a battered old Star paperback of "Who Fears The Devil". He also wrote SF and Westerns.

while i'm here, Steve posted the stripped down Who Fears The Devil details on the old place:

Manly Wade Wellman - Who Fears The Devil?
Star Books, 1975

John's My Name
O Ugly Bird!

Why They're Named That
One Other

Then I Wasn't Alone
Shiver In The Pines

You Know the Tale of Hoph
Old Devilns Was A-Waiting

Find the Place Yourself
The Desrick On Yando

The Stars Down There
Vandy, Vandy

Blue Monkey
Dumb Supper

I Can't Claim That
The Little Black Train

Who Else Could I Count On
Walk Like A Mountain

None Wiser for the Trip
On The Hills And Everywhere

Nary Spell
Nine Yards Of Other Cloth

[doug]

@caldronbrewer..
check this out!!

www.haffnerpress.com/thunstone.html




My mother and her people were from NC (I'm an ex-pat Buckeye living in Germany) and so many Wellman strories have a special attraction to me. I also find them to be amazingly entertaining and satisfying in a way that few other stories are. Pulpy, but never stupid. Appalachian horror is not easy to find. When David Drake started out he wrote a few stories in this vain. He and KEW founded Carcossa together. Sadly, aside from the Nightshade books and the 2 Carcossa editions there aren't any Wellman shortstory collections aside from the Silve John collection. What a pity! I'm not the biggest fan of his SF novels, but his short stories are wonderful.

[cauldronbrewer]

Dem: I love the cover by Steve Hickman. Silver John has a Johnny Cash thing going on, and the young (?) lady (??) looks rather fetching despite (because of?) the horns, claws, and wings.

Doug: I would buy that Haffner book in a heartbeat (even at Haffner's prices, which ain't cheap) if I hadn't already read everything in it. It's still tempting.

Speaking of Karl Edward Wagner and Appalachian horror: I thought that his ".220 Swift" was a solid effort at a Wellmanesque tale.

Also worth mentioning: Wellman's wife, Frances Garfield, wrote a few good horror stories herself; my favorite among them is "Come to the Party."

[cauldronbrewer]

Many Wade Wellman - Who Fears the Devil? (Paizo, April 2010)

The cover presumably illustrates, "Can These Bones Live?"

[Dr Strange]

I've got (and read) that Paizo collection - great value for money, though some of the stories are a bit weak.

[doomovertheworld]

Jan 10, 2012 17:48:30 GMT cauldronbrewer said:

Many Wade Wellman - Who Fears the Devil? (Paizo, April 2010)

The cover presumably illustrates, "Can These Bones Live?"

that is a pretty awesome cover

[doug]

The Paizo edition also has some fairly descent interior illustrations.
I like the Lee Brown Coy illustrations in "Worse Things Waiting" best.



And of course the 1st edition of "Who Fears the Devil"



And now for a little bit of self promotion! since it's winter and I have too much time on my hands in the evening I've started a little blog about horror paperbacks. and yes, The Vault is my main inspiration! Please check it out and give me your HONEST opinions! I like writing about this stuff, but I don't ewant to make a fool of myself or waste peoples time. so plese drop me a message and give me some HONEST feedback.

taker care.

uncledougsbunkerofhorror.blogspot.com/

[Craig Herbertson]

Your blog is great Doug. I really enjoyed it. The enthusiasm spills over. One thing - you're spelling is crap. There are a lot of typos - Should check it over a bit. (I'm guilty of this as well) Your first paragraph has 'the' instead of 'they' - typical spellchecker thing. But never mind its a great blog

[doug]

Jan 12, 2012 9:40:42 GMT Craig Herbertson said:

Your blog is great Doug. I really enjoyed it. The enthusiasm spills over. One thing - you're spelling is crap. There are a lot of typos - Should check it over a bit. (I'm guilty of this as well) Your first paragraph has 'the' instead of 'they' - typical spellchecker thing. But never mind its a great blog

Thanks Craig, that's the stuff I need to know. I didn't use a spell checker and corrected the mistakes (that I found) by hand. What is the hardest thing so far, is that every time I re-read what I've written I want to change/improve it instead of just leaving it the way it is. And also the name doesn't seem half as clever as it did when I started the blog.