Subject

Writer, thinker, humourist and investigator. Promoted scientific investigation of the paranormal. Born New York state, came to Europe aged 22. Returned to New York and married Anna in 1896. He began writing short stories and published a novel in 1909. He also published a book of events that science could not explain. An inheritance in 1916 meant he could write full-time. They came to London in 1921 and he spent his time in the British Museum continuing his researches and collecting inexplicable events. He argued the feasibility of space travel in Speakers Corner.

Returned to New York in 1929 and, continuing the same work, in 1931 he formed the Fortean Society with Tiffany Thayer and Aaron Sussman. Died in 1932 and his large collection of notes was donated to the New York Public Library.