DeDanaan

Filed by Aine MacDermot

Fort, Charles Hoy : (1874-1932) Charles Fort was an American journalist and writer who collected news articles of anything bizarre or unusual that challenged the scientific paradigms of his day. He was opposed to the practice of throwing out, or discarding data which did not conform to conventional scientific knowledge. He called such data “damned”. Fort wrote several books and put forth his theories and ideas, some of which were as strange as the data he collected. From his name, the word Fortean was derived, which encompasses the philosophy that all data must be examined, and not thrown aside merely because it does not conform to accepted paradigms. Fort wrote 10 novels, only one of which - “The Outcast Manufacturers” (1906) - was ever published. [unfinished] Fed up with the patent lack of interest in his books, Fort burnt the manuscripts of X and Y, as well as 10,000 pages of notes on various things, and started work on what became “Book of the Damned,” which his friend Dreiser bullied his own publisher to put out in 1919. Fort went on to write three more books of encyclopaedic diversity. After “Book of the Damned” came “New Lands” (1923) - written in London and largely a satirical attack upon the pomposity of astronomers, who, he accused, “were led by a cloud of rubbish by day and a pillar of bosh by night.” In 1929 he returned to New York and began work on “Lo!” (1931), which introduced his idea of teleportation and the organic universe. Fort wanted the book to be titled ‘God and the Fishmonger’ in reference to the great fall of periwinkles (sea life) at Worcester in 1881; Aaron Sussman suggested ‘If the Time has Come’ in reference to Fort’s idea that, say, steam-engines can only be invented when the time is right (despite the basic observations being available anytime someone, in any earlier period, observed water boiling). Thayer offered ‘Lo!’, referring to another of Fort’s themes, that of astronomers who calculate the reappearance of a new star or comet’s return, point to the sky saying “Lo!” and then nothing whatever can be seen there. Thayer noted: “Fort agreed to ‘Lo!’ at first hearing.

According to Fort’s biographer, Damon Knight, Fort’s friend Aaron Sussman pointed out a page of the proofs that was one line short. “Without hesitation, Fort picked up a pencil and wrote: ‘One measures a circle, beginning anywhere.’” He finished “Wild Talents” on 20 February 1932, while he became seriously ill. It dealt with occult or psychic abilities and was published posthumously, later that year, by his friend Claude Kendall.

Charles Fort was weird, wild, and wonderful. We think he would be pleased to see his listing here.