Tiffany Thayer
Encyclopedia
Tiffany Ellsworth Thayer (March 1, 1902 – August 23, 1959) was an American
actor
, author
and founder of the Fortean Society
.
, Thayer quit school at age 15 and worked as an actor, reporter, and used-book clerk in Chicago, Detroit, and Cleveland. Aged 16, he toured as the teenaged hero in the Civil War
drama The Coward. Thayer contacted American author Charles Fort
in 1924. In 1926, Thayer moved to New York City
to act, but soon spent more time writing.
In 1931 Thayer co-founded the Fortean Society
in New York
to promote Fort's ideas. Primarily based in New York City
, the Society was headed by first president Theodore Dreiser
, an old friend of Fort who had helped to get his work published. Early members of the original Society in NYC included such luminaries as Booth Tarkington
, Ben Hecht
, Alexander Woolcott and H.L. Mencken. The first 6 issues of the Fortean Society's newsletter "Doubt" were each edited by a different member, starting with Theodore Dreiser. Thayer thereafter took over editorship of subsequent issues. Thayer began to assert extreme control over the society, largely filling the newsletter with articles written by himself, and excommunicating the entire San Francisco chapter, reportedly their largest and most active, after disagreements over the society's direction, and forbidding them to use the name Fortean. During World War II, for example, Thayer used every issue of "Doubt" to espouse his politics. He celebrated the escape of Gerhardt Eisler, and named Garey Davis an Honorary Fellow of the Society for renouncing his American citizenship. In particular, Thayer frequently expressed opposition to Civil Defense, going to such lengths as encouraging readers to turn on their lights in defiance of air raid sirens. In contrast to the spirit of Charles Fort, he not only dismissed flying saucers as nonsense but also dismissed the atomic bomb as a hoax by the US government.
Thayer also wrote several novels, including the bestseller Thirteen Women (1930) and a number
of novels which contain elements of science fiction
or fantasy
, including
Dr. Arnoldi (1934) about a world where no-one can die.
He also wrote "America Needs Indians" and "Raped Again!", the latter described as a blueprint for enslaving entire populations.
Towards the end of his life, Thayer had championed increasingly idiosyncratic ideas, such as a Flat Earth
and opposition to the fluoridation of water supplies.
The Fortean Society Magazine (also called Doubt) was published regularly until Thayer's death in Nantucket, Massachusetts
in 1959, aged 57, when the society and magazine came to an end. The magazine and society are not connected to the present-day magazine Fortean Times
.
Writers Paul and Ron Willis
, publishers of "Anubis", acquired most of the original Fortean Society material and revived the Society as the International Fortean Organization
(INFO) in the early 1960s which went on to incorporate in 1965, publish a widely respected magazine, The INFO Journal: Science and the Unknown, for more than 35 years and created the world's first, and most prestigious, conference dedicated to the work and spirit of Charles Fort, the annual FortFest which continues to this day.
, in a New Yorker
review of An American Girl, said "He is beyond question a writer of power; and his power lies in his ability to make sex so thoroughly, graphically, and aggressively unattractive that one is fairly shaken to ponder how little one has been missing." F. Scott Fitzgerald
said "curious children nosed at the slime of Mr. Tiffany Thayer in the drug-store libraries." William Tenn
, recalling Dr. Arnoldi more than sixty years after read read it, characterized it as "absolutely fascinating---and disgusting. . . . If you ever find a copy, give it to some sf fan you dislike. Your reward will be the baffled misery in his eyes after he's read it."
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
actor
Actor
An actor is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...
, author
Author
An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...
and founder of the Fortean Society
Fortean Society
The Fortean Society was started in the United States in 1931 during a meeting held in the New York flat of Charles Hoy Fort in order to promote the ideas of American writer Charles Fort. The Fortean Society was primarily based in New York City. Its first president was Theodore Dreiser, an old...
.
Biography
Born in Freeport, IllinoisFreeport, Illinois
Freeport is a city in and the county seat of Stephenson County, Illinois, United States. The population was 26,443 at the 2000 census. The mayor of Freeport is George W...
, Thayer quit school at age 15 and worked as an actor, reporter, and used-book clerk in Chicago, Detroit, and Cleveland. Aged 16, he toured as the teenaged hero in the Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
drama The Coward. Thayer contacted American author Charles Fort
Charles Fort
Charles Hoy Fort was an American writer and researcher into anomalous phenomena. Today, the terms Fortean and Forteana are used to characterize various such phenomena. Fort's books sold well and are still in print today.-Biography:Charles Hoy Fort was born in 1874 in Albany, New York, of Dutch...
in 1924. In 1926, Thayer moved to New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
to act, but soon spent more time writing.
In 1931 Thayer co-founded the Fortean Society
Fortean Society
The Fortean Society was started in the United States in 1931 during a meeting held in the New York flat of Charles Hoy Fort in order to promote the ideas of American writer Charles Fort. The Fortean Society was primarily based in New York City. Its first president was Theodore Dreiser, an old...
in New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
to promote Fort's ideas. Primarily based in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, the Society was headed by first president Theodore Dreiser
Theodore Dreiser
Theodore Herman Albert Dreiser was an American novelist and journalist of the naturalist school. His novels often featured main characters who succeeded at their objectives despite a lack of a firm moral code, and literary situations that more closely resemble studies of nature than tales of...
