Charles Hoy Fort (August 6, 1874 – May 3, 1932) was an American writer and researcher who focused on unusual events and strange occurrences. The terms "Fortean" and "Forteana" are sometimes used to describe such phenomena. Fort's books were popular and are still available today. His work continues to inspire fans, who call themselves "Forteans," and has influenced some parts of science fiction.

Fort collected examples of scientific mysteries, including his book The Book of the Damned (1919). These collections showed doubt about some scientific ideas and provided inspiration for science-fiction writers. "Fortean" phenomena are events that appear to go against what scientists generally believe. A publication called Fortean Times (originally named The News in 1973 and later renamed in 1976) studies these kinds of events.

Biography

Fort was born in Albany, New York, in 1874. He had Dutch ancestors. His father was a grocer and was strict. In his book Many Parts, Fort wrote about being physically harmed by his father. His biographer, Damon Knight, believed that Fort's distrust of authority began during his childhood. Fort became independent during his early years.

As a young adult, Fort wanted to be a naturalist. He collected seashells, minerals, and birds. Though he was curious and smart, he was not a good student. He was self-taught, and his knowledge came mostly from reading books on his own.

At 18, Fort left New York to travel the world to "gain experience." He visited the western United States, Scotland, and England before becoming sick in Southern Africa. When he returned home, Anna Filing, a childhood friend, cared for him. They married on October 26, 1896, at an Episcopal church. For a few years, Fort and Anna lived in poverty in the Bronx while he wrote stories for newspapers and magazines. In 1906, he began collecting unusual events.

His uncle, Frank A. Fort, died in 1916. A small inheritance allowed Fort to stop working other jobs and write full-time. In 1917, Fort's brother, Clarence, died. The inheritance from Clarence was shared between Fort and his other brother, Raymond.

Fort's work as a journalist, along with his humor and tendency to question others, helped him write books that mocked the overconfidence of scientists and the habit of reporters to explain strange events.

Fort wrote 10 novels, but only one, The Outcast Manufacturers (1909), was published. It received mostly positive reviews but was not successful. In 1915, Fort began writing two books, X and Y. The first book suggested that beings on Mars influenced events on Earth, and the second imagined a hidden, dangerous civilization at the South Pole. These books caught the attention of writer Theodore Dreiser, who tried to publish them but failed. Fort burned the manuscripts but later wrote The Book of the Damned (1919), which Dreiser helped publish. The title referred to strange events that science could not explain.

Between 1920 and 1928, Fort and Anna lived in London so Fort could research at the British Museum. Most of his life, he lived in the Bronx. He and Anna enjoyed movies, and he often read newspapers at a nearby newsstand. Fort spent time in Bronx parks, collecting newspaper clippings. He also visited the Public Library on Fifth Avenue to read scientific journals and global news. Fort had friends who gathered at his apartment to discuss literature.

Fort was surprised to gain a following for his work. Some readers formed a group to study strange events from his books. Jerome Clark wrote that Fort found this amusing but still answered letters from readers who shared their own findings about unusual events. Historian Mitch Horowitz compared Fort's career to Edgar Allan Poe's, noting that both writers created new genres—Fort for paranormal events and Poe for horror. Both lived in poverty, received uneven praise, and became famous after their deaths.

Fort avoided doctors because of poor health and failing eyesight. He focused on finishing his final book, Wild Talents. On May 3, 1932, Fort collapsed and was taken to the Royal Hospital. His publisher showed him advance copies of Wild Talents later that day. Fort died shortly after, likely from leukemia. He was buried in the Fort family plot in Albany, New York.

Fort and the unexplained

For more than 30 years, Charles Fort visited libraries in New York City and London. He carefully read scientific journals, newspapers, and magazines. He collected notes about strange events that did not fit the ideas accepted by scientists and others at the time.

Fort took thousands of notes during his life. In an undated short story titled "The Giant, the Insect and The Philanthropic-looking Old Gentleman," he mentioned thinking about burning some of his 48,000 notes. He also said he once let some notes fly away in the wind because he did not want to keep them. A man on a nearby park bench returned them to him. The notes were written in small, tight handwriting and stored in shoeboxes. Fort often felt sad and gave up on his work, but he started again. Some of his notes were published in a magazine called Doubt. After the magazine’s editor, Tiffany Thayer, died in 1959, most of the notes were donated to the New York Public Library. They are still available for researchers to study. Some of Fort’s writings are also part of the papers of Theodore Dreiser, kept at the University of Pennsylvania.

From his research, Fort wrote four books: The Book of the Damned (1919), New Lands (1923), Lo! (1931), and Wild Talents (1932). He wrote another book between New Lands and Lo!, but he stopped working on it and later included its ideas in Lo!.

Fort believed that a "Super-Sargasso Sea" might exist, a place where lost things go. He said his ideas fit the facts as well as the explanations scientists used. Fort himself said, "I believe nothing of my own that I have ever written."

Many famous writers of Fort’s time admired his work and became his friends. These included Ben Hecht, John Cowper Powys, Sherwood Anderson, Clarence Darrow, and Booth Tarkington, who wrote the introduction to New Lands.

After Fort’s death, writer Colin Wilson said Fort probably did not take his own ideas seriously. Wilson noted that Fort did not try to explain things clearly. He called Fort "a patron saint of cranks" and compared him to Robert Ripley, a cartoonist who wrote about unusual events in a newspaper series called Ripley’s Believe It or Not!. Wilson said Fort’s writing was hard to read, but he admitted the facts Fort shared were surprising. He also said Fort’s work made him realize that scientists might not always be completely objective. Fort’s main idea was that people who believe in miracles or those who do not believe in them are both biased in their own ways.

