Articles referencing to this book: J. Temple Thurston's Mysterious Death

Charles Fort [1874-1932] is a famous person in the world of anomalous studies, so well known that the word "Fortean" is now used to describe a wide variety of the sorts of things that interested the man. The reason for the fame is that not only did he author four of the earliest books to really question the attitude of dogmatic denial that scientists all too automatically turn towards things that resist simple explaination, he did it with a wonderful tongue-in-cheek style that still charms today.
The books all follow the same basic format; Fort presents hundreds of articles that he collected from newspapers that document strange and unexplained events worldwide, largely grouping them together so that a pattern of recurring or seemingly connected events appears. Fort generally ties these accounts together by showing how they could suggest alternative ideas of how the universe works; it's often hard to know which of these theories he may have believed and which are just for a laugh... he was not attempting to help his readers understand the data he presented, rather he actively attempted to keep his readers off-guard with his unusual ideas and style of presentation.
By presenting his source for each story, Fort invited skeptics to double-check his data, which presented a serious problem to dogmatic scientists and added a feeling of credibility to claims that had before always been dismissed as not being worth acknowledging. Of course, having said all that, I do need to point out something Fort's supporters don't seem to mention; namely, that in checking Fort's sources I occasionally discover that he likely selected the most spectacular sounding article out of several articles on the same topic (which sometimes included a non-anomalous explaination for his chosen mystery), so he was not above making some things sound a bit more mysterious than perhaps they really were. Overall though, he brought to light an amazing collection of anomalies.

This volume collects all four of Fort's books:

• "The Book of the Damned" - Originally published: 1919 (pp. 1 - 310)
• "New Lands" - Originally published: 1923 (pp. 311 - 538)
• "Lo!" - Originally published: 1931 (pp. 539 - 839)
• "Wild Talents" - Originally published: 1932 (pp. 841 - 1062)

By the way, Fort's books and ideas are still the inspirational starting point for many anomalies researchers, which has led to the existance of a wonderfully entertaining magazine about said anomalies called Fortean Times... you can view their website at www.ForteanTimes.co.uk.