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Charles Fort Memorial Online Library

Aaaargh!

From Dagon by H.P. Lovecraft
The end is near. I hear a noise at the door, as of some immense slippery body lumbering against it. It shall not find me. God, that hand! The window! The window!
A bit of a find this! Short stories, essays, poetry and other stuff, by H.P. Lovecraft.

The H.P. Lovecraft Library

Quite readable formatting too.
 
I was just wondering if something like this had been mentioned before. It is a great idea and worth doing - it would fit in nicely with the Fortopedia and Recommended Reading lists.

Perhaps someone might want to make two lists:

1. Currently available online Fortean books and pos. an idea of the range we are looking at (do we include stuff like Dante, Machiavelli, Lewis Carroll etc? I'd say yes but......). We can then check if they are available under some kind of GPL/Open Source license and if not we can drop them a line and see if they'd be interested in a mirror version.

2. A wishlist - basically anything pre-1923 is fair game (just open your Fortean books and go through the references ;) ).

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Important works include:

Gould and Pyle's Anomalies and Curiosities of Medicine - hasn't been mentioned before (I believe):

http://www.gutenberg.org/index/by-author/go10.html

[edit3: It is also available froma couple of the links above as well:

http://www.blackmask.com/cgi-bin/links/jump.cgi?ID=b7328

http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/book/subjectstart?R ]

This Sun Tzu site has a lot of old texts from strategists which is of interest (pos. not strictly Fortean but.......):

http://www.sonshi.com/library.html

[edit2: overly unde's link is great and there are lots more old cryptozoological material there:

http://www.herper.com/ebooks/titles.html ]

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Would the management give us the space to build the library here? One thing that might be interesting is offering the plain text/html version for free (and it would be good form to submit them to the Gutenberg Project) but having a subscription area with high quality PDF reproductions of the books (the subscription could cover the extra bandwidth). A similar thing was mentioned (pos. in the Fortopedia thread) for offering PDFs of the magazine online.

It would be a great resource for people who are just interested in the field and a subscription area would be a vital resource for researchers.

[edit: Added some more thoughts into the Fortopedia thread:

http://www.forteantimes.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&postid=288905#post288905 ]
 
Esoteric Archives

incl. works by Trithemius, "Steganographia"
Dr John Dee
Giordano Bruno
Classical Grimoires
Angel Registry
Lovecraft and the Arts Necronomica
Info. on Kabbalah
 
Quixote: Nifty :)

I'd like to add the following to a wish list:

Jonas Dupont, (1763) De Incendiis Corporis Humani Spontaneis. (Leyden)

There also appears to be a doctoral thesis on this:

D. Davidis van Royen. Incendiis Corporis Humani Spontaneis

While searching I found this:

http://www.journalofburns.com/read.php?articlerow=152

and it is someitmes possible that authors of recent scientific papers would be happy to make a version available so that might be worth investigating.

There are other important early SHC resources that might be worth looking for:

Baron Justus von Liebig (1851) in the Familiar Letters on Chemistry

Dr. Gavin Thurston (1932) British Medical Journal (18th June)

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On the subject there is no reason why we couldn't throw in fiction which deals with Fortean subjects - in the case of the above a copy of Bleak House would seem appropriate.

Emps
 
Encyclopaedia Mythica

(I've just found this site originally posted over in Cryptozoology by Stu Neville on a 'Nephilim/biblical giants query' thread, thought it would be of use on here too.):)
 
Another on-line library with some pretty good stuff, been using it for a couple of years now but not recently so hopefully it's still functioning.....

http://www.ku.edu/carrie/stacks/

Covers lots of stuff and did at one point have Harry Houdini's book on magic and fradulent mediums.
 