Jerome Clark said Fort was a satirist who doubted scientists’ claims to know everything. Clark described Fort’s writing as a mix of humor, deep thinking, and bold ideas. Fort was skeptical of science and wrote funny explanations to challenge scientists who used traditional methods.

A review in The New York Times said reading Fort’s work felt like a wild journey. After reading, people might find their views on science changed.

Fort’s books included reports of strange events, such as teleportation (a term he is often credited with inventing), frogs and fish falling from the sky, spontaneous human combustion, ball lightning, poltergeist activity, unexplained noises, levitation, unidentified flying objects, and animals appearing in unusual places. He also wrote about unexplained disappearances, giant wheels of light in the ocean, and strange objects found in unexpected locations. He was one of the first people to suggest that strange human disappearances might be due to alien abductions.

Some people who read Fort’s work called themselves "Forteans." The first was Ben Hecht, who said he became a Fortean after reading The Book of the Damned. The term "Fortean" has no clear definition. Some use it for people who study unexplained events, while others believe in the reality of paranormal events, which Fort may not have supported. Most Forteans are interested in unexplained natural events and remain skeptical about whether these events are real. For Hecht, being a Fortean meant not trusting authority, whether in religion, science, or politics. It did not mean believing the strange events Fort wrote about.

The Fortean Society was started in 1931 at a hotel in New York City by friends of Fort, including writers like Hecht, Dreiser, and Alexander Woollcott. It was organized by Thayer, who wanted to honor Fort’s work with humor and seriousness. The group included famous writers and editors. Fort refused to join the society and did not accept the presidency, which went to Dreiser. He was tricked into attending the first meeting with fake telegrams. Fort did not want to be seen as an authority and worried the society would attract people who believed in supernatural events, which went against Fortean ideas. He often met informally with friends like Dreiser and Hecht at their homes.

The magazine Fortean Times, first published in 1973, continues Fort’s style by combining humor, skepticism, and serious research on unusual topics. Another group, the International Fortean Organization (INFO), was formed in the 1960s by writers Ron and Paul Willis. INFO publishes the INFO Journal: Science and the Unknown and preserves Fort’s legacy.

Literary influence

Many modern writers of fiction and nonfiction who have written about Charles Fort's influence are true followers of his work. One well-known example is British philosopher John Michell, who wrote the introduction to the 1996 edition of Lo! published by John Brown. Michell stated that Fort did not try to create a specific worldview, but the evidence Fort collected led him to believe that reality is more magical and organized than most people today think. Stephen King also used Fort's ideas to help shape his characters in books like It and Firestarter. In Firestarter, the parents of a child with special powers are told to read Fort's Wild Talents instead of the book Baby and Child Care by Benjamin Spock.

Loren Coleman, a famous cryptozoologist, wrote The Unidentified (1975), which is dedicated to Fort, and Mysterious America, a book called a "Fortean classic" by Fortean Times. Coleman describes himself as the first person from the Vietnam War era to base his pacifist beliefs on Fort's ideas. Jerome Clark calls himself a "skeptical Fortean," meaning he studies Fort's work but remains cautious about accepting any idea without proof. Mike Dash, another Fortean, uses his background as a historian to examine unusual reports carefully, avoiding blind acceptance of any belief, whether from fringe groups or mainstream science. Science-fiction writers such as Philip K. Dick, Robert Heinlein, and Robert Anton Wilson were also fans of Fort's work. In Alfred Bester's novel The Stars My Destination, the first teleporter is named "Charles Fort Jaunte," a tribute to Fort. William R. Corliss, who continues Fort's work by collecting and updating information about strange events, has published books and notes that expand on Fort's research.

In 1939, Eric Frank Russell wrote the novel Sinister Barrier, which explicitly names Fort as an influence. Russell included some of Fort's findings in the story. In chapter 3 of William Gaddis's 1955 novel The Recognitions, the main character quotes Fort's book The Book of the Damned. Ivan T. Sanderson, a Scottish naturalist and writer, often used Fort's ideas in his books on unexplained events, such as Things (1967) and More Things (1969). Louis Pauwels and Jacques Bergier's book The Morning of the Magicians was heavily influenced by Fort's work. Author Donald Jeffries mentioned Fort many times in his 2007 novel The Unreals. Joe Milutis wrote a chapter in his book Failure, a Writer's Life about Fort, describing his writing as "hard to read but exciting."

Lionel Fanthorpe, a UK paranormalist and priest, hosted a TV series called Fortean on Channel 4 from 1997 to 1998. The 1999 film Magnolia by Paul Thomas Anderson includes themes from Fort's work, such as unexplained events from the 1920s and 1930s. Fortean writer Loren Coleman wrote a chapter about Magnolia in one of his books, noting the film's connection to Fort's ideas, including a scene with "falling frogs." In the 2011 film The Whisperer in Darkness, Fort is played by Andrew Leman.

Fredric Brown, an American author, included a quote from Fort's Wild Talents in his novel Compliments of a Fiend. The quote mentions the disappearance of two people named Ambrose and asks, "Was someone collecting Ambroses?" Brown's novel also features a character named Ambrose, kidnapped by someone called the "Ambrose collector," a clear reference to Fort. In Blue Balliett's children's book Chasing Vermeer, Fort is mentioned several times, including the fact that one of the main characters reads Fort's book Lo! and is inspired by it.

Works

Fort wrote five books during his lifetime, one of which was a novel. All five books can be found online (see the External Links section below).

Posthumous editions refer to books published after Fort's death.