Editing Charles Fort (section)

==Biography==

Fort was born in Albany, New York, in 1874,<ref name="ReadersDigest"/> of [[Dutch people|Dutch]] ancestry. His father, a grocer, was an authoritarian, and in his unpublished autobiography ''Many Parts,'' Fort mentions the physical abuse he endured from his father.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Steinmeyer |first=Jim |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/608554928 |title=Charles Fort : the man who invented the supernatural |date=2008 |publisher=J.P. Tarcher/Penguin |isbn=978-1-4362-0566-5 |location=New York |pages=19–20 |oclc=608554928}}</ref> Fort's biographer, [[Damon Knight]], suggested that his distrust of authority began in his treatment as a child. Fort developed a strong sense of independence during his early years.{{Citation needed|date=August 2024}}

As a young adult, Fort wanted to be a [[natural history|naturalist]], collecting [[sea shell]]s, minerals, and birds. Although Fort was described as curious and intelligent, he was not a good student. An [[autodidact]], his considerable knowledge of the world was mainly due to his extensive personal reading.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book |last=Lippard |first=Jim |title=Encyclopedia of the Paranormal |publisher=Prometheus Books |year=1996 |isbn=1-57392-021-5 |editor-last=Stein |editor-first=Gordon M. |pages=277–80 |chapter=Charles Fort |chapter-url=https://www.discord.org/lippard/CharlesFort.html}}</ref>

At age 18, Fort left [[New York City|New York]] to embark on a world tour to "put some capital in the bank of experience".<ref name=":2" /> He travelled through the western United States, [[Scotland]], and [[England]], until becoming ill in [[Southern Africa]]. When he returned home, he was nursed by Anna Filing, whom he had known since childhood. They were married on October 26, 1896, at an [[Episcopal Church (United States)|Episcopal church]].<ref>{{Cite book |last=Steinmeyer |first=Jim |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/608554928 |title=Charles Fort : the man who invented the supernatural |date=2008 |publisher=J.P. Tarcher/Penguin |isbn=978-1-4362-0566-5 |location=New York |pages=68 |oclc=608554928}}</ref> For a few years, the newly married couple lived in poverty in the Bronx while Fort tried to earn a living writing stories for newspapers and magazines. In 1906, he began to collect accounts of anomalies.<ref name=":2" />

===Career as a full-time writer===

His uncle Frank A. Fort died in 1916,<ref>{{Cite book |last=Steinmeyer |first=Jim |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/608554928 |title=Charles Fort : the man who invented the supernatural |date=2008 |publisher=J.P. Tarcher/Penguin |isbn=978-1-4362-0566-5 |location=New York |pages=144 |oclc=608554928}}</ref> and a modest inheritance gave Fort enough money to quit his various [[day job]]s and to write full-time.<ref name="ReadersDigest">{{Cite book|author=Bill Bradbury|title=Tiedon rajamailla|trans-title=Into the Unknown|date=1982|language=fi|publisher=[[Reader's Digest]]|isbn=978-951-9078-89-2}}</ref> In 1917, Fort's brother Clarence died; his portion of the same inheritance was divided between Fort and his other brother, Raymond.<ref name=":5">{{Cite book |last=Knight |first=Damon |title=Charles Fort: Prophet of the Unexplained |publisher=Doubleday |year=1970 |location=Garden City, N.Y. |pages=188}}</ref>

Fort's experience as a journalist,<ref name="ReadersDigest"/> coupled with his wit and contrarian nature, prepared him for his real-life work, ridiculing the pretensions of scientific [[logical positivism|positivism]] and the tendency of journalists and editors of newspapers and [[scientific journal]]s to rationalize.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Barrett |first=David V. |date=2008-05-28 |title=Charles Fort: The Man Who Invented The Supernatural, by Jim Steinmeyer |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/charles-fort-the-man-who-invented-the-supernatural-by-jim-steinmeyer-835767.html |access-date=2023-01-01 |website=[[The Independent]] |language=en}}</ref>

