Manly Wade Wellman

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Manly Wade Wellman (May 21, 1903-1986), an American writer, was a writer and poet. Wellman, who wrote science fiction and fantasy stories in such journals as Astounding Stories, Startling Stories, Unknown, and Strange Tales, is best remembered for his fantasy and horror stories set in the Appalachian Mountains, which are based on local folklore of the area.

"The dean of fantasy writers," Karl Edward Wagner referred to him. Wellman has also published in a variety of other genres, including historical fiction, detective fiction, western fiction, juvenile fiction, and non-fiction. Wellman, a long-time resident of North Carolina, was a resident of the area.

He has received numerous awards, including the World Fantasy Award and the Edgar Allan Poe Award.

The North Carolina Speculative Fiction Foundation introduced an award named after him to honor other North Carolina science fiction and fantasy writers. (1) John, a.k.a., is one of Wellman's most popular recurring protagonists. A.k.a. John the Balladeer, a.k.a. "Silver John," a wandering backwoods minstrel with a silver-stringed guitar, (2) Judge Pursuivant, the elderly "occult detective" who has been on the hunt, and (3) John Thunstone, a occult investigator.

Early years

Wellman was born in Kamundongo, West Africa's (now Angola), where his father, Frederick Creighton Wellman, was stationed as a medical officer. Before he learned English, he spoke the native tongue and became an adopted son of a wealthy chief whose vision Dr. Wellman restored. Manly twice as a small child, visiting Torrington Square where the family remained (obliterated during the Battle of Britain). His family immigrated to the United States, attended public instruction in Salt Lake City, prep school, and college at Wichita Municipal University (now Wichita State University) in Kansas when he was a young boy. He obtained his Bachelor of Laws degree from Columbia Law School after graduating from Wichita State with his BA in English in 1926. He received no support from either family or teachers about his attempt to become a writer. "Back to the Beast" a young tale, resulted in one teacher's remark, "Your work is impossible." When editor Farnsworth Wright bought it and published it in Weird Tales (November 1927), it became his first professional sale.

He was of partial Native American descent. Gahan Wilson's book note in Gahan Wilson, ed, says about the author. Wellman's "ancestry traces back to Confederate South to Colonial Virginia, with the potent infusion of Gascon French and American Indian," according to the first World Fantasy Awards (NY), "p. 253).

Paul Wellman, one of Wellman's brothers, was also a well-known writer, Frederick Lovejoy Wellman, who was a well-known plant pathologist.

"The Lion Roared" was his first story to be published in 1927, and it was based on the stories told to him in his African childhood upbringing. In 1929 (The Invading Asteroid), Wellman's first science fiction book was published, but he would not resume full time until 1941.

Around that time, he began a friendship with Vance Randolph, an influential folklorist and expert on Ozark mountain magic and traditions. Randolf took Wellman on a trip through the Arkansas Ozarks, learning folklore, and meeting the secluded people of the American back country. Wellman met folk music legend Obray Ramsey, whose music would have a major influence on Wellman and his writing through Randolph.

Wellman wrote movie reviews for the Wichita Beacon in the early 1920s and then worked for The Wichita Eagle as a court and crime reporter. Several stories from this time to Ozark Stories and Thrilling Tales were sold in this period. He married Frances Obrist "Garfield" (her pen name), a horror writer in her own right; she sold her first novel to Weird Tales in 1939. Wellman's newspaper work began to dwindle during the Great Depression, and he moved from Kansas to New York City in 1934, where he became Assistant Director of the WPA's New York Folklore Project.

"Mort Weisinger introduced me to the informal luncheon gatherings of the late thirties working science fiction writers of Alfred Bester in 1939." Manley [sic] Wade Wellman, a vivacious Southerner with a wealth of regional anecdotes, was the vivacious compère of those luncheons. One of his hands was barely shriveled, which may be why he remained so passionate for the Confederate cause. We were all extremely patient with it; after all, our team won the war. Wellman was the man-of-the-world for the innocent thirties; he never ordered wine with his lunch."

Wellman went from New York to New Jersey in 1939, publishing scores of comic books as well as pulps. He was a first lieutenant in New Jersey during the war.

Wellman began selling to major magazines like Weird Tales, Wonder Stories, and Astounding Stories in the 1930s and 1940s. Weird Tales published several stories based on three of his most popular characters, including Judge Keith Pursuivant, John Thunstone, and Professor Nathan Enderby.

Judge Keith Hilary Pursuivant (written under the pen name Gans T. Fields) has been described as "a respected scholar and former judge," hero of World War II and now hero of darker, more deadly wars. Pursuivant is a body of frame, an epitape, and a source of the occult. "Wherever it appears," Pursuivant strides forward from his reclusive home in West Virginia to confront evil wherever it appears.

John Thunstone, a renowned Manhattanite playboy and dilettante, is a keen student of the occult and a two-fisted brawler able to face any foe. Thunstone stalks supernatural danger in New York's posh night clubs and seedy hotels, as a hunter pursues a man-killer beast." Rowley Thorne, the devil sorcerer, was Thunstone's archnemesis. Thorne was based on true-life occultist Aleister Crowley, the self-proclaimed "wicked man in the world."

Professor Nathan Enderby, a less well-known character, is a "slender savant and unassuming authority on the supernatural," aided by his sharp wits and his Chinese servant Quong. His cabin in rural Pennsylvania is a far cry from New York City's tumultuous social life and a fortress against the power of black magic.

Although Captain Future, led by Edmond Hamilton, was causing fear, Wellman wrote one book about it, The Solar Invasion. The novel was instead published in Startling Stories (fall of 1946), as Captain Future was postponed due to wartime paper shortages.

