The Book of the Damned: The Original Classic of Paranormal Exploration

By Charles Fort

Book Overview

The signature edition of Charles Fort's classic of paranormal discovery--reset with a new index.

Welcome to a record of the damned. "By damned," wrote Charles Fort in 1919, "I mean the excluded. We shall have a procession of the data that Science has excluded."

Fort's record of the unknown was one of the first to expose us to visitors from space, monsters, poltergeists, and floating islands. Frogs fall from the sky. Mysterious airships take flight in an age before the airplane. People disappear, reappear, and spontaneously combust.

This stand-alone, handsome edition exposes today's readers to the core work of Fort's extraordinary career--in which he pushed us to ask: What is out there?

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1101983248
• ISBN13: 9781101983249
• Release Date: February 2016
• Publisher: Tarcher
• Length: 400 Pages
• Weight: 0.82 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 5.4" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

`All things in the sky are pure to those who have no telescopes.'

This book contains all four of Charles Fort's books: `The Book of the Damned'; `New Lands'; `Lo!'; and `Wild Talents'. `By the damned', wrote Charles Fort, `I mean the excluded. We shall have a procession of data that Science excluded.' And in these four books (or processions) we have a feat of recorded events of bizarre, strange and inexplicable anomalies for which science could not fully account. And what are these recorded events? They include frogs falling from the sky during storms, monsters, teleportation, poltergeists, and floating islands. They include people who disappear; people who reappear; and people who spontaneously combust. This is an engrossing compilation of miscellaneous attention-grabbing events, approached with both belief and scepticism, and blended with scholarship and humour. How to read this massive book? I'm pleased that I took Jim Steinmeyer's advice to read `Lo!' (the third book) first. By the time I got (back) to `Book of the Damned', I was totally engrossed. Fort's writing is humorous, cynical and witty. In Fort's view, it is not possible for humans to fully know or define the universe. I especially like his statement that: `There is something wrong with everything that is popular.' Whether or not this is always true, popularity certainly does not guarantee `truth'. The collection of oddities compiled by Charles Fort is fascinating and it is possible to simply enjoy the descriptions without wondering about how and why these events took place. Fort's floating `Sargasso Seas' in the sky as a means of sucking in and dropping of frogs (and other objects) is as good as any other explanation for frogs falling from skies during storms. The fact that we can't explain all events doesn't mean that we shouldn't look for explanations to examine, accept or reject. Now that I have read Fort's writings, I am keen to read more about Fort himself. Jennifer Cameron-Smith

book review

This book is probably the definitive book on Fortean phenomenon. Charles Fort, as you may know, is considered the father of the unusual, covering what would now be considered cryptozoology, UFOlogy, and several other genre covering the wierd and unexplainable. If you only bought one Charles Fort book, this would be it.

Unusual, bizarre, and extremely intriguing.

Charles Fort spent 27 years of his life searching library archives for credible reports of anomalous phenomena. The Book of The Damned is a product of this exhaustive research. Apart from the massive quantity of data he uncovered for this book, he also adds his humor, wit, speculation, and genius. The end result is a book that will, in all probability, redefine the reader's conception of reality. This book is a must read for the curious intellectual!

An excellent and hilarious classic!

This is not a new book, but was written sometime around the turn of century and has been considered a classic on most 'required reading' lists. A spoof on the awe in which society holds the Holy Writs of the scientific community, the author marshalled an impressive army of established, documented facts for which the official scientific explanations are simply absurd. A 'must read' for anyone who believes science teaches The Truth -- or for anyone who suspects otherwise.