Manly Wade Wellman

Manly Wade Wellman (May 21, 1903 – April 5, 1986) was an American writer. While his science fiction and fantasy stories appeared in such pulps as Astounding Stories, Startling Stories, Unknown and Strange Stories, Wellman is best remembered as one of the most popular contributors to the legendary Weird Tales and for his fantasy and horror stories set in the Appalachian Mountains, which draw on the native folklore of that region. Karl Edward Wagner referred to him as "the dean of fantasy writers." Wellman also wrote in a wide variety of other genres, including historical fiction, detective fiction, western fiction, juvenile fiction, and non-fiction.

Wellman was a long-time resident of North Carolina. He received many awards, including the World Fantasy Award and Edgar Allan Poe Award. In 2013, the North Carolina Speculative Fiction Foundation inaugurated an award named after him to honor other North Carolina authors of science fiction and fantasy.

Three of Wellman's most famous recurring protagonists are John, a.k.a. John the Balladeer, a.k.a. "Silver John", a wandering backwoods minstrel with a silver-stringed guitar; the elderly "occult detective" Judge Pursuivant; and John Thunstone, also an occult investigator.

Wellman wrote under a number of pseudonyms, including Gabriel Barclay, Levi Crow, Gans T. Field, Hampton Wells, and Wade Wells.

Biography

Early years Wellman was born in the village of Kamundongo, near the city of Silva Porto in Portuguese West Africa (now Angola). When he was still a young boy, his family moved to the United States, where he attended school in Washington, D.C., and prep school in Salt Lake City. After graduating from Fairmount College (now Wichita State University in Kansas) with a BA in English in 1926, he received a Bachelor of Literature degree from the School of Journalism at Columbia University in 1927. A distinguished football player, he received little encouragement from either family or teachers for his plans to become a writer. An early story, "Back to the Beast", resulted in one teacher remarking "Your work is impossible!" Yet this same story became his first professional sale when editor Farnsworth Wright bought it and published it in Weird Tales (November 1927).

He was of partial Native American ancestry. According to the author note by Gahan Wilson in Gahan Wilson, ed. First World Fantasy Awards (NY: Doubleday, 1977, p. 253), Wellman's "ancestry reaches back through the Confederate South to colonial Virginia, with the potent infusion of Gascon French and American Indian."

Wellman cited the writers Edgar Allan Poe, M. R. James, Lord Dunsany, Lafcadio Hearn and Johannes V. Jensen as influences on his own work.

One of Wellman's brothers, Paul Wellman, was also a well published author; another, Frederick Lovejoy Wellman, was a noted plant pathologist. He sold many stories in this period to Ozark Stories and Thrilling Tales. He married Frances Obrist on June 14, 1930. Writing under the pen name "Garfield", she became a horror writer in her own right when she sold her first story to Weird Tales in 1939. During the Depression, Wellman's newspaper work started to dwindle, so in 1934 he moved from Kansas to New York City where he became assistant director of the WPA's New York Folklore Project.

Alfred Bester described meeting Wellman in about 1939: "Mort Weisinger introduced me to the informal luncheon gatherings of the working science fiction authors of the late thirties... The vivacious compère of those luncheons was Manley [sic] Wade Wellman, a professional Southerner full of regional anecdotes. It's my recollection that one of his hands was slightly shriveled, which may have been why he came on so strong for the Confederate cause. We were all very patient with that; after all, our side won the war. Wellman was quite the man-of-the-world for the innocent thirties; he always ordered wine with his lunch."

Moving from New York to New Jersey in 1939, Wellman wrote countless stories for the new field of comic books as well as for the pulps.

The 1940s: New York, Weird Tales, occult detectives and comic books

In the 1930s and 1940s, Wellman began selling to the bigger publications such as Weird Tales, Wonder Stories and Astounding Stories. At this time, when Wellman was living in New York, Weird Tales published numerous stories based on three of his most famous characters: Judge Pursuivant, John Thunstone, and Professor Nathan Enderby.

Judge Keith Hilary Pursuivant (written under the pen name Gans T. Fields) is described as "a renowned scholar and retired judge, hero of World War I, and now hero of darker, more dangerous battles. Huge of frame, an epicure, an authority on the occult, Pursuivant strides forth from his reclusive home in West Virginia to confront evil wherever it appears."

In 1946 Wellman won the Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine Award over William Faulkner for his Native American detective tale "A Star for a Warrior". Apparently Faulkner was quite upset to be second fiddle to a science fiction and horror writer. Faulkner indignantly wrote to the editors of the magazine, proclaiming that he was the father of the French literary movement and the most important American writer in Europe.

Wellman's 1956 nonfiction historical work Rebel Boast was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize.

The 1950s: North Carolina, juveniles, science fiction and non-fiction

After serving as a lieutenant in World War II, in 1951 Wellman moved his family to Pinebluff, North Carolina. There he immersed himself in American southern mountain folklore and history, becoming an expert on the Civil War and the historic regions and peoples of the Old South. Later in 1951, he made his final move to the college town of Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Wellman built a vacation cabin on what he called Yandro Mountain in the Great Smoky Mountains next to his friend Obray Ramsey's home. A benefit auction for the ailing author was held in London at the annual Christmas Party of the British Fantasy Society and the funds raised sent to Wellman and his wife in a Christmas card. Due to the onset of gangrene in his legs following double amputation, Wellman's health failed further and he died at his home in Chapel Hill, North Carolina on April 5, 1986. Before his death he had been able to finish his historical novel Cahena about a medieval African warrior princess (see Kahina), published in 1986, and the final John the Balladeer short story "Where Did She Wander?"

