Friends, In a dream fulfilled, I am introducing and recording a new edition of Charles Fort’s 1919 The Book of the Damned. Here is a clip from the studio—mistakes included. This is a difficult book to record. Fort’s abstruse and elliptical writing make him more read about than read. But there is no denying his role as one of the seminal outsider intellects of the early twentieth century. As Poe did for horror, Fort did for paranormal reportage: elucidated a genre where none was recognized. He did still more. Fort demonstrated that the absolutes of strict materialist science fail to accommodate discordant phenomena—and, hence, damn them, as in his title. Our aim is creating the signature and unsurpassed audiobook of Fort’s primary work. A thicket of arcane references and pronunciations have resulted in mediocity in past narrations whereas we strive for excellence—none of it possible without the monastic patience, technical virtuosity, and good cheer of engineer Wil Ren at Nowhere Studios in NYC, and the backing and equal patience of G&D Media. Speaking of which, we have a truly splendid cover, which I will soon reveal. In addition to audio, this edition will also appear in print and digital. I will provide on-sale info as soon as I have it. I am proud of my new intro, a bit of which appears here. I think it positions Fort as he deserves: a voice of letters that prefigured our era.