The Catawba Cycle: Manly Wade Wellman's Revolutionary War Fiction

Manley Wade Wellman (1903-1986) was a North Carolina writer most widely known for prolific work in science fiction, fantasy, and horror from the 1930s to the 1950s. Wellman won a number of awards for his writing and was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize in 1956. It is less well known that Wellman developed a strong love for the North Carolina mountains, building a cabin in Madison County, NC, becoming friends with Bascom Lamar Lunsford, and collecting Appalachian folktales and music. Wellman’s Appalachian sense of place increasingly found expression in his writing. In addition to his noted works of fantasy featuring the character Silver John, Wellman also wrote a number of historical novels for young readers set in the North Carolina mountains, including a series that focused on the Revolutionary War battles leading up to and following the Battle of Kings Mountain. This paper examines those novels and their relationship to Southern Appalachian history and culture.