Frances Wellman died on May 7, 2000. She was cremated and her ashes spread on the lawn of their home at Dogwood Acres in Chapel Hill, NC.

A son, Wade Wellman, died January 25, 2018, in Waukesha, Wisconsin.

Works Wellman once estimated his output of stories and articles at about 500, of which about 80 were in the fantasy and science fiction genres.

World Fantasy Award,Life Achievement

World Fantasy Award,Best Collection/Anthology Worse Things Waiting

World Fantasy Award,Best Short Fiction "The Ghastly Priest Doth Reign"

World Fantasy Award,Life Achievement DeepSouthCon Phoenix Award 1977

1978 1979

International Fantasy Gamers Society Balrog Award,Professional Achievement World Fantasy Convention World Fantasy Award,Life Achievement 1981 Locus Locus Award,Best Fantasy Novel After Dark 1983 First Fandom First Fandom Hall of Fame 1985 British Fantasy Society British Fantasy Award,Special Award 1989 Locus Locus Award,Best Collection John the Balladeer 1996 North Carolina Writers' Network North Carolina Literary Hall of Fame 2020 Worldcon Retro Hugo Award,Hugo Award for Best Graphic Story The Spirit: "For the Love of Clara Defoe" Adaptations The Silver John stories were the inspiration for "Who Fears the Devil?", a 1994 recording by Joe Bethancourt that featured both traditional Appalachian folk songs that Silver John would have known, and Wellman's original lyrics that were in many of the Silver John stories, set to the traditional melodies that Wellman used as models.

Additionally, the progressive bluegrass band, The Dixie Bee-Liners, recorded an original song inspired by the Silver John stories titled "Yellow-Haired Girl" on their 2008 album "RIPE."

Much of the following information is taken from Mark Cannon's bibliography of Wellman.

Larroes Catch Meddlers: Adapted for television for Lights Out as "The Meddlers", aired 7 July 1951 Director: Unknown Screenwriter: Douglas Wood Gibson, Richard E Davis Starring: John Carradine, E G Marshall, Dan Morgan

School for the Unspeakable: Adapted for television for Lights Out as "The School for the Unspeakable", aired 7 January 1952 Director: Unknown Screenwriter: Richard E Davis Starring: Donald Buka, Don Hanmer, Leon Tokatyan, Dick Kallman, Maurice Kenney, Jason Jonson, John Gerstad, Harold Webster

The Valley Was Still: Adapted for television for The Twilight Zone as "Still Valley," aired 24 November 1961 Director: James Sheldon Screenwriter: Rod Serling Starring: Gary Merrill (Paradine), Vaughn Taylor (Old Man), Ben Cooper (Dauger), Addison Myers (Sentry); Mark Tapscott (Lieutenant), Jack Mann (Mallory)

The Devil is Not Mocked: Adapted for television for Night Gallery, aired 27 October 1971 Director: Gene Kearney Screenwriter: Gene Kearney Starring: Helmut Dantine (General), Francis Lederer (Master), Hank Brandt (Kranz)

Rouse Him Not: Adapted for TV for Monsters, aired December 1988 Director: Mark Shostrom Writer: Michael Parry Starring: Laraine Newman, Terrance Evans and Alex Cord as John Thunstone.

Who Fears The Devil? 1972 feature film, edited and re-released in 1973 as The Legend of Hillbilly John Producer: Barney Rosenzweig Director: John Newland Screenwriter: Melvin Levy Starring: Hedges Capers (John), Susan Strasberg (Poly Wiltse), Denver Pyle (Grandpappy John), Severn Darden (Mr Marduke), Percy Rodriguez (Capt Lojoie H Desplain IV), R G Armstrong (Bristowe); Sharon Henesy (Lily); Sidney Clute (Charles); William Traynor (Rev. Millen); Harris Yulin (Zebulon Yandro); Alfred Ryder (O J Onselm); Chester Jones (Uncle Anansi); Val Avery (Cobart); "White Lightnin'" (themselves); "Honor Hound" (himself).

Film based on the character of Silver John. Two segments of the film were based on the stories O Ugly Bird and The Desrick on Yandro.

School for the Unspeakable (on audiotape with Unfortunate Obsession by Matthew Costello) Brilliance Corp 1997

Up Under the Roof 2010 short film (35mm, 20 minutes) Producer: Danielle Stallings and Darin Read Director: Darin Read Screenwriter: Danielle Stallings and Darin Read Starring: Jonathan Milliken, Shawnna Youngquist, Geoff Elliot, Jill Hill, Vince Froio, Alice Taylor and voice of Greg Finley

Based on Wellman's short story entitled "Up Under the Roof"

Legacy Karl Edward Wagner referred to him as "the dean of fantasy writers."

Manly Wade Wellman Award The Manly Wade Wellman Award, named in his honor, is given out annually since 2013 by the North Carolina Speculative Fiction Foundation for "outstanding achievement in science fiction and fantasy novels written by North Carolina authors". The winners of the award are listed below. 2014 – The Shambling Guide to New York City by Mur Lafferty 2015 – Ghost Train to New Orleans by Mur Lafferty 2016 – Raising Hell by John G. Hartness 2017 – Steeplejack by A. J. Hartley 2018 – Scourge by Gail Z. Martin 2019 – Empire of Silence by Christopher Ruocchio 2020 – A Fall in Autumn by Michael G. Williams 2021 – Queen of None by Natania Barron 2022 – The Actual Star by Monica Byrne 2023 – Nettle and Bone by Ursula Vernon 2024 – The Night Field by Donna Glee Williams 2025 – Crypt of the Moon Spider by Nathan Ballingrud