Myra Kinglsey
Myra Kinglsey was among the cadre of astrologers attracted to—or recruited by—the Fortean Society, the parade led by Carl Payne Tobey. The relationship between astrology and Forteanism, at first blush, seems strained at beast: Fort’s own cosmological hypotheses left little room for the influence of stars (though his sense that humans might be property fit, to some extent, with the idea that human will was controlled by objects in space). Nonetheless, there were a number of professional astrologers associated with the Society, and many with an amateur interest. Likely, it seems that the Fortean Society enjoyed poking fun at astronomers was enough to attract astrologers—even if they often thought astrology itself was a kid of science, just one ignored by the mainstream. (Kinglsey was not among those astrologers who continued what she did a kind of science.)
Kingsley was born 1 October 1897 in Westport, Connecticut, to William Morgan Kinglsey and Susan (Buek) Kinglsey. She had an older brother, and both a younger brother and sister. William was in finance, the census alternately listing him as a stock broker (1900) and bank vice-president (1910). She had an early interest in music, and was taking singing lessons at age 18; her mother decided to send her to the renowned astrologer Evangeline Adams to see what might become of her career. Adams predicted that Kinglsey would forgo music for astrology, which she did.
The family seems to have broken up sometime after 1915, when they were all in the New York census together, or at least separated. The 1920 census had Susan—now going by the name Mary—heading the family in Los Angeles. Maybe they were there because of Myra’s interest in music; it’s not clear. But the whole family was there, besides William, living in a home owned free and clear with a cook and laundress. That decade seems to have been an active one for Myra. She married and divorced. She started her career in astrology. And, as of 14 April 1930, when the census was taken, she was at the Lexington Hospital, in Manhattan, having moved back East at some point. A few years later, she was visiting Bermuda.
By the late 1930s, Life magazine proclaimed her the most famous of all female astrologers. (Adams had passed by this point.) She was associated with the fecund astrology community in New York, and in 1937 did a radio show; astrology, at the time, was popular enough to support 14 different syndicated newspaper columns. But she ran afoul of government regulations, and the program ended. In the fall of 1938 she moved out to Hollywood and became an astrologer to the stars. As Life magazine had it, Kingsley was especially welcomed in southern California, where fortunes came and went and control was desperately sought but rarely won. (There was a nascent metaphysical community there, too.) The story of her coming to astrology along with the way that she practiced her art, places Kinglsey in the more conservative, more traditional camp of astrologers. Around the turn of the century, and just after, there was a movement among astrologers to rejigger their work such that it aimed at understanding the proclivities of a person, what kinds of things were fortuitous for them, and what dangerous. This practice was in contrast to those astrologers who thought themselves capable of predicting the future. Kingsley was among those who tied astrology to fortune-telling, inspired, she said, in part by Adams, who correctly predicted her own career path.
The following summer, according to Life, she predicted there would be no war in Europe; that fascism would find a foothold within the U.S. and on the continent; and that there would be a revolution in 1942. Within a few weeks, Europe had fallen into World War II. For one reason or another, she didn’t stay in southern California very long. The 1940 census has her living in Oakland with her mother, where she was still practicing astrology. (She was married, but her husband was not living with them.) Eventually, she did make her way back south. From what I have seen, her predictions tended to be very generic, even by the standards of astrology, foretelling that there would be continued conflict here and there around the globe, for example, and that the stock market would have dips and rises. (Apparently, she said these things without irony or self-consciousness.) She divorced twice before 1949, but predicted love would still come her way. (I don’t know if she ever remarried.) In 1951, she published her only book, Outrageous Fortune: How I Practice Astrology. Kirkus reviewed it thusly:
“The principles—and practice—of astrology, as Myra Kingsley, who has been highly successful, brings her talent for seeing it in the stars right down to earth and the charting of your life. The accuracy of astrological revelation as applied to happy marriages- and unhappy; babies and the predetermination of their sex; careers; money; theatre runs; death (this cannot be predicted) and disaster; war (1952 is ""bleak astrologically""); and the planetary planning of your life in general (clothes, decor, etc.). Lots of famous names brighten what is for many a dark- and doubtful-science, add to the aura of it all.”
Kingsley lived a long life, dying 20 November 1996, aged 99, in Miami.
Myra Kingsley’s connection to the Fortean Society is minor in the extreme, getting one mention in Doubt. I do not know that she ever wrote about Charles Fort or Forteanism, and her membership ma very well have been pro forma.
The mention came in Doubt 20 (March 1948), with Thayer praising the Saturday Evening Post for plugging Fort. He noted that the magazine had printed a story by Robert Spencer Carr, and included in his author’s bio a bit on Fort. Then he mentioned, “The Post went farther in that issue, taking up MFS Myra Kingsley, an astrologer.” this referred to John Kobler’s profile of Kingsley—titled “Queen of the Crystal Ball”—that ran on page 30 of the 6 December 1947 issue.
It seems likely that Kingsley had only a passing interest in Fort.
