It Lives! · 4:01am Sep 10th, 2019
Realms Undreamed Of, that is. Chapter 21 was just posted and I hope to have the rest soon. My apologies for it taking so long.
Oh, and for those interested in more of Mister Wellman's work and some of the sources he used for the original Silver John stories:
A collection of Kardios stories is coming next month from DMR Books. These were heroic fantasy tales with a hero somewhat like John, though this fellow wandered a post-Atlantean world rather than Appalachia. I've read several and they're great fun and very well done, with some original takes on the old sword and sorcery tropes like races of giants and a hero becoming ruler of a city. It's been over 30 years since they were available, and never all in one book like this.
It's also got some stories by the original Queen of Outer Space, Leigh Brackett, if you need any further encouragement. DMR knows their pulps, they've also done the collected works of Clifford Ball and Nictzin Dyalhis. I recommend them wholeheartedly.
Next a pair of books that helped Mister Wellman with his research.
First is Ozark Magic and Folklore by Vance Randolph. He was the folklorist who first got Manly into the mountains from Manhattan (mostly by telling him that with his $100, half would buy him a large farm and the other half would make him the richest man in town). Randolph studied the Ozarks and their people for decades and wrote extensively about them. Really any of his books are worth reading if you want to know something about how the old mountain people realy felt and thought.
Next is Lewis Spence's An Encyclopedia of Occultism, which was a reference work for Wellman as well as Lovecraft and many other horror authors of the day. It's still valuable for some truly rare lore as well as for being a snapshot of what the occult set was thinking and doing in the early 20th century, before Crowley and UFOs and the 60's New Age change everything.
Best all and thanks for sticking with my stories.
Could $100 dollars actually get him that much in those days?
Yayy
5119747
Well, according to what Vance told Manly, and as Manly remembered it to others in later years, yes.
5121190
Got it.