The Hanging Stones by Manly Wade Wellman

John’s favorite haunts are in the Appalachian Mountains, and it’s an area he knows well. In all of these stories, the protagonist is simply named John. The main character is never referred to by those names in the stories themselves, they’re just something that the publishers tacked on. This particular book is a part of Wellman’s “Silver John” or “John the Balladeer” stories. But most important is that Wellman’s preferred settings, like Lovecraft’s New England and King’s Maine, are in my part of the world. After doing some research I learned that he was a member of the Weird Tales crew, which usually means I’ll appreciate the storytelling but balk at the, um, racial characterizations. You might remember that I last encountered him as the author of a Captain Future novel, and I was first introduced to him as the author of a story that got adapted into a Twilight Zone episode. I’d been meaning to revisit Manly Wade Wellman for a good long while, and so I figured that this week was as good as any to get around to doing that. Neither does Esdras Hogue, seventh son of a seventh son, whose communication with primordial cavemen proves a stronger defense against the evil forces unleashed upon them than all the latest ammunition Kottler can muster. Their employer Noel Kottler, millionaire industrialist, is unschooled in mountain lore and scoffs at what he considers childish fancy.

Their imaginations, agitated by the area’s history as a gathering place for devil worshipers, create a succession of wood-haunting ghouls, each more terrible than the last. The new Stonehenge they are helping reconstruct has been plagued by unaccountable happenings-nothing violent yet, but there lurks in the woods many a blinking eye. So he is welcomed by the men and women working high in the Southern Mountains.

Silver John, the wandering balladeer, is well respected among the back-country folk for his knowledge of woodcraft, the manly simplicity of his singing, and especially for his dealings with the dark mysteries that flourish amid a land untamed by modern civilization.

The Hanging Stones by Manly Wade Wellman