Worse Things Waiting

by Manly Wade Wellman, Lee Brown Coye (Illustrator)

Available again for the first time in 45 years, Shadowridge Press is proud to present Manly Wade Wellman’s WORSE THINGS WAITING, one of the cornerstone short story collections in the fantasy and horror genres. Originally published by the legendary imprint Carcosa, Worse Things Waiting gathers 28 stories and two poems, selected from over 100 stories—the cream of nearly a half-century of fiction taken from the pages of Weird Tales, Unknown, Strange Stories and many other Golden Age pulps. Included are such classic tales as—

The Undead Soldier- featuring the original ending that Weird Tales considered too horrific to publish.

The Devil Is Not Mocked and The Valley Was Still- adapted for TV on Night Gallery and The Twilight Zone respectively.

School For The Unspeakable and Larroes Catch Meddlers- both adapted for the early TV's hair-raising classic, Lights Out.

Frogfather and Sin’s Doorway- two early stories that feature John the Balladeer, not included in Who Fears The Devil?

Coven and Fearful Rock- Wellman’s two novelettes featuring Sgt. “Bible” Jaeger and his battles with diabolical evil in the Civil War south.

Also included are such classics as Where Angels Fear..., The Witch’s Cat, Dhoh, Come Into My Parlor, The Liers In Wait, Among Those Present, and many more.

The very best of Manly Wade Wellman, fully illustrated with over 30 ghoulish drawings by the legendary master of the macabre, Lee Brown Coye.

Genres: Horror, Fiction, Short Stories, Fantasy, Weird Fiction, Collections

474 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1973

Reviews

[Orrin Grey · Rating 4 out of 5]

My trip through the various Night Shade Manly Wade Wellman collections got interrupted when my library got me a copy of the old Carcosa collection collection Worse Things Waiting instead.

In addition to having one of the best titles for a short story collection ever, Worse Things Waiting is a good stand-in for a genuine Best Of Manly Wade Wellman. A few of the stories were ones I'd read before, such as "Up Under My Roof" (a favorite), "Frogfather," "The Kelpie," "The Witch's Cat," and "School for the Unspeakable," and with several of the others I probably spoiled at least parts of my dinner of the other Night Shade books. There's some great stuff among the new-to-me material, including the novella "Fearful Rock" (Wellman is full of great titles) and a story of Poe encountering a vampire with a novel weakness in "When it was Moonlight."

[Jeff McIntosh · Rating 3 out of 5]

Manly Wade Wellman had a long career...contributing stories to Weird Tales, Unknown, and Strange Stories, among others. Wellman also created the character of Silver John, who wandered the Appalachian mountains of North Carolina - armed only with his guitar strung with silver, and his belief in God.

"Worse Things Waiting" is a collection of Short Stories primarily published in "Wierd Tales" from the
late 1920s thru the 1950s. Wellman was an adept writer, and set many, if not all of his stories in the South, some set around the period of the Civil War.

The book is split into 4 chapters - Pages from a Memory Book, Gray Voices, The Night Side of History, and Longer in the Telling. I enjoyed most of the stories, but felt the chapter "Night Side of History" contained the weakest stories.....this chapter contained several stories based on the American Indian and their beliefs - and could not truly be considered horror stories, but fantasy.

This collection was originally published by Carcosa House in the 1980s (Karl Edward Wagner was a part owner)...and certainly worth a look if you enjoy pulp fiction. Wellman published a second book for Carcosa - Lonely Vigils...which as far as I know has not been released. I found "Vigils" to be a better book.....

[James Hold · Rating 1 out of 5]

Despite its reputation, I found nothing in this book to get excited about. Maybe they were exciting 75 years ago but not today. Also illustrator Coye has gone out of his way to produce the ugliest drawings imaginable.

