International Fortean Organization
Encyclopedia
The International Fortean Organization (INFO) is a network of professional Fortean
Fortean
Fortean refers to:*Charles Fort's ideas and philosophy and the people and things inspired by it*Fortean Society, formed by New York's literati led by Theodore Dreiser, Booth Tarkington, Ben Hecht...

 researchers and writers. John Keel
John Keel
John Alva Keel, born Alva John Kiehle was an American journalist and influential UFOlogist best known as author of The Mothman Prophecies.-Biography:...

, author and parapsychologist, in both his writings and at his appearances at INFO's FortFest, says "the International Fortean Organization (INFO) carries on Charles Fort
Charles Fort
Charles Hoy Fort was an American writer and researcher into anomalous phenomena. Today, the terms Fortean and Forteana are used to characterize various such phenomena. Fort's books sold well and are still in print today.-Biography:Charles Hoy Fort was born in 1874 in Albany, New York, of Dutch...

's name as successor to the Fortean Society." Keel, Colin Wilson
Colin Wilson
Colin Henry Wilson is a prolific English writer who first came to prominence as a philosopher and novelist. Wilson has since written widely on true crime, mysticism and other topics. He prefers calling his philosophy new existentialism or phenomenological existentialism.- Early biography:Born and...

 and John Michell
John Michell (writer)
John Frederick Carden Michell was an English writer whose key sources of inspiration were Plato and Charles Fort...

 are long-time advisors to the organization.

The International Fortean Organization (INFO) published the INFO Journal: Science and the Unknown, keeps a library of Forteana and offered a research service. Science Digest, in 1978, mentions their "attempts to handle inquiries from a world-wide membership". The Skeptic's Dictionary says "“The International Organization publishes INFO Journal several times a year. It features stories on such topics as anomalous astronomical phenomena, anomalies in the physical sciences, scientifc hoaxes and cryptozoology." The quarterly INFO Journal grew from a 54-page publication to a 69-page publication and according to Factsheet Five, a publication dedicated to the review of periodicals, by 1993 was the longest-running Fortean publication.

John Michell
John Michell
John Michell was an English natural philosopher and geologist whose work spanned a wide range of subjects from astronomy to geology, optics, and gravitation. He was both a theorist and an experimenter....

 and Bob Rickard
Bob Rickard
Robert "Bob" J M Rickard is the founder and editor of the UK magazine Fortean Times: The Journal of Strange Phenomena, which debuted in 1973 under its original title The News. The magazines express purpose is to continue the documentary work of Charles Fort on the strange, anomalous and unexplained...

 in their book Unexplained Phenomena said of the International Fortean Organization "INFO was founded in 1965 as the natural successor to the original Fortean Society
Fortean Society
The Fortean Society was started in the United States in 1931 during a meeting held in the New York flat of Charles Hoy Fort in order to promote the ideas of American writer Charles Fort. The Fortean Society was primarily based in New York City. Its first president was Theodore Dreiser, an old...

." Colin Wilson said he wished to assure The American Spectator that Charles Fort
Charles Fort
Charles Hoy Fort was an American writer and researcher into anomalous phenomena. Today, the terms Fortean and Forteana are used to characterize various such phenomena. Fort's books sold well and are still in print today.-Biography:Charles Hoy Fort was born in 1874 in Albany, New York, of Dutch...

 is far from forgotten and credited the publishing efforts of the International Fortean Organization's INFO Journal.

Una McGovern in Chamber's Dictionary of the Unexplained said, "Seven years lapsed between the demise of the Fortean Society
Fortean Society
The Fortean Society was started in the United States in 1931 during a meeting held in the New York flat of Charles Hoy Fort in order to promote the ideas of American writer Charles Fort. The Fortean Society was primarily based in New York City. Its first president was Theodore Dreiser, an old...

 and the formation of the International Fortean Organization (INFO)...which played a vital role in encouraging a new generation of young forteans." Although the Fortean Society was never officially dissolved their aims were continued by the International Fortean Organization according to Lewis Spence in the "Encyclopedia of Occultism and Parapsychology" and encouraged by Damon Knight
Damon Knight
Damon Francis Knight was an American science fiction author, editor, critic and fan. His forte was short stories and he is widely acknowledged as having been a master of the genre.-Biography:...

 who credited the organization in his introduction to the Complete Works of Charles Fort published by Dover. Martin Gardner, in a chapter devoted to Fort, which according to the Sceptic Report neither scorns or damns, in Fads and Fallacies in the Name of Science
Fads and Fallacies in the Name of Science
Fads and Fallacies in the Name of Science, also known just as In the Name of Science, was Martin Gardner's second book, and has become a classic in the literature of entertaining scientific skepticism...

