Regular readers of FT might think the question absurd, but Ian Kidd delves into the philosophical groundwork that underlies all of Fort’s writings and even his most preposterous ideas.

The question ‘who was Charles Fort?’ might seem rather out of place in the pages of Fortean Times. One would assume that even the casual reader has a vague idea that the title refers to an iconoclastic American who wrote some books about anomalous phenomena, with enough originality and insight to be honoured with a magazine and an enthusiastic following. But this only goes partway to answering the question: there is more to Fort’s work and ideas than is currently understood.

Fort started writing around 1900, although he only began the work for which he has become famous around 1915, when he wrote his now lost X and Y from whose ashes emerged The Book of the Damned four years later.