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Charles Fort

 
Charles Fort

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Charles Fort



 
 
Charles Hoy Fort (August 6, 1874 – May 3, 1932) was an American
United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
 writer and researcher into anomalous phenomena.

Jerome Clark
Jerome Clark

Jerome Clark is an United States researcher and writer, specializing in unidentified flying objects and other anomalous phenomena; he is also a songwriter of some note....
 writes that Fort was "essentially a satirist
Satire

Satire is often strictly defined as a literary genre; although, in practice, it is also found in the graphic arts and performing arts. In satire, human or individual vices, follies, abuses, or shortcomings are held up to censure by means of ridicule, derision, burlesque, irony, or other methods, ideally with the intent to bring about improv...
 hugely skeptical of human beings – especially scientists – claims to ultimate knowledge".






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Quotations


A procession of the damned. :By the damned, I mean the excluded. :We shall have a procession of data that Science has excluded.

The fate of all explanation is to close one door only to have another fly wide open.

The outrageous is the reasonable, if introduced politely.

We shall have a procession of data that Science has excluded. Battalions of the accursed, captained by pallid data that I have exhumed, will march. You'll read them — or they'll march.

Venus de Milo. To a child she is ugly. When a mind adjusts to thinking of her as a completeness, even though, by physiologic standards, incomplete, she is beautiful.

But Truth is that besides which there is nothing: nothing to modify it, nothing to question it, nothing to form an exception: the all-inclusive, the complete — By Truth, I mean the Universal.






Encyclopedia


Fort Charles 1920
Charles Hoy Fort (August 6, 1874 – May 3, 1932) was an American
United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
 writer and researcher into anomalous phenomena.

Jerome Clark
Jerome Clark

Jerome Clark is an United States researcher and writer, specializing in unidentified flying objects and other anomalous phenomena; he is also a songwriter of some note....
 writes that Fort was "essentially a satirist
Satire

Satire is often strictly defined as a literary genre; although, in practice, it is also found in the graphic arts and performing arts. In satire, human or individual vices, follies, abuses, or shortcomings are held up to censure by means of ridicule, derision, burlesque, irony, or other methods, ideally with the intent to bring about improv...
 hugely skeptical of human beings – especially scientists – claims to ultimate knowledge". Clark describes Fort's writing style as a "distinctive blend of mocking humor, penetrating insight, and calculated outrageousness".

Writer Colin Wilson
Colin Wilson

Colin Henry Wilson is a prolific United Kingdom writer. He first came to prominence as a philosopher and novelist. Wilson has since written widely on true crime, mysticism, and other topics....
 describes Fort as "a patron of cranks" and also argues that running through Fort's work is "the feeling that no matter how honest scientists think they are, they are still influenced by various unconscious assumptions that prevent them from attaining true objectivity. Expressed in a sentence, Fort's principle goes something like this: People with a psychological need to believe in marvels are no more prejudiced and gullible than people with a psychological need not to believe in marvels."

Fort's books sold well and remain in print. Today, the terms "Fortean" and "Forteana" are used to characterise various anomalous phenomena.

Biography

Charles Hoy Fort was born in 1874 in Albany, New York
Albany, New York

Albany is the Capital of the state of New York and the county seat of Albany County, New York. Albany is roughly 136 miles north of the city of New York City, and slightly south of the confluence of the Mohawk River and Hudson Rivers....
, of Dutch
Dutch people

The Dutch are the people native to the Netherlands, a country in north-western Europe.Dutch people, or descendants of Dutch people, are also found in migrant communities world wide,See the Dutch #Dutch diaspora. and form a mentionable part of the population of Canada,Australia, South Africa and the United States....
 ancestry. He had two younger brothers, Clarence and Raymond. His grocer father was something of an authoritarian: Many Parts, Fort's unpublished autobiography, relates several instances of harsh treatment – including physical abuse
Child abuse

Child abuse is the physical abuse, psychological abuse or child sexual abuse maltreatment of children. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention defines child maltreatment as any act or series of acts or commission or omission by a parent or other caregiver that results in harm, potential for harm, or threat of harm to a child....
 – by his father. Some observers (such as Fort's biographer Damon Knight
Damon Knight

Damon Francis Knight was an United States science fiction author, editor, literary criticism and science fiction fandom....
) have suggested that Fort's distrust of authority has its roots in his father's treatment. In any case, Fort developed a strong sense of independence in his youth.

As a young man, Fort was a budding naturalist
Natural history

Natural history is the scientific research of plants or animals, leaning more towards the observational than experimental methods of study, and encompasses more research that is published in magazines than in academic journals....
, collecting sea shells, mineral
Mineral

A mineral is a naturally occurring solid formed through Geology processes that has a characteristic chemical composition, a highly ordered atomic structure, and specific physical properties....
s, and birds. Curious and intelligent, the young Fort did not excel at school, though he was quite a wit and full of knowledge about the world – yet this was only a world he knew through books.

So, at the age of 18, Fort left New York on a world tour to "put some capital in the bank of experience". He travelled through the western United States
United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
, Scotland
Scotland

conventional_long_name = ScotlandAlba|common_name= Scotland|image_flag = Flag of Scotland.svg|flag_width = 130px...
, and England
England

native_name =|conventional_long_name = England|common_name = England|image_flag = Flag of England.svg|image_coat = England COA.svg|symbol_type = Royal Coat of Arms...
, until falling ill in Southern Africa
Southern Africa

Southern Africa is the southernmost region of the African continent, variably defined by geography or geopolitics, consisting of numerous territories....
. Returning home, he was nursed by Anna Filing, a girl he had known from his childhood. They were later married on October 26, 1896. Anna was four years older than Charles and was non-literary, a lover of films and of parakeets. She later moved with her husband to London
London

London is the capital of both England and the United Kingdom, and the most populous municipality in the European Union. An important settlement for two millennia, History of London goes back to its founding by the Roman Empire....
 for two years where they would go to the cinema when Charles wasn't busy with his research. His success as a short story
Short story

The short story refers to a work of fiction that is usually written in prose, usually in narrative format. This format or medium tends to be more pointed than longer works of fiction, such as novellas and novels or books....
 writer was intermittent between periods of terrible poverty and depression
Clinical depression

Major depressive disorder is a mental disorder characterized by a pervasive depression , low self-esteem, and anhedonia in normally enjoyable activities....
.

In 1916, an inheritance from an uncle gave Fort enough money to quit his various day job
Day job

A day job is a form of profession taken by a person in order to make ends meet while working another low-paying job in their preferred career track....
s and to write full time. In 1917, Fort's brother Clarence died; his portion of the same inheritance was divided between Charles and Raymond.

Fort wrote ten novel
Novel

File:2009 stapelweise Neuerscheinungen im Buchladen.JPGA novel is today a long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern Romance and in the tradition of the novella....
s, although only one, The Outcast Manufacturers (1909), was published. Reviews were mostly positive, but the tenement tale was commercially unsuccessful. In 1915, Fort began to write two books, titled X and Y, the first dealing with the idea that beings on Mars were controlling events on Earth
Earth

Earth is the third planet from the Sun. Earth is the largest of the terrestrial planets in the Solar System in diameter, mass and density. It is also referred to as the World and Wiktionary:Terra.Note that by International Astronomical Union convention, the term "Terra" is used for naming extensive land masses, rather...
, and the second with the postulation of a sinister civilization extant at the South Pole
South Pole

The South Pole, also known as the Geographic South Pole or Terrestrial South Pole, is one of the two points where the Earth's rotation intersects the surface....
. These books caught the attention of writer Theodore Dreiser
Theodore Dreiser

Theodore Herman Albert Dreiser was an American novelist and journalist. He pioneered the naturalism school and is known for portraying characters whose value lies not in their moral code, but in their persistence against all obstacles, and literary situations that more closely resemble studies of nature than tales of choice and agency ....
, who attempted to get them published, but to no avail. Disheartened by this failure, Fort burnt the manuscripts, but was soon renewed to begin work on the book that would change the course of his life, The Book of the Damned
The Book of the Damned

The Book of the Damned was the first published nonfiction work of the author Charles Fort . Dealing with various types of anomalous phenomena including UFOs, strange falls from the sky of both organic and inorganic materials from the sky, odd weather patterns, the possible existence of creatures generally held to be mythological, disappe...
 (1919) which Dreiser helped to get into print. The title referred to "damned" data that Fort collected, phenomena for which science could not account and was thus rejected or ignored.