, notes that Fort doubted everything, even his own speculations. Gardner makes the point that Forteanism serves to remind science that no theory is above doubt, and that knowledge is provisional, it serves a 'sound and healthy' purpose.

History

The organization was formed in the early 1960s by brothers, the writers Ron and Paul Willis, who acquired much of the material of the original Fortean Society
Fortean Society
The Fortean Society was started in the United States in 1931 during a meeting held in the New York flat of Charles Hoy Fort in order to promote the ideas of American writer Charles Fort. The Fortean Society was primarily based in New York City. Its first president was Theodore Dreiser, an old...

 which had begun in 1932 in the spirit of Charles Fort but which had grown silent by 1959 with the death of its founder Tiffany Thayer
Tiffany Thayer
Tiffany Ellsworth Thayer was an American actor, author and founder of the Fortean Society.-Biography:Born in Freeport, Illinois, Thayer quit school at age 15 and worked as an actor, reporter, and used-book clerk in Chicago, Detroit, and Cleveland. Aged 16, he toured as the teenaged hero in the...

. The Fortean Society was formed by a friend of Charles Fort, Theodore Dreiser, who had threatened his publisher that he would leave if The Book of the Damned
The Book of the Damned
The Book of the Damned was the first published nonfiction work of the author Charles Fort . Dealing with various types of anomalous phenomena including UFOs, strange falls of both organic and inorganic materials from the sky, odd weather patterns, the possible existence of creatures generally held...

was not put into print. The original society included many of New York's literati including Booth Tarkington
Booth Tarkington
Booth Tarkington was an American novelist and dramatist best known for his Pulitzer Prize-winning novels The Magnificent Ambersons and Alice Adams...

, Ben Hecht
Ben Hecht
Ben Hecht was an American screenwriter, director, producer, playwright, and novelist. Called "the Shakespeare of Hollywood", he received screen credits, alone or in collaboration, for the stories or screenplays of some 70 films and as a prolific storyteller, authored 35 books and created some of...

, Clarence Darrow
Clarence Darrow
Clarence Seward Darrow was an American lawyer and leading member of the American Civil Liberties Union, best known for defending teenage thrill killers Leopold and Loeb in their trial for murdering 14-year-old Robert "Bobby" Franks and defending John T...

, Alexander Woolcott and Dorothy Parker
Dorothy Parker
Dorothy Parker was an American poet, short story writer, critic and satirist, best known for her wit, wisecracks, and eye for 20th century urban foibles....

. Oliver Wendall Holmes and H.L. Mencken were also early members along with a number of fledgling science-fiction writers such as Eric Frank Russell
Eric Frank Russell
Eric Frank Russell was a British author best known for his science fiction novels and short stories. Much of his work was first published in the United States, in John W. Campbell's Astounding Science Fiction and other pulp magazines. Russell also wrote horror fiction for Weird Tales, and...

,Edmond Hmilton and Damon Knight
Damon Knight
Damon Francis Knight was an American science fiction author, editor, critic and fan. His forte was short stories and he is widely acknowledged as having been a master of the genre.-Biography:...

.

Dan Oldenburg in the Washington Post said of the all-volunteer staffed International Fortean Organization, "Its membership ranges from hard-core skeptics to top scholars to true believers -- but its cornerstone is open-mindedness."

The Willis brothers owned a bookstore in the States (Arlington, Virginia) and were also publishers of SF fanzines and magazines of speculative fiction and non-fiction, notably "Anubis". They enjoyed a long-time correspondence and relationship with many Fort-inspired science fiction writers such as Fritz Leiber
Fritz Leiber
Fritz Reuter Leiber, Jr. was an American writer of fantasy, horror and science fiction. He was also a poet, actor in theatre and films, playwright, expert chess player and a champion fencer. Possibly his greatest chess accomplishment was winning clear first in the 1958 Santa Monica Open.. With...

, Philip K. Dick
Philip K. Dick
Philip Kindred Dick was an American novelist, short story writer and essayist whose published work is almost entirely in the science fiction genre. Dick explored sociological, political and metaphysical themes in novels dominated by monopolistic corporations, authoritarian governments and altered...

, Robert Anton Wilson
Robert Anton Wilson
Robert Anton Wilson , known to friends as "Bob", was an American author and polymath who became at various times a novelist, philosopher, psychologist, essayist, editor, playwright, poet, futurist, civil libertarian and self-described agnostic mystic...

 and, especially Robert A. Heinlein
Robert A. Heinlein
Robert Anson Heinlein was an American science fiction writer. Often called the "dean of science fiction writers", he was one of the most influential and controversial authors of the genre. He set a standard for science and engineering plausibility and helped to raise the genre's standards of...