[Otis Campbell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Manly Wade Wellman’s 1973 treasury Worse Things Waiting is a magnificent, spine-chilling bucket of dark Americana that’ll make you want to leave the porch light on and keep a loaded rifle by the door. This massive anthology serves up twenty-eight ghoulish short stories and two eerie poems culled from nearly fifty years of writing for legendary pulp magazines like Weird Tales and Unknown. Wellman was an absolute master at taking ancient, superstitious folklore and weaving it into the deep, misty hollows of the Appalachian Mountains and the pine barrens. It ain't got no modern, high-tech slashers; instead, you get treated to a pure, atmospheric feast of backwoods sorcery, shifting werewolves, historical Civil War ghosts, and ancient Native American legends that creep through the shadows like a thieves in the night. The book is absolutely packed to the gills with cornerstone tales that are famous enough to have been adapted for classic TV shows like The Twilight Zone and Night Gallery. You get to read "The Valley Was Still" and "The Devil Is Not Mocked," alongside two rip-roaring Civil War novellas featuring Sergeant "Bible" Jagger—a tough-as-boots soldier who uses Scripture and cold steel to fight off devil-worshiping occultists and wicked local covens. It even includes "Frogfather" and "Sin's Doorway," two rare, prototypical adventures of Wellman's most beloved character, John the Balladeer, a simple wandering minstrel who roams the ridges with a silver-stringed guitar fighting off unnatural things. Every single yarn is steeped in that beautiful, slow-drawn Southern dialect and a deep sense of moral righteousness, making the scares feel as real and grounded as a chunk of red clay dirt. What truly makes this collection a prized hog at the county fair is the legendary partnership between Wellman’s words and the artistic genius of Lee Brown Coye. Coye clutched his ink pens and provided over thirty incredibly twisted, scratchy, and ghoulish black-and-white illustrations that capture the rotting, wooden decay of rural horror better than anyone else alive. In fact, this big ol' book was so highly regarded when it first dropped from the famous Carcosa imprint that it went and won the absolute highest honor for Best Collection at the very first World Fantasy Convention back in 1975. It is a masterpiece of pulp history that takes a slow, steady sit on the porch to properly digest, and it’ll leave you staring out into the dark woods wondering just what kind of wicked things are waiting out past the treeline.

[Jeff Hobbs]

Read so far:

*Up under the roof
Among those present
*The terrible parchment
*Come into my parlor
Frogfather
Sin's doorway
The undead soldier
The Pineys
*The kelpie
Changeling
*The devil is not mocked
For fear of little men
*Where angels fear...
*The witch's cat
School for the unspeakable--1
Warrior in darkness
Dhoh
Larroes catch meddlers
These doth the lord hate
The liers in wait
Young-man-with-skull-at-his-ear
The hairy thunderer
*The song of the slaves
*When it was moonlight
His name on a bullet
*The valley was still
*Fearful rock
*Coven
***
At the bend of the trail
Back to the beast
Chastel
The dead man's hand
The desrick on yandro
Dream-dust from Mars
Ever the faith endures
Finger of Halugra
The ghastly priest doth reign
The hairy ones shall dance
The little black train
O ugly bird
The petey car
Pithecanthropus rejectus
Rouse him not
Shonokin town
The spring
Trill Coster's burden
Vandy, Vandy
Walk like a mountain
Where the woodbine twineth

[Eric · Rating 4 out of 5]

An assemblage from ‘Weird Tales’ and other pulp horror, fantasy and fiction publications, from a writer and contemporary of Lovecraft and Howard. With few exceptions Wellman spins unique yarns with characters and creatures not seen elsewhere, including Gardinel’s (living houses/shelters). The book is broken down into three groupings, horror/fiction, Native American folklore and finally the Fearful Rock/Coven stories (these are the only two tales that share a location and characters). I would hazard to say that this is North Carolina’s best known pulp fiction author, and this book a great start for this author.

[John Adams · Rating 3 out of 5]

While dated in ways similar to Lovecraft and others of that ilk (few female characters and all of them old villains or young romantic prospects, condescending exoticism and colonialism toward Native Americans, Africans, etc.) and predictable like most Weird Tales (contemporary genre readers can typically guess the whole course of a story within the first page or two), most of the stories are nonetheless reasonably fun, with a sequence of Civil War-adjacent tales being the highlights.

[Jonas Mustonen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hyvin epätasainen kokoelma kauhutarinoita lahjakkaalta kirjailijalta. Osa on yhä iskeviä, osa paremmat päivänsä nähneitä ja osa ei niin kovin onnistuneita.
Suosittelen Wellmanin tuotantoon tutustumiseen Paizo -kustantamon Who Fears the Devil?—The Complete Silver John kokoelmaa, sen lukemisesta ainakin jää hyvällä mielelle.

[Victor · Rating 2 out of 5]

The good stories in this were really good, but the bad ones were just as bad, if not worse. Worse Things Waiting indeed.