The Witches of Appendix N: Manly Wade Wellman

I will admit, I did not know the name Manly Wade Wellman when I began this "Witches of Appendix N." Yes, I had read the name in the list, but that was all that I knew.I have put in the hours for this issue of The Witches of Appendix N, though. I have made it a point to spend some time with Wellman: reading his John Thunstone tales and Strangers on the Heights, working through what is in Sin’s Doorway and Other Ominous Entrances, and, as is fitting for the subject at hand, getting to know Silver John and The Old Gods Waken.Wellman has an unquestionable claim to be here. Gary Gygax put him in the original 1979 Dungeon Master's Guide by name, right there in Appendix N. But Gygax did not single out any one book the way he might with another author; he just said, "Wellman." That leaves us with a good deal of ground to cover.In this "Witches of Appendix N," I am going less by books and more by themes and ideas. Manly Wade Wellman produced a ton of material in his life. I read books I could…