Charles Fort: The Man Who Invented the Supernatural Quick Tips

• Born: 6 August 1874
• Birthplace: Albany, New York
• Died: 3 May 1932
• Best Known As: Researcher and reporter of anomalous phenomena

Charles Hoy Fort was a writer who spent his time at the library, taking notes from scientific journals and formulating a response to what he considered their suppression of anomalous data. Helped along by American writer Theodore Dreiser, Fort published The Book of the Damned in 1919, a collection of weird stories he had come across in his research, followed by New Lands (1923) and Lo! (1931). "Fortean" organizations sprang up after Fort's death, furthering a tradition of distributing stories of the bizarre as a jab in the ribs of the scientific community. Some consider Fort the father of paran

Charles Hoy Fort was born in 1874 in Albany, New York, of Dutch ancestry. He had two younger brothers, Clarence and Raymond. His grocer father was something of an authoritarian: Many Parts, Fort's unpublished autobiography, relates several instances of harsh treatment – including physical abuse – by his father. Some observers (such as Fort's biographer Damon Knight) have suggested that Fort's distrust of authority has its roots in his father's treatment. In any case, Fort developed a strong sense of independence in his youth.

As a young man, Fort was a budding naturalist, collecting sea shells, minerals, and birds. Curious and intelligent, the young Fort did not excel at school, though he was quite a ...