Literary Classics

The list of authors is quite long on this site, so I'll edit to books pertaining to fortean culture only:

literature,org

L.Frank Baum (most of the books of 'Oz')
Bronte sisters....
Edgar Rice Burroughs
(extensive list)
Lewis Carroll
(Alice...books and Hunting of the Snark)
Wilkie Collins
Charles Darwin
{Voyage of the Beagle
{Origin of Species
{The Descent of Man
Descartes
Charles Dickens
Arthur Conan Doyle
(Sherlockian stories)
John Milton
{Paradise Lost & Paradise Regained)
Edgar Allen Poe
{The Cask of Amontillado
{The Pit and the Pendulum
{The Assignation
{The Tell-Tale Heart
{A Tale of the Ragged Mountains
Mary Shelley
(Frankenstein.......)
Bram Stoker
{Dracula
{Dracula's Guest
{Lair of the White Worm
Jules Verne

Beowulf on Steorarume (Cyberspace)
Incl. supplementary texts: Finnsburgh, Woden's Nine herb Charm, Caedmon's Hymn
Also incls. List of Monsters and Old English Glossary and maps
 
It's da feds!

The FBI website has a resource section of files that come under the Freedom of Information Act and are available to view.

Introduction to resources

Alphabetical Listings

examples: Lizzie Borden, J.Edgar Hoover, Kennedy Clan, Charles Lindbergh, Watergate, Osage Indian Murders.

Violent Crimes

examples: John Wayne Gacy, Atlanta Child murders, Ted Bundy

Unusual Phenomena

Listing: Animal/Cattle mutilation, Majestic 12, Project Blue Book, Roswell, Unidentified Flying Objects
 
Are there important journals/magazines which are of interest to Forteans that are beyond copyright?

I spotted a reference to an important black dog study from volume 49 of Folklore 1938) and I assume it probably has quite a few important articles.

Quixote: Excellent stuff there - literature can often shape our interpretations of anomalous events and they are all important works in the various fields.

Emps
 
Flying Saucer Stuff.....

A 'Classic Contactee' site here

George Adamski 'Inside the Spaceships' online text

A classic UFO journal here 'Enemies from Outer Space' 1967
 
While I think of it Chapter 7 of the Reverend Henry Cheever's "The Whale and His Captors" (published 1853) is available online:

http://www.du.edu/~ttyler/ploughboy/cheever.htm#chapvii

Technically all of his book is available there but Chapter 7 is the one which includes the information about the 'sea serpent' attack on a whale (pos. really a giant squid) and the illustrations are reproduced too (including the one of the attack).

[edit: There is a lot of other whale/whaling related publications on there although I'm not sure if they are of Fortean interest]

Emps
 
Sacred Texts

The above page- 'Esoteric & Occult' has links to info./studies on:

Thelema
Enochian Magic
Theosophy
Americana
Atlantis
Tarot
Alchemy
Rosicrucian
Golden Dawn
Nostrodamus
Oahspe
Chaos Magic
Erisian
Thee Temple Ov Psychic Youth
Necronomicon (Lovecraft)
UFO's
Piri Re'is Map

Also Fort's 'Book of the Damned' and 'New Lands'
 
Quixote: Excellent find - the Piri Re'is map reproduction shows the potential for storing other types of media. The UFOs page:

http://www.sacred-texts.com/ufo/index.htm

Also raises the issues of storing BBS, mailing list, etc. information too - something worth thinking about.

The copyright notice in the Fortean area:

Note on Copyrights

According to Mr. X (personal communication):

"...way back in 1973, I conducted my own search of the U.S. Copyright Office records. I discovered that the original copyrights on Fort's books lapsed at the end of their original 28-year period, as the copyrights were not renewed. Both Fort and his widow had died, and apparently, no one bothered to renew the copyrights or knew their value, (these would have been distributed in the estate of Fort's widow). I also discovered, many years later, that Fort directed that his notes and papers were to be made available to Fortean researchers. Simply put, all of Fort's work is in the Public Domain."

http://www.sacred-texts.com/fort/

rasies the question about putting all his various writings and clippings online - what kind of access do we have to it all? This, obviously, would be an important section in itself.

