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 By Jim Steinmeyer
The supernatural frogs falling
from the sky, mysterious airships, spontaneous human combustion...
it all fascinated Charles Fort, whose appetite for the paranormal
lives on today in sci-fi, conspiracy theories and that quirky
chronicle of the unknown, the Fortean Times.
No one knew what to make of The Book of the Damned, which appeared
in bookshops across America in January, 1920. At Brentano's
Bookstore on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, the cardboard cartons
containing it had arrived from the publishers Boni & Liveright
during the Christmas rush. They were quickly pushed into the
storeroom with other new titles, to make room for the illustrated
children's picture books and popular romance novels that were
displayed as ideal gifts.
The cover price was one dollar. It was a fat little volume covered
in bright red fabric and adorned with neat gold stamping: the title,
The Book of the Damned, the author's name, 'Charles
Fort', and a pretty decoration of a planet spinning merrily
amid a cluster of stars. On the dust jacket was an endorsement from
the novelist Theodore Dreiser - 'It is wonderful'- and a
promise of what was inside: 'In this amazing book - the result
of 12 years of patient research - the author presents a mass of
evidence that has hitherto been ignored or distorted by
scientists... Things that [seem] incredible support the
author's argument, which he develops with strong touches of
sardonic humor and flashes of sheer poetic insight.'
Nothing else identified the contents as fantasy, religion,
science, or philosophy. The attention-grabbing title presented an
arresting mystery, and the modest paper wrapper made it all the more
beguiling: simple block letters and swirling grey and pink shapes
suggesting planets, surging lava, and a solar eclipse. Customers
stopped, picked up the book and turned it over in their hands. With
sidelong glances, they cracked the cover to peer inside. They
wondered if the author was promising immorality or criminality,
hedonism or atheism - in 1920, it was possible to find any of those
subjects between the covers of a new book.
Read the full article from the Daily Telegraph
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