A Fortean bigger than the Fortean Society. He was one of several authors—along with R. DeWitt Miller, previously discussed—who made a career of ploughing fields that Fort defined. I have been reluctant to write him up, even though his name appears early in the pages of Doubt because in some ways he always represents the end of Forteanism—or a kind of Forteanism: I’m not sure, which is a large part of the problem. I have a feeling that there was some kind of change in Forteanism in the late 1960s and especially the early 1970s. There was a renewal in the field, but also a curdling of the earlier form, a loss of vitality which I see as represented by him. But again, I’m not sure. It doesn’t help the confusion that an important period of his life is historically opaque. With all those caveats in place, let’s see where the story takes us. This’ll be a long and meandering story, even mores than usual. Huge, even, at over 13,000 words. I can’t even say the stories are really entertaining: there’s just a lot of information to process.
Vincent Hayes Gaddis was born 28 December 1913 in Cincinnati Ohio. That made him about a decade younger than Thayer, and younger than the founding Forteans. He would have just turned seven when Fort’s first book appeared, and twenty nine when the last of them did. Vincent was the oldest of six children, followed by Alfred (born ca. 1917), Ruth (born ca. 1920), Naomi (born circa 1922), Paul (born circa 1924), and Wilma (born circa 1930. His mother, Alice, died in 1933 around the time that Gaddis turned 20. She was young, not yet forty, having been born in 1895. She died in childbirth.
Vincent Hayes Gaddis was born 28 December 1913 in Cincinnati Ohio. That made him about a decade younger than Thayer, and younger than the founding Forteans. He would have just turned seven when Fort’s first book appeared, and twenty nine when the last of them did. Vincent was the oldest of six children, followed by Alfred (born ca. 1917), Ruth (born ca. 1920), Naomi (born circa 1922), Paul (born circa 1924), and Wilma (born circa 1930. His mother, Alice, died in 1933 around the time that Gaddis turned 20. She was young, not yet forty, having been born in 1895. She died in childbirth.