, an old friend of Fort who had helped to get his work published. Early members of the original Society in NYC included such luminaries as Booth Tarkington
Booth Tarkington
Booth Tarkington was an American novelist and dramatist best known for his Pulitzer Prize-winning novels The Magnificent Ambersons and Alice Adams...
, Ben Hecht
Ben Hecht
Ben Hecht was an American 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...
, Alexander Woolcott and H.L. Mencken. The first 6 issues of the Fortean Society's newsletter "Doubt" were each edited by a different member, starting with Theodore Dreiser. Thayer thereafter took over editorship of subsequent issues. Thayer began to assert extreme control over the society, largely filling the newsletter with articles written by himself, and excommunicating the entire San Francisco chapter, reportedly their largest and most active, after disagreements over the society's direction, and forbidding them to use the name Fortean. During World War II, for example, Thayer used every issue of "Doubt" to espouse his politics. He celebrated the escape of Gerhardt Eisler, and named Garey Davis an Honorary Fellow of the Society for renouncing his American citizenship. In particular, Thayer frequently expressed opposition to Civil Defense, going to such lengths as encouraging readers to turn on their lights in defiance of air raid sirens. In contrast to the spirit of Charles Fort, he not only dismissed flying saucers as nonsense but also dismissed the atomic bomb as a hoax by the US government.
Thayer also wrote several novels, including the bestseller Thirteen Women (1930) and a number
of novels which contain elements of science fiction
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
or fantasy
Fantasy
Fantasy is a genre of fiction that commonly uses magic and other supernatural phenomena as a primary element of plot, theme, or setting. Many works within the genre take place in imaginary worlds where magic is common...
, including
Dr. Arnoldi (1934) about a world where no-one can die.
He also wrote "America Needs Indians" and "Raped Again!", the latter described as a blueprint for enslaving entire populations.
Towards the end of his life, Thayer had championed increasingly idiosyncratic ideas, such as a Flat Earth
Flat Earth
The Flat Earth model is a belief that the Earth's shape is a plane or disk. Most ancient cultures have had conceptions of a flat Earth, including Greece until the classical period, the Bronze Age and Iron Age civilizations of the Near East until the Hellenistic period, India until the Gupta period ...
and opposition to the fluoridation of water supplies.
The Fortean Society Magazine (also called Doubt) was published regularly until Thayer's death in Nantucket, Massachusetts
Nantucket, Massachusetts
Nantucket is an island south of Cape Cod, Massachusetts, in the United States. Together with the small islands of Tuckernuck and Muskeget, it constitutes the town of Nantucket, Massachusetts, and the coterminous Nantucket County, which are consolidated. Part of the town is designated the Nantucket...
in 1959, aged 57, when the society and magazine came to an end. The magazine and society are not connected to the present-day magazine Fortean Times
Fortean Times
Fortean Times is a British monthly magazine devoted to the anomalous phenomena popularised by Charles Fort. Previously published by John Brown Publishing and then I Feel Good Publishing , it is now published by Dennis Publishing Ltd. As of December 2010, its circulation was approximately 18,000...
.
Writers Paul and Ron Willis
Paul Willis
Paul Willis may refer to:* Paul Willis , American child actor of the silent film era* Paul Willis , British cultural theorist* Paul Willis , Scottish football player...
, publishers of "Anubis", acquired most of the original Fortean Society material and revived the Society as 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...
(INFO) in the early 1960s which went on to incorporate in 1965, publish a widely respected magazine, The INFO Journal: Science and the Unknown, for more than 35 years and created the world's first, and most prestigious, conference dedicated to the work and spirit of Charles Fort, the annual FortFest which continues to this day.
Critical reception
Thayer wrote genre romances that were disliked by literary critics. Dorothy ParkerDorothy Parker
Dorothy Parker was an American poet, short story writer, critic and satirist, best known for her wit, wisecracks, and eye for 20th century urban foibles....
, in a New Yorker
The New Yorker
The New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...
review of An American Girl, said "He is beyond question a writer of power; and his power lies in his ability to make sex so thoroughly, graphically, and aggressively unattractive that one is fairly shaken to ponder how little one has been missing." F. Scott Fitzgerald
F. Scott Fitzgerald
Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald was an American author of novels and short stories, whose works are the paradigm writings of the Jazz Age, a term he coined himself. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest American writers of the 20th century. Fitzgerald is considered a member of the "Lost...
said "curious children nosed at the slime of Mr. Tiffany Thayer in the drug-store libraries." William Tenn
William Tenn
William Tenn was the pseudonym of Philip Klass , a British-born American science fiction author, notable for many stories with satirical elements.-Early life:...
, recalling Dr. Arnoldi more than sixty years after read read it, characterized it as "absolutely fascinating---and disgusting. . . . If you ever find a copy, give it to some sf fan you dislike. Your reward will be the baffled misery in his eyes after he's read it."
External links
- International Fortean Organization
- Thirteen Women, by Tiffany Thayer at Neglected Books Page, February 13th, 2011
- Fortean Times