novels featuring his character John Thunstone, as well as seeing Thunstone's short adventures, and those of characters such as Judge Pursuivant, collected from the pulps in Lonely Vigils (1981). A movie based on the Silver John stories, The Legend of Hillbilly John, was released in 1973. In 1980 Wellman received the World Fantasy Award for Lifetime Achievement. Wellman was Guest of Honour (with Gene Wolfe and Rowena Merrill) at the World Fantasy Convention 1983 in Chicago. At age 82, Wellman suffered a serious fall on June 15, 1985 and sustained severe fractures of his left elbow and shoulder which made him an invalid. A benefit auction for the ailing author was held in London at the annual Christmas Party of the British Fantasy Society and the funds raised sent to Wellman and his wife in a Christmas card. Due to the onset of gangrene in his legs following double amputation, Wellman's health failed further and he died at his home in Chapel Hill, North Carolina on April 5, 1986. Before passing on he had been able to finish his historical novel Cahena, about an African warrior princess (see Kahina) published in 1986, and the final John the Balladeer short story "Where Did She Wander". The agent for his literary estate was his friend, the writer and editor Karl Edward Wagner, who edited the posthumous collections Valley So Low: Southern Mountain Stories and John the Balladeer. A benefit auction was held for Wellman's widow Frances, arranged by Southern fans Beth Gwinn and Sheri Morton, which raised $28,300 in funds. Harlan Ellison was the auctioneer. Included in the auction were such items as a mug owned by both H.P. Lovecraft and Fritz Leiber, a coin from Mel Brooks and the shirt which Ellison wore while writing his story "Maggie Money-Eyes". Frances Wellman died on May 7, 2000. She was cremated and her ashes spread on the lawn of their home at Dogwood Acres in Chapel Hill, NC. A son, Wade Wellman, died January 25, 2018, in Waukesha, Wisconsin. Works Wellman once estimated his output of stories and articles at about 500, of which about 80 were in the fantasy & science fiction genres. Science fiction and fantasy The Invading Asteroid (1929) Sojarr of Titan (1941) The Devil's Asteroid (1941) "Find My Killer" (1948 - as Manly Wellman). The Solar Invasion (Captain Future novel, Startling Stories Fall/46; reprinted in paperback in 1968) Devil's