LITERARY CRITICISM

Joshua Blu Buhs. Think to New Worlds; the Cultural History of Charles Fort and his Followers. University of Chicago Press, 2024.

In the days of the long forgotten UFO UpDates Internet discussion group, ufologist and Fortean Jerome Clark described much of Magonia's output as 'literary criticism'. He felt that, rather than studying the 'actual existing phenomena', we were more concerned about the manner in which they were described and written about and their influence on society, rather on examining what it is 'up there'.

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YOURS SINCERELY, CHARLES FORT

Chris Aubeck (Editor). Letters of the Damned; the Forgotten Investigations of Charles Fort. Aubeck, 2024.

We are all familiar with the four 'canonical' texts of Charles Fort, and mostly aware of, if not familiar with, his earlier literary works such as The Outcast Manufacturers and the lively short stories depicting working-class New York tenement life, which were published in magazines and newspapers.

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TO WIDDICOMBE AND BEYOND

Mark Norman. The Folklore of Devon. Exeter University Press, 2023.

There is a certain journalist/commentator who delights in informing us every April 23rd that St George, the Patron Saint of England, "is ackcherly Turkish". I wonder what he would make of the possibility that the old Devonian folk song character Uncle Tom Cobley is ackcherly German?

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THE RETURN OF THE STRANGE

Mark Pilkington and Jamie Sutcliffe (Editors). Strange Attractor, Journal Five. Strange Attractor Press, 2023.

Its seventeen years since we last saw an issue of Strange Attractor Journal, and I think few of us ever imagined seeing a new one in the wild ever again, although we were more than happy with the 92 other titles the S A Press has produced in the interim. So, like an unexpected comet emerging from its millennia-long journey around the sun, here is Journal 5.

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THE REVIEW NOW ARRIVING . . .

Damon Knight. Charles Fort, Prophet of the Unexplained. Gollancz, 1970.

Whilst sorting out a bundle of old papers I came across this review in a letter which Peter Rogerson had sent to the Merseyside UFO Bulletin in 1970. Somehow it had been overlooked and misfiled. I make no apologies for publishing this book review now, 52 years after its subject's original publication date - a record even for Magonia! 

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THE SCEPTICAL FORTEAN

Martin Shough, with Wim van Utrecht. Redemption of the Damned, Volume 2: Sea and Space Phenomena. Anomalist Books, 2021.

Redemption of the Damned seems an odd title for a book that subjects the strange incidents recorded in the books of Charles Fort to a detailed, scientific re-examination. What exactly is being ‘redeemed’ here? In his Forward to this volume, bibliographer and Fortean researcher George Eberhart says that “Charles Fort has not aged well”

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MAGICAL MYSTERY TOUR

Nikki Van De Car. Magical Places: an Enchanted Journey Through Mystical Sites, Haunted Houses and Fairytale Forests. Running Press, 2019.

One of the most popular features in Fortean Times is the ‘Fortean Traveller’ column, where people describe their visits to sites with a Fortean connection, perhaps a location noted for recurrent paranormal phenomena and hauntings, sites of religious significance or places that just have some strange, numinous quality about them. 

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DAMNED FINE RESEARCH

Martin Shough with Wim Van Utrecht. Redemption of the Damned, A Centennial Re-Evaluation of Charles Fort's 'Book of The Damned'. Anomalist Books, 2019.

I suppose the first thing to ask about this book is why has it taken a hundred years for the data in Charles Fort's Book of the Damned to be re-evaluated? I think the main reason is that Fort makes it clear on the opening pages of the Book of the Damned that he does not want them re-evaluated.
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SWIMMING AGAINST THE CURRENTS

Jeffrey J. Kripal, Secret Body: Erotic and Esoteric Currents in the History of Religions, University of Chicago Press, 2017.

One of the most original and fearless thinkers around, Jeffrey J. Kripal is that rarest of creatures: an academic (Professor of Philosophy and Religious Thought) at a respected institution (Rice University) who is willing to admit his acceptance of paranormal and Fortean phenomena of the highest degree of strangeness. 

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EX TENEBRIS LUCEM

Greg Taylor (Editor) Dark Lore IX. Daily Grail Publishing, 2016.