Fort's experience as a journalist
Journalist

A journalist is a person who practices journalism, the gathering and dissemination of information about current events, trends, issues, and people while striving for viewpoints that aren't biased....
, coupled with high wit egged on by a contrarian nature, prepared him for his real-life work, needling the pretensions of scientific positivism
Logical positivism

Logical positivism is a school of philosophy that combines empiricism, the idea that observational evidence is indispensable for knowledge of the world, with a version of rationalism incorporating mathematical and logico-linguistic constructs and deductions in epistemology.See, e.g., : in Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
 and the tendency of journalists and editors of newspapers and scientific journal
Scientific journal

In academic publishing, a scientific journal is a periodical publication intended to further the progress of science, usually by reporting new research....
s to rationalise the scientifically incorrect.

Fort and Anna lived in London from 1924 to 1926, having moved there so Charles could peruse the files of the British Museum
British Museum

The British Museum is a museum of human history and culture situated in London. Its collections, which number more than 7 million Object , are amongst the largest and most comprehensive in the world and originate from all continents, illustrating and documenting the story of human culture from its beginning to the present....
. Although born in Albany, Fort lived most of his life in the Bronx, one of New York City's five boroughs. He was, like his wife, fond of films, and would often take her from their Ryer Avenue apartment to the nearby movie theater, and would always stop at the adjacent newsstand for an armful of various newspapers. Like most good Bronx residents, Fort would frequent the nearby parks where he would sift through piles of his clippings. He would often ride the subway down to the main New York Public Library on Fifth Avenue where he would spend many hours reading scientific journals along with newspapers and periodicals from around the world. Fort also had a small circle of literary friends and they would gather on occasion at various apartments, including his own, to drink and talk which was tolerated by Anna. Theodore Dreiser would lure him out to meetings with phony telegrams and notes and the resultant evening would be full of good food, conversation and much hilarity. Charles Fort's wit was always in evidence, especially in his writing.

His books earned mostly positive reviews, and were popular enough to go through several printings, including an omnibus edition in 1941. Fort's books were at the time appreciated for both their literary quality and his critique of scientific dogma.

Suffering from poor health and failing eyesight, Fort was pleasantly surprised to find himself the subject of a cult following
Cult following

A cult following is a group of fan devoted to a specific area of pop culture. These dedicated followings are usually relatively small, and often pertain to items that don't have broad mainstream appeal....
. There was talk of the formation of a formal organization to study the type of odd events related in his books. Clark writes, "Fort himself, who did nothing to encourage any of this, found the idea hilarious. Yet he faithfully corresponded with his readers, some of whom had taken to investigating reports of anomalous phenomena and sending their findings to Fort" (Clark 1998, 235).

Fort distrusted doctors and did not seek medical help for his worsening health. Rather, he focused his energies towards completing Wild Talents. After he collapsed on May 3, 1932, Fort was rushed to Royal Hospital in The Bronx
The Bronx

The Bronx is the northernmost of the Five Boroughs of New York City and the newest of the 62 Administrative divisions of New York#county of New York State....
. Later that same day, Fort's publisher visited him to show the advance copies of Wild Talents. Fort died only hours afterwards, probably of leukemia
Leukemia

Leukemia is a cancer of the blood or bone marrow and is characterized by an abnormal proliferation of blood Cell , usually white blood cells ....
.

He was interred in the Fort family plot in Albany, New York. His more than 60,000 notes were donated to the New York Public Library
New York Public Library

The New York Public Library is one of the leading Public library of the world and is one of the United States's most significant research libraries....
.

Fort and the unexplained


Overview

Fort's relationship with the study of anomalous phenomena is frequently misunderstood and misrepresented. For over thirty years, Charles Fort sat in the libraries of New York
New York City

The City of New York is the List of United States cities by population in the United States, while the New York metropolitan area ranks among the List of urban areas by population....
 and London
London

London is the capital of both England and the United Kingdom, and the most populous municipality in the European Union. An important settlement for two millennia, History of London goes back to its founding by the Roman Empire....
, assiduously reading scientific journals, newspapers, and magazine
Magazine

for quarterly in Heraldry see Quartering Magazines, periodicals, glossies or serials are publications, generally published on a regular schedule, containing a variety of Article , generally financed by advertising, by a purchase price, by pre-paid magazine subscription, or all three....
s, collecting notes on phenomena
Phenomenon

A phenomenon is any observation occurrence. In popular usage, a phenomenon often refers to an extraordinary event. In physics, a phenomenon may be a feature of matter, energy, or spacetime....
 that lay outside the accepted theories and beliefs of the time.

Fort took thousands of notes in his lifetime. In his short story "The Giant, the Insect and The Philantropic Old Gentleman", published many years later for the first time by the International Fortean Organization
International Fortean Organization

The International Fortean Organization is a network of professional Fortean researchers and writers. John Keel, author and parapsychologist, in both his writings and at his appearances at INFO's FortFest, says "the International Fortean Organization carries on Charles Fort's name as successor to the Fortean Society." Keel, Colin Wilson and Jo...
 in issue #70 of the "INFO Journal: Science and the Unkown", Fort spoke of sitting on a park bench at The Cloisters
The Cloisters

The Cloisters is the branch of the Metropolitan Museum of Art dedicated to the art and architecture of the European Middle Ages. The Cloisters is located in New York City, USA, specifically Fort Tryon Park near the northern tip of Manhattan island on a hill overlooking the Hudson River....
 in New York City and tossing some 60,000 notes, not all of his collection by any means, into the wind. This short story is significant because Fort uses his own data collection technique to solve a mystery. He marveled that seemingly unrelated bit of information were, in fact, related. Fort wryly concludes that he went back to collecting data and taking even more notes. The notes were kept on cards and scraps of paper in shoeboxes. They were taken on small squares of paper, in a cramped shorthand
Shorthand

Shorthand is an abbreviated symbolic writing method that increases speed or brevity of writing as compared to a normal method of writing a language....
 of Fort's own invention, and some of them survive today in the collections of the University of Pennsylvania
University of Pennsylvania

The University of Pennsylvania is a private research university located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Penn is America's first university and is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States....
. More than once, depressed and discouraged, Fort destroyed his work, but always began anew. Some of the notes were published, little by little, by the Fortean Society
Fortean Society

The Fortean Society was started in the United States in 1931 by Tiffany Thayer in order to promote the ideas of American writer Charles Fort. The Fortean Society was primarily based in New York City....
 magazine "Doubt" and, upon the death of its' editor Tiffany Thayer
Tiffany Thayer

Tiffany Ellsworth Thayer was an United States actor, author and founder of the Fortean Society.Born in Freeport, Illinois, Thayer quit school at age 15 and worked as an actor, reporter, and used-book clerk in Chicago, Detroit, and Cleveland....
 in 1959, most were donated to the New York Public Library where they are still available to researchers of the unknown.

