Another Fortean in name only, whose presence on the Fortean Society membership rolls says more about Tiffany Thayer, and Forteanism's association with left-libertarianism, than it does about the so-called Fortean. Indeed, he likely had no, or very minor opinions, on Fort at all.
Albert Jay Nock was born 13 April 1870 in Scranton, Pennsylvania, his father a steelworker and Episcopal priest. He grew up in Brooklyn, graduating from what is now Bard College and going on to a brief career in baseball. He too became a priest in the Episcopal church, married, had two children. He separated from his wife, left the clergy, and became a journalist. That was in 1909, around the same time Charles Fort himself was eking out a living doing the same job in the Bronx.
Nock became known for his journalism as well as his books. He championed that economic red-haired stepchild Henry George, a favorite of the Forteans, and his single land-tax idea, editing The Freeman a magazine dedicated to the idea, and writing a book on George. He chafed at the increasing power of government, penning Our Enemy the State in 1935—a shot at FDR’s New Deal. He was militantly opposed to war, seeing it as needless killing done to prop up the state’s authority. These were opinions not so different than those being voiced by Kenneth Rexroth and other left-leaning anarchists, although they would later serve to underwrite parts of the conservative movement.
He died in 1945, just as Thayer’s reconstituted Fortean Society was finding its groove.
Albert Jay Nock was born 13 April 1870 in Scranton, Pennsylvania, his father a steelworker and Episcopal priest. He grew up in Brooklyn, graduating from what is now Bard College and going on to a brief career in baseball. He too became a priest in the Episcopal church, married, had two children. He separated from his wife, left the clergy, and became a journalist. That was in 1909, around the same time Charles Fort himself was eking out a living doing the same job in the Bronx.
Nock became known for his journalism as well as his books. He championed that economic red-haired stepchild Henry George, a favorite of the Forteans, and his single land-tax idea, editing The Freeman a magazine dedicated to the idea, and writing a book on George. He chafed at the increasing power of government, penning Our Enemy the State in 1935—a shot at FDR’s New Deal. He was militantly opposed to war, seeing it as needless killing done to prop up the state’s authority. These were opinions not so different than those being voiced by Kenneth Rexroth and other left-leaning anarchists, although they would later serve to underwrite parts of the conservative movement.
He died in 1945, just as Thayer’s reconstituted Fortean Society was finding its groove.
Nock’s beliefs fit generally with Thayer’s worldview, his distrust of large institutions, be they government or big business—really, not a dime’s worth of difference between those two, Thayer would have said—and his concern that the dignity of human life was being stamped upon. Not just by collectivist tendencies—though those two—but by what we might now call nanny-statism and other cooperative agencies—unions in particular. It is no surprise that Thayer sold some of Nock’s books to Forteans. Nor is it a surprise that Nock was an Associated Fellow of the Fortean Society—as were Norman Thomas, George Seldes, and Manly Hall. The title just meant that Thayer had offered to the person to associate his name with the Society, and the person agreed. It involved no dues paying, no work, and no familiarity with Fort. That Thayer called Nock an Associated Fellow meant that there had (likely) been at least one exchange of letters, and that Thayer would send Nock Doubt, but nothing more. Nock nowhere mentions Fort or Forteans in his autobiography, Memoirs of a Superfluous Man.
Nock is only mentioned three times in Doubt, plus a few other obscure notes. The first came in 1945, as a brief notice of his death. Thayer pointed out that Nock was also a fan of Rabelais, as was Thayer—Thayer, at least, finding Rabelais’s historical period much more respectful of human dignity than the current era. Thayer later mentioned Nock in a list of Associated Fellows (the list was also included in the pamphlet The Fortean Society is the Red Cross of the Human Mind). By Thayer’s fiat, Associated Fellows could be raised to the status of Honorary Founder, replacing the original founders when they died, but since Nock himself was dead he was no longer in the running for that honor. Finally, Thayer mentioned Nock in Doubt 18. His book Our Enemy the State was back in print, and the Fortean Society was selling it.
Nock bumped up agains the Fortean Society in a few other ways, as well. Thayer made available a pamphlet explaining Henry George’s theories (written by E. Winsor, of Malvern Pennsylvania), circulating it at least among other Forteans. There’s a copy in Don Bloch’s papers, for example, marked with the Fortean Society stamp. The pamphlet recommends Nock’s book on George. Thayer also mentions Nock as an influence in his last work, Mona Lisa, which indicates that even after Thayer stopped mentioning him in Doubt, he was still thinking about Nock.
Nock’s membership in the Fortean Society raises a larger question about other famous names that Thayer associated with the Fortean Society. On the Fortean Society letterhead, Thayer listed “Deceased” Forteans. The names did not appear on the earliest stationery, but started to appear in the early 1940s—unevenly, though, as if Thayer were using up old stock while introducing new. The first batch of letterhead with the names of the deceased Forteans listed
Oliver Wendell Holmes
Lincoln Steffens
Clarence Darrow
Havelock Ellis
Harry Leon Wilson
What are we to make of these names? Initially, I wrote them off, as Thayer’s attempt to make Forteanism more famous than it really was. I still think that’s generally true, but the answer is slightly more complicated than that. Thayer seems to have been inspired to honor the founders with Wilson’s death, and there’s no doubt that Wilson had some connection—however tenuous—with the Society. Perhaps that’s true of the others listed here?
