A minor Fortean.
And another who sits at the nexus between Forteanism and free thought.
I do not know much about his early life. He may have been born John William McCarthy in Ohio around 1866 to an Irish immigrant father and native-born mother, but it isn’t exactly clear. (Or, possibly, his father was from Virginia.) Likely he was married to Mary Grace Sprague in Canada on 26 August 1937. During the 1930s he seems to have moved between Clifton, New Jersey and Boston, Massachusetts. (Or, maybe, he was only in New Jersey.) Pinning him down is difficult given the ubiquity of, and confusion surrounding, his name.
Although there is a listing in the 1930 census of a man who was likely him and was employed as a magazine writer, I do not see him coming to public recognition until the 1940s, by which time he was entering his seventies. In 1943, he published a massive book “Bible, Church and God” through New York’s Truth Seeker company. It ran to over seven-hundred pages, almost certainly the compilation of years worth of thought. There may have been a second edition in 1946; there was certainly a posthumous republication, in 1972. In 1947, he published a pamphlet—which I have not seen—attacking the Truth Seeker Company, “Democracy Or Dictatorship?: A Reply to Lawyer Smith and the 'Truth Seeker.’” Judging by the title, McCarthy was unhappy with Charles Smith, who recently took over the organization, and its journal. Although the “Truth Seeker” magazine was one of the most influential free-thought publications of the 19th century, under Smith it became more conservative and fell into disfavor.
And another who sits at the nexus between Forteanism and free thought.
I do not know much about his early life. He may have been born John William McCarthy in Ohio around 1866 to an Irish immigrant father and native-born mother, but it isn’t exactly clear. (Or, possibly, his father was from Virginia.) Likely he was married to Mary Grace Sprague in Canada on 26 August 1937. During the 1930s he seems to have moved between Clifton, New Jersey and Boston, Massachusetts. (Or, maybe, he was only in New Jersey.) Pinning him down is difficult given the ubiquity of, and confusion surrounding, his name.
Although there is a listing in the 1930 census of a man who was likely him and was employed as a magazine writer, I do not see him coming to public recognition until the 1940s, by which time he was entering his seventies. In 1943, he published a massive book “Bible, Church and God” through New York’s Truth Seeker company. It ran to over seven-hundred pages, almost certainly the compilation of years worth of thought. There may have been a second edition in 1946; there was certainly a posthumous republication, in 1972. In 1947, he published a pamphlet—which I have not seen—attacking the Truth Seeker Company, “Democracy Or Dictatorship?: A Reply to Lawyer Smith and the 'Truth Seeker.’” Judging by the title, McCarthy was unhappy with Charles Smith, who recently took over the organization, and its journal. Although the “Truth Seeker” magazine was one of the most influential free-thought publications of the 19th century, under Smith it became more conservative and fell into disfavor.