Participation Type
Paper
Session Title
Session 3.13 Literature and Poetry
Presentation #1 Title
You’d Best go Expecting Anything: Folkloric and Literary Precedents of Manly Wade Wellman’s Silver John Stories.
Presentation #1 Abstract or Summary
Manly Wade Wellman (1903-1986) wrote nineteen short stories and five stories about Silver John, a wandering ballad singer who moves through the southern Appalachians encountering a variety of supernatural events and creatures. This paper places Wellman’s approach to the region’s occult mythology in the contexts of traditional Appalachian ghost stories, Native American (primarily Cherokee) mythology, and the weird fiction of the pulp era. Wellman was enamored of the region, moving to Pine Bluff, North Carolina in 1951 and immersing himself in the culture. He presented a vision of the Appalachian people and the land itself as laden with magic and mystery. He had a keen appreciation for the subtleties of dialect, conveying it with a clarity and elegance seldom encountered. His use of the Anglo-Appalachian ballad tradition shows an appreciation for both its beauty and its role as a preserver and transmitter of cultural themes and motifs. Wellman’s work bridges the gap between the spoken tradition of booger, haint and witch stories and popular horror fiction. He is an appreciated but understudied Appalachian writer.
At-A-Glance Bio- Presenter #1
I am an Associate Professor of Counseling and Human Development working throughout eastern Kentucky and southwestern Virginia, a substance abuse expert, a bookworm, a country boy, a metapsychologist and an avid gardener.
You’d Best go Expecting Anything: Folkloric and Literary Precedents of Manly Wade Wellman’s Silver John Stories.
Harris Hall 443
Manly Wade Wellman (1903-1986) wrote nineteen short stories and five stories about Silver John, a wandering ballad singer who moves through the southern Appalachians encountering a variety of supernatural events and creatures. This paper places Wellman’s approach to the region’s occult mythology in the contexts of traditional Appalachian ghost stories, Native American (primarily Cherokee) mythology, and the weird fiction of the pulp era. Wellman was enamored of the region, moving to Pine Bluff, North Carolina in 1951 and immersing himself in the culture. He presented a vision of the Appalachian people and the land itself as laden with magic and mystery. He had a keen appreciation for the subtleties of dialect, conveying it with a clarity and elegance seldom encountered. His use of the Anglo-Appalachian ballad tradition shows an appreciation for both its beauty and its role as a preserver and transmitter of cultural themes and motifs. Wellman’s work bridges the gap between the spoken tradition of booger, haint and witch stories and popular horror fiction. He is an appreciated but understudied Appalachian writer.
