Speculatin’ about a Kiwi Fortean.
Between 1947 and 1958, Doubt carried the name of a Fortean Society Member known as G. Powell. He was from New Zealand, Dunedin to be exact. A letter from Thayer to Eric Frank Russell makes clear his first name. Because of the difficulties of converting money, Russell handled almost all worldwide membership, but especially those within the British empire. Thayer wrote, in January 1957, that Guy Powell was paying his dues and needed to know when he check cashed so he could send him back issues.
That’s not a lot of information to go on, but it may be enough, as searches of Guy Powell in Dunedin, New Zealand uncovered the likely Fortean. In the mid-1950s, The Journal of the Polynesian Society briefly reported on and published papers by a Guy Powell, born in Dunedin, who seems to have been an autodidact in the mold of many Forteans, with the unusual theories of the autochthonous intellect. This may have also been the same Guy Powell who appeared in Te Karere, the publication of New Zealand’s Mormon community, giving the report on the Dunedin Branch in 1947. We do know from the brief biographies given in the academic journals that he was born there, in Dunedin.
Powell was associated with the Journal of the Polynesian Society as early as March 1950. In September, he published a paper in that journal titled “Notes on a Maoria Whale Ivory Pendant.” This piece was very short, only a brief description and drawing of the object, with a description of its provence. At the time, he was also teaching at Maoria schools, from 1950 to 1952. These were the institutional descendants of missionary schools, with the aim of Europeanizing the population; there had been a change in policy during the 1940s, the goal now preservation of Maori culture, but Powell thought the change had not taken effect.
Between 1947 and 1958, Doubt carried the name of a Fortean Society Member known as G. Powell. He was from New Zealand, Dunedin to be exact. A letter from Thayer to Eric Frank Russell makes clear his first name. Because of the difficulties of converting money, Russell handled almost all worldwide membership, but especially those within the British empire. Thayer wrote, in January 1957, that Guy Powell was paying his dues and needed to know when he check cashed so he could send him back issues.
That’s not a lot of information to go on, but it may be enough, as searches of Guy Powell in Dunedin, New Zealand uncovered the likely Fortean. In the mid-1950s, The Journal of the Polynesian Society briefly reported on and published papers by a Guy Powell, born in Dunedin, who seems to have been an autodidact in the mold of many Forteans, with the unusual theories of the autochthonous intellect. This may have also been the same Guy Powell who appeared in Te Karere, the publication of New Zealand’s Mormon community, giving the report on the Dunedin Branch in 1947. We do know from the brief biographies given in the academic journals that he was born there, in Dunedin.
Powell was associated with the Journal of the Polynesian Society as early as March 1950. In September, he published a paper in that journal titled “Notes on a Maoria Whale Ivory Pendant.” This piece was very short, only a brief description and drawing of the object, with a description of its provence. At the time, he was also teaching at Maoria schools, from 1950 to 1952. These were the institutional descendants of missionary schools, with the aim of Europeanizing the population; there had been a change in policy during the 1940s, the goal now preservation of Maori culture, but Powell thought the change had not taken effect.