MANLY WADE WELLMAN (1903–1986) began writing in the 1920s, mainly in the horror field. By the 1930s, he was selling stories to the leading pulps in the genre: Weird Tales, Wonder Stories, and Astounding Stories. He had three series running simultaneously in Weird Tales: Silver John, also known as John the Balladeer, the backwoods minstrel with a silver-stringed guitar; John Thunstone, the New York playboy and adventurer who was also a psychic detective; and Judge Keith Hilary Persuivant, an elderly occult detective, written under the pseudonym Gans T. Fields.
His short story, “A Star for a Warrior,” won the Best Story of the Year award from Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine in 1946, beating out William Faulkner, who wrote an angry letter of protest. Other major honors include Lifetime Achievement Awards from the World Fantasy Writers (1980) and the British Fantasy Writers (1986), and the World Fantasy Award for Best Collection for Worse Things Waiting (1975).
Several stories have been adapted for television, including “The Valley Was Still” for The Twilight Zone (1961), “The Devil Is Not Mocked” for Night Gallery (1971), and two episodes of Lights Out, “Larroes Catch Meddlers” (1951) and “School for the Unspeakable” (1952).
Wellman also wrote for the comic books, producing the first Captain Marvel issue for Fawcett Publishers. When D.C. Comics sued Fawcett for plagiarizing their Superman character, Wellman testified against Fawcett, and D.C. won the case after three years of litigation.
“School for the Unspeakable” was originally published in the September 1937 issue of Weird Tales.