History Literature / SilverJohn

* HillbillyHorrors: Scary and supernatural happenings in rural Appalachia. Unlike most versions of this trope, however, the hillbillies themselves are generally depicted as pretty decent, ordinary people.

A series of DarkFantasy stories by Creator/ManlyWadeWellman about a traveling musician named John who frequently finds himself battling supernatural menaces in the deep backwoods of UsefulNotes/{{Appalachia}}. Wellman had already written other OccultDetective stories, demonstrating a talent for weirdness and a quirky sense of humour, but these stories are additionally enlivened by Wellman's enduring interest in the folklore and folk music of backwoods America.

* NoNameGiven: John

* CheatersNeverProsper: John gets into a shooting contest with two old rivals out in the backwoods. Both have wrought powerful magic to beat the other, but John wins handily. When asked how, John simply states that he was the best rifle marksman in his regiment when he was in Korea.

* CelibateHero: John, until he weds Evadare

* EvilSorcerer: Multiple examples.

* SouthernFriedGenius: John has a Ph.D.-level knowledge of American myths and folklore, as well as deep insight into the belief systems if several Native American tribes, and he as also invited to record folk songs for the Library of Congress.

* EvilCounterpart: One story pits John against another musician with an ebony fiddle, who seems to have gotten his skills from a [[RockMeAsmodeus less holy source]].

* FunetikAksent: Most of the series characters' are from the Ozarks and speak the dialect, which is done properly. [[ShownTheirWork Wellman lived in the Ozarks for decades, and did his research.]]

The series includes both short stories and novels.

* EldritchAbomination: Wellman was a fan of the CthulhuMythos and it shows in his work. A ''lot'' of the monsters John meets are described as something utterly ''alien'' to normal human life. [[NothingIsScarier That is, when they're described at all.]]

** In "Old Devlins was A-Waiting", a character has a theory that rituals for summoning up the dead are actually a form of time travel, bringing the subject forward from the past, not up from the grave. Their ritual succeeds in summoning [[{{Badass}} Captain Anderson Hatfield]], but the question of whence is left ambiguous.

* LiteraryAllusionTitle: Several of the stories are named after/inspired by American folk-songs.

* LiteraryAllusionTitle: More than one of the stories was inspired by/named after an Appalachian folk song.

A series of DarkFantasy stories by Creator/ManlyWadeWellman about a traveling musician named John who frequently finds himself battling supernatural menaces in the deep backwoods of Appalachia. Wellman had already written other OccultDetective stories, demonstrating a talent for weirdness and a quirky sense of humour, but these stories are additionally enlivened by Wellman's enduring interest in the folklore and folk music of backwoods America.

* ShellShockedSenior: Anderson Newlands in "Old Devlins Was A-Waiting" is a veteran of UsefulNotes/TheKoreanWar. John himself occasionally mentions that he's been to war in the past, and WordOfGod is that he was in Korea too.

* RockMeAsmodeous: Usually inverted as it's implied John received his skills and silver-stringed guitar from a holy source. Played straight, however, in "Nine Yards of Other Cloth", where he is pitted against a man with an ebony fiddle from a very different source...

* RockeMeAsmodeous: Usually inverted as it's implied John received his skills and silver-stringed guitar from a holy source. Played straight, however, in "Nine Yards of Other Cloth", where he is pitted against a man with an ebony fiddle from a very different source...

* MountainFolklore