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Post by dem on Feb 11, 2019 11:29:31 GMT
Manly Wade Wellman - Where Did She Wander?: ( Whispers #23-24, Oct. 1987). Suspected witch Betty Til Hoppard was lynched by the people of Trudo in 1849. A song commemorating the event is considered unlucky by the mountain folk. Suitably intrigued, Silver John revives the taboo tune at a festival in the Ozarks, luring Becky's evil spirit into the open. This story had a big impact on me—it’s the one that made me a fan of Wellman in general and his mountain folk stories in particular. Not sure of this, but sure I read somewhere that Where Did She Wander? was the last Manly Wade Wellman story to see publication during his lifetime? If true, what a great one to bow out on. That 100 Hair Raising Little Horror Stories is relatively low on Weird Tales reprints kind of indicates we've Dziemianowicz & Weinberg to thank for reviving so many relatively unfamiliar pulp stories across Creepy Creatures, Wicked Weird & Co. Al Sarrantonio is evidently more of a Whispers/ Shadows man. |
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Post by mcannon on Feb 12, 2019 3:42:38 GMT
This story had a big impact on me—it’s the one that made me a fan of Wellman in general and his mountain folk stories in particular. Not sure of this, but sure I read somewhere that Where Did She Wander? was the last Manly Wade Wellman story to see publication during his lifetime? If true, what a great one to bow out on. Wellman died in 1986, about 18 months prior to the listed date of that issue of "Whispers", but I imagine it's quite possible that "Wander" was the last story that he wrote, or the last sold in his lifetime. Whatever the circumstances, it's a lovely little tale. Mark |
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Post by dem on Feb 12, 2019 9:27:21 GMT
Wellman died in 1986, about 18 months prior to the listed date of that issue of "Whispers", but I imagine it's quite possible that "Wander" was the last story that he wrote, or the last sold in his lifetime. Whatever the circumstances, it's a lovely little tale. Mark Thanks Mark, I figured you'd know! Have since found the source for my info, John Gregory Betancourt's review of Whispers 23-24 in Weird Tales (Summer, 1988: i.e., the "Special Tanith Lee issue"). "I particularly enjoyed "Century Farm" by Julie Stevens, about farmers and their ties to the land, and "Where Did She Wander?" by Manly Wade Wellman - Wellman's last story, a tale of John the Balladeer fully as good as most of the others in that series." |
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Post by Michael Connolly on Feb 12, 2019 13:30:42 GMT
Wellman died in 1986, about 18 months prior to the listed date of that issue of "Whispers", but I imagine it's quite possible that "Wander" was the last story that he wrote, or the last sold in his lifetime. Whatever the circumstances, it's a lovely little tale. Mark Thanks Mark, I figured you'd know! Have since found the source for my info, John Gregory Betancourt's review of Whispers 23-24 in Weird Tales (Summer, 1988: i.e., the "Special Tanith Lee issue"). "I particularly enjoyed "Century Farm" by Julie Stevens, about farmers and their ties to the land, and "Where Did She Wander?" by Manly Wade Wellman - Wellman's last story, a tale of John the Balladeer fully as good as most of the others in that series." Going by memory, the introduction to John The Balladeer (1988) indicates that "Where Did She Wander?" was the last story that Wellman wrote after having a bad fall that led to his legs being amputated. It is certainly the best of the second series of the stories. Similarly, "The Two Graves Of Lill Warren" (aka "The Last Grave Of Lill Warren") in Michel Parry's The Supernatural Solution (1976), is the last and best story in Wellman's original John Thunstone sequence. |
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