Manly Wade Wellman and Sin's Doorway

Best known for his John the Balladeer short stories, Manly Wade Wellman was a mainstay of Weird Tales throughout its run.  Unfortunately, with the exception of Who Fears the Devil? and the "Golgotha Dancers", most of his stories have become difficult for an avid reader to find.  In the 2000s, many specialty presses published limited edition runs of Wellman's works, some of which, like Haffner Press's Complete John Thunstone, would could collectors $300 or more to obtain.  With luck, I was able to find a copy of Sin's Doorway and Other Ominous Entrances for far less.

The fourth volume of the now defunct Night Shade Press's Selected Stories of Manly Wade Wellman, Sin's Doorway collects 25 short stories covering, with a few exceptions, the period of 1936-1941, with fifteen from Weird Tales, including "The Golgotha Dancers", "The Valley was Still", and "These Doth the Lord Hate".  "The Valley was Still" was adapted by the Twilight Zone into "Still Valley".

While physical copies of the five volume Selected Stories of Manly Wade Wellman might be hard to find, each of the volumes is available on Audio as an audiobook.  Furthermore, "The Golgotha Dancers" is also available in electronic form through Project Gutenberg.  It is my hope that a publisher will pick up the slack from the specialty presses and make the remainder of Manly Wade Wellman's tales available in a mass-market or ebook form.

In the meantime, I will be reading through each of the short stories in the volume, and posting my thoughts and analyses here, starting with "The Undead Soldier".