M.J. Rose

Odd Salon in the Bay Area is a group that meets to discuss, you guessed it, the Odd. They are an excellent inspiration for all things mysterious and post-worthy, and in a recent meeting, they spoke about The Book of the Damned by Charles Hoy Fort (1874 – 1932) — a treatise on “science” but really more of a tome of poetry and mania describing the unexplained phenomena he felt was being ignored or excluded by standard scientific study. (UFOs, the universe, mythological creatures, etc…) If you have not already delved into this piece of writing, we recommend exploring it.

“The Book of the Damned was the first published nonfiction work of the author Charles Fort (first edition 1919). 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 to be mythological, disappearances of people under strange circumstances, and many other phenomena, the book is historically considered to be the first written in the specific field of anomalistics.” – Summary from Wikipedia

LibriVox has an audio version of the book here. The perfect background for a mysterious mood!

Project Gutenberg offers the complete text of Fort’s The Book of the Damned, here.