, who remained a loyal member and friend to INFO until his death. Paul was an exceptionally avid letter and article writer and had long-running data exchanges with an international group of nascent forteans including Bob Rickard
Bob Rickard
Robert "Bob" J M Rickard is the founder and editor of the UK magazine Fortean Times: The Journal of Strange Phenomena, which debuted in 1973 under its original title The News. The magazines express purpose is to continue the documentary work of Charles Fort on the strange, anomalous and unexplained...

 who went on to found "The Times" in 1967, later the "Fortean Times
Fortean Times
Fortean Times is a British monthly magazine devoted to the anomalous phenomena popularised by Charles Fort. Previously published by John Brown Publishing and then I Feel Good Publishing , it is now published by Dennis Publishing Ltd. As of December 2010, its circulation was approximately 18,000...

", which was encouraged to expand with the help of corporate sponsorship. Rickard, and others, urged Paul Willis to publish. INFO was incorporated as a non-profit in 1965. The "INFO Journal: Science and the Unknown" was born shortly thereafter in the Spring of 1967.

Membership was set at $12US and Heinlein would dutifully send in a check which was promptly framed and put on the wall. Heinlein would then send in a letter complaining that his check had not been cashed, along with suggestions for articles and improvements and, that too, would be framed and put on the wall. This incident is mentioned more than a few times in the "INFO Journal".

Ron Willis, with help from his brother Paul, and in collaboration with Jacques Bergier
Jacques Bergier
Jacques Bergier , was a chemical engineer, member of the French-resistance, spy, journalist and writer...

, in 1974 brought out the book, Extraterrestrial Intervention, the Evidence, published by Henry Regnary Company in the US and as in France as Le Livre de l'inexplicable by Editions Alvin Michel. The authorship (or editorship) is credited to "Jacques Bergier and the Editors of INFO" and contains many articles reprinted from the "INFO Journal".

The Willis', under the banner of the International Fortean Organization, had also started a conference called FortFest with speeches given by and largely attended by those working in the field of anomalous phenomena. Early INFO conferences included INFO members David Drake
David Drake
David Drake is an American author of science fiction and fantasy literature. A Vietnam War veteran who has worked as a lawyer, he is now one of the premier authors of the military science fiction subgenre.-Biography:...

, also a long-time member of the INFO Board of Directors, who went on to have over one hundred science-fiction novels published and the legendary fortean John Keel
John Keel
John Alva Keel, born Alva John Kiehle was an American journalist and influential UFOlogist best known as author of The Mothman Prophecies.-Biography:...

 who frequently presented at FortFest, as often as his intermittent health permitted. Keel was, and still is, an advisor and friend to INFO and would give FortFest a generous plug during his stint as a contributing editor at Fate Magazine
Fate Magazine
Fate is a U.S. magazine about paranormal phenomena. Fate was co-founded in 1948 by Raymond A. Palmer and Curtis Fuller, suspended print publication in July 2009, and launched a new website in January 2010 featuring news, articles, and blogs written by experts and paranormal researchers.Promoted as...

 and be available for midnight wit and wisdom consultations. Keel also gave INFO collections of his early magazine publishing efforts which inspired many articles in the INFO Journal and which INFO lent to Board member Mark Chorvinsky
Mark Chorvinsky
Mark Chorvinsky was a stage magician, entrepreneur, filmmaker and writer, but he was best known as the founder, editor and publisher of Strange Magazine and the website.He was born in 1954 to Irma and Milton Chorvinsky....

 who was eager to start his own magazine, Strange. Keel started his own short-lived, prestigious, New York Fortean Society and named Phyllis Benjamin as a Founding Member and awarded her his often called "coveted" Falling Frog Award for contributions to continuing the work of Charles Fort in 1988. Other recipients of the Falling Frog Award included notable fortean writers/researchers Doug Skinner
Doug Skinner
-Music:Skinner has written music for many dance companies, including and . He has often written for the theater: in particular, he has had a long association with the actor/clown Bill Irwin; he wrote and performed the music for Irwin's Murdoch , The Regard of Flight , The Courtroom , The Clown...

 and Antonio Huneeus.

The Willis' and an ex-pat American living in Canada who called himself Mr. X (after one of Charles Fort's unpublished novels) were concerned that Fort's works, in the public domain, would be lost to posterity and engaged in a letter campaign and, eventually, went to New York City to Dover Publications, Inc. to urge them to publish the works. Dover complied and the following is from "The Complete Works of Charles Fort", 1974 edition with an introduction by Damon Knight
Damon Knight
Damon Francis Knight was an American science fiction author, editor, critic and fan. His forte was short stories and he is widely acknowledged as having been a master of the genre.-Biography:...

