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.
In March of 1947, McCarthy was associated with the founding of the American Progressive Association, and the publication of its journal, “Progressive World,” which would seem to be a rebuke to the “Truth Seeker.” “Progressive World” absorbed a number of other free thought and secularist publications, including the of Fortean Hugh Robert Orr (“The Humanist World”). McCarthy, not otherwise associated with any of the other publications, was listed as a contributing editor, and may have been providing capital. The 1946 Clifton, New Jersey, city directory has him as a salesman.
The following year, McCarthy was involved in a controversy with the FCC. The case concerned the FCC refusing the revoke licenses from stations that had themselves refused to give time to atheists. For reasons not clear to me, religious leaders were alarmed by the FCC’s decision, seeing in it the opposite conclusion—that the FCC was going to require equal time for atheists; they wanted the FCC to clarify its ruling so that radio was not open indiscriminately to secular voices. McCarthy, who listed himself as an “absolute atheist,” insisted, “An atheist has precisely the same rights, no more, no less, than a bishop.” He said, “Religious people should not object to we freethinkers coming on and telling our side.”
Two years later on, McCarthy—according to Time magazine, which clearly did not approve of him—helped coordinate a constitutional challenge to a New Jersey law that required students to read Old Testament passages on a regular basis in school. The magazine wrote, “He whistled up his secularist cohorts to the attack. A suit against the state was duly filed by Mrs. Anna Klein, as mother of a student, and Donald Doremus, as a taxpayer, on the ground that the law was unconstitutional.” The car eventually found itself to the Supreme Court, but was dismissed because Doremus was ruled to have no standing as a taxpayer, and the student was allowed to be exempt from the readings.
There continued to be a number of organizational changes and new institutional arrangements in the secular community. (Tiffany Thayer bemoaned the constant infighting of the groups.) The American Progressive Association seems to have become the Progressive World Associates. Then a new umbrella organization was erected, the United Secularists of America, with the PWA becoming a local affiliate based in Clifton. In 1955, McCarthy became the USA’s business manager. Two years on, and McCarthy broke with USA, Progressive World, and Hugh Robert Orr.
In 1957, McCarthy was accused on financial misdeeds; around the same time, Orr, then in Los Angeles, became Progressive World’s editor. A new business manager was named, and the editorial offices moved to LA. McCarthy wanted the Board to fire Orr, but he failed. He resigned, and then, apparently in a snit, refused to turn over the USA’s papers to the new managers. There were lawsuits, but McCarthy died before anything was resolved.
The best that I can determine was that he died in 1958, possibly December.
The only reference to him as a Fortean came posthumously. In Doubt 59 (January 1959)—only a few months before the Society itself passed on—Thayer gave a small eulogy, noting that he had died “this” month. “He had been a member of the Fortean Society for many years, but the promotion of freethought was his greatest interest and enthusiasm. He was a steady contributor of money to secular causes, and deplored the exploitation of disbelievers for profit. He was the principal founder and angel of Progressive World [“Time” magazine had used the same phrase, “angel”] which he had hoped to make an organ of a united front against organized religion. The Realist, mentioned in DOUBT #58, is dedicated to William McCarthy and published by his friends.” Thayer recommended readers subscribe to it.
It may very well be that McCarthy was a long-time member of the Fortean Society, but his interest in Forteanism seems to have been small to non-existent. Most likely, he was recruited to the Society by Thayer when his name started appearing in newspapers. The Fortean Society and free-thought organizations shared a mission in limiting the political power of religious groups; there was an overlap, then, between the first stirrings of the skeptical movement and Forteans in the 1940s and even the 1950s, though eventually this connection would break down, as the skeptical movement became increasingly oriented around protecting the cultural cachet of science and Forteanism in poking wholes in science—though it is also true that, in later incarnations, organized Forteanism would soften its stance on science.
McCarthy was, thus, not so much a Fortean as a Fortean icon—and not so much a Fortean icon as an icon to Tiffany Thayer.
The following year, McCarthy was involved in a controversy with the FCC. The case concerned the FCC refusing the revoke licenses from stations that had themselves refused to give time to atheists. For reasons not clear to me, religious leaders were alarmed by the FCC’s decision, seeing in it the opposite conclusion—that the FCC was going to require equal time for atheists; they wanted the FCC to clarify its ruling so that radio was not open indiscriminately to secular voices. McCarthy, who listed himself as an “absolute atheist,” insisted, “An atheist has precisely the same rights, no more, no less, than a bishop.” He said, “Religious people should not object to we freethinkers coming on and telling our side.”
Two years later on, McCarthy—according to Time magazine, which clearly did not approve of him—helped coordinate a constitutional challenge to a New Jersey law that required students to read Old Testament passages on a regular basis in school. The magazine wrote, “He whistled up his secularist cohorts to the attack. A suit against the state was duly filed by Mrs. Anna Klein, as mother of a student, and Donald Doremus, as a taxpayer, on the ground that the law was unconstitutional.” The car eventually found itself to the Supreme Court, but was dismissed because Doremus was ruled to have no standing as a taxpayer, and the student was allowed to be exempt from the readings.
There continued to be a number of organizational changes and new institutional arrangements in the secular community. (Tiffany Thayer bemoaned the constant infighting of the groups.) The American Progressive Association seems to have become the Progressive World Associates. Then a new umbrella organization was erected, the United Secularists of America, with the PWA becoming a local affiliate based in Clifton. In 1955, McCarthy became the USA’s business manager. Two years on, and McCarthy broke with USA, Progressive World, and Hugh Robert Orr.
In 1957, McCarthy was accused on financial misdeeds; around the same time, Orr, then in Los Angeles, became Progressive World’s editor. A new business manager was named, and the editorial offices moved to LA. McCarthy wanted the Board to fire Orr, but he failed. He resigned, and then, apparently in a snit, refused to turn over the USA’s papers to the new managers. There were lawsuits, but McCarthy died before anything was resolved.
The best that I can determine was that he died in 1958, possibly December.
The only reference to him as a Fortean came posthumously. In Doubt 59 (January 1959)—only a few months before the Society itself passed on—Thayer gave a small eulogy, noting that he had died “this” month. “He had been a member of the Fortean Society for many years, but the promotion of freethought was his greatest interest and enthusiasm. He was a steady contributor of money to secular causes, and deplored the exploitation of disbelievers for profit. He was the principal founder and angel of Progressive World [“Time” magazine had used the same phrase, “angel”] which he had hoped to make an organ of a united front against organized religion. The Realist, mentioned in DOUBT #58, is dedicated to William McCarthy and published by his friends.” Thayer recommended readers subscribe to it.
It may very well be that McCarthy was a long-time member of the Fortean Society, but his interest in Forteanism seems to have been small to non-existent. Most likely, he was recruited to the Society by Thayer when his name started appearing in newspapers. The Fortean Society and free-thought organizations shared a mission in limiting the political power of religious groups; there was an overlap, then, between the first stirrings of the skeptical movement and Forteans in the 1940s and even the 1950s, though eventually this connection would break down, as the skeptical movement became increasingly oriented around protecting the cultural cachet of science and Forteanism in poking wholes in science—though it is also true that, in later incarnations, organized Forteanism would soften its stance on science.
McCarthy was, thus, not so much a Fortean as a Fortean icon—and not so much a Fortean icon as an icon to Tiffany Thayer.