Fort wrote 10 novels, although only one, ''[[The Outcast Manufacturers]]'' (1909), a tenement tale, was published. Reviews were mostly positive, but it was unsuccessful commercially.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Steinmeyer |first=Jim |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/608554928 |title=Charles Fort : the man who invented the supernatural |date=2008 |publisher=J.P. Tarcher/Penguin |isbn=978-1-4362-0566-5 |location=New York |pages=124–25 |oclc=608554928}}</ref> During 1915, Fort began to write two books, titled ''X'' and ''Y'', the first dealing with the idea that beings on [[Mars]] were controlling events on Earth, and the second with the postulation of a sinister civilization extant at the South Pole.<ref name=":3" /> These books caught the attention of writer [[Theodore Dreiser]], who tried to get them published, but to no avail.<ref name=":3">{{Cite journal |last=Dash |first=Mike |title=Charles Fort and a Man Named Dreiser |url=https://dreiseronlinecom.files.wordpress.com/2016/10/charles-fort-and-a-man-named-dreiser.pdf |journal=Fortean Times |issue=51 |pages=40–48}}</ref> Discouraged, Fort burnt the manuscripts, but soon began work on the book that would change the course of his life, ''[[The Book of the Damned]]'' (1919), which Dreiser helped to get published. The title referred to "damned" data that Fort collected, phenomena for which science could not account, and that was thus rejected or ignored.<ref name="shipley">[https://www.nytimes.com/1931/03/01/archives/charles-fort-enfant-terrible-of-science.html?searchResultPosition=1 "Charles Fort, Enfant Terrible of Science,"] [https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1931/03/01/118400918.pdf?pdf_redirect=true&ip=0 Archived] via the [[The New York Times#TimesMachine|TimesMachine]],''[[The New York Times]]'', 29 July 2020.</ref>

Fort and Anna lived intermittently in London between 1920<ref>{{Cite book |last=Steinmeyer |first=Jim |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/196302255 |title=Charles Fort : the man who invented the supernatural |date=2008 |publisher=J.P. Tarcher/Penguin |isbn=978-1-58542-640-9 |location=New York |pages=193 |oclc=196302255}}</ref> and 1928,<ref>{{Cite book |last=Steinmeyer |first=Jim |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/196302255 |title=Charles Fort : the man who invented the supernatural |date=2008 |publisher=J.P. Tarcher/Penguin |isbn=978-1-58542-640-9 |location=New York |pages=222 |oclc=196302255}}</ref> so Fort could carry out research in the Reading Room of the [[British Museum]].<ref name=":2" /> Fort lived most of his life in the Bronx. He was, like his wife, fond of movies, and often took her from their Ryer Avenue apartment to a movie theater nearby, stopping at an adjacent newsstand for an arm full of various newspapers. Fort frequented the parks near the Bronx, where he sifted through piles of clippings. He often rode the subway down to the main Public Library on Fifth Avenue, where he spent many hours reading scientific journals, newspapers, and periodicals from around the world. Fort also had literary friends who gathered at various apartments, including his own, to drink and talk.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Sleigh |first=Charlotte |date=2015 |title=Writing the Scientific Self: Samuel Butler and Charles Hoy Fort |url=https://www.literatureandscience.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/JLS-8.2-Sleigh.pdf |journal=Journal of Literature and Science |volume=8 |issue=2 |pages=17–35|doi=10.12929/jls.08.2.02 }}</ref>

===Following===

Fort was pleasantly surprised to find himself the subject of a [[cult following]].<ref>{{Cite web |date=2008 |title=Charles Fort: The Man Who Invented the Supernatural by Jim Steinmeyer |url=https://www.publishersweekly.com/9781585426409 |access-date=2023-01-01 |website=Publishers Weekly}}</ref> Talk arose of the formation of a formal organization to study the type of odd events related by his books. Jerome Clark writes, "Fort himself, who did nothing to encourage any of this, found the idea hilarious. Yet he faithfully corresponded with his readers, some of whom had taken to investigating reports of anomalous phenomena and sending their findings to Fort".<ref>{{Cite book |last=Clark |first=Jerome |title=The UFO Book |publisher=Visible Ink |year=1998 |pages=235}}</ref>

=== Death ===
Suffering from poor health and failing eyesight, Fort distrusted doctors and did not seek medical help for his worsening health. Rather, he emphasized completing ''Wild Talents''.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Steinmeyer |first=Jim |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/608554928 |title=Charles Fort : the man who invented the supernatural |date=2008 |publisher=J.P. Tarcher/Penguin |isbn=978-1-4362-0566-5 |location=New York |pages=267 |oclc=608554928}}</ref>

After he collapsed on May 3, 1932, Fort was rushed to [[Royal Hospital (New York City)|Royal Hospital]]. Later that same day, Fort's publisher visited him to show him the advance copies of ''Wild Talents''. Fort died only hours afterward, probably of [[leukemia]].<ref name=":2">{{Cite web |last=Rickard |first=Bob |date=1997 |title=Charles Fort: His Life and Times |url=https://blogs.forteana.org/fortbiog.html |website=Charles Fort Institute}}</ref> He was interred in the Fort family plot in Albany, New York.<ref name=":2" />