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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.
Wellman was born in the village of Kamundongo, near the city of Silva Porto in Portuguese West Africa (now Angola). Wellman's father, Frederick Creighton Wellman, was stationed in the village as a medical officer. He spoke a local language[clarification needed] before he learned English, and became an adopted son of a powerful chief whose vision Dr Wellman restored. As a small child, Manly twice visited London, where the family stayed in Torrington Square (obliterated during the Battle of Britain). 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."
One of Wellman's brothers, Paul Wellman, was also a well published author; another, Frederick Lovejoy Wellman, was a noted plant pathologist.
His first published story, "When the Lion Roared" (Thrilling Tales, May 1927), was based on the stories told to him in his African childhood upbringing. Wellman's first science fiction novel, The Invading Asteroid, was published in 1929 but he would not work at full length again until 1941.
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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.
Wellman was born in the village of Kamundongo, near the city of Silva Porto in Portuguese West Africa (now Angola). Wellman's father, Frederick Creighton Wellman, was stationed in the village as a medical officer. He spoke a local language[clarification needed] before he learned English, and became an adopted son of a powerful chief whose vision Dr Wellman restored. As a small child, Manly twice visited London, where the family stayed in Torrington Square (obliterated during the Battle of Britain). 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."
One of Wellman's brothers, Paul Wellman, was also a well published author; another, Frederick Lovejoy Wellman, was a noted plant pathologist.
His first published story, "When the Lion Roared" (Thrilling Tales, May 1927), was based on the stories told to him in his African childhood upbringing. Wellman's first science fiction novel, The Invading Asteroid, was published in 1929 but he would not work at full length again until 1941.