What Is A Fortean?

In the early 20th century, a New York author named Charles Fort began collecting odd bits of information from old newspaper archives and scientific or medical journals found in the New York Public Library.

This included numerous reports of strange lights in the sky, out of place animals or artifacts, spontaneous human combustion, poltergeists, and most famously the inexplicable rain of fish, frogs, and other things. Fort approached these things with skepticism, agnosticism, and a dry wit. Some turned out to simply be newspaper hoaxes or misidentifications, while others remained truly mysterious and unexplainable to this day.

He assembled these collected anomalies into books and, with the help of his friend playwright Theodore Dreiser, published them from 1919 until Fort’s death in 1932. He coined the term “teleportation” and greatly defined what we think of as “the paranormal” as a category or a literary genre.

Ever since screenwriter Ben Hecht’s 1920 review first coined the term, people who research anomalous phenomena or collect odd reports have often referred to themselves as “Forteans” or refer to such anomalies as “Fortean phenomena” or “Forteana.” This includes not just collecting strange newspaper clippings but also interviewing people who claim to have experienced or witnessed bizarre occurrences. Forteans typically cover a wide variety of reportedly anomalous phenomena and take a similarly skeptical and agnostic approach.

Welcome to Fortean Archives!

This is a Fortean website dedicated to reported anomalous phenomena, folklore, and all things considered strange, bizarre, or odd. Here you will find extensive collections of bizarre public domain newspaper clippings and other material, as well as articles on various subjects, helpful resources, datasheets, and indexes for the research of oddities or anomalies. Chronology by publish date is a beautiful thing.

Read: >> Newspapers (Categories)  | >> Articles

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