Friday from the Archives: “You Sang me a song, and I heard”: The Song Behind a Wellman Legend” by Mark Ogilvie, from NCLR 11 (2002)
Written By: Fall Intern Robert Miranda
In this essay, Ogilvie reminisces on a deceased writer, Manly Wade Wellman, and the work he created and left behind for future generations. Most of the piece is spent dedicated to the intense effort of tracking down the source of inspiration for the ballad “He’s Gone Away,” the creative spark for Wellman’s short story “The Desrick of Yando.” Along the way, however, Ogilvie discovers inspiration of his own and how far back this reaches.
Or even how much further it will go.
It is easy to feel lost and as though you have run into a blockade of sorts when attempting to create something. There is confusion or fear inherent to all people who have ever picked up a pencil; this is shown as well through the essay Ogilvie writes. As Wellman took inspiration from Carl Sandburg, and as Sandburg took inspiration from the mountains of North Carolina, I believe Ogilvie now too finds that same inspiration moving through even to himself.
“Like John the Balladeer, Wellman spent a considerable time exploring the North Carolina mountains and, through his writing, defending the honor of the mountain people. Wellman portrayed superstition and poverty in his Carolina-based fiction, but never in a way that condescended to the mountain folk of western North Carolina. He consistently used the adventures of John the Balladeer to remind his readers of the homespun wisdom, the self-reliance, and the deep religious faith that characterize the people of the southern Appalachians,” wrote Ogilvie.
This essay published in 2002, the year I myself was born, resurfaces once more, and now inspires me the same way. I plan to continue the process and take a journey north to personally see the same mountains and perhaps touch upon the earnest inspiration Ogilvie writes about.
I believe you reading this will come to find, too, that same fervor and inspiration has touched you deeply as well.
Read the entire article on Gale Cengage or purchase a copy of the 2002 issue with the feature “NCLR’s 10th Anniversary”.