From these researches Fort wrote four books. These are The Book of the Damned
The Book of the Damned

The Book of the Damned was the first published nonfiction work of the author Charles Fort . Dealing with various types of anomalous phenomena including UFOs, strange falls from the sky of both organic and inorganic materials from the sky, odd weather patterns, the possible existence of creatures generally held to be mythological, disappe...
 (1919), New Lands
New Lands

New Lands was the second nonfiction book of the author Charles Fort, written in 1925. It deals primarily with astronomical anomalies.Fort expands in this book on his theory about the Super-Sargasso Sea - a place where earthly things supposedly materialize in order to rain down on Earth - as well as developing an idea that there are con...
 (1923), Lo!
Lo!

Lo! was the third published nonfiction work of the author Charles Fort ....
 (1931) and Wild Talents
Wild Talents

Wild Talents is the fourth and final nonfiction book written by paranormal author Charles Fort, published in 1932....
 (1932); one book was written between New Lands and LO! but it was abandoned and absorbed into Lo!.

Fort's writing style

Understanding Fort's books takes time and effort: his style is complex, violent and poetic, profound and occasionally puzzling. Ideas are abandoned and then recalled a few pages on; examples and data are offered, compared and contrasted, conclusions made and broken, as Fort holds up the unorthodox to the scrutiny of the orthodoxy that continually fails to account for them. Pressing on his attacks, Fort shows what he sees as the ridiculousness of the conventional explanations and then interjects with his own theories. Wilson opines that Fort's writing style is "atrocious" (Wilson, 199) and "almost unreadable" (Wilson, 200), and compared him to Robert Ripley
Robert Ripley

Robert LeRoy Ripley was an United States cartoonist, entrepreneur and amateur anthropologist, who created the world famous Ripley's Believe It or Not! newspaper panel series, featuring odd 'facts' from around the world....
, a contemporary who found major success hunting oddities, and speculates that Fort's idiosyncratic prose might have kept him from greater popular success.

Fort suggests that there is, for example, a Super-Sargasso Sea into which all lost things go, and justifies his theories by noting that they fit the data as well as the conventional explanations. As to whether Fort believes this theory, or any of his other proposals, he gives us the answer: "I believe nothing of my own that I have ever written." Wilson suspects that Fort took few if any of his "explanations" seriously, and notes that Fort made "no attempt to present a coherent argument". (Wilson, 200)

Fortean phenomena

Despite his objections to Fort's writing style, Wilson allows that "the facts are certainly astonishing enough" (Wilson, 200). Examples of the odd phenomena in Fort's books include many of what are variously referred to as occult
Occult

The word occult comes from the Latin word occultus , referring to "knowledge of the hidden". In the medical sense it is used to refer to a structure or process that is hidden, e.g....
, supernatural
Supernatural

The term supernatural or supranatural pertains to an order of existence beyond the scientifically visible universe. Religious miracles are typically supernatural claims, as are Spell and curses, divination, the belief that there is an afterlife for the dead, and innumerable others....
, and paranormal
Paranormal

Paranormal is a general term that describes unusual experiences that lack a scientific explanation, or phenomena alleged to be outside of science's current ability to explain or measure....
. Reported events include teleportation
Teleportation

Teleportation is the transfer of matter from one place to another, more or less instantaneously, either by paranormal means or through technological artifice....
 (a term Fort is generally credited with coining); poltergeist
Poltergeist

denotes an invisible Soul or ghost that manifests itself by moving and influencing objects, generally in a particular locale such as a house or room or place within a house....
 events; falls of frogs, fishes, inorganic materials of an amazing range
Raining animals

Raining animals is a relatively rare meteorology phenomenon, although occurrences have been reported from many countries throughout history. One hypothesis that has been furthered to explain this phenomenon is that strong winds travelling over water sometimes pick up debris such as fish or frogs, and carry them for up to several miles....
; unaccountable noises and explosions; spontaneous fires
Spontaneous combustion

Spontaneous combustion may refer to:* Spontaneous combustion, the self-ignition of a mass, for example, a pile of oily rags.* Spontaneous Combustion , a 2007 album by Liquid Trio Experiment...
; levitation
Levitation

Levitation is the process by which an object is suspended against gravity, in a stable position, without physical contact.It is also a conjuring trick, appearingly raising a human being without any physical aid....
; ball lightning
Ball lightning

Ball lightning may be an atmospheric electricity phenomenon, the physical nature of which is still controversial. The term refers to reports of luminous, usually spherical objects which vary from pea-sized to several meters in diameter....
 (a term explicitly used by Fort); unidentified flying object
Unidentified flying object

An unidentified flying object is any aerial phenomenon whose cause can not be easily or immediately determined. Both military and civilian research show that a significant majority of UFO sightings are identified after further investigation, either explicitly or indirectly The USAF, who coined the term in 1952, initially defined UFOs as thos...
s; unexplained disappearances
Unexplained disappearances

Unexplained disappearance is a term describing the disappearance of objects, animals or people without apparent reason or cause. Often such disappearances are assumed, by some, to have supernatural or paranormal explanations....
; giant wheels of light in the oceans; and animals found outside their normal ranges (see phantom cat
Phantom cat

Phantom cats, also known as Alien Big Cats , are large felidaes, such as jaguars or cougars, which are not indigenous to the area in which they are found....
). He offered many reports of Out-of-place artifacts (OOPArts), strange items found in unlikely locations. He also is perhaps the first person to explain strange human appearances and disappearances by the hypothesis of alien abduction and was an early proponent of the extraterrestrial hypothesis
Extraterrestrial hypothesis

The extraterrestrial hypothesis is the hypothesis that some unidentified flying objects are best explained as being extraterrestrial life or space aliens from extrasolar planets occupying physical spacecraft visiting Earth....
, specifically suggesting that strange lights or object sighted in the skies might be alien spacecraft. Fort also wrote about the interconnectedness of nature and synchronicity. His books seem to center around the idea that everything is connected and that strange coincidences happen for a reason.

Many of these phenomena are now collectively and conveniently referred to as 'Fortean' phenomena (or 'Forteana'), whilst others have developed into their own schools of thought, for example, UFOs into ufology
Ufology

Ufology is a neologism coined to describe the collective efforts of those who study unidentified flying object reports and associated evidence....
, or the reports of unconfirmed animals classified as cryptozoology
Cryptozoology

Cryptozoology is a pseudoscience focused on the search for animals which are considered to be fictional or otherwise nonexistent by mainstream biology....
. These new disciplines per se are generally not recognized by most scientists or academics, however.

