Manly Wade Wellman (1903-1986) was a prolific American writer who worked in practically every genre, but best known for his dark fantasy stories about a traveling musician named John who frequently finds himself battling supernatural menaces in the deep backwoods of Appalachia. Wellman had already written other
Occult Detective stories, demonstrating a talent for weirdness and a quirky sense of humour, but the "Silver John" stories (so-called for disambiguation, although their protagonist is always just plain John) are additionally enlivened by Wellman's enduring interest in the folklore and folk music of backwoods America.
Wellman's short stories were adapted as episodes of
The Twilight Zone ("The Valley Was Still"; the adaptation is retitled "Still Valley"),
Night Gallery ("The Devil Is Not Mocked") and
Monsters ("Rouse Him Not"). Far less successfully, a movie was made based on some of the John stories,
The Legend of Hillbilly John.
On a completely different note, his other works include
Sherlock Holmes's War of the Worlds.
His works provide examples of:
- Afterlife Express: One appears in "The Little Black Train".
- As the Good Book Says: Many people quote "The Book", appropriate given they're from the backwoods. Most notably, early in "Shiver in the Pines", one character (asked what he's up to) gives Satan's greeting from the book of Job - which garners a disturbed reaction from those present.
- Awesome McCoolname: Seriously, his name was Manly! (On the other hand: Wade.)
- Brain Bleach: John wishes for some after seeing the Behinder in "The Desrick on Yandro".
- Brother Chuck: Evadare is not heard from again in any of the short stories after "Trill Coster's Burden". However, in the novels The Old Gods Waken and After Dark, John mentions that Evadare is staying with friends while he gathers up money so they can start a homestead and get married. Also she appears in the novel The Hanging Stones.
- Celibate Hero: John, until he weds Evadare
- Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: John, to a tee, although most of the time it appears as getting one over on the Eldritch Abomination.
- Evil Counterpart: One story pits John against another musician with an ebony fiddle, who seems to have gotten his skills from a less holy source.
- Fearsome Critters of American Folklore: A whole flock of them appear at the climax of "The Desrick on Yandro".
- Funetik Aksent
- God Was My Co-Pilot: in "Over the Hills and Everywhere"
- Improbable Weapon User: John's silver-strung guitar is sometimes the only thing standing between him and death or worse.
- Literary Allusion Title: More than one of his Silver John stories was inspired by/named after an Appalachian folk song.
- Mountain Folklore
- My Future Self and Me: The whole point of the aptly-titled "Who Else Could I Count On".
- No Name Given: John
- Occult Detective: Judge Pursuivant, John Thunstone, and arguably John. As well as Hal Sryker, Lee Cobbett, and to some extent, Parson "Bible" Jaeger.
- Our Giants Are Bigger: Rafe Enoch from "Walk Like A Mountain". He differs also in that he's rather cunning for a giant, and oh yes, he can control the weather.
- Our Vampires Are Different: Wellman used the traditional types in a few stories. He also used Cherokee vampires, the Raven Mockers, in the novel The Old Gods Waken.
- Real After All: In "Shiver in the Pines" a pair of occultist con artists try to scam a pair of farmers out of their property by tricking the into entering a haunted mine that belonged to the Ancients. John figures the scam out and the two thieves are snatched away by something the Ancients left behind.
- Shown Their Work: As noted, Wellman was an acknowledged expert when it came to Appalachian myths, folktales and music.
- Silver Has Mystic Powers: In many of the stories.
- Take Our Word for It: The Behinder in "The Desrick on Yandro."
- Time Travel: Of all things, this shows up in "Ol' Devlin was A-Waitin'".
- Tripod Terror: In Sherlock Holmes's War of the Worlds
- Vapor Wear: Craye Sawtelle in "The Spring".
- Victoria's Secret Compartment: "Trill Coster's Burden"
- Walking the Earth: John. He calls himself 'John the Wanderer', after all. A pair of his later heroes, Lee Cobbett and Hal Stryker, also have elements of this.
- You Will Be Beethoven: Twice In Time
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