Speaking of Charles Fort and locked-room mysteries, here we have an excellent example of the intertwining: C. Daly King’s Obelists Fly High (1935).
King himself, from what I can quickly glean, was an interesting character, an unorthodox psychologist, mystery writer, and something of a theosophist in the Oudpensky tradition. But more on him later, as we move East (and as I more thoroughly research him).
For our purposes, his book is interesting because it appealed to Anthony Boucher, and so can be used to understand how Boucher—and through him, other Bay Area writers—made use of Fortean ideas. Boucher was a proponent of the book. For example, when Willy Ley—the rocket sc eintist and science writer—wrote him in 1942 asking Boucher to guide him through the thickets of science fiction, pointing out the most interesting bits, he recommended a look at King’s book as it “contains much entertaining commentary on Charles Fort.” To another correspondent and obvious Fortean—Gray Chandler Briggs, a medical doctor and roentologist from St. Louis, he wrote, “Have you read G. Daly King’s OBELISTS FLY HIGH, with the gorgeous minor character who keeps trying to solve the mystery by Fortian methods?”
Boucher’s description of the Fortean connections of King’s book, though, undersells how important Fort is to the plot. The story concerns Michael Lord, a New York City police officer, who is charged with protecting a surgeon on a plane trip across the country. The surgeon is off to operate on the Secretary of Defense (who is also his brother) and has received a death threat: he will die at noon central time. And that he seems to do, upon sniffing from a glass bulb Lord hands to him. (The bulb was supposed to contain a gas that helped with nausea.) As it turns out [SPOILER ALERT]
King himself, from what I can quickly glean, was an interesting character, an unorthodox psychologist, mystery writer, and something of a theosophist in the Oudpensky tradition. But more on him later, as we move East (and as I more thoroughly research him).
For our purposes, his book is interesting because it appealed to Anthony Boucher, and so can be used to understand how Boucher—and through him, other Bay Area writers—made use of Fortean ideas. Boucher was a proponent of the book. For example, when Willy Ley—the rocket sc eintist and science writer—wrote him in 1942 asking Boucher to guide him through the thickets of science fiction, pointing out the most interesting bits, he recommended a look at King’s book as it “contains much entertaining commentary on Charles Fort.” To another correspondent and obvious Fortean—Gray Chandler Briggs, a medical doctor and roentologist from St. Louis, he wrote, “Have you read G. Daly King’s OBELISTS FLY HIGH, with the gorgeous minor character who keeps trying to solve the mystery by Fortian methods?”
Boucher’s description of the Fortean connections of King’s book, though, undersells how important Fort is to the plot. The story concerns Michael Lord, a New York City police officer, who is charged with protecting a surgeon on a plane trip across the country. The surgeon is off to operate on the Secretary of Defense (who is also his brother) and has received a death threat: he will die at noon central time. And that he seems to do, upon sniffing from a glass bulb Lord hands to him. (The bulb was supposed to contain a gas that helped with nausea.) As it turns out [SPOILER ALERT]
Lord purposefully gave the surgeon a gas that was supposed to knock him out. He then stored the body in the cargo bay, where he would be protected from the other passengers. But, in Cheyenne, Wyoming, someone sneaks into the cargo bay and slices the surgeon’s throat. The mystery becomes, then, not only who killed the surgeon, but how did they see through Lord’s ruse?
Various passengers offer their opinions. One is a fanatical minister, who sees the hand of God in the proceedings. One is a philosopher, who uses faulty logic (though makes some important contributions). One is Lord’s friend, a psychologist. And one is an English writer who—we find out at the end—uses being a Fortean as a cover and so offers the bizarre theory that the surgeon was killed by an enemy thousands of miles away who hated him so much that he brought the surgeon death—something out of Fort’s Wild Talents. (For what it is worth, King shows a familiarity with all of Fort’s books.) The writer—Hamilton Craven is his name—comes off as a loon.
But, Craven’s comments are actually key clues to unraveling the mystery of who killed the surgeon. The writer continuously points out that Lord is “hypnotized” by science: that he believes too much in it. Fort is a vaccine against such unthinking acceptance of science. And Craven’s right. It is Lord’s unthinking fate in scientists that is his undoing.
You see, Lord actually did give the surgeon a bulb filled with poisoned gas. It had been prepared by another research doctor and professional opponent of the surgeon. Lord was able to imagine all sorts of people committing the crime—young ladies, the surgeon’s assistant, a minister. But he could not imagine a successful scientist murdering someone. Too stringent a belief in science blinded him.
Fort was perfect for the locked room mystery. If, as Sherlock Holmes said, one solved a mystery by eliminating the impossible and accepting what was left, however improbable, then Fort expanded the range of what was improbable but possible, giving mystery writers new solutions. No wonder Boucher found Fort so worthwhile.
* The book offers no definition of "obelist," but I found this: The word “obelist” indicates that something is spurious, a puzzling usage unless one realizes that the titles of King’s novels indicate that the surface levels are “spurious” and that the novels require an esoteric reading.
Various passengers offer their opinions. One is a fanatical minister, who sees the hand of God in the proceedings. One is a philosopher, who uses faulty logic (though makes some important contributions). One is Lord’s friend, a psychologist. And one is an English writer who—we find out at the end—uses being a Fortean as a cover and so offers the bizarre theory that the surgeon was killed by an enemy thousands of miles away who hated him so much that he brought the surgeon death—something out of Fort’s Wild Talents. (For what it is worth, King shows a familiarity with all of Fort’s books.) The writer—Hamilton Craven is his name—comes off as a loon.
But, Craven’s comments are actually key clues to unraveling the mystery of who killed the surgeon. The writer continuously points out that Lord is “hypnotized” by science: that he believes too much in it. Fort is a vaccine against such unthinking acceptance of science. And Craven’s right. It is Lord’s unthinking fate in scientists that is his undoing.
You see, Lord actually did give the surgeon a bulb filled with poisoned gas. It had been prepared by another research doctor and professional opponent of the surgeon. Lord was able to imagine all sorts of people committing the crime—young ladies, the surgeon’s assistant, a minister. But he could not imagine a successful scientist murdering someone. Too stringent a belief in science blinded him.
Fort was perfect for the locked room mystery. If, as Sherlock Holmes said, one solved a mystery by eliminating the impossible and accepting what was left, however improbable, then Fort expanded the range of what was improbable but possible, giving mystery writers new solutions. No wonder Boucher found Fort so worthwhile.
* The book offers no definition of "obelist," but I found this: The word “obelist” indicates that something is spurious, a puzzling usage unless one realizes that the titles of King’s novels indicate that the surface levels are “spurious” and that the novels require an esoteric reading.