Myra Kinglsey was among the cadre of astrologers attracted to—or recruited by—the Fortean Society, the parade led by Carl Payne Tobey. The relationship between astrology and Forteanism, at first blush, seems strained at beast: Fort’s own cosmological hypotheses left little room for the influence of stars (though his sense that humans might be property fit, to some extent, with the idea that human will was controlled by objects in space). Nonetheless, there were a number of professional astrologers associated with the Society, and many with an amateur interest. Likely, it seems that the Fortean Society enjoyed poking fun at astronomers was enough to attract astrologers—even if they often thought astrology itself was a kid of science, just one ignored by the mainstream. (Kinglsey was not among those astrologers who continued what she did a kind of science.)
Kingsley was born 1 October 1897 in Westport, Connecticut, to William Morgan Kinglsey and Susan (Buek) Kinglsey. She had an older brother, and both a younger brother and sister. William was in finance, the census alternately listing him as a stock broker (1900) and bank vice-president (1910). She had an early interest in music, and was taking singing lessons at age 18; her mother decided to send her to the renowned astrologer Evangeline Adams to see what might become of her career. Adams predicted that Kinglsey would forgo music for astrology, which she did.
The family seems to have broken up sometime after 1915, when they were all in the New York census together, or at least separated. The 1920 census had Susan—now going by the name Mary—heading the family in Los Angeles. Maybe they were there because of Myra’s interest in music; it’s not clear. But the whole family was there, besides William, living in a home owned free and clear with a cook and laundress. That decade seems to have been an active one for Myra. She married and divorced. She started her career in astrology. And, as of 14 April 1930, when the census was taken, she was at the Lexington Hospital, in Manhattan, having moved back East at some point. A few years later, she was visiting Bermuda.
By the late 1930s, Life magazine proclaimed her the most famous of all female astrologers. (Adams had passed by this point.) She was associated with the fecund astrology community in New York, and in 1937 did a radio show; astrology, at the time, was popular enough to support 14 different syndicated newspaper columns. But she ran afoul of government regulations, and the program ended. In the fall of 1938 she moved out to Hollywood and became an astrologer to the stars. As Life magazine had it, Kingsley was especially welcomed in southern California, where fortunes came and went and control was desperately sought but rarely won. (There was a nascent metaphysical community there, too.) The story of her coming to astrology along with the way that she practiced her art, places Kinglsey in the more conservative, more traditional camp of astrologers. Around the turn of the century, and just after, there was a movement among astrologers to rejigger their work such that it aimed at understanding the proclivities of a person, what kinds of things were fortuitous for them, and what dangerous. This practice was in contrast to those astrologers who thought themselves capable of predicting the future. Kingsley was among those who tied astrology to fortune-telling, inspired, she said, in part by Adams, who correctly predicted her own career path.
The following summer, according to Life, she predicted there would be no war in Europe; that fascism would find a foothold within the U.S. and on the continent; and that there would be a revolution in 1942. Within a few weeks, Europe had fallen into World War II. For one reason or another, she didn’t stay in southern California very long. The 1940 census has her living in Oakland with her mother, where she was still practicing astrology. (She was married, but her husband was not living with them.) Eventually, she did make her way back south. From what I have seen, her predictions tended to be very generic, even by the standards of astrology, foretelling that there would be continued conflict here and there around the globe, for example, and that the stock market would have dips and rises. (Apparently, she said these things without irony or self-consciousness.) She divorced twice before 1949, but predicted love would still come her way. (I don’t know if she ever remarried.) In 1951, she published her only book, Outrageous Fortune: How I Practice Astrology. Kirkus reviewed it thusly:
“The principles—and practice—of astrology, as Myra Kingsley, who has been highly successful, brings her talent for seeing it in the stars right down to earth and the charting of your life. The accuracy of astrological revelation as applied to happy marriages- and unhappy; babies and the predetermination of their sex; careers; money; theatre runs; death (this cannot be predicted) and disaster; war (1952 is ""bleak astrologically""); and the planetary planning of your life in general (clothes, decor, etc.). Lots of famous names brighten what is for many a dark- and doubtful-science, add to the aura of it all.”
Kingsley lived a long life, dying 20 November 1996, aged 99, in Miami.
Myra Kingsley’s connection to the Fortean Society is minor in the extreme, getting one mention in Doubt. I do not know that she ever wrote about Charles Fort or Forteanism, and her membership ma very well have been pro forma.
The mention came in Doubt 20 (March 1948), with Thayer praising the Saturday Evening Post for plugging Fort. He noted that the magazine had printed a story by Robert Spencer Carr, and included in his author’s bio a bit on Fort. Then he mentioned, “The Post went farther in that issue, taking up MFS Myra Kingsley, an astrologer.” this referred to John Kobler’s profile of Kingsley—titled “Queen of the Crystal Ball”—that ran on page 30 of the 6 December 1947 issue.
It seems likely that Kingsley had only a passing interest in Fort.