The Book of the Damned: The Collected Works of Charles Fort [Mass Market Paperback]

Charles Fort (Author), Jim Steinmeyer (Introduction)

Book Description

Age Level: 18 and up | Grade Level: 12 and up

This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery.

--This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Jim Steinmeyer is the critically acclaimed author of The Glorious Deception, Charles Fort, and Hiding the Elephant, a Los Angeles Times bestseller. He is also a leading designer of magic illusion who has done work for television, Broadway, and many of the best-known names in modern magic. He lives in Los Angeles, CA.

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 18 and up
  
• Mass Market Paperback: 1136 pages
• Publisher: Tarcher; 1st Jeremy P. Tarcher/Penguin Collected Ed edition (May 1, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1585426415
• ISBN-13: 978-1585426416
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 2.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #399,809 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Mammoth Compendium of Fortean Lore, June 9, 2008

By 

Zekeriyah (Chicago, IL) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: The Book of the Damned: The Collected Works of Charles Fort (Mass Market Paperback)

I feel obliged to disagree with the previous reviewer. Fort is not hard to read, in fact quite the opposite, but he is a product of a different era. Therefore, his work should be read for what it is - a massive collection of tabloid-esque miscellanea, liberally salted with Fort's trademark cynicism, humor and wit. You could just as easily flip through it and get sucked into the more interesting parts as you could read the whole bloody things through word for word, and you'd still come out at the same place. There really isn't a lot of linear plot or anything going on here. In fact, for those of the younger generations, you might be tempted to think of it as something of a blog, and in a sense, thats really what Fort did.

For those not in the know, the late Charles Fort was a compiler of oddities - teleportation, spontaneous human combustion, poltergeists, UFOs, out-of-place animals and of course, frogs falling from the sky during storms (a phenomena which he attributed to floating "Sargasso Seas" in the sky which sucked in, and occasionally dropped off, all manner of lost objects - not just frogs, in fact). Fort essentially criticized the presumption that humans can ever truly know or define the universe, and his work could be described as pseudo-scientific, but then you also should take it with a grain of salt. After all, he is credited with saying something along the lines that he never believed anything, especially not what he had written himself. Typical Fortean humor at it's best, and a good word of advice in general. All in all, theres over a thousand pages chock full of enough general weirdness to keep even the wackiest cranks happy... at least for a while.

So what's in this monumental work? The complete works of Charles Fort, four books in all - The Book of the Damned, Lo!, New Lands and Wild Talents. It's all more or less the same so it doesn't much matter what order you read them in (if any). I spent many an hour fondly flipping through my old Dover edition of his collected works, so I was very happy when my girlfriend presented me with this new copy (with a fancy new cover and everything!). If you are interested in UFOs, paranormal phenomena, psychic powers and other weird stuff in general, you almost certainly need to read Fort. He is at the cornerstone of all modern paranormal and pseudo-scientific "research." Indeed, his name has even been adopted by the popular (and bizarre) Fortean Times magazine. So Fort is a great example of bizarre pop culture Americana and should definately be read by anyone interested in the bizarre, strange or otherworldly. I mean, this is the guy who coined the term "teleportation!" Need I say much more?

Furthermore, the one thing I WILL agree with our previous reviewer on is that you can find much more background on Fort and his life in Knight's recent biography, "Charles Fort: Prophet of the Unexplained," as well as the aforementioned Jim Steinmeyer book. However, nothing compares to the biting wit of Fort himself, no matter how fun of a read it may be.

41 of 49 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars So now I know, October 28, 2010

By 

K. Stahl (Tucker, GA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Book of the Damned (Kindle Edition)

Long before I had ever read this book I had heard the title and was familiar with the name of the author. For some reason every so often this book is referred to in many different contexts so I was curious about what it contained.

I'll take the mystery of the book away immediately. Mr. Fort maintains that there is a whole body of "facts" that exist out in the world that are excluded from serious scientific consideration simply because they do not fit with the paradigms of contemporary scientific knowledge. He calls these bits of information "damned". So there, that is the premise of the entire book.

As one reads the book it becomes obvious that Mr. Fort was not writing in the context of modern science of the 21st century. His own personal scientific method is deeply flawed and relies on legends, folk stories, myth, hearsay and gossip. Much of what he discusses is downright silly by modern standards and many of the mysteries that he refers to have been solved a long time ago at this point.

The writing style is that of an amateur. The book is difficult to read because it is probably four times longer then it would be if the author didn't wildly inflate every description he provides. He could have made all of his major points in a brief pamphet and the reader of that pamphlet would acquire all of useful arguments of the book. But apparently his goal was to produce a sizeworthy tome in order to impress readers.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Philosophy of the Weird, June 30, 2008

By 

J. Enright (Jacksboro, TX USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Book of the Damned: The Collected Works of Charles Fort (Mass Market Paperback)

I too must disagree with the reviewer who finds Fort a difficult read. Fort wrote to a different literary standard. Enjoying Fort is a matter of adjustment. Otherwise, Fort's often convoluted and occasionally obfuscated style hides a wicked sense of humor and a visionary sense of wonder. When one puts Fort's underlying message, that the universe is a single construct and that everything is related, into the context that Fort wrote half a century before such ideas became widespread, Fort's genius begins to shine.

The sheer volume of research represented by this compendium is astonishing. And it is clear that Fort not only gathered odd reports, but contemplated them extensively as well.

This is a classic must-read that should be standard high school fare.