Forteana and mainstream science

Some skeptics and critics have frequently called Fort credulous and naοve, a charge his supporters deny strongly. Over and over again in his writing, Fort rams home a few basic points that were decades ahead of mainstream scientific acceptance, and that are frequently forgotten in discussions of the history
History of science

Science is a body of empirical knowledge, theory, and Procedural knowledge knowledge about the Nature, produced by a global community of researchers making use of scientific methods, which emphasize the observation, experimentation and scientific explanation of real world phenomenon....
 and philosophy of science
Philosophy of science

The philosophy of science is concerned with the assumptions, foundations, and implications of science. The field is defined by an interest in one of a set of "traditional" problems or an interest in central or foundational concerns in science....
:

  • Fort often notes that the boundaries between science and pseudoscience
    Pseudoscience

    Pseudoscience is any knowledge, methodology, belief, or practice that is claimed to be scientific, or that is made to appear to be scientific, but which does not adhere to the scientific method, lacks supporting evidence or plausibility, or otherwise lacks scientific status....
     are "fuzzy": the boundary lines are not very well defined, and they might change over time.
  • Fort also points out that whereas facts are objective
    Objectivity (science)

    "[A]n objective account is one which attempts to capture the nature of the object studied in a way that does not depend on any features of the particular subject who studies it....
    , how facts are interpreted depends on who is doing the interpreting and in what context.
  • Fort insisted that there is a strong sociological
    Sociology

    Sociology is a branch of the social sciences that uses systematic methods of Empiricism and critical theory to develop and refine a body of knowledge about human social structure and activity, sometimes with the goal of applying such knowledge to the pursuit of social welfare....
     influence on what is considered "acceptable" or "damned" (see strong program in the sociology of scientific knowledge
    Sociology of scientific knowledge

    The sociology of scientific knowledge , closely related to the sociology of science, considers social influences on science. Practitioners include Barry Barnes, David Bloor, Gaston Bachelard, Paul Feyerabend, Elihu M....
    ).
  • Though he never used the term "magical thinking
    Magical thinking

    Magical thinking in anthropology, psychology, and cognitive science is nonscientific causal reasoning that often includes such ideas as the ability of the mind to affect the physical world , correlation equaling causation, the law of contagion, the power of symbols, and the meaningfulness of synchronicity....
    ", Fort offered many arguments and observations that are similar to the concept: he argued that most (if not all) people (including scientists) are at least occasionally guilty of irrational and "non scientific" thinking.
  • Fort points out the problem of underdetermination
    Underdetermination

    Underdetermination is a term used in the discussion of theory and their relation to the evidence that is cited to support them. Arguments from underdetermination are used to support epistemic relativism by claiming that there is no good way to certify a theory based on any set of evidence....
    : that the same data can sometimes be explained by more than one theory.
  • Similarly, writer John Michell
    John Michell (writer)

    John Michell is an England author. Michell is best known for his books on earth mysteries, pseudoscientific metrology, ley lines, sacred geometry, sacred sites, geomancy, gematria, archaeoastronomy, and Anomaly , and has also published writings on Plato, euphonics, simulacra, the lives and works of eccentrics such as Comyns Beaumont, Julius...
     notes that "Fort gave several humorous instances of the same experiment yielding two different results, each one gratifying the experimenter." Fort noted that if controlled experiments a pillar of the scientific method
    Scientific method

    Scientific method refers to techniques for investigating phenomenon, acquiring new knowledge, or correcting and integrating previous knowledge. To be termed scientific, a method of inquiry must be based on gathering observable, empirical and Measure evidence subject to specific principles of reasoning....
     could produce such widely varying results depending on who conducted them, then the scientific method itself might be open to doubt, or at least to a degree of scrutiny rarely brought to bear. Since Fort's death, scientists have recognized the "experimenter effect", the tendency for experiments to tend to validate given preconceptions. Robert Rosenthal
    Robert Rosenthal (psychologist)

    Robert Rosenthal is Distinguished Professor of Psychology at the University of California, Riverside. His interests include self-fulfilling prophecy, which he explored in a well-known study of the Pygmalion Effect: the effect of teachers' expectations on students....
     has conducted pioneering research on this and related subjects.


There are many phenomena in Fort's works which have now been partially or entirely "recuperated" by mainstream science: ball lightning
Ball lightning

Ball lightning may be an atmospheric electricity phenomenon, the physical nature of which is still controversial. The term refers to reports of luminous, usually spherical objects which vary from pea-sized to several meters in diameter....
, for example, was largely rejected as impossible by the scientific consensus
Scientific consensus

Scientific consensus is the collective judgment, position, and opinion of the scientific community of scientists in a Scientific discipline of study....
 of Fort's day, but is now receiving new attention within the science community. However, many of Fort's ideas remain on the very borderlines of "mainstream science", or beyond, in the fields of paranormalism and the bizarre. This is unsurprising, as Fort resolutely refused to abandon the territory beyond "acceptable" science. Nonetheless, later research has demonstrated that Fort's claims are at least as reliable as his sources. In the 1960s, American writer William R. Corliss
William R. Corliss

William Roger Corliss is an American physicist and writer who has become known for his interest in collecting data regarding anomaly .Since 1974, Corliss has published a number of works in the "Sourcebook Project"....
 began his own documentation of scientific anomalies. Partly inspired by Fort, Corliss checked some of Fort's sources and concluded that Fort's research was "accurate, but rather narrow"; there were many anomalies which Fort did not include in his books.

Many consider it odd that Fort, a man so skeptical and so willing to question the pronouncements of the scientific mainstream, would be so eager to take old stories – for example, stories about rains of fish falling from the sky – at face value. It is debatable whether Fort did in fact accept evidence at face value: many instances in his books, Fort notes that he regarded certain data and assertions as unlikely, and he additionally remarked, "I offer the data. Suit yourself." In Fort's books, it is often difficult to determine if he took his proposals and "theories" seriously; however, as noted on the extraterrestrial hypothesis
Extraterrestrial hypothesis

The extraterrestrial hypothesis is the hypothesis that some unidentified flying objects are best explained as being extraterrestrial life or space aliens from extrasolar planets occupying physical spacecraft visiting Earth....
 page, Fort did seem to hold a genuine belief in the presence of extraterrestrial visitations to the Earth.

The theories and conclusions Fort presented often came from what he called "the orthodox conventionality of Science". On nearly every page, Fort's works have reports of odd events which were originally printed in respected mainstream newspapers or scientific journals such as Scientific American
Scientific American

Scientific American is a popular science science magazine, published since August 28, 1845, making it one of the oldest continuously published magazines in the United States....
, The Times
The Times

The Times is a daily national newspaper published in the United Kingdom since 1785 when it was known as The Daily Universal Register.The Times and its sister paper The Sunday Times are published by Times Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary of News International....
, Nature
Nature (journal)

Nature is a prominent scientific journal, first published on 4 November 1869. Although most scientific journals are now highly specialized, Nature is one of the few journals, along with other weekly journals such as Science and Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, that still publishes original research articles ac...
 and Science
Science (journal)

Science is the academic journal of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and is considered one of the world's most prestigious scientific journals....
. Time and again, Fort noted, that while some phenomena related in these and other sources were enthusiastically accepted and promoted by scientists, just as often, inexplicable or unusual reports were ignored, or were effectively swept under the rug. And repeatedly, Fort reclaimed such data from under the rug, and brought them out, as he wrote, "for an airing". So long as any evidence is ignored – however bizarre or unlikely the evidence might seem – Fort insisted that scientists' claims to thoroughness and objectivity were questionable.

It did not matter to Fort whether his data and theories were accurate: his point was that alternative conclusions and world view
World view

A comprehensive world view is a term calqued from the German language word Weltanschauung Welt is the German word for "world", and Anschauung is the German word for "view" or "outlook." It is a concept fundamental to German philosophy and epistemology and refers to a wide world perception....
s can be made from the same data "orthodox" conclusions are made, and that the conventional explanations of science are only one of a range of explanations, none necessarily more justified than another. In this respect, he was far ahead of his time. In The Book of the Damned he showed the influence of social values and what would now be called a "paradigm
Paradigm

The word paradigm has been used in linguistics and science to describe distinct concepts.To the 1960s, the word was specific to grammar: the 1900 Merriam-Webster dictionary defines its technical use only in the context of grammar or, in rhetoric, as a term for an illustrative parable or fable....
" on what scientists consider to be "true". This prefigured work by Thomas Kuhn decades later. The work of Paul Feyerabend
Paul Feyerabend

Paul Karl Feyerabend was an Austrian-born philosopher of science best known for his work as a professor of philosophy at the University of California, Berkeley, where he worked for three decades ....
 could also be likened to Fort's.

