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THE FORTEAN SOCIETY AND COLUMBUS
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NOTE |
The following document contains a letter sent by Tiffany Thayer, the secretary of the Fortean Society, to Jennings C. Wise, a soldier and lawyer, regarding their shared belief that the New World had been colonized from Europe before Columbus. This letter ended up in the FBI files not because they cared in the least about diffusionism but rather because Thayer was being investigated for sedition due to his controversial publications in the Forteans’ official journal denouncing World War II as “World Fraud II” and alleging that the Great Powers conspired to foment war. Wise, upset that the Fortean Society rejected his book due to his conservative take on fringe history, in contradistinction to their liberal views of fringe history, as well as angry at Thayer for calling him a racist, anti-Semite, and more, immediately reported Thayer to the FBI for sedition, becoming Confidential Informant T-1.
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FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION CASE REPORT
FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION
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Form No. 1
THIS CASE ORIGINATED AT NEW YORK |
FILE NO. 100-7537
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REPORT MADE AT
Richmond |
DATE WHEN MADE
6-23-47 |
PERIOD FOR WHICH MADE
6-19-47 |
REPORT MADE BY
RICHARD H. BLASSER RHB:MEM |
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TITE:
FORTEAN SOCIETY |
CHARACTER OF THE CASE
INTERNAL SECURITY – X |
SYNOPSIS OF FACTS:
Informant T-1 reported he received a letter dated 6-7-47 from the Fortean Society, Box 192, Grand Central Annex, New York City, N. Y., soliciting his membership and advising him that the society is of necessity anarchistic, anti-Catholic, atheist, and accepted all conscientious objectors of World War II, as Honorary members for the duration.
– RUC –
REFERENCE: Bureau letter dated June 17, 1947
DETAILS: AT CHARLOTTESVILLE, VIRGINIA
This report is based on information received from T-1, who advised the following on 6-19-47:
During the course of the latter part of 1946 and 1947, the [REDACTED] sent out [REDACTED]. Among the subscribers was the Fortean Society. TIFFANY THAYER, Secretary, sent T-1 a membership application form for joining the Society and a copy of its publication “Doubt”. Subsequent to several letters written by T-1 to the Society, wherein he joined the Society and then renounced and withdrew his membership because of a misconception of its principles, he received a letter quoted hereinafter in total because of its content.
APPROVED AND FORWARDED: Charles W. Brown, SPECIAL AGENT IN CHARGE
Informant T-1 reported he received a letter dated 6-7-47 from the Fortean Society, Box 192, Grand Central Annex, New York City, N. Y., soliciting his membership and advising him that the society is of necessity anarchistic, anti-Catholic, atheist, and accepted all conscientious objectors of World War II, as Honorary members for the duration.
– RUC –
REFERENCE: Bureau letter dated June 17, 1947
DETAILS: AT CHARLOTTESVILLE, VIRGINIA
This report is based on information received from T-1, who advised the following on 6-19-47:
During the course of the latter part of 1946 and 1947, the [REDACTED] sent out [REDACTED]. Among the subscribers was the Fortean Society. TIFFANY THAYER, Secretary, sent T-1 a membership application form for joining the Society and a copy of its publication “Doubt”. Subsequent to several letters written by T-1 to the Society, wherein he joined the Society and then renounced and withdrew his membership because of a misconception of its principles, he received a letter quoted hereinafter in total because of its content.
APPROVED AND FORWARDED: Charles W. Brown, SPECIAL AGENT IN CHARGE
Letter of Tiffany Thayer to Jennings C. Wise
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Publishers of DOUBT
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THE FORTEAN SOCIETY
Box 192 Grand Central Annex New * York * City |
1931 AD = THE YEAR 1 F S
6/21/17 FS 6/7/47 old style |
[REDACTED ADDRESS OF JENNINGS C. WISE]
[REDACTED GREETING TO JENNINGS C. WISE]
This Society is in deepest sympathy with all efforts toward independent thinking, and we shall call the attention of the membership to your work. However, there is no escaping the emphasis you place upon spirituality, so that you are, in the last analysis, a lay preacher, with unbounded faith in your own doctrine. We cannot embrace that faith or espouse your doctrine, since to do so would lead us down a by-path and, eventually, to another stagnation.
The foregoing is my official expression as Secretary of this Society. Before I continue in that capacity, let me give you