(1903-1986) US writer, born in Angola (though his family returned to the USA when he was 6), prolific in both Fantasy and sf, though far more significant for works in the former; he also wrote Westerns – though less frequently than his brother, Paul I Wellman (1898-1966) – and crime fiction. Wellman began publishing with a fantasy, "Back to the Beast" for Weird Tales in November 1927; his first sf story proper, "When Planets Clashed", appeared (in Wonder Stories Quarterly) as late as the Spring 1931 issue. Both were under his own name, though much of his early work appeared under pseudonyms, including Levi Crow, Gans T Field and the House Name Gabriel Barclay. Much of his early work appeared in Thrilling Wonder Stories and Startling Stories, and was suitably vigorous and high-coloured. His first book was a short Space Opera, The Invading Asteroid (1932 chap). Giants from Eternity (July 1939 Startling; 1959) featured the rebirth of medical geniuses from Earth's past to confront a future menace. Sojarr of Titan (March 1941 Startling; 1949) was a Tarzan-derived tale set in space. The Hok series – stories beginning with "Battle in the Dawn" (January 1939 Amazing)and continuing in Amazing to March 1941; also in Fantastic Adventures (April 1942) and Pulse Pounding Adventure Stories (December 1986), were sf adventures set in various early mythic civilizations.
Of greatest sf interest were novels like Twice in Time (May 1940 Startling; cut 1957; with text restored and 1 story added, rev as coll 1988), an effective Time-Travel tale featuring a vivid portrayal of Leonardo Da Vinci's Florence, and Sherlock Holmes's War of the Worlds (fixup 1975), with his son Wade Wellman, which intricately involves the detective Sherlock Holmes with the Martian Invasion featured in H G Wells's novel. But in general Wellman's sf almost completely lacks the folkloric tone and cunning quietude of his best work.
Wellman's fantasy ranged from early weird stories derivative of H P Lovecraft through tales of the occult, tales that evoked Native American legend, and on to the sequences noted below. Much of his miscellaneous work was assembled in Worse Things Waiting (coll 1973), a large volume which helped inspire the growth of interest in his work over the last years of his life. More centrally, the Judge Pursuivant series beginning with "The Hairy Ones Shall Dance" (January-March 1938 Weird Tales) and continuing in the same magazine to September 1941, all as by Gans T Field, and the longer John Thunstone series – beginning with "The Third Cry to Legba" (November 1943 Weird Tales) and continuing in the same magazine to May 1951 – were assembled in Lonely Vigils (coll 1981). What Dreams May Come (1983) and The School of Darkness (1985) continued to feature Thunstone. Both Thunstone and Pursuivant are occult detectives, and the range of their investigations is compendious, encompassing most of Wellman's general periods and venues of interest, from the US Civil War to the rural USA of the twentieth century. From 1951 – with stories appearing frequently in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, which had taken over from Weird Tales as his main journal – much of Wellman's energy was devoted to his most famous sequence, the stories and novels set in the Appalachian regions of North Carolina and following the career of witchcraft-fighter and minstrel Silver John or John the Balladeer: Who Fears the Devil? (coll of linked stories 1963; exp vt John the Balladeer 1988), The Old Gods Waken (1979), After Dark (1980), The Lost and the Lurking (1981), The Hanging Stones (1982) and The Voice of the Mountain (1985). Along with the stories assembled in The Valley so Low: Southern Mountain Tales (coll 1987), the series remains his most significant achievement. In 1980 he received the World Fantasy Award for lifetime achievement. [JC/DRL]
Other works: Romance in Black (June-August 1938 Weird Tales as "The Black Drama"; 1946 chap) as by Gans T Field; The Beasts from Beyond (Summer 1944 Startling as "Strangers on the Heights"; 1950); The Devil's Planet (January 1942 Startling; 1951); The Dark Destroyers (December 1938-January 1939 Astounding as "Nuisance Value"; 1959; cut 1960 dos); Island in the Sky (October 1941 Thrilling Wonder; 1961); a Captain Future novel, The Solar Invasion * (Fall 1946 Startling; 1968); The Beyonders (1977); Cahena: A Dream of the Past (1986).
see also: Arts; Comics; The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction; Mythology; Pastoral; Reincarnation; Superman; Supernatural Creatures.
Manly Wade Wellman
born Angola: 1903
died 1986
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