Another of Fort's great contributions is questioning the often frequent dogmatism of mainstream science. Although many of the phenomena which science rejected in his day have since been proven to be objective phenomena, and although Fort was prescient in his collection and preservation of these data despite the scorn they often received from his contemporaries, Fort was more of a parodist
Parody

A parody , in contemporary usage, is a work created to mock, comment on, or poke fun at an original work, its subject, or author, or some other target, by means of humorous, satiric or ironic imitation....
 and a philosopher than a scientist. He thought that far too often, scientists took themselves far too seriously, and were prone to arrogance and dogma
Dogma

Dogma is the established belief or doctrine held by a religion, ideology or any kind of organization: it is authority and not to be disputed, doubted or heresy....
tism. Fort used humor both for its own sake, and to point out what he regarded as the foibles of science and scientists.

Nonetheless, Fort is considered by many as the father of modern paranormalism, not only because of his interest in strange phenomena, but because of his "modern" attitude towards religion, 19th-century Spiritualism, and scientific dogma.

The Forteans

Fort's work has inspired very many to consider themselves as Forteans. The first of these was the screenwriter Ben Hecht
Ben Hecht

Ben Hecht , , was an United States screenwriter, director, producer, playwright, and novelist. Called "the Shakespeare of Hollywood", he received screen credits, alone or in collaboration, for the stories or screenplays of some 70 films and as a prolific storyteller, authored 35 books and created some of the most entertaining screenplays or p...
, who in a review of The Book of the Damned declared "I am the first disciple of Charles Fort… henceforth, I am a Fortean". Among Fort's other notable fans were John Cowper Powys
John Cowper Powys

John Cowper Powys was a United Kingdom writer, lecturer, and philosopher....
, Sherwood Anderson
Sherwood Anderson

Sherwood Anderson was an United States writer, mainly of short story, most notably the collection Winesburg, Ohio . That work's influence on American fiction was profound, and its literary voice can be heard in Ernest Hemingway, William Faulkner, Thomas Wolfe, John Steinbeck, Erskine Caldwell and others....
, Clarence Darrow
Clarence Darrow

Clarence Seward Darrow was an United States lawyer and leading member of the American Civil Liberties Union, best known for defending teenage thrill killing Leopold and Loeb in their trial for murdering 14-year-old Bobby Franks and defending John T....
, and Booth Tarkington
Booth Tarkington

Newton Booth Tarkington was an United States novelist and dramatist best known for his Pulitzer Prize-winning novels The Magnificent Ambersons and Alice Adams ....
, who wrote the foreword to New Lands.

Precisely what is encompassed by "Fortean" is a matter of great debate; the term is widely applied from every position from Fortean purists dedicated to Fort's methods and interests, to those with open and active acceptance of the actuality of paranormal phenomena, a position with which Fort may not have agreed. Most generally, Forteans have a wide interest in unexplained phenomena in wide-ranging fields, mostly concerned with the natural world, and have a developed "agnostic scepticism" regarding the anomalies they note and discuss. For Mr. Hecht as an example, being a Fortean meant hallowing a pronounced distrust of authority in all its forms, whether religious, scientific, political, philosophical or otherwise. It did not, of course, include an actual belief in the anomalous data enumerated in Fort's works.

In Chapter 1 of Book of the Damned Charles Fort states that the ideal is to be neither a "True Believer" nor a total "Skeptic" but "that the truth lies somewhere in between".

The Fortean Society was founded at the Savoy-Plaza Hotel in New York City on 26 January 1931 by his friends many of whom were significant writers such as Theodore Dreiser
Theodore Dreiser

Theodore Herman Albert Dreiser was an American novelist and journalist. He pioneered the naturalism school and is known for portraying characters whose value lies not in their moral code, but in their persistence against all obstacles, and literary situations that more closely resemble studies of nature than tales of choice and agency ....
, Ben Hecht
Ben Hecht

Ben Hecht , , was an United States screenwriter, director, producer, playwright, and novelist. Called "the Shakespeare of Hollywood", he received screen credits, alone or in collaboration, for the stories or screenplays of some 70 films and as a prolific storyteller, authored 35 books and created some of the most entertaining screenplays or p...
, Alexander Woolcott, Oliver Wendell Holmes
Oliver Wendell Holmes

Oliver Wendell Holmes was the name of two prominent men, father and son:*Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. , poet, physician, and essayist*Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. , justice of the Supreme Court of the United States...
, and led by fellow American writer Tiffany Thayer
Tiffany Thayer

Tiffany Ellsworth Thayer was an United States actor, author and founder of the Fortean Society.Born in Freeport, Illinois, Thayer quit school at age 15 and worked as an actor, reporter, and used-book clerk in Chicago, Detroit, and Cleveland....
, half in earnest and half in the spirit of great good humor, like the works of Fort himself. The board of Founders included Dreiser, Hecht, Booth Tarkington
Booth Tarkington

Newton Booth Tarkington was an United States novelist and dramatist best known for his Pulitzer Prize-winning novels The Magnificent Ambersons and Alice Adams ....
, Aaron Sussman, John Cowper Powys
John Cowper Powys

John Cowper Powys was a United Kingdom writer, lecturer, and philosopher....
, the former editor of "Puck" [Harry Leon Wilson, Woolcott and J. David Stern, publisher of tthe Philadelphia Record. Active members of the Fortean Society included journalist H.L. Mencken and prominent science fiction writers such as Eric Frank Russell
Eric Frank Russell

Eric Frank Russell was a United Kingdom author best known for his science fiction novels and short stories. Much of his work was first published in the United States, in John W....
 and Damon Knight
Damon Knight

Damon Francis Knight was an United States science fiction author, editor, literary criticism and science fiction fandom....
. Fort, however, rejected the Society and refused the presidency which went to his close friend writer Theodore Dreiser; he was lured to its inaugural meeting by false telegrams. As a strict non-authoritarian, Fort refused to establish himself as an authority, and further objected on the grounds that those who would be attracted by such a grouping would be spiritualists, zealots, and those opposed to a science that rejected them; it would attract those who believed in their chosen phenomena: an attitude exactly contrary to Forteanism. Fort did hold unofficial meetings and had a long history of getting together informally with many of NYC's literati such as Theodore Dreiser and Ben Hecht at their various apartments where they would talk, have a meal and then listen to short reports. Reports of these meetings mention lively discussions accompanied by great good humor and quantities of wine. Fort was not a joiner of established groups and, perhaps, it is ironic that many such Fortean groups have been established.

