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Mighty_Emperor

Gone But Not Forgotten
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Aug 18, 2002
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I was looking for something else and stumbled acros this paper which gives a great overview of Corliss' work.

Corliss, W.R. (2002) A Search for Anomalies. Journal of Consciousness Studies. 16 (3). 439 - 55.

Since 1965 I have been culling systematically from the literature of science those observations that challenge reigning paradigms. The tangible result of the thousands of hours spent in libraries has been a series of Sourcebooks, Handbooks, and Catalogs that, at present, describe and evaluate roughly 2,000 anomalies — about one-half of my total collection. Some of these anomalies are truly profound and have important implications for science, such as the quantization of astronomical redshifts; others are less significant, as is the recent discovery of that curious little door in one of hte Great Pyramid's "air-shafts." Overall, this immense accumulation of anomalies will hopefully encourage new research projects, some paradigm shifting, perhaps even the emergence of yet-undreamed-of hypotheses that will better describe nature.

This historical essay begins in 1951 with my astonishment at my unexpected discovery that important scientific anomalies not only exist but also are pervasive and abundant in the professional journals. The essay continues with the translation of these two epiphanies into the Sourcebook Project and the 36 books on anomalies that it has published so far.

Keywords: anomalies, Sourcebook Project

It is freely available (as a PDF) from this page:

http://www.scientificexploration.org/jse/abstracts/v16n3a6.php

Link is dead.
 
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Sourcebook Project

I would highly reccomend any of Mr. Corrliss books, as well as his newsletter. The books in stock list is quite dangerous to my financial wellbeing though.
 
Re: Sourcebook Project

Pooka said:
...The books in stock list is quite dangerous to my financial wellbeing though.

The only thing that puts me off Corliss is the nagging worry that if I get hold of one of his books I'm going to have to buy the rest.

Does anyone know if you can get them in the UK or do you have to order tham via the website? I'd really like the chance to flick through a couple before I batter my visa card to death.
 
I doubt if anyone could continue the work of the late William Corliss in collecting and compiling scientific anomalies, but is anyone (family or whoever) still marketing his many books?
 
Hell yes, not necessarily something to read from cover to cover in one sitting but worth getting and reading a few pages per day. And dipping into when needed.

Basically yes buy them :)
 
They seem to have a supply of books big enough for the current demands so I don't think you'll have any worries buying at the end of the year. As to which to go for - basically go with your interests, or if you're after general then go for Science Frontiers I or II.
 
Corliss's stuff is great, well worth the money. I've bought a few of his books and need to get around to buying more - - I'm worried they may go out of print (some already have).
 
I'm fortunate enough that our local library has a couple (I think the Science Frontiers ones) and I devoured them.

Excellent reads, one and all.
 
Corliss' books are on their last legs. He self-published the Sourcebooks and the supply of printed copies may be running out, not to be reprinted.

For more than three decades, a Baltimore physicist named William Corliss collected scientific journal reports of these and thousands of other strange phenomena into dozens of books, culminating in his multivolume “Catalog of Anomalies,” a shadow encyclopedia of things science doesn’t understand.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/life...2c02e6-c8e8-11e9-a4f3-c081a126de70_story.html

I'm surprised his heirs have not sold the rights. Someone would buy them, I think.
 
I always fancied owning them, but expecially being UK based, I hadn't much chance.
 
Who owns the rights? Could they be published as ebooks for researchers?
 
I had never heard of William Corliss. I shall endeavor to correct that over this weekend. Thanks for bringing him to my attention, as his work seems very interesting.
 
William R Corliss's books are now on the Internet Archive:
Anomalies in Geology: Physical, Chemical, Biological https://archive.org/details/B-001-002-524/mode/2up
Handbook of Unusual Natural Phenomena https://archive.org/details/B-001-001-892/mode/2up
Incredible Life: A handbook of biological mysteries https://archive.org/details/B-001-001-777/page/n3/mode/2up
Biological Anomalies: Mammals I https://archive.org/details/B-001-001-786/mode/2up
Biological Anomalies: Mammals II https://archive.org/details/B-001-001-787/mode/2up
Unknown Earth: a handbook of Geological Enigmas https://archive.org/details/unknownearthhand00corl
Biological Anomalies: Humans I https://archive.org/details/biologicalanomal00corl/page/n3
Rare Halos, Mirages, Anomalous Rainbows and Related Electromagnetic Phenomena https://archive.org/details/rarehalosmirages00corl
The Unfathomed Mind: A handbook of unusual mental phenomena https://archive.org/details/unfathomedmindha0000unse
Earthquakes, Tides, Unidentified Sounds and related phenomena https://archive.org/details/earthquakestides00corl
Ancient Man: a sourcebook of puzzling artifacts https://archive.org/details/CorlissAncientMan1978
Lightning, auroras, nocturnal lights and associated luminous phenomena https://archive.org/details/lightningauroras00corl
Mysteries beneath the sea https://archive.org/details/mysteriesbeneath00corl
The Unexplained https://archive.org/details/unexplainedsourc00corl

Some of those need a log-in (and you might have to get on a waiting list), but most are immediately accessible.
What a body of work!

Edit: URL for the "Lightning, ..." entry corrected.
 
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Ah, ya clever folks already know about him!
 
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Ohh, I don't know that I've heard of him either. I'm trying to think of whether I'd ever run into his stuff but ...no bells ringing.
Excellent; more stuff to read.
 
I used to buy the archaeology books as they came out - as I recall, I used to buy them on Amazon US and have them shipped to the UK, back in the good ol' days when the pound was worth something. Even so, it was quite pricey.
 
I just ordered 3 of them. 2 from the main website, the other one I had to go to Amazon for. Not a bad price though, $15 plus shipping.

Edit: For anyone curious, I ordered "Scientific Anomalies and other Provocative Phenomena " and "Science Frontiers II: More Anomalies and Curiosities Of Nature" from the website and "Tornadoes, Dark Days, Anomalous Precipitation, and Related Weather Phenomena" from Amazon.

Edit, the twoth: Dark Days simply fascinate me. Hoping there's some stuff about strange fogs, too.
 
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Yay! They just showed up today!

These really do seem to be catalogues of distinct phenomena, rather than endless speculation about what that phenomena is. Really looking forward to deep-diving into these.
 
Back in mid 2019 there were boxed up sets of all the available new copies of the Corliss books for sale on Ebay - for around $300 (listed by members of the Corliss family, in fact). I sweated it for ages - watching as the number available reduced over time, and convincing myself that I couldn't justify the expenditure just then - and maybe, you know, I didn't really need them (what an utterly stupid thing to think).

Then I had a good night on the poker - probably the last game I played, thinking about it. I tend to treat unexpected money as spends (almost a good/bad luck thing with me) so the next day I hit the laptop and a couple of weeks later two hefty boxes full of lovely books arrived from the US. I'm still trawling through them. Best buy I've made in years.

(I'm actually just in the process of making myself a new set of bookshelves - the trigger for which was at least partly having a nice new place to put these.)
 
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