Charles Hoy Fort (August 6, 1874 – May 3, 1932) was an American writer and researcher who studied unusual events. People sometimes use the terms "Fortean" and "Forteana" to describe such events. Fort's books were popular and are still available today. His work continues to inspire fans, who call themselves "Forteans," and has influenced some science-fiction stories.
Fort collected unusual scientific events in books like The Book of the Damned (1919). These books inspired many science-fiction writers because they showed doubt about some ideas and described strange events. "Fortean" events are occurrences that seem to go against what scientists usually believe. The Fortean Times, a magazine that started as The News in 1973 and changed its name 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 very strict. In his book Many Parts, Fort wrote about the physical abuse he experienced from his father. His biographer, Damon Knight, said Fort's distrust of authority started during his childhood. Fort became very 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 mainly from reading a lot on his own.
At age 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, 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 reports about strange events.
His uncle, Frank A. Fort, died in 1916, and Fort received a small inheritance. This allowed him 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 cleverness and tendency to challenge ideas, helped him write books that mocked the belief that science could explain everything and the habit of reporters and editors to explain strange events rationally.
Fort wrote 10 novels, but only one, The Outcast Manufacturers (1909), was published. Reviews were mostly positive, but the book did not sell well. In 1915, Fort began writing two books, X and Y. The first explored the idea 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 later burned the manuscripts but then started writing The Book of the Damned (1919), which Dreiser helped publish. The title referred to "damned" data—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, Fort lived in the Bronx. He and Anna enjoyed movies and often visited theaters near their apartment on Ryer Avenue, buying newspapers at a nearby newsstand. Fort spent time in Bronx parks, sorting through newspaper clippings. He frequently took the subway to the main Public Library on Fifth Avenue, where he read scientific journals, newspapers, and magazines from around the world. Fort also had friends who gathered at his apartment to discuss writing and drink.
Fort was surprised to find fans admired his work. Some readers formed a group to study the strange events in his books. Jerome Clark wrote that Fort found this amusing but still answered letters from readers who investigated strange phenomena and sent their findings to him. Historian Mitch Horowitz compared Fort's career to Edgar Allan Poe's, saying Fort created a genre for strange facts, much like Poe did for horror stories. Both authors faced financial struggles and received praise for their work, later becoming famous after their deaths.
Fort did not trust doctors and avoided seeking help for his worsening health. He focused on finishing his final book, Wild Talents. On May 3, 1932, Fort collapsed and was taken to the Royal Hospital. Later that day, his publisher showed him advance copies of Wild Talents. Fort died a few hours later, 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 scientific ideas of his time.
Fort took thousands of notes during his life. In a short story without a date, titled "The Giant, the Insect and The Philanthropic-looking Old Gentleman," Fort mentioned thinking about burning some of his 48,000 notes. He also said he once let some notes fly away in the wind. These notes were written on cards and paper scraps and stored in shoeboxes. Fort wrote in a small, tight handwriting. He often felt sad and gave up on his work, but he started over 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. 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 included its ideas in Lo!.
Fort proposed that a "Super-Sargasso Sea" exists, a place where all lost things go. He said his theories fit the facts as well as traditional explanations. 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 for New Lands.
After Fort's death, writer Colin Wilson said Fort probably did not take his ideas seriously. He called Fort "a patron saint of cranks" and compared him to Robert Ripley, a cartoonist who wrote about unusual events. Wilson said Fort's writing was hard to read, but he admitted the facts were surprising. He also said Fort's work made him think that scientists might be influenced by unconscious ideas that stop them from being truly objective. Fort's main idea was that people who believe in miracles are just as biased as those who do not.
Jerome Clark said Fort was a satirist who doubted people's claims to know everything. He described Fort's writing as a mix of humor, deep thinking, and shocking ideas. Fort was skeptical of science and wrote funny explanations to challenge scientists who used traditional methods.
