The Outcast Manufacturers

Charles Hoy Fort (1874-1932) was a Dutch- American writer and researcher into anomalous phenomena. Fort's books sold well and remain in print. Today, the terms "Fortean" and "Forteana" are used to characterise various anomalous phenomena. He wrote ten novels, though only one, The Outcast Manufacturers (1909), was published. In 1915, Fort began to write two books, entitled X and Y. Fort's relationship with the study of anomalous phenomena is frequently misunderstood and misrepresented. Fort in his lifetime must have taken tens of thousands of notes - he is said to have compiled as many as 40,000 notes. Some of the notes were published, little by little, by the Fortean Society until its dissolution. From these researches Fort wrote seven books, though only four survive. These are: The Book of the Damned (1919), New Lands (1923), Lo! (1931) and Wild Talents (1932).