Most notable of these are the magazine, Fortean Times
Fortean Times

Fortean Times - "The World of Strange Phenomena" - is a United Kingdom monthly magazine devoted to the Anomaly popularised by Charles Fort....
 (first published in November 1973), which is a proponent of Fortean journalism, combining humour, scepticism, and serious research into subjects which scientists and other respectable authorities often disdain and the International Fortean Organization
International Fortean Organization

The International Fortean Organization is a network of professional Fortean researchers and writers. John Keel, author and parapsychologist, in both his writings and at his appearances at INFO's FortFest, says "the International Fortean Organization carries on Charles Fort's name as successor to the Fortean Society." Keel, Colin Wilson and Jo...
 (INFO). INFO was formed in the early 1960s (incorporated in 1965) by brothers, the writers Ron and Paul Willis, who acquired much of the material of the original Fortean Society
Fortean Society

The Fortean Society was started in the United States in 1931 by Tiffany Thayer in order to promote the ideas of American writer Charles Fort. The Fortean Society was primarily based in New York City....
 which had begun in 1932 in the spirit of Charles Fort but which had grown silent by 1959 with the death of Tiffany Thayer. INFO publishes the "INFO Journal: Science and the Unknown" and organizes the FortFest, the world's first, and continously running, conference on anomalous phenomena dedicated to the spirit of Charles Fort. INFO, since the mid-1960s, also provides audio CDs and filmed DVDs of notable conference speakers (Colin Wilson
Colin Wilson

Colin Henry Wilson is a prolific United Kingdom writer. He first came to prominence as a philosopher and novelist. Wilson has since written widely on true crime, mysticism, and other topics....
, John Michell
John Michell

John Michell was an England natural philosopher and geologist whose work spanned a wide range of subjects from astronomy to geology, optics, and gravitation....
, Graham Hancock
Graham Hancock

Graham Hancock is a United Kingdom writer and journalist. His books include Lords of Poverty, The Sign and the Seal, Fingerprints of the Gods, Keeper of Genesis , The Mars Mystery, Heaven's Mirror , Underworld: The Mysterious Origins of Civilization, and Talisman: Sacred Cities, Secret Faith ....
, John Anthony West, William Corliss, John Kee
John Kee

John Kee was a United States Democratic Party politician.He was born in Glenville, West Virginia. He attended Glenville State College and West Virginia University and was admitted to the bar in 1897....
l, Joscelyn Godwin
Joscelyn Godwin

Joscelyn Godwin is a musicologist and translator, known for his work on ancient music, paganism and music in the occult.He was educated as a chorister at Christ Church Cathedral School, Oxford, then at Radley College , and Magdalene College, Cambridge ....
 among many others). Other Fortean societies are also active, notably the Edinburgh Fortean Society in Edinburgh
Edinburgh

Edinburgh ; is the Capital city of Scotland, a position it has held since 1437. It is the seventh largest city in the United Kingdom and the second largest Scottish City status in the United Kingdom after Glasgow....
 and the Isle of Wight
Isle of Wight

The Isle of Wight is an England island and county, located 3-8 km from the south coast of the mainland, in the English Channel. It is situated south of the county of Hampshire and is separated from mainland Britain by the Solent....
.

More than a few modern authors of fiction and non-fiction who have written about the influence of Fort are sincere followers of Fort. One of the most notable is British philosopher John Michell
John Michell

John Michell was an England natural philosopher and geologist whose work spanned a wide range of subjects from astronomy to geology, optics, and gravitation....
 who wrote the Introduction to LO!
Lo!

Lo! was the third published nonfiction work of the author Charles Fort ....
 published by John Brown in 1996. Michell says "Fort, of course, made no attempt at defining a world-view, but the evidence he uncovered gave him an 'acceptance' of reality as something far more magical and subtly organized than is considered proper today." Stephen King
Stephen King

Stephen Edwin King is an United States author of contemporary horror fiction, fantasy fiction and science fiction.Having sold an estimated List of bestselling fiction authors of his books, King is best known for his work in horror fiction, in which he demonstrates a thorough knowledge of the genre's history....
 also uses the works of Charles Fort to illuminate his main characters, notably "It" and "Firestarter". In "Firestarter", the parents of a pyrokinetically gifted child are advised to read Fort's Wild Talents
Wild Talents

Wild Talents is the fourth and final nonfiction book written by paranormal author Charles Fort, published in 1932....
 rather than the works of baby doctor Benjamin Spock
Benjamin Spock

Benjamin McLane Spock was an United States pediatrics whose book The Common Sense Book of Baby and Child Care, published in 1946, is one of the biggest best-sellers of all time....
. Loren Coleman
Loren Coleman

Loren Coleman is an author of books on a number of topics, including cryptozoology, born in Norfolk, Virginia....
 is a well-known cryptozoologist, author of "The Unidentified" (1975) dedicated to Charles Fort, and "Mysterious America," which Fortean Times called a Fortean classic. Indeed, Coleman calls himself the first Vietnam era C.O. to base his pacificist ideas on Fortean thoughts. Jerome Clark
Jerome Clark

Jerome Clark is an United States researcher and writer, specializing in unidentified flying objects and other anomalous phenomena; he is also a songwriter of some note....
 has described himself as a "sceptical Fortean". Mike Dash
Mike Dash

Mike Dash is a Wales writer, journalist and researcher. Born in London, he attended the University of Cambridge and King's College London, and holds a PhD in naval history for the thesis British Submarine Policy 1853?1918....
 is another capable Fortean, bringing his historian's training to bear on all manner of odd reports, while being careful to avoid uncritically accepting any orthodoxy, be it that of fringe devotees or mainstream science. Science-fiction writers of note including Philip K. Dick and Robert Anton Wilson were also fans of the work of Charles Fort.

Fort's work, of compilation and commentary on anomalous phenomena reported in scientific journals and press, has been carried on very creditably by William R. Corliss
William R. Corliss

William Roger Corliss is an American physicist and writer who has become known for his interest in collecting data regarding anomaly .Since 1974, Corliss has published a number of works in the "Sourcebook Project"....
, whose self-published books and notes bring Fort's collections up to date with a Fortean combination of humor, seriousness and open-mindedness. Mr. Corliss' notes rival those of Fort in volume, while being significantly less cryptic and abbreviated.

Ivan T. Sanderson
Ivan T. Sanderson

Ivan Terence Sanderson was a naturalist and writer born in Edinburgh, Scotland, who became a naturalized citizen of the United States.Sanderson is remembered for his nature writing and his interest in cryptozoology and paranormal subjects....
, Scottish naturalist and writer, was a devotee of Fort's work, and referenced it heavily in several of his own books on unexplained phenomena, notably Things (1967), and More Things (1969).

Louis Pauwels
Louis Pauwels

Louis Pauwels was a France journalism and writer....
 and Jacques Bergier
Jacques Bergier

Jacques Bergier , was a chemical engineer, member of the French Resistance, spy, journalist and writer. He co-wrote the best-seller The Morning of the Magicians with Louis Pauwels of fantastic realism ....
's The Morning of the Magicians
Le Matin des Magiciens

Le Matin des magiciens was a book written by Louis Pauwels and Jacques Bergier in 1960 or in October 1959. It was first published in English in 1963 with the title The Morning of the Magicians....
 was also heavily influenced by Fort's work and mentions it often.

The noted UK paranormalist, Fortean and ordained priest Lionel Fanthorpe
Lionel Fanthorpe

The Reverend Robert Lionel Fanthorpe is a United Kingdom priest and entertainer, and has at various times worked as a journalist, teacher, television presenter, author and lecturer....
 presented the Fortean TV
Fortean TV

Fortean TV was a British television show about the anomalous phenomena and the paranormal which was produced by Rapido TV and broadcast on Channel 4 during the 1990s....
 series on Channel 4
Channel 4

Channel 4 is a UK Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom television broadcaster which began transmissions on 2 November 1982. Although commercially self-funded, it is ultimately publicly owned; originally a subsidiary of the Independent Broadcasting Authority , the station is now owned and operated by the #Channel Four Television...
.

Popular culture

Fort's influence can be felt in various areas of popular culture
Popular culture

Popular culture is the totality of Distinction memes, ideas, Perspective s and Attitude s that are deemed preferred per an informal consensus within the mainstream of a given culture....
.

