"Hold on, there!" came a sharp challenge from the stairs behind and below me. "What are you doing? And what's that picture doing?" It was one of the Museum's guards. "I was going to ask somebody that same question," I told him as austerely as I could manage. "What about this picture? I thought there was a Böcklin hanging here." The guard relaxed. "Oh, I beg your pardon, sir. I thought you were somebody else--the man who brought that thing." He nodded at the picture. "Personally, I think it's plain beastly." "And the Museum has accepted it at last?" I asked. He shook his head. "Oh, no, sir." I, too, came close. There was no plate beneath the painting. But in the lower left-hand corner of the canvas were sprawling capitals, pale paint on the dark, spelling out the word GOLGOTHA. Beneath these, in small, barely readable script: I sold my soul that I might paint a living picture.

"An entertaining story that plays like 2001 A Space Odyssey in reverse. Martians, an interplanetary cold war, asteroids, and devolution await.""An entertaining story that plays like 2001 A Space Odyssey in reverse. Martians, an interplanetary cold war, asteroids, and devolution await."

Squire Huckleroy told the jury that Clavering and Tebow, both law scholars together, hadn't been on kindliest terms because both of them wanted to court Squire Huckleroy's blue-eyed daughter. And not only was Clavering now dead, but broken open was a desk drawer where only Squire Huckleroy and Clavering and Tebow knew lay six hundred gold dollars in a long green purse.This fine historical mystery, originally published in Mike Shayne Mystery Magazine, will appeal not only to mystery readers, but fans of Wellman's supernatural stories.

James Randolph edited a small daily paper in the east, and American myths were his hobby. His two-weeks' holiday among Native American reservations would garner, he hoped, stories for what might some day be a book. But some stories are best left untold...

Scanned, converted, re-formatted, proofed, custom book coverand eBook creation by Jerry.

Scanned, converted, re-formatted, proofed, custom book cover and eBook creation by Jerry.

In John the Balladeer, Manly Wade Wellman created one of the great characters in all of horror and fantasy literature. Armed with his silver-stringed guitar and an endless trove of folk songs, John travels the backwoods of Appalachia, battling supernatural evil with his own brand of down-home charm and endless resourcefulness. In these tales, John wanders the Southern mountains, encountering hoodoo men and witch women, strange supernatural beasts, malevolent spirits, and even George Washington's ghost.Edited by horror legend Karl Edward Wagner, this volume contains the complete John the Balladeer stories in their original, unaltered form, as they first appeared in magazines and anthologies between 1951 and 1987. Also featured is a foreword by Wellman's friend and literary executor David Drake and an introduction by Wagner.

Manly Wade Wellman (1903–1986) was an American writer of science fiction and fantasy stories, which frequently appeared in such pulps as Astounding Stories, Startling Stories, Unknown, and Strange Stories. Wellman is best remembered as one of the most popular contributors to the legendary Weird Tales, and for his fantasy stories set in the Appalachian Mountains, which draw on the native folklore of that region. Karl Edward Wagner referred to him as "the dean of fantasy writers." Fearful Rock is a novel that ran as a 3-part serial in Weird Tales in 1939.

The Beyonders were shapes in the forests who bribed and promised, and only a few men knew that when the Beyonders came in their full strength they would not be stopped. But before they could conquer Earth, they had to rule one hamlet, and the folk there had been hunters and riflemen for as many generations as they had lived in the mountains.

While vacationing in Italy, 19-year-old Leo Thrasher rashly experiments with a radical new science. The result: he "reflects" himself 500 years back in time and must deal with life in the middle ages as he strives to return to the present. And in the 20th century, the memoirs of Leonardo da Vinci are unearthed.**