Charles Fort: The Man Who Invented the Supernatural - Softcover

Steinmeyer, Jim

Softcover

ISBN 10: 110198323X ISBN 13: 9781101983232

Publisher: TarcherPerigee, 2016

Synopsis

The acclaimed and unforgettable true story of offbeat intellect and pioneering paranormal investigator Charles Fort--in paperback for the first time.

Here is the seminal biography of one of the most fascinating and polarizing figures in all of Americana: Charles Fort (1874-1932), "the mad genius of the Bronx," "the enfant terrible of science," and the groundbreaking visionary who shaped our modern view of the paranormal.

Theodore Dreiser called Fort "the most fascinating literary figure since Poe." H.G. Wells called him "one of the most damnable bores who ever cut scraps from out-of-the-way newspapers." No one was neutral about Charles Fort. Fort was a virtuoso at assembling records of bizarre, haunting, strange, and inexplicable anomalies for which science could not account.

Like no other book, Jim Steinmeyer's brilliant and celebrated biography takes you down the rabbit hole and into the strange life of an outsider genius.

About this title

From the Inside Flap:

'I am the first disciple of Charles Fort... henceforth, I am a Fortean"

Since 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.

About the Author:

JIM STEINMEYER is one of today's most renowned historians of stage magic. His many books include The Last Greatest Magician in the World, Who Was Dracula?, The Glorious Deception, and Hiding the Elephant, a Los Angeles Times bestseller. Steinmeyer is a leading designer of magic illusion who has done work for television, Broadway, and many of the best-known names in modern magic, such as Doug Henning, Siegfried & Roy, and David Copperfield. Steinmeyer has also developed attractions and live shows for the Walt Disney Company, Universal Studios, and DreamWorks, and has twice received fellowships from the Academy of Magical Arts.

About this edition

• Publisher: TarcherPerigee
• Publication date: 2016
• ISBN 10: 110198323X
• ISBN 13: 9781101983232
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 352