Friday from the Archives: “The Most Personal of Teachers: A Student Remembers” by Stephen Smith in NCLR 1993
Happy (belated) birthday to Manly Wade Wellman, whose birthday was 5/21! Our 1993 issue special feature was all about Wellman: his work, his life, and the impact he made on other writers. If you’re a science fiction & fantasy fan, you’ll want to have this issue in your library! Order it now before we run out!
North Carolina is known for its friendly and connected writer community. In this remembrance of Wellman, Smith illustrates this theme:
“In July 1969, Manly and Frances invited me to be their guest at the North Carolina Writers Conference, held that year at the Albert Pick Motel between Greensboro and Winston-Salem. Many of the senior members of
the conference objected to Manly’s inclusion of students, but he insisted, thus opening the organization to a new generation of writers who would ensure its survival. At my first North Carolina Writers Conference, Manly
introduced me to writers Guy Owen, Fred Chappell, Paul Green, James Applewhite, Sam Ragan, Harry Golden, and others.”
Owen, Chappell, and Applewhite were all fellow college teachers, of course. While Wellman was an author first, teaching was clearly well within his wheelhouse. Smith related:
“What was not typical was Manly Wellman. He was – and I use this expression advisedly – a born teacher. He celebrated the human imagination, and he possessed a genuine enthusiasm for every story over which a student had labored. Like that poem lying crumpled on the stage, his students, rough though they often were, remained glorious possibilities. If there was promise for the student and his writing, if there were scenes, lines, characters, or adjectives that were striking, they did not escape his attention.”
Both of these things–college teachers bringing up the next line of published authors as well as authors sharing generously their access and network–continue to be true through the decades and the present.
Side note: also listed in the essay as part of the “Saturday Night Buffet Club” at the Wellmans’ are Karl Wagner, Bill Byrtus, David Drake, Eva McKenna, Velverton Land, Cherry Parker, Mena Webb, Sam Barnes, Joyce Allen, June Strader, David Spicer, and Tom Shetley. “all published writers gathered in the Wellmans’ dark, pine-paneled living room. The bourbon flowed freely….” Who wants to take on writing about these neglected authors for NCLR?
Read the rest on Gale Cengage. Add the 1993 issue to your collection today!
