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Table of Contents:

• Foreword: Manly in the Mountains - (1988) - essay by David Drake
• Introduction: Just Call Me John - (1988) - essay by Karl Edward Wagner
• O Ugly Bird! - (1951) - short story
• The Desrick on Yandro - (1952) - short story
• Vandy, Vandy - (1953) - short story
• One Other - (1953) - short story
• Call Me from the Valley - (1954) - short story
• The Little Black Train - (1954) - short story
• Shiver in the Pines - (1955) - short story
• Walk Like a Mountain - (1955) - short story
• On the Hills and Everywhere - (1956) - short story
• Old Devlins Was A-Waiting - (1956) - short story
• Nine Yards of Other Cloth - (1958) - short story
• Then I Wasn't Alone - (1962) - short fiction
• You Know the Tale of Hoph - (1962) - short fiction
• Blue Monkey - (1962) - short fiction
• Find the Place Yourself - (1962) - short fiction
• The Stars Down There - (1962) - short fiction
• I Can't Claim That - (1962) - short fiction
• Who Else Could I Count On - (1962) - short fiction
• John's My Name - (1963) - short fiction
• Why They're Named That - (1963) - short fiction
• None Wiser for the Trip - (1963) - short fiction
• Nary Spell - (1963) - short fiction
• Trill Coster's Burden - (1979) - short story
• The Spring - (1979) - short story
• Owls Hoot in the Daytime - (1980) - short story
• Can These Bones Live? - (1987) - short story
• Nobody Ever Goes There - (1981) - short story
• Where Did She Wander? - (1987) - short story

Hugo Award nominated short story. It originally appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, November 1958. The story can also be found in the anthology A Treasury of Modern Fantasy (1981) edited by Martin H. Greenberg and Terry Carr. The story is included in the collection Who Fears the Devil? (1963) and Owls Hoot in the Daytime and Other Omens (2003).

There's a traveling man the Carolina mountain folk call Silver John for the silver strings strung on his guitar. In his wanderings, John encounters a parade of benighted forest creatures, mountain spirits, and shapeless horrors from the void of history with only his enduring spirit, playful wit, and the magic of his guitar to preserve him. Manly Wade Wellman's Silver John is one of the most beloved figures in fantasy, a true American folk hero of the literary age. For the first time the "Planet Stories" edition of "Who Fears the Devil?" collects all of John's adventures published throughout Wellman's life, including two stories about John before he got his silver-stringed guitar that have never previously appeared in a Silver John collection. Lost, out of print, or buried in expensive hardcover editions, the seminal, unforgettable tales of "Who Fears the Devil?" stand ready for a new generation ready to continue the folk tradition of Silver John!

Table of Contents:

• John's My Name - (1963)
• O Ugly Bird! - (1951)
• Why They're Named That - (1963)
• One Other - (1953)
• Then I Wasn't Alone - (1962)
• Shiver in the Pines - (1955)
• You Know the Tale of Hoph - (1962)
• Old Devlins Was A-Waiting - (1956)
• Find the Place Yourself - (1962)
• The Desrick on Yandro - (1952)
• The Stars Down There - (1962)
• Vandy, Vandy - (1953)
• Blue Monkey - (1962)
• Dumb Supper - (1954)
• I Can't Claim That - (1962)
• The Little Black Train - (1954)
• Who Else Could I Count On - (1962)
• Walk Like a Mountain - (1955)
• None Wiser for the Trip - (1963)
• On the Hills and Everywhere - (1956)
• Nary Spell - (1963)
• Nine Yards of Other Cloth - (1958)

The first Silver John novel.

In the wilds of Southern Appalachia lies Wolter Mountain - a sacred place for the Indians and their predecessors. But the land atop the mountain, taken over by two Englishmen, Brummitt and Hooper Voth, is undergoing frightening changes.

Strange evil things are terrorizing Luke and Creed Forshay who live at the foot of Wolter Mountain in the southern Appalachians, a sacred place for Indians and their predecessors. Two old-world Druids, disguised as Englishmen, are attempting to awaken pre-Indian spirits of the ancient mountain. Silver John and an Indian medicine man must collaborate to prevent certain death at the hands of blood-sacrificing priests.

"Many eons ago a humanoid race with supernatural powers roamed the North American Continent. But when vast hordes of Indians migrated across the Bering Strait land bridge the Shonokins soon became a defeated people. The few remaining Shonokins were able to survive and evolve into an all male race with man-like features except for cat-like eyes and an elongated third finger.

In a small Southern mountain town, the Shonokins have resurfaced and are led by Brooke Altic, a recognized leading citizen. Altic is interested in recruiting Silver John, a young mountain man whom he meets at a local music festival....

Guitar-picking wanderer Silver John goes to a remote community to investigate rumors of their terrifying practices of devil worship and evil Satanic rites.

Millionaire industrialist Noel Kottler had no respect for mountain lore. He wanted to build a duplicate of Stonehenge high on top of Teatray Mountain, turn it into an amusement park, and hire Silver John to entertain the tourists. ~ But the sharptoothed wolf demons who dwelt in the back-country were angered by the invasion of their sacred ground. And Silver John had no use for money-mongers and citified mystics. When his beloved Evadare was kidnapped and unholy darkness was unleashed upon the land, only the pure-hearted power of Silver John could restore the sunshine and subdue the savage spirits.

There's a lonely and haunting sound that comes from Cry Mountain, and as John tries to find out the source of the sound, he encounters many mythical creatures of folk legend as well as the sorcerer who controls them.