It could be. Darrow was in Chicago at the same time as Ben Hecht, and, indeed, defended Hecht in a court case. It is not impossible that Thayer at some point approached him about becoming a Fortean—if only an Associated Fellow, if only before he even invented the category—and Darrow said yes. I have no hard evidence of that, though. Thayer may have been introduced to Havelock Ellis by a mutual friend (and Fortean) Harry Benjamin—albeit the relationship was almost surely epistolary. As for Lincoln Steffens and Oliver Wendell Holmes, I can see no connections, but they were both alive long enough for Thayer to have approached them.
And the reason I think he did approach them is that he was otherwise scrupulous in not attaching to the Society names of people who dod not respond positively. He approached Marian Anderson, for example, the entertainer, and Upton Sinclair, neither of whom showed an interest in the Society, and Thayer never claimed they were associated. Also, over the years, as he updated his stationery, the number of names grew, including some people who were definitely connected to the Society. Felix Reisenberg’s name, for instance, was added, as was Frederick Hammett. And, in time, so was Nock’s. By 1948, fourteen names ran down the side of the stationery, among them Dreiser, Tarkington, Wilson, and Woollcott, all founders.
Thus, while it is likely true that many of these people had little to do with the Society, and little—or no—knowledge of Fort or his works, their association with the Society was not completely invented by Thayer. I strongly suspect—but have not found definitive evidence—that Thayer approached all of these people and received some affirmative response from them. Even if they never read Doubt, paid dues, or thought about Fort, they were Forteans. At least in name. That goes for Albert Jay Nock, too.
Their coming under the umbrella of Thayer’s Forteanism gives us, if nothing else, insight into his thought on the range of Forteanism. For all that Thayer wanted to Society to be about individualism and dissent from official ideas, he was also trying to create a tradition, and place the Fortean Society inside of it. Fort was not enough for Thayer.
Nock is only mentioned three times in Doubt, plus a few other obscure notes. The first came in 1945, as a brief notice of his death. Thayer pointed out that Nock was also a fan of Rabelais, as was Thayer—Thayer, at least, finding Rabelais’s historical period much more respectful of human dignity than the current era. Thayer later mentioned Nock in a list of Associated Fellows (the list was also included in the pamphlet The Fortean Society is the Red Cross of the Human Mind). By Thayer’s fiat, Associated Fellows could be raised to the status of Honorary Founder, replacing the original founders when they died, but since Nock himself was dead he was no longer in the running for that honor. Finally, Thayer mentioned Nock in Doubt 18. His book Our Enemy the State was back in print, and the Fortean Society was selling it.
Nock bumped up agains the Fortean Society in a few other ways, as well. Thayer made available a pamphlet explaining Henry George’s theories (written by E. Winsor, of Malvern Pennsylvania), circulating it at least among other Forteans. There’s a copy in Don Bloch’s papers, for example, marked with the Fortean Society stamp. The pamphlet recommends Nock’s book on George. Thayer also mentions Nock as an influence in his last work, Mona Lisa, which indicates that even after Thayer stopped mentioning him in Doubt, he was still thinking about Nock.
Nock’s membership in the Fortean Society raises a larger question about other famous names that Thayer associated with the Fortean Society. On the Fortean Society letterhead, Thayer listed “Deceased” Forteans. The names did not appear on the earliest stationery, but started to appear in the early 1940s—unevenly, though, as if Thayer were using up old stock while introducing new. The first batch of letterhead with the names of the deceased Forteans listed
Oliver Wendell Holmes
Lincoln Steffens
Clarence Darrow
Havelock Ellis
Harry Leon Wilson
What are we to make of these names? Initially, I wrote them off, as Thayer’s attempt to make Forteanism more famous than it really was. I still think that’s generally true, but the answer is slightly more complicated than that. Thayer seems to have been inspired to honor the founders with Wilson’s death, and there’s no doubt that Wilson had some connection—however tenuous—with the Society. Perhaps that’s true of the others listed here?
It could be. Darrow was in Chicago at the same time as Ben Hecht, and, indeed, defended Hecht in a court case. It is not impossible that Thayer at some point approached him about becoming a Fortean—if only an Associated Fellow, if only before he even invented the category—and Darrow said yes. I have no hard evidence of that, though. Thayer may have been introduced to Havelock Ellis by a mutual friend (and Fortean) Harry Benjamin—albeit the relationship was almost surely epistolary. As for Lincoln Steffens and Oliver Wendell Holmes, I can see no connections, but they were both alive long enough for Thayer to have approached them.
And the reason I think he did approach them is that he was otherwise scrupulous in not attaching to the Society names of people who dod not respond positively. He approached Marian Anderson, for example, the entertainer, and Upton Sinclair, neither of whom showed an interest in the Society, and Thayer never claimed they were associated. Also, over the years, as he updated his stationery, the number of names grew, including some people who were definitely connected to the Society. Felix Reisenberg’s name, for instance, was added, as was Frederick Hammett. And, in time, so was Nock’s. By 1948, fourteen names ran down the side of the stationery, among them Dreiser, Tarkington, Wilson, and Woollcott, all founders.
Thus, while it is likely true that many of these people had little to do with the Society, and little—or no—knowledge of Fort or his works, their association with the Society was not completely invented by Thayer. I strongly suspect—but have not found definitive evidence—that Thayer approached all of these people and received some affirmative response from them. Even if they never read Doubt, paid dues, or thought about Fort, they were Forteans. At least in name. That goes for Albert Jay Nock, too.
Their coming under the umbrella of Thayer’s Forteanism gives us, if nothing else, insight into his thought on the range of Forteanism. For all that Thayer wanted to Society to be about individualism and dissent from official ideas, he was also trying to create a tradition, and place the Fortean Society inside of it. Fort was not enough for Thayer.