  • Fort was passingly mentioned by name in H.P. Lovecraft's novella The Whisperer In Darkness
    The Whisperer in Darkness

    "The Whisperer in Darkness" is a short story by H. P. Lovecraft. Written February-September 1930 in literature, it was first published in Weird Tales, August 1931 in literature....
     (1928) and in the teleport
    Teleport

    Teleport may refer to:*the act of teleportation, or a portal for same*an earth station for a communications satellite *Telewest Broadband's video on demand...
    ation story "Northern Lights," a 1948 episode of the radio fantasy series Quiet, Please!.
  • Although an unlikely hero, Fort has starred in a number comic-based adventures: The Searchers (Caliber Comics
    Caliber Comics

    Caliber Comics or Caliber Press was an United States comic book publisher founded in 1989 in comics by Gary Reed. Featuring primarily creator-owned comics, in the next decade Caliber published over 1300 comics and ranked as one of the America's leading independent publishers....
    , 1996-1997), Necronauts
    Necronauts

    Necronauts was a 2000 AD comics strip, created by Gordon Rennie and Frazer Irving. It was this series that really brought Irving to public attention as his high contrast black and white artwork complimented Rennie's dark storyline....
     (2000 AD, 2001) and Fort: Prophet of the Unexplained
    Fort: Prophet of the Unexplained

    Fort: Prophet of the Unexplained is a Dark Horse Comics comic book limited series created by writer Peter Lenkov and artist Frazer Irving....
     (Dark Horse
    Dark Horse Comics

    Dark Horse Comics is one of the largest independent United States comic book publishers, behind dominant publishers Marvel Comics and DC Comics....
    , 2002). He is also the narrator of The Big Book of The Unexplained
    The Big Book of

    The Big Book of is an Eisner Award-winning series of graphic novel comics anthology published by the DC Comics imprint Paradox Press....
     part of a comics anthology series from DC Comics
    DC Comics

    DC Comics is one of the largest and most popular American comic book and related media companies, along with Marvel Comics. A subsidiary of Warner Bros....
     imprint Paradox Press
    Paradox Press

    Paradox Press is a division of DC Comics. It is best known for graphic novels like A History of Violence and Road to Perdition....
    .
  • In the special edition of the Hellboy
    Hellboy (film)

    Hellboy is a 2004 in film supernatural Action film directed by Guillermo del Toro. The film is based on the Dark Horse Comics work Hellboy: Seed of Destruction by Mike Mignola....
     DVD, the biography of Trevor Bruttenholm
    Trevor Bruttenholm

    Professor Trevor Bruttenholm is a fictional character in the Hellboy comic book universe, created by Mike Mignola and John Byrne. His first appearance was in the comic book Hellboy: Seed of Destruction, issue #1 ....
     states that "Trevor's grandfather met Charles Fort in Hyde Park
    Hyde Park, London

    Hyde Park is one of the largest parks in central London, England and one of the Royal Parks of London, famous for its Speakers' Corner.The park is divided in two by the Serpentine ....
    , 1922, while the 'Hermit of The Bronx' lived in London
    London

    London is the capital of both England and the United Kingdom, and the most populous municipality in the European Union. An important settlement for two millennia, History of London goes back to its founding by the Roman Empire....
    . Throughout his youth, young Trevor was privileged to correspond with Fort and became privy to many of his secret files of strange occurrences."
  • Fort as a paranormal newspaperman parallels the fictitious paranormal reporter Carl Kolchak.
  • Good Omens
    Good Omens

    Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch is a fantasy novel written in collaboration between Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman....
    , a collaborative novel by Pratchett
    Terry Pratchett

    Sir Terence David John Pratchett, Officer of the Order of the British Empire is an England novelist, known for his frequently comical work in the fantasy genre....
     and Gaiman
    Neil Gaiman

    Neil Richard Gaiman is an England author of science fiction and fantasy short stories and novels, graphic novels, comics, and films. His notable works include The Sandman comic series, Stardust , American Gods and Coraline....
    , depicts Adam Young and the Them playing 'Charles Fort Discovering Things' and 'Charles Fort and the Atlanteans versus the Ancient Masters of Tibet' following Adam Young's discovery of New Aquarian Magazine (pages 159 and 166 of the Corgi UK Edition, published 1991).
  • Robert Anton Wilson
    Robert Anton Wilson

    Robert Anton Wilson or RAW was an United States novelist, essayist, philosopher, psychonaut, futurologist and libertarian.Wilson described his writing as an "attempt to break down conditioned associations?to look at the world in a new way, with many models recognized as models or maps and no one model elevated to the Truth." ... ...
    's work is heavily influenced by Fort, especially The New Inquisition
    The New Inquisition

    The New Inquisition is a book written by Robert Anton Wilson and first published in 1986. The New Inquisition is a book about ontology, science, paranormal events, and epistemology....
     (1986). More recently, dark-fantasy author and paleontologist Caitlin R. Kiernan
    Caitlin R. Kiernan

    Caitl?n Rebekah Kiernan is the author of many science fiction and dark fantasy works, including six novels, many comic books, more than one hundred published short stories, novellas, and Vignette s, and numerous scientific papers....
     has often included Fortean elements and quotations in her novels and short stories; her most recent short fiction collection was titled To Charles Fort, With Love
    To Charles Fort, With Love

    To Charles Fort, With Love is a short-story collection by fantasist Caitlin R. Kiernan, published by Subterranean Press in 2005. As the author explains in the preface, many of these stories were inspired by the writings of Charles Fort , and many of them have a Lovecraftian flavor....
     (Subterranean Press, 2005). She has also published a chapbook
    Chapbook

    File:CalasChapbook.jpgChapbook is a generic term to cover a particular genre of pocket-sized booklet, popular from the sixteenth through to the later part of the nineteenth century....
     titled The Little Damned Book of Days (Subterranean Press, 2005) that chronicles some of her own Fortean experiences.
  • The 2003 children's book Chasing Vermeer
    Chasing Vermeer

    Chasing Vermeer is a children's book by Blue Balliett and illustrated by Brett Helquist, illustrator of A Series of Unfortunate Events....
     by Blue Balliett
    Blue Balliett

    'Elizabeth "Blue" Balliett Klein' is an United States author, best known for her award-winning novel for children, Chasing Vermeer....
     makes heavy reference to Fort's work Lo!
    Lo!

    Lo! was the third published nonfiction work of the author Charles Fort ....
     as the main characters struggle to make sense out of coincidences in their lives having to do with an art theft.
  • Paul Thomas Anderson
    Paul Thomas Anderson

    Paul Thomas Anderson is a five-time Academy Award-nominated United States filmmaker....
    , the director and writer of the critically acclaimed film Magnolia
    Magnolia (film)

    Magnolia is a 1999 Cinema of the United States drama film, written and directed by Paul Thomas Anderson, and stars John C. Reilly, Tom Cruise, Julianne Moore, Philip Seymour Hoffman, William H....
    , is a fan of Fort and many aspects of the film were inspired by his books. Character Stanley Spector has one of Fort's books in the library scene. Frogs falling from the sky at the film's climax is a phenomenon Fort wrote about. Loren Coleman devoted a chapter of his revised 2007 book Mysterious America to analyzing the overt and covert Fortean aspects and symbols of Anderson's film.
  • Hex Games, a small press roleplaying game publisher, released Weird Times at Charles Fort High in June 2008. The game's setting is what can best be deemed a paranormal themed high school christened in Fort's name because of the nature of its student body.
  • In the end of Modest Mouse
    Modest Mouse

    Modest Mouse is an American indie rock band formed in 1993 in the Seattle suburb of Issaquah, Washington by singer/lyricist/guitarist Isaac Brock , drummer Jeremiah Green, and bassist Eric Judy....
    's music video for the song Dashboard, front man Isaac Brock (musician)
    Isaac Brock (musician)

    Isaac Brock is the lead singer, guitarist, banjoist, and songwriter for the United States indie rock band Modest Mouse, as well as his side project, Ugly Casanova....
     becomes shipwrecked on an island in the Super-Sargasso Sea while chasing down a Fortean fish.
  • Stephen King's stories often include Fortean Phenomena such as telekinesis (Carrie) and pyrokinesis (Firestarter). In Firestarter, on page 88, Fort's book "Lo!" is mentioned as one of the books Charlie McGee's parents read to her.
  • The 2007 sci-fi/fantasy novel The Unreals
    The Unreals

    The Unreals is a science fiction/fantasy novel by Donald Jeffries.Compared to The Wizard Of Oz and epic Russian literature, The Unreals has also been referred to as a conspiracy manifesto....
     by Donald Jeffries references Charles Fort and his work numerous times.


