Charles Fort
A FORT IN THE FAMILY
EG: I first heard of you when by some strange twist of fate I decided to look for Charles Fort pictures on Instagram, assuming I’d come away empty handed. Instead, I found pictures of his great nephew! When did you first hear of Charles Fort?
PS: It was from my grandmother, Hattie, when I was a kid. She’d say, “You’re just like your Uncle Charlie” – but I didn’t know who that was. I mean, I knew that she was a Fort, but I never put the two together at all.
EG: So when did the penny drop?
PS: I was in high school and it was when she saw me reading The Book of the Damned and said, you know, that’s your Uncle Charlie. I looked up at her, totally shocked!
EG: Did that instigate a search for more Fort material?
PS: Absolutely. And then she brought out all these books, that I still have, signed and made out to different family members, and she said, “Yes, this is your Uncle Charlie. This is who I’ve been talking about. He wrote all these books on strange phenomena.” I had no idea!
EG: Did you ever hear any family stories or anecdotes about Fort?
PS: Unfortunately, not really – just that the family respected him, but thought that he was a little out there.
EG: Does your family have any letters written by him?
PS: Absolutely! My parents and Aunt Nancy gathered everything together when I told them about this interview and surprised me by bringing it all to me. I’m now the official Fort archivist for the family!
There are several pictures of him and his brothers together, a few letters, his father’s will, and a half dozen newspaper clippings relating to his writings. This material was shared with Damon Knight and Jim Steinmeyer when they were writing their books about Fort.1
I’ve also gone down to the New York Public Library to see his actual notes and all the index cards and everything. That was fascinating.
EG: I’m always hoping that there’s a stash of forgotten Fort material somewhere. Or that if he went to the British Library every day, maybe they kept a note of the newspapers and books he consulted.
PS: I
