|
Born in Albany, New York, on August 6, 1874, Charles Fort made his life's work the study of unexplained phenomena. After achieving modest success as a short story writer and novelist, he began his systematic study and cataloging of anomalous phenomena in the early 1910s. His research topics included mysterious beasts, spontaneous combustion, interplanetary visitations, poltergeists, and other phenomena written off by science. In his lifetime, Fort published four books on the unexplained and was cele¬brated in The New York Times as the "Enfant Terrible of Science," Fort's name was made into an adjective-Fortean-describing strange phenomena. A lasting influence on the evolution of science fiction as well as critiques of science, Fort stands as one of the most fascinating and polarizing figures in all of Ameri¬can culture. He died on May 3, 1932, in New York. One of today's most acclaimed voices of esoterica, mysticism, and the occult, Mitch Horowitz is a PEN Award-winning historian whose books include Occult America, The Miracle Club, Daydream Believer, Modern Occultism, Happy Warriors, and Practical Magick. A former vice president at Penguin Random House, Mitch has written on alternative spirituality for The New York Times, The Washington Post, Politico, Time, and The Wall Street Journal. A frequent presence in national media, Mitch hosts Discovery/HBO Max's Alien Encounters; plays himself in Shudder's V/H/S/Beyond, a 2025 Critics Choice Award nominee for Best Movie Made for Television; and hosts SpectreVision's podcast Extraordinary Evidence: ESP Is Real. His work is censored in China. |