Emps
 
I have spoken to Mr X on the question of Fort's publications and their availability, etc.. Some of his comments (reproduced with permission):

For your reference, as well as your fellow forum members, there was a period of a few months, a couple of years ago, that my URL was unavailable to most people. Everything was on-line and available to those linked directly to my own ISP, but Network Solutions and my ISP refused to let me change my domain
registration to another company and falsely claimed that my URL was unavailable. The only other times that my web-site might be unavailable is when it is being updated, (the usual service interruptions), with new files.

Also, thanks to you, I see that my work has been plagiarized, again, by people copying my work from Resologist.net and presenting it as their own work. It appears the link to "FORT CORRESPONDENCE" provided by "Quixote," (http://dave.pluckerbooks.com:81/works/fortc/dreiser/), is nothing more than an edited copy taken from my web-site. How do I know? One of my typos is copied, exactly, but that can happen when you copy and paste files and do not have the original material for your proofreading! I've recently discovered that Arthurwendover.com has converted my files into a single xhtml file and copied all of my footnotes in the process. And, now, I see that Blackmask.com
has also copied my files and claims copyright upon this material! For shame upon them!

Also we have quite a bit more to look forward to including parts of an unpublished book as well as more letters, reviews, a short story, etc. (I haven't reproduced this bit as I wasn't sure how much he wanted made public).

[edit: He also mentione he had added his family tree to Ancestry.com which I dropped in here:

http://www.forteantimes.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=12024 ]

He does ask:

If you have any information to add to my Fortean bibliography, please let me know. And, perhaps, if there is some interest, I could add a page of links to books of Fortean interest to my web-site. There are quite a few old tomes concerning psychic phenomena that are now available on the Internet. I, also,
recently obtained a rare copy of "The Watseka Wonder" by E.W. Stevens and plan to add it to my web-site.

So if people know of any other material or have any ideas then feel free to pass them on.

Emps
 
Yikes...

I hope I haven't caused any offence to Mr X by posting those links they seemed genuine but if the work is plagarised by that guy, I'd rather delete them, would someone please advise?
 
Quixote: You aren't at fault here - in fact your finds have helped give a higher profile to this issue ;)

I'll clarify the copyright situation with him and it should be easy enough to resolve.

Emps
 
Cheers, got a bit worried there:(

I hope he does allow access to some of his works and the books he's mentioned.
 
Quixote:My understanding (and I've asked Mr. X to calrify some points) is that the 1995-1998 publications of Fort's books weren't just a repackaging of Fort's books but more of a joint effort as Mr. X went through it fixing typos, missing lines, following up the citations and fixing and standardising them so it is in essence a joint work. If you look in the fron you'll see the opyright notice for the first edition and then a more recent copyright for X.

Although Fort's work isn't under copyright and is free for us to distribute, etc. what Mr. X makes available on his site is his shiny, improved and copyrighted version. I assume ther was a misunderstanding (from people probably not au fait with the ins and outs of the various publications) and the sites have thought it was fine to redistribute the more recent revmaped versions.

The solution would be to actually make the first editions available online, explain the misunderstanding and get these first editions in circulation (with a reference to the improved vesion). However, I don't have access to it (I have the recent versions) so..........

Emps
 
I have deleted the links to Dave Plucker's site re: the Dreiser/Fort correspondence. (reason being the originals can be found on Mr X, Consulting Resologist site- link to which has already been posted elsewhere on this thread)

*Am glad that I have helped in some way re: the copyright issues and material. Will also keep my eye open for any more relevant stuff.
 
Quixote said:
I have deleted the links to Dave Plucker's site re: the Dreiser/Fort correspondence. (reason being the originals can be found on Mr X, Consulting Resologist site- link to which has already been posted elsewhere on this thread)

*Am glad that I have helped in some way re: the copyright issues and material. Will also keep my eye open for any more relevant stuff.

Yep that makes sense - the links might as well point at the definitive version as it is still a work in progress.

If anyone finds any other good resources then throw them in ;)

Emps
 
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