Lonely Vigils

by Manly Wade Wellman, George Evans (Illustrator)

Contents:

Foreword
"The Hairy Ones Shall Dance"
"The Black Drama"
"The Dreadful Rabbits"
"The Half-Haunted"
"Vigil"
"The Third Cry to Legba"
"The Golden Goblins"
"Hoofs"
"Letters of Cold Fire"
"John Thunstone's Inheritance"
"Sorcery from Thule"
"The Dead Man's Hand"
"Throne on the Threshold"
"The Shonokins"
"Blood From a Stone"
"The Dai Sword"
"Twice Cursed"
"Shonokin Town"
"The Leonardo Rondache"
"The Last Grave of Lill Warran"

Genres: Horror, Fantasy, Occult Detective, Short Stories, Collections

376 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1981

Reviews

[Bryan Alexander · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lonely Vigils collects a group of Manly Wade Wellman's occult detective stories. If you don't know that genre, its name is nicely descriptive. Tales feature an investigator, professional or amateur, probing a supernatural mystery.

For this book that means two major characters, plus a one-off story with a third. Judge Pursuivant and John Thunstone are similar in many ways: physically impressive; deeply learned; passionate about defeating occult evil; quick to organize people around them. They are very manly men. Thunstone in particular is quite violent, more like a Robert E. Howard character, capable of beating up monsters with his fists (228) and throwing a man "like a javelin" at a wall (326). He's also very religious, compared to John the Baptist and St. Dunstan (173). Pursuivant is a World War One veteran (76).

Most of the stories follow a similar pattern. An innocent or not so innocent person becomes involved with an evil scheme based on a supernatural threat, and Pursuivant or Thunstone rescue them. Each story is based on a detailed slug of knowledge about some domain, be it voudon, Lord Byron's manuscripts, Leonardo da Vinci's youthful art, or any one of various tall tales and shafts of folklore. Some classic horror monsters appear, like werewolves and doppelgangers. There are ominous books (113-4). There's also some invention, like the chilly Shonokin (a race of possible pre-human humanoids, scheming to retake the world) and the evil Deep School for sorcerers.

Wellman gently integrates his stories into the horror and weird fiction tradition. Real world writers and their creations appear in glancing references, from H. P. Lovecraft (342) and Algernon Blackwoord (53) to Jules de Grandin, neatly involved in Wellman's world:

Thunstone... wished that Lovecraft were alive to see and hear - Lovecraft knew so much about the legend of Other People, from before human times, and how their behaviors and speech had trickled a little into the ken of the civilization known to the wakeaday world. (342)

His style is very clear and direct, without the prose extravagance of Lovecraft or Clark Ashton Smith, yet he can set up suspense and ominous feelings quite well.

These are stories mostly from the 1930s and 40s, so they date themselves. Women are never protagonists and have few roles other than temptress, heiress, or actress. Most of the characters are white. Thunstone's masculinity might seem comical or dangerous to modern audiences. Same-sex desires isn't spoken of, and so on. The militant Christianity of our heroes is never questioned. Yet there are cosmopolitan features. Native Americans are respected and their folklore treated very seriously, only being criticized by villains.

Notes on some stories:

"The Hairy Ones Shall Dance" - interesting setting for werewolves, with some science worked in alongside local community shenanigans and seances.
"The Black Drama" - a kind of tribute to Byron. Really a novella, the longest piece in the collection.
"The Third Cry to Legba" - introduces Thunstone.
"Letters of Cold Fire" introduces the Deep School, a hideous underground facility where acolytes suffer, learn, and have their personalities demolished.
"The Dead Man's Hand" is genuinely creepy. Introduces the Shonokin.
"Twice Cursed" - a manic doppelganger story with military veterans, leading to an evil bookstore, monsters, secret societies, and something like dream warfare.

Overall, a good example of the 1930s and 40s Weird Tale.

A note on the illustrations by George Evans: they are splendid, a real pleasure to examine for each story. They tend to be literal, realizations of certain scenes, and quite effective.

Physically, a lovely volume from Carcosa.

[Jamie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I bought this book as a first edition, with signed bookplate by author and artist.
During tough times, I sold it, and truly regret it to this day.
Mr. Wellman was a wonderful author, and never got the recognition he deserved.
I had actually written to him, and his wife responded to me saying that he had passed away shortly before receiving my letter.
I would have loved to have met him.

[Randy Money · Rating 4 out of 5]

Occult detective stories by a major pulp writer from the 1930s into the 1980s. These stories come from the late '30s into the '50s. One story features Professor Enderby; it's competent though a bit misogynistic. Four stories feature Judge Keith Hilary Pursuivant; these are better and "The Black Drama," though perhaps a bit over long, has an original premise. Wellman really comes into his own with the fifteen John Thunstone stories. I'd only planned on reading a few stories in this collection then putting it aside before I grew tired of them. Instead, I kept reading until I finished the book because Wellman rang so many interesting changes on what could easily have become formulaic.

Very entertaining collection.

[John Grace · Rating 4 out of 5]

The best of Manly's occult detective stories, it's an appreciated sampling of a somewhat lost genre.

[Alan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Now back in a trade paperback edition, the orignal (and gorgeous) Carcosa House hardcover being long out of print. These actually represent the bulk of Wellman's 40's writing, though not the best of it. The book collects Wellman's stories of "psychic investigators" - detectives and occult researchers who investigate and confront supernatural menaces. It contains all of his Judge Pursuivant and Nathen Enderby stories, and all of his original John Thunstone stories (these have since been collected , along with some later Thunstone tales, as "The Complete John Thunstone". You can see Wellman growing as a writer here. Thunstone is the most interesting character of the three, and its easy to see why his stories were the ones that caught on. However, the two stories that cut the deepest are the first, "The Hairy Ones Shall Dance", with its unsettling psychically-manifested were-creatures, and "The Last Grave of Lil Warren", which points the way towards the classic "Silver John" stories which were Wellman's best. This collection is not as good as the earlier Carcosa Wellman collection, "Worse Things Waiting" (also now reissued in trade paperback), but still worth a read for fans of Wellman or pulp supernatural adventure fiction.

[Jeff McIntosh · Rating 5 out of 5]

I owned the original volume....published by Carcosa House, back in the early 80s.....

I love the old pulp stories......perhaps not great literature - but, at the very least....FUN.

Manly Wade Wellman wrote for the pulps, and, by the end of his career, was producing hardcovers for Doubleday, writing of Silver John, of John the Balledeer - who fought evil in the Appalachian mountains of North Carolina.

Wellman created psychic detectives for the pulps....Judge Pursuivant, Professor Enderby, and John Thunstone, who fought evil in a varity of settings. "Lonely Virigils" collects these stories, as they face witches, spirits, and werewolves.

These stories harken back to the 1930s until perhaps the late 40s or 50s......masterfully told, with characters who are just as alive today as they were when first written.

Buy this book....



Jeff McIntosh

[Charles Crain · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very nice collection of action packed detective stories from the pulps. The racism inherent was blatant but notably diminished as the original publication dates progressed. The sexism, however... Overall, it was a great collection of formulaic short detective stories with an occult/paranormal focus. It is understood why Wellman has been essentially forgotten in the current time, but still worth a read to mine for Lovecraftian adjacent Americana.

[Gallagher · Rating 2 out of 5]

I don’t know why this is called Lonely Vigils all the guys in it are happy and have tons of friends and defeat occult evil without incurring any personal cost.

[Sue · Rating 5 out of 5]

Manly Wade Wellman is one of my favorites from way back - of course this gets 5 stars.