Charles Fort

'I am the first disciple of Charles Fort... henceforth, I am a ForteanSince Ben Hecht wrote this line in reviewing The Book of the Damned, Charles Fort has been an inspiration to the disaffected and curious, to 'alternative' modern culture and to anyone seeking significance in chaos. Fort provides the impetus for public interest in mysterious phenomena - he coined the word teleportation, gathered accounts of spontaneous human combustion, monsters, poltergeists, and what became known as UFO's. His legacy extends to conspiracy theories, science fiction and fantasy, graphic novels and film. He has been called 'prophet of the paranormal' as well as 'patron saint of cranks', and today The Fortean Times is dedicated to 'Fortean reportage'. Yet Fort was always more concerned with the mechanics of writing than with acolytes - invited to become a member of the new 'Fortean society' in 1931, Fort, true to form, refused. Jim Steinmeyer's remarkable new biography looks at the man, the writer, behind the myths.Told against the backdrop jazz age New York and Edwardian London, Charles Fort: The Man who Invented the Supernatural is about wonder, obsession, and mystery, and an iconoclastic author who has become an unlikely cult hero.