The almost-annual appearance of Dark Lore is something of an occasion, with its collection of well-informed, well-written essays on a wide range of mystical, Fortean and paranormal topics. But it's this very range of topics which makes Dark Lore a very difficult volume to review.
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CONNECTIONS TO ALL PARTS

J. Douglas Kenyon (editor). Missing Connections: Challenging the Consensus. Atlantis Rising, 2016.

An alternative viewpoint can lead to a fresh and more exciting way of looking at aspects of our world. Treading the normal and everyday path is reliable and reassuring, but there are times when most of us desire a twist upon our regular position. 

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SKINNY RIMMER, SPRING HEEL JACK AND THE BYE BYE MAN

Robert Damon Schneck. The Bye Bye Man and Other Strange-But-True Stories. Tarcher Perigree 2016. (2nd revised edition)

Robert Schneck is the author of Mrs Wakeman and the Antichrist, a collection of weird and wonderful incidents from American history, including the invention and successful testing of a remarkably effective auto-decapitation device. The present book was originally published as The President’s Vampire and in this new edition contains further research on the eponymous monster.
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SOMETHING FOR EVERYONE

Greg Taylor (Editor). Dark Lore VIII. Daily Grail Publishing, 2014.

This is the latest in the annual series of compilations of essays on a wide range of paranormal, fortean and anomalistic topic.
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STRANGE TALES

Robert Damon Schneck, Mrs Wakeman vs. the Antichrist. Tarcher Penguin, 2014.

Here are eleven essays on bizarre phenomena in American history, from a murderous cult in the mid-nineteenth century to the phantom clown panics at the end of the twentieth.
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FADING FORTEANA

The ability we now have to search back issues of local newspapers on-line is allowing researchers to unearth intriguing little nuggets of forteana. Here are two items which Peter Rogerson has uncovered in his latest trawl through the haunted wing of the newspaper archives.

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Dundee Courier, September 22, 1926.

VISITORS FROM MARS

In a short time the planet Mars and the earth will be in opposition. This will be the inevitable signal for a revival of the time-worn question: Is communication between two worlds possible? Scientist and layman alike demand.  Can man visit Mars?" Is Mars inhabited " Can the Martians visit us?"

GIFT AID

      

Jeremy Clay. The Burglar Caught by a Skeleton and Other Singular Tales from the Victorian Press. Icon Books, 2013.

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Varla Ventura. Banshees, Werewolves, Vampires and Other Creatures of the Night. Weiser Books, 2013.

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Varla Ventura. Among the Mermaids, Facts, Myths and Enchantments from the Sirens of the Sea. Weiser Books, 2013.

If you enjoy Jon Bondeson’s column in Fortean Times looking at the bizarre and sensational stories that filled the pages of the Victorian newspaper The Illustrated Police News, you’re likely to enjoy Jeremy Clay’s collection of retrievals from the depths of newspaper archives. The Illustrated Police News is represented here (most of the illustrations in the book are from that source) but provincial and overseas papers form the bulk of the little gems collected here.
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DARKEST DEVON

Daniel Codd. Paranormal Devon. Amberley Publishing, 2013.

Regional studies of the unexplained are always welcome, and this particular one is based both upon personal investigations carried out by the author, and citations from published sources going back decades and even, in many cases, centuries.
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A TRIP IN THE DARK

Greg Taylor (Editor). Dark Lore VII. Daily Grail Publishing, 2012.

As with the previous six issues, this latest annual edition of Dark Lore contains a wide variety of contributions, and although not all the articles will be of interest to all readers, everyone will find a great deal to enjoy, appreciate and learn.

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STRANGE! INCREDIBLE! PUZZLING!

Jerome Clark. Unexplained! Strange Sightings, Incredible Experiences and Puzzling Physical Phenomena. Visible Ink, 2013 (Third edition)

This is the third and much updated edition of Jerry Clark’s round-up of a variety of Fortean topics. This time he has ditched such well covered topics as UFOs and the Pacific Bigfoot to concentrate on a variety of lesser known anomalies. 

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MUTANTS AND MYSTICS

Jeffrey J. Kripal, Mutants and Mystics: Science Fiction, Superhero Comics, and the Paranormal, University of Chigaco Press, 2011.

Mutants and Mystics is a fascinating and stimulating book, and an important one. It's one of the most authentically Fortean works I've read a long time, as well as being perfectly in tune with the spirit of  Magonia, since its addresses head-on the relationship between culture and the paranormal (defined in its widest sense to include everything from psi to UFOs and alien encounters).

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