Thursday, January 26, 2012

Manly Wade Wellman, Rediscovered

I have a book of short stories, in which is my favorite ghost story, "Where Angels Fear," by Manly Wade Wellman. The book is Hauntings: Tales of the Supernatural, edited by Henry Mazzeo and illustrated by Edward Gorey. This was a favorite old book. My sister and I had traded it back and forth for twenty years, panicking if we thought one or the other had lost it. (We now have back-ups!)

Because of the short story, I searched for other writings by Manly Wade Wellman, and boy, did I hit the Mother Lode! Turns out, he did quite a bit of writing in and of the Appalachian mountains, though his roots lay more in a curious mixture of African and British culture. I just read What Dreams May Come. I enjoyed it, but feel that I really need to do some research in legend and lore to get the full gist of it. Now I'm reading short stories of Appalachian folklore in The Valley So Low. I've only read two stories so far, but feel richly rewarded. Interesting writer!

Biographical website: http://www.manlywadewellman.com/




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