Wellman, who took a similar route to pulp writers Frank Belknap Long, also wrote for various comic books (what he called "squinkies") and wrote the first issue of Captain Marvel Adventures for Fawcett Publishers, and was an author who wrote for several pulp magazines (what he called "squinkies" in a previous post. Later today, he will be called into court to testify against Fawcett in a National (DC Comics) lawsuit involving plagiarism of Superman by the creators of Captain Marvel. Wellman claimed that his editors had encouraged their writers to use Superman as the model for Captain Marvel. National won their case despite the fact that it took three years. While Will Eisner, the franchise's creator, was serving in the US military during WWII, he also contributed to the writing of the comic book The Spirit. Wellman also wrote for the comic Blackhawk.

Wellman returned to novel-writing in the 1940s, releasing two science fiction full-length books, Sojarr of Titan and The Devil's Asteroid. Several mystery novels have been released in this decade, one of which was a film tie-in.

Malcolm Jameson, Seabury Quinn, Henry Kuttner, and Otto Binder were among the writer friends during the Weird Tales years. On a regular basis, a wellman used to speak with these writers in a German restaurant in Times Square. These friendships were described as being "much like a brotherhood," he said.

In 1946, Wellman received the Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine Award over William Faulkner's "A Star For A Warrior" is a British detective story. Faulkner was reportedly furious to be ranked second fiddle to a science fiction and horror author. Faulkner indignously wrote to the magazine's editors, claiming that he was the father of the French literary movement and Europe's most influential American writer. Rebel Boast, a nonfiction historical work by Wellman, was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize in 1956.

Wellman served as a harvest hand, cowboy, roadhouse bouncer, and newspaperman throughout this period.

Wellman and his family migrated to Pinebluff, North Carolina, after serving as a lieutenant in World War II. He embedded himself in American southern mountain folklore and history, becoming an authority on the Civil War and the Old South's historic regions and peoples. He made his last move to Chapel Hill, North Carolina, in 1951. Wellman built a vacation cabin in the Great Smoky Mountains next to his friend Obray Ramsey's house.

Wellman wrote several stories and books while writing but he did not write much. His interests included stints on farms, in cotton gins, and as a bouncer in a dance hall.

Wellman wrote a number of books that are considered regional classics today. The Robert E. Lee and the Natchez's critically acclaimed book, which was based on his rich knowledge of Southern history, includes the critically acclaimed account of the great steamboat race.

Giant in Gray (1949), Wellman's best-known biographical work, was based on his namesake, Confederate General Wade Hampton. Wellman wrote and published important nonfiction books about the Old South during the 1950s and 1970s, as well as county histories.

The bulk of Wellman's published work in the 1950s was devoted to young adult stories and science fiction books. In this decade, he produced no fewer than five science fiction books, though one of them was a long story that hadn't been published in the pulps. Two of his short stories were shot in this decade for the television show Lights Out. He also wrote Fort Sun Dance (1955), his first venture into this genre.

Wellman wrote two science fiction books in the sixties, including Island in the Sky and also Candle of the Wicked (1960), which fictionalized the events leading up to the Bender murders' discovery. The Solar Invasion, Captain Future's book, was reprinted in paperback. His most well-known series dates from this time and is made up of tales involving the Appalachian woodsman and the minstrel hero known as "John." These were first published in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. Who Fears the Devil? Originally published in Who Fears the Devil? (1963), based on August Derleth's personal zeal. Despite the fact that Wellman never referred to "John" or "John the guitar picker," his later publishers Doubleday and Dell branded the series Silver John as a more effective way to market the books.

Wellman's output revived in the 1970s and 1980s, as well as an increased concern for his legacy. Some of his best short general fantasy work over the years was collected by Karl Edward Wagner in Worse Things Waiting (1973), which received Wellman a World Fantasy Award and revived interest in his work. Sherlock Holmes' War of the Worlds, a 1975 novel by Sherlock Holmes, was collected from a collection of Sherlock Holmes pastiches tales co-written with his son Wade Wellman and first published in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction.

Wellman wrote five new books starring Silver John Thunstone, as well as Thunstone's short stories and ones of fictional characters such as Judge Pursuivant (1981), which were published in Lonely Vigils (1979). In 1973, a film based on the Silver John stories The Legend of Hillbilly John was released.

Wellman was voted the World Fantasy Award for Lifetime Achievement in 1980.

At the World Fantasy Convention 1983 in Chicago, Wellman was Guest of Honour (with Gene Wolfe and Rowena Merrill).

Wellman, an 85-year-old man, suffered a serious fractured ankle and shoulder in 1985 and became an invalid. At the annual Christmas Party of the British Fantasy Society, a benefit auction for the ailing author was held in London, and the funds were sent to Wellman and his wife in the form of a Christmas card. Wellman's health declined even more after double amputation, and he died at his Chapel Hill, North Carolina, on April 5, 1986. Before passing away, he had been able to complete his historical novel Cahena, about an African warrior princess (see Kahina), and the final John the Balladeer short story "Where Did She Wander."

Karl Edward Wagner, editor and editor, who edited the posthumous collections Valley So Low: Southern Mountain Stories and John the Balladeer, was the agent for his literary estate. Wellman's widow Frances was auctioned off by Southern fans Beth Gwinn and Sheri Morton, raising $28,300. Harlan Ellison was the auctioneer. Both H.P. and I had such things as a mug. Lovecraft and Fritz Leiber, a coin from Mel Brooks, and the shirt on which Ellison wore while writing his book "Maggie Money-Eyes."

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

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

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