The Wellmans of Angola

As someone who loves to read and occasionally write, my interest in Angola eventually led me to the Wellman family, a family of published authors with a decade-long link to Angola.

Patriarch Frederick Creighton Wellman (1873-1960) was a specialist in tropical medicine who transported his family to Angola in 1896 (at the time the nation was usually called 'Portuguese West Africa'). Three of his four children were born in Kamundongo during his nine years there. Unfortunately, Frederick was a very free spirit - a philanderer who earned the nickname "Casanova of Tropical Medicine." He and his wife divorced a few years after leaving Angola. At the same time he was practicing medicine he also published a number of novels under the pseudonym 'Cyril K. Scott.' Here are a couple of his books. His Wikipedia article also asserts he performed scientific research for the Benguela railway, though I haven't found corroboration for what exactly he did. It sounds like he was quite a 'character' as he was married four times and served in several overseas locales. And so, it shouldn't be too surprising that his four children lived pretty notable lives.

His eldest, Paul Wellman (1895-1966), was the only child born outside Angola. However, his overseas upbringing doesn't seem to have had a great impact upon his later life. He became an author but was almost entirely devoted to the western genre. Several of his novels were adapted into motion pictures, the most famous being The Comancheros (1961) starring John Wayne himself. Here's his books at Goodreads.

Second-born was Frederick Lovejoy Wellman (1897-1994). Like his father, he became a doctor. Unlike his father, he didn't go into medicine - he became a phytopathologist! His name still entertains some prestige as the Wellman Award handed out to phytopathologists is named after him.

Third-born was Alice Wellman (1900-1984). It was only late in life during the 1970s that Alice took an interest in writing. Unlike most of her family, her writing was specifically focused on her childhood in Angola. She wrote several works of children's literature set in Angola. It's a pity that by the time she began writing these books the nation was being completely revamped by the collapse of the Portuguese - the Angola she knew became a thing of the past within a few years of her first novel's publication. Here's her books at Goodreads.

Finally, the youngest Wellman - and the one who first drew me into investigating the family. Manly Wade Wellman (1903-1986) had the most prolific career of the Wellmans, writing not only novels but all sorts of short stories for pulp magazines. He also toiled in comic books, making him perhaps the first Angola-born person to work in the comic book industry? He was nominated for a Hugo Award in 1959 and one of his stories was adapted for TV's The Twilight Zone. He did occasionally draw from experiences growing up in Angola, most significantly in his first published tale, "When the Lion Roared" in a 1927 Thrilling Tales magazine - but his best-known writing was for the fantasy genre. Here's his bibliography.

More on Manly Wade Wellman tomorrow...