The death of Charles Fort

Charles Fort, the American writer who collected reports of anomalous phenomena, died on 3 May 1932 in the Bronx, New York, hours after entering the Royal Hospital.

Charles Hoy Fort, an American writer and researcher of anomalous phenomena, died on 3 May 1932. The Albany Rural Cemetery Explorer says he entered the Bronx's Royal Hospital that day and grew weaker and lost his sight. His editor visited and showed him an advance copy of his book Wild Talents. Fort died hours later. The cemetery page says some speculate leukemia, while Fort himself believed he had typhoid. His grave lies at Albany Rural Cemetery, in the family plot beside Cypress Pond.

Fort was born in 1874. The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction says he worked from notes taken chiefly at the British Library and New York's public library, drawn from newspaper, magazine and scientific-journal items. From them he compiled books of reports he called inexplicable, among them showers of fish or frogs, disappearances, UFOs and poltergeist activity. The same source says that he aimed his attacks at what he called the scientific priestcraft and its dogmatic dismissal of unwanted observations.

Wikipedia says his books sold well and remain in print. Admirers call themselves Forteans, and the terms Fortean and Forteana are used for the phenomena he collected.