In a review of Lo!, The New York Times said reading Fort felt like riding a comet. After returning to Earth, readers might feel excited and see scientific books differently.
Fort's books describe strange events, such as teleportation (a word Fort is often credited with inventing), frogs and fish falling from the sky, spontaneous human combustion, ball lightning, poltergeist activity, unexplained sounds, levitation, unidentified flying objects, and animals found in unusual places. He also wrote about strange items found in unexpected locations, called "out-of-place artifacts" (OOPArts). Fort may have been the first to suggest that strange human disappearances could be due to alien abductions.
People who study Fort's work sometimes call themselves "Forteans." The first was Ben Hecht, who said he became a Fortean after reading The Book of the Damned. The term "Fortean" is debated, as it can describe people who study unexplained events or those who believe in paranormal phenomena. Most Forteans are interested in unexplained natural events and remain skeptical about whether these events are real. For Hecht, being a Fortean meant distrust of all forms of authority, not belief in 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. The society's founders included Dreiser, Hecht, Tarkington, Powys, and others. Prominent science-fiction writers were members.
Fort refused to join the society and turned down 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. Fort often met informally with writers like Dreiser and Hecht at their homes to discuss ideas.
The magazine Fortean Times, first published in 1973, shares Fort's style by mixing humor, skepticism, and research about unusual topics. Another group, the International Fortean Organization (INFO), was formed in the 1960s by brothers Ron and Paul Willis. INFO publishes a journal called INFO Journal: Science and the Unknown and continues Fort's work.
Literary influence
Many modern writers of fiction and nonfiction who have written about Charles Fort's influence are true fans of his work. One well-known example is John Michell, a British philosopher who wrote the introduction for 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 in his books, such as It and Firestarter. In Firestarter, the parents of a child with special powers are told to read Fort's book Wild Talents instead of the work of baby expert Benjamin Spock.
Loren Coleman is a well-known researcher who studies mysterious animals and wrote The Unidentified (1975), a book dedicated to Fort. He also wrote Mysterious America, which Fortean Times called a classic Fortean work. Coleman describes himself as the first person from the Vietnam War era to base his ideas about peace on Fort's thoughts. Jerome Clark calls himself a "skeptical Fortean," meaning he studies Fort's ideas but stays open-minded. Mike Dash is another Fortean who uses his skills as a historian to examine strange reports without blindly accepting any beliefs, whether from fringe groups or mainstream science. Science-fiction writers like Philip K. Dick, Robert Heinlein, and Robert Anton Wilson were also fans of Fort's work. Alfred Bester's novel The Stars My Destination includes a character named "Charles Fort Jaunte," a tribute to Fort, who coined the term "jaunte" for teleportation. William R. Corliss continued Fort's work by collecting and commenting on unusual events in his own books.
In 1939, Eric Frank Russell published a novel called Sinister Barrier, in which he named Fort as an influence and included some of Fort's research in the story. In 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, often used Fort's work in his books about unexplained events, such as Things (1967) and More Things (1969). Louis Pauwels and Jacques Bergier’s book The Morning of the Magicians was also influenced by Fort. 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 paranormal researcher and ordained priest, created a TV show called Fortean for Channel 4 between 1997 and 1998. The 1999 movie Magnolia, directed by Paul Thomas Anderson, includes themes from Fort’s work, such as "falling frogs." A scene in the film shows one of Fort’s books on a table, and the credits thank him by name. In the 2011 film The Whisperer in Darkness, Fort is played by Andrew Leman.
Fredric Brown, an American writer, included a quote from Fort’s book 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 who calls himself the "Ambrose collector," a clear reference to Fort.
In Blue Balliett’s children’s book Chasing Vermeer, Fort is mentioned several times. One character reads Fort’s book Lo! and finds it inspiring.
Works
Fort wrote five books during his lifetime, including one novel. All five books can be found online (see the External Links section below).
Books published after Fort's death: