The Book of the Damned: The Collected Works of Charles Fort (Paperback)

~ (Author), Jim Steinmeyer (Introduction) "Charles Fort took on the establishment-science, philosophy, and theology-in these four books published between 1919 and 1932..." (more)
Key Phrases: science gossip, celestial objects, thunder weapons, London Times, Monthly Weather Review, New York Times (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

This Encyclopedia Forteana anthologizes the cult hero’s four classic works on the strange, the unexplained, and the just plain weird: The Book of the Damned, Lo!, Wild Talents, and New Lands. It features Fort’s complete, unabridged text and a subject index.

Here are the four books that invented our understanding of the paranormal. These are cult hero Charles Fort’s defining records of bizarre, haunting, strange, and inexplicable “facts” for which science cannot account: Frogs falling from the skies. Mysterious airships in an age before flight. Monsters. Poltergeists. Floating islands. Teleportation (a term Fort invented).

These are the works that moved novelist Theodore Dreiser to write: “To me no one in the world has suggested the underlying depths and mysteries and possibilities as has Fort. To me he is simply stupendous.”

Now, Fort’s classic investigations are newly collected with a preface by biographer Jim Steinmeyer. Complete with a full subject index, here is the definitive Fort anthology for our times.

About the Author

Born in Albany, New York, in 1874, Charles Fort made the study of unexplained phenomena his life’s work. After achieving modest success as a short-story writer and novelist, Fort began his work researching anomalous phenomena in the early 1920s, tirelessly cataloguing episodes of spontaneous combustion, spaceships, poltergeists, and other experiences and events that had been written off by science. A lasting influence on the evolution of science fiction as well as on science itself, Fort remains one of the most fascinating and polarizing figures in all of Americana. He died in 1932 in New York City.

Product Details

• 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 (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #411,301 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 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 (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)

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.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

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

By	J. Enright "Mystic" (Seguin, TX USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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.

5.0 out of 5 stars book review, September 27, 2009

By	Scott R. Gothard "Bibliophile Extraordinaire" (Santa Ana, CA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Amazon Verified Purchase

This book is probably the definitive book on Fortean phenomenon. Charles Fort, as you may know, is considered the father of the unusual, covering what would now be considered cryptozoology, UFOlogy, and several other genre covering the wierd and unexplainable. If you only bought one Charles Fort book, this would be it.