 "Founder and President of Science Fiction Writers of America, author "Charles Fort, Prophet of the Unexplained":..This Dover edition;...a replication of the omnibus volume originally published for the Fortean Society by Henry Holt and Company, New York in 1941. The four books by Fort are unabridged and unaltered, but the 1941 Introduction by Tiffany Thayer has been omitted...The present edition has had the encouragement and cooperation of the International Fortean Organization (Info), P.O. Box 367, Arlington, Virginia 22210."

The Arlington post office box was moved to P.O. Box N, College Park, MD 20740 to reflect the location of the INFO offices and the INFO Library in College Park. Paul Willis relocated to College Park following the 1975 death from a brain tumor of Ron Willis. An office was found for INFO's 10,000+ books and large collection of clippings, files, and magazines such as the complete issues of "Doubt" dating back to the original Fortean Society along with letters from Theodore Dreiser, Tiffany Thayer and Ben Hecht. The original notes of Charles Fort had been donated to the New York Public Library where it remains today.

INFO rented space in the Washington, D.C. suburbs. Paul Willis named the building NO! in protest of a new-age bookstore called YES! who had rejected an INFO-visiting Bob Rickard who had petitioned YES! to carry the works of Charles Fort, The Fortean Times
Fortean Times
Fortean Times is a British monthly magazine devoted to the anomalous phenomena popularised by Charles Fort. Previously published by John Brown Publishing and then I Feel Good Publishing , it is now published by Dennis Publishing Ltd. As of December 2010, its circulation was approximately 18,000...

 and the INFO Journal. INFO remained based in College Park for over twenty years until a fire necessitated a move in 2003.

The International Fortean Organization (INFO) holds a solid niche in the annals of forteana.

Sources

  • Harvey, David (1986), Thorsons Complete Guide to Alternative Living, p. 300, Thorsons, Indiana University
  • Science Digest (1978), p. 50, v. 83, Jan-Jun, Hearst Corp.
  • Robert Todd Carroll
    Robert Todd Carroll
    Robert Todd Carroll , Ph.D., is an American writer and academic. Carroll has written several books and skeptical essays but achieved notability by publishing the Skeptic's Dictionary online in 1994.-Early life and education:...

      (2003), The Skeptic's Dictionary, p. 150, Body, Mind & Spirit
  • Gunderloy, Mike (1993), Factsheet Five, item notes 47-48, University of Michigan
  • Michell, John and Rickard Bob (2000), Phenomena: A Rough Guide Special, p. 367, Rough Guides
  • Spence, Lewis (2003), Encyclopedia of Occultism and Parapsychology Part 1: V. 1, Edition: 3, p. 341, Kessinger Publishing
  • McGovern, Una (2007), Chambers Dictionary of the Unexplained, p. 238, Chambers Harrap Publishers Limited
  • Gardner, Martin, p. 49, Fads and Fallacies in the Name of Science
  • Oldenburg, Dan (2003), p. C1, The Man Who Has The Fringe Tied Up In Knots, Washington Post
  • Wilson, Colin (1995), p. 80, The American Spectator, Saturday Evening Club, University of Virginia
  • P.M.H. Atwater, Peter R. Rothschild (1999), p. 314, Future Memory, Hampton Roads Publishing
  • Skinner, Douglas (June 2005), Tiffany Thayer, Fortean Times.
  • Alfvegren, Skylaire (2006), Charles Fort: Dogma Be Damned II, LarryFlynt.com.
  • Walsh, Dave (1999), Blather, issue 3no.7.
  • Benjamin, Phyllis (September 2005), A Tribute to Mark Chorvinsky, Fate.
  • Drake, David (2000) Newsletter #1 [1]
  • Elfis, Austin ParaTimes
  • Scifipedia entry "230 INFO...X-Files".
  • Wilson, Colin, Alien Dawn, pp. 5, 44, 206 ( FortFest, Colin Wilson and Phyllis Benjamin meet Gerald Hawkins' doppleganger)
  • Keel, John, (Spring 1975), The Flying Saucer Subculture, Journal of Popular Culture, "...International Fortean Organization (INFO) carries on his name as successor to the Fortean Society."
  • Lumir G. Janku, (1976), "The Modern Past, Batteries and Electric Devices: The Corso Effect" http://www.altarcheologie.hI/strange
  • Biography of Michael Swords, Ph.D., www.ufoevidence.org/researcher/detail17.html
  • The INFO Journal: Science and the Unknown
  • FortNite Tapes 2006, comments by Hoffberger, Arnold, Benjamin
  • Notes and Letters from Robert Heinlein from the collection of the International Fortean Organization
  • Cambridge Conference Correspondence, Tunguska, http://abob.libs.uga.edu/bobk/ccc/cc040501.html
  • FOAFTale News, Newsletter of International Society for Contemporary Legend Research, no.37, (June 1995), Forteans Disown Book
  • Helmut Optiz (2008), "World Guide to Scientific Associations and Learned Societies", p. 308, University of Michigan
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