Charles Hoy Fort (1874-1932) [Section 28 Lot 8]
Namesake for the Fortean Society and Fortean Times, Author, Naturalist, Godfather of postmodern relativism, inventor of the word “teleportation”
Charles Hoy Fort was born in Albany in on August 16, 1874, to Charles Nelson Fort, a wholesale grocer, and Agnes T. Hoy, who died when he was very young. The eldest of three sons, he was socially anxious and was rowdy with his brother’s while growing up, which resulted in tension with his father. His autobiography Many Parts mentioned the physical abuse he faced. To overcome his anxiousness, he became a collector of many natural items in the wild, minerals, and would pickle small organs in formaldehyde. He also learned taxidermy and kept a collection of birds.
In 1890 he worked for the Albany Argus as a reporter where he was known to publish conversations that his family had at the dinner table. He also drank, smoked and gambled on a regular occurrence, which resulted in being locked out of his father’s house numerous times. On one occasion he smashed one of the windows, resulting him his being barred him from the house for a week, sleeping in the servant’s quarters.
Charles moved to New York City and lived with his maternal grandfather where he worked as a reporter for the Brooklyn World. Only in the position for a year, he left to work as the editor of the newly established Woodhaven Independent. Upon the death of his grandfather, a trust was left to him of $25 a month. He quit his job and decided to “put some capital in the bank of experience.” Living frugally he slept in fields, scavenged for food, and train hopped. His travels took him to New Orleans, Scotland, Wales, London, and Capetown, South Africa.
He returned to the U.S. in 1896 and married Anna Filing an immigrant of Irish descent, possible a servant in his father’s household. They moved to the Bronx and were quite impoverished and known to burn furniture and personal writings of Charles for warmth. He took on small jobs at hotels and wrote for a variety of magazines. While writing for Broadway Magazine, he became friends with editor Theodore Dreiser, who attempted to publish his work.
Charles spent 27 years researching phenomena and the relationships between science and fantasy. His primary sources were from the British Museum, where he and Anna lived for a while, as well as the New York Public Library. His research resulted in ten novels, his most famous The Book of the Damned (1919), which discuss the bizarre disappearance of people, UFO sightings, the possible existence of mythological creatures, and items falling from the sky, both organic and inorganic materials.
On May 3, 1932, he was admitted to the Royal Hospital in the Bronx where he grew increasingly weak and blind. His editor visited him and showed him the advanced copy of his lasted book Wild Talents, which compared organized religion to witchcraft. Charles died hours later. Some speculate he died of leukemia, though Charles believed it was typhoid. He is buried in the family plot at Albany Rural Cemetery near Cypress Pond.
The oddity of Charles Fort’s writings led to the creation of the Fortean Society in 1931, with Theodore Dreiser serving on the board. Spearheaded by Tiffany Thayer, a friend of Charles, the group continued until his death in 1959. In 1973 The Fortean Times was established to continue his work and is still published today. Marketed as “The World’s Weirdest News” it focuses on strange phenomenons, experiences, and curiosities. His work is still in use today as is the magazine he published while living in England, the Fortean Times.