Charles Fort : The Man Who Invented the Supernatural

by Steinmeyer, Jim (Author)

• ISBN13: 9781585426409
• ISBN10: 1585426407
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2008-05-01
• Publisher: Tarcher

Summary

The seminal biography of the twentieth century’s premier chronicler of the paranormal, Charles Fort—a man whose very name gave rise to an adjective, fortean, to describe the unexplained. By the early 1920s, Americans were discovering that the world was a strange place. Charles Fort could demonstrate that it was even stranger than anyone suspected. Frogs fell from the sky. Blood rained from the heavens. Mysterious airships visited the Earth. Dogs talked. People disappeared. Fort asked why, but, even more vexing, he also asked why we weren’t paying attention. Here is the first fully rendered literary biography of the man who, more than any other figure, would define our idea of the anomalous and paranormal. In Charles Fort: The Man Who Invented the Supernatural, the acclaimed historian of stage magic Jim Steinmeyer goes deeply into the life of Charles Fort as he saw himself: first and foremost, a writer. At the same time, Steinmeyer tells the story of an era in which the certainties of religion and science were being turned on their heads. And of how Fort—significantly—was the first man who challenged those orthodoxies not on the grounds of some counter-fundamentalism of his own but simply for the plainest of reasons: they didn’t work. In so doing, Fort gave voice to a generation of doubters who would neither accept the straight story” of scholastic science nor credulously embrace fantastical visions. Instead, Charles Fort demanded of his readers and admirers the most radical of human acts: Thinking.

Author Biography

Jim Steinmeyer is a renowned historian of stage magic and the critically acclaimed author of The Glorious Deception and Hiding the Elephant, a Los Angeles Times bestseller.

Table of Contents

Author's Introduction	p. xi
But the Damned Will March	p. 1
Toddy's Nose Bleeds So Readily	p. 15
Littleness That Was No Longer There	p. 29
We Wrapped the Piece of Cake to Keep Always	p. 42
Blue Miles, Green Miles, Yellow Miles	p. 56
We, Then a Great Famous Man	p. 71
Anybody Could Write a True Story	p. 85
Leaping Out of a Window, Head First	p. 100
"To Work!" Cried Mr. Birtwhistle	p. 115
X Exists!	p. 129
A Battle Is About to Be Fought	p. 145
It Is a Religion	p. 159
Children Cry for It	p. 175
The London Triangle	p. 189
That Frog Would Be God	p. 205
The World Has Cut Me Out-I Have Cut Myself Out	p. 218
A Welcoming Hand to Little Frogs and Periwinkles	p. 235
Not a Bottle of Catsup Can Fall Without Being Noted	p. 251
Beginning Anywhere	p. 268
Fall In! Forward! March!	p. 280
Acknowledgments	p. 299
Notes and Credits	p. 303
Index	p. 323
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