Quotations

  • "Now there are so many scientists who believe in dowsing
    Dowsing

    Dowsing, sometimes called divining, doodlebugging , or water finding or water witching, is a practice that attempts to locate hidden water wells, buried metals or ores, gemstones, or other objects as well as currents of earth radiation without the use of scientific apparatus....
    , that the suspicion comes to me that it may be only a myth after all."
  • "One measures a circle, beginning anywhere."
  • "My own notion is that it is very unsportsmanlike to ever mention fraud. Accept anything. Then explain it your way."
  • "But my liveliest interest is not so much in things, as in relations of things. I have spent much time thinking about the alleged pseudo-relations that are called coincidences. What if some of them should not be coincidence?"
  • "If any spiritualistic medium
    Mediumship

    Mediumship is believed by its adherents to be a form of communication with spirits.It is a practice in religious beliefs such as Spiritualism , Spiritism, Espiritismo, Candombl?, Louisiana Voodoo, and Umbanda....
     can do stunts, there is no more need for special conditions than there is for a chemist to turn down lights, start operations with a hymn, and ask whether there's any chemical present that has affinity with something named Hydrogen."
  • "The Earth is a farm. We are someone else's property."
  • "Do you want power over something? Be more nearly real than it."
  • "Everthing is just the proper hat to wear for a while."
  • There will be data."


Often attributed to Fort, but not found in his books or letters, is:
  • "If there is a universal mind, must it be sane?"


Partial bibliography

All of Fort's works are available on-line (see External links section below).

  • The Outcast Manufacturers (novel), 1906
  • Many Parts (autobiography, unpublished)
  • The Book of the Damned
    The Book of the Damned

    The Book of the Damned was the first published nonfiction work of the author Charles Fort . Dealing with various types of anomalous phenomena including UFOs, strange falls from the sky of both organic and inorganic materials from the sky, odd weather patterns, the possible existence of creatures generally held to be mythological, disappe...
    , Prometheus Books
    Prometheus Books

    Prometheus Books is a publishing company founded in August 1969 by Paul Kurtz, who also founded the Council for Secular Humanism and co- founded Committee for Skeptical Inquiry....
    , 1999, paperback, 310 pages, ISBN 1-57392-683-3, first published in 1919.
  • New Lands
    New Lands

    New Lands was the second nonfiction book of the author Charles Fort, written in 1925. It deals primarily with astronomical anomalies.Fort expands in this book on his theory about the Super-Sargasso Sea - a place where earthly things supposedly materialize in order to rain down on Earth - as well as developing an idea that there are con...
    , Ace Books
    Ace Books

    Ace Books is the oldest active specialty publisher of science fiction and fantasy books. The company was founded in New York City in 1952 by A. A....
    , 1941 and later editions, mass market paperback, first published in 1923. ISBN 0-7221-3627-7
  • Lo!
    Lo!

    Lo! was the third published nonfiction work of the author Charles Fort ....
    , Ace Books, 1941 and later printings, mass market paperback, first published in 1931. ISBN 1-870870-89-1
  • Wild Talents
    Wild Talents

    Wild Talents is the fourth and final nonfiction book written by paranormal author Charles Fort, published in 1932....
    , Ace Books, 1932 and later printings, mass market paperback, first published in 1932. ISBN 1-870870-29-8
  • Complete Books of Charles Fort, Dover Publications
    Dover Publications

    Dover Publications is an American book publisher founded in 1941 by Hayward Cirker and his wife, Blanche. It publishes primarily reissues, books no longer published by their original publishers ? often, but not always, books in the public domain....
    , New York
    New York City

    The City of New York is the List of United States cities by population in the United States, while the New York metropolitan area ranks among the List of urban areas by population....
    , 1998, hardcover, ISBN 0-486-23094-5


See also

  • Forteana
  • Fortean Society
    Fortean Society

    The Fortean Society was started in the United States in 1931 by Tiffany Thayer in order to promote the ideas of American writer Charles Fort. The Fortean Society was primarily based in New York City....
  • Fortean Times
    Fortean Times

    Fortean Times - "The World of Strange Phenomena" - is a United Kingdom monthly magazine devoted to the Anomaly popularised by Charles Fort....
  • Ghost Stations
    Ghost Stations

    Ghost Stations is a series of books by the United Kingdom military historian Bruce Barrymore Halpenny, containing ostensibly true ghost and mystery stories generally connected to the RAF, airfields and other military or war connected stories....
  • Inoue Enryo
    Inoue Enryo

    , Japanese, Buddhism philosopher, educator, and nationalist; one of the most influential Buddhists of the Meiji era. Ordained as a priest in his father's Jodo Shinshu Otani branch ?????....
  • International Fortean Organisation
  • Leonard George
    Leonard George

    Leonard George is a Canada psychologist based in Vancouver, British Columbia, best known for his writing and lectures on varieties of anomalous phenomenon, spirituality, psychology and history....
  • List of haunted locations
    List of haunted locations

    This is a list of locations reportedly haunted by ghosts or other supernatural beings. Reports of haunted locations are part of ghostlore, which is a form of folklore....
  • List of magazines of anomalous phenomena
    List of magazines of anomalous phenomena

    This is a list of magazines on anomalous and Charles Fort phenomena....
  • William R. Corliss
    William R. Corliss

    William Roger Corliss is an American physicist and writer who has become known for his interest in collecting data regarding anomaly .Since 1974, Corliss has published a number of works in the "Sourcebook Project"....
  • Philosophical skepticism
    Philosophical skepticism

    Philosophical skepticism is both a Philosophy school of thought and a method that crosses disciplines and cultures. Many skeptics critically examine the meaning systems of their times, and this examination often results in a position of ambiguity or doubt....
     (Pyrrho
    Pyrrho

    Pyrrho , a Greek philosopher of classical antiquity, is credited as being the first Skeptic philosopher, and the inspiration for the school known as Pyrrhonism founded by Aenesidemus in the 1st century BC....
    , Sextus Empiricus
    Sextus Empiricus

    Sextus Empiricus , was a physician and philosopher, and has been variously reported to have lived in Alexandria, Rome, or Athens. His philosophical work is the most complete surviving account of ancient Greek and Roman skepticism....
    )
  • Scientism
    Scientism

    The term scientism is used to describe the view that natural science has authority over all other interpretations of life, such as philosophy, religious, mythical, Spirituality, or humanism explanations, and over other fields of inquiry, such as the social sciences....
  • Philosophy of science
    Philosophy of science

    The philosophy of science is concerned with the assumptions, foundations, and implications of science. The field is defined by an interest in one of a set of "traditional" problems or an interest in central or foundational concerns in science....


Footnotes


External links

  • , Ian James Kidd's pages on Fort.
  • - Satellite imagery of documented, scientific anomaly sites including mound sites and unexplained circular features via Google Earth.


The following online editions of Fort's work, edited and annotated by a Fortean named "Mr. X", are at "Mr. X"'s site :
  • (surviving fragments)