The Selected Stories of Manly Wade Wellman Volume 1: The Third Cry to Legba & Other Invocations [Hardcover]

Wellman's weird short fiction can be found in an amazing number of horror anthologies, but most of his books are out of print. This is a shame, because Wellman's fiction deserves a much wider audiance. After I became interested in Wellman through his Silver John stories, I looked around for more of his work, but it was hard to find. Thankfully, Night Shade Books has remedied that. This first volume collects Wellman's John Thunstone and Lee Cobbett stories, which read like supernatural film noir--all of which I completely enjoyed. Wellman really knew how to tell a story; his writing flows with beautiful simplicity. If any of these stories seem a bit familiar, it's because they've influenced a lot of other writers over the last half century. As the publisher's description accurately states, these stories could easily be seen as a template for "The X-Files." A striking, full-page illustration accompanies each of the 21 tales in this volume. A genuine treat for horror enthusiasts.

All of Wellman's excellent John Thunstone short stories, with his four Lee Cobbett stories rounding out the collection. Many of the Thunstone tales feature either the evil Rowley Thorne, deliberately based on Aleister Crowley, or the Shonokins, a strange and evil group. Judge Pursuivant shows up in "Chastel", an excellent vampire tale in which Cobbett plays only a minor role. "Twice Cursed" is the longest story, and most unusual. Thunstone tries to help two men with the same name who get involved in a "Dark College". No duds in this collection.

This first volume in Night Shade Press' five volume series dedicated to collecting all of Wellman's works comes out strong. This volume collects all of the John Thunstone and Lee Cobbet stories that Wellman wrote. Wellman is best known for his Silver John stories (and those are collected in volume 5); at least that is where I first encountered Wellman. The Lee Cobbet stories are more in the vein of Silver John, and they represent about a third of the stories. You get the feeling that, unlike Silver John, Cobbet really lacks a plan and is in genuine danger, not necessarily because of the danger of the adversary (and they are formidable), but due to his finding himself in the wrong place at the wrong time. To me, he is a slightly more relatable character (compare him to Howard's Solomon Kane). In other words, if I was in Wellman story I would be more likely to react like Cobbet (vs. Thunstone or Silver John). I'm just not that noble or cool a guy. The John Thunstone stories were a very pleasant surprise. What I mean is that my experience with Wellman was with the Wellman who integrated the Appalachian folklore into a rural protagonist while simultaneously interweaving Lovecraftian themes. Thunstone is an entirely urban character (lives in and is based out of NYC). And his archnemesis, Rowley Thorne, is perhaps the best villain in all of weird fiction. I kept asking myself how I missed this one. (Wellman apparently modeled him off of Aleister Crowley.) The conflicts between him and Thorne are written with electric charges; it is quite simply the best weird fiction has to offer and drove home to me why Wellman has such a high reputation in the field of weird fiction. That alone sent me off to find the Thunstone based novels. There are also other brilliant story lines (e.g., the Shonokins) and the character of Thunstone is as fascinating as any in weird fiction, complete with his flaws, virtues, and principles. However, it is the Thunstone-Thorne dichotomy that completely blew me away. This volume is highly recommended and I applaud Night Shade for presenting us with this book.