New Lands

New Lands is the second nonfiction book of the author Charles Fort, published in 1923. It deals primarily with astronomical anomalies and has been described as "largely a satirical attack upon the pomposity of astronomers".[1]

This article is about the 1923 book. For other uses, see New Land.
First edition (publ. Boni & Liveright)

Overview

In the first part of the book, Fort criticises astronomy, listing predictions astronomers made that never came true.[2] He also continues his attacks on scientific dogma, begun in his previous book The Book of the Damned, citing a number of mysterious stars and planets that scientists failed to account for.

Fort expands in this book on his theory about the Super-Sargasso Sea – a place where earthly things supposedly materialize in order to rain down on Earth – as well as developing an idea that there are continents above the skies of Earth. As evidence, in the second part of the book, he cites a number of anomalous phenomena, including strange "mirages" of land masses, groups of people, and animals in the skies.

Of all of Fort's books, New Lands is the worst-regarded. His speculations (serious or joking, he does not reveal) concerning continents in the sky and the supposed top-like shape of the Earth have dated considerably. It has been suggested that Fort's arrangement of the book - particularly his criticism of astronomers and long-established concepts in its opening chapters - risked it being seen as a piece of "crank literature".[3]

Publication

New Lands was published by Boni & Liveright in 1923. It had poor sales - which led to Boni & Liveright turning down Fort's next book for publication.[4]

Availability

New Lands is available in Dover Publications' The Complete Works of Charles Fort with Fort's other paranormal writings.[5] A paperback version was published in the 1990s.[6] An edited online version is also available.[7]

References
  1. Rickard, Bob (1997). "The Writings of Charles Fort". Charles Fort Institute. Retrieved 2023-01-23.
  2. Steinmeyer, Jim (2008). Charles Fort : the man who invented the supernatural. New York: J.P. Tarcher/Penguin. p. 198. ISBN 978-1-58542-640-9. OCLC 196302255.
  3. Steinmeyer, Jim (2008). Charles Fort : the man who invented the supernatural. New York: J.P. Tarcher/Penguin. p. 204. ISBN 978-1-58542-640-9. OCLC 196302255.
  4. Steinmeyer, Jim (2008). Charles Fort : the man who invented the supernatural. New York: J.P. Tarcher/Penguin. p. 222. ISBN 978-1-58542-640-9. OCLC 196302255.
  5. Fort, Charles (1974). The complete books of Charles Fort. New York. ISBN 0-486-23094-5. OCLC 1287696.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  6. Fort, Charles (1996). New lands. X. (Rev. ed.). London: John Brown. ISBN 9781870870627. OCLC 1285740081.
  7. "New Lands: A Hypertext Edition of Charles Hoy Fort's Book". www.resologist.net. Retrieved 2023-01-22.
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