Dead and Gone: Classic Crimes of North Carolina

Manly Wade Wellman (May 21, 1903 - April 5, 1986) was an award-winning American writer. Although his science fiction and fantasy stories appeared in such pulps as Astounding Stories, Startling Stories, Unknown and Strange Stories, he 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.

Wellman also wrote in a wide variety of other genres, including historical fiction, detective fiction, western fiction, juvenile fiction, and non-fiction. 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 (1) John, aka John the Balladeer, aka “Silver John”, a wandering backwoods minstrel with a silver-stringed guitar, (2) the elderly “occult detective” Judge Pursuivant, and (3) John Thunstone, also an occult investigator.

Born in the village of Kamundongo in Portuguese West Africa (now Angola), where his father was stationed as a medical officer, Wellman spoke the native dialect before he learned English, and became an adopted son of a powerful chief whose vision his father restored. His family moved to the United States when he was young. He graduated from Wichita State University in Kansas with a BA in English in 1926 and received a Bachelor of Laws degree from Columbia Law School.

His first story “The Lion Roared,” based on the stories told to him in his African childhood upbringing, was published in Thrilling Tales in 1927, and his first science fiction novel The Invading Asteroid was published in 1929, though he did not publish extensively until his move to New York in 1934.

He died in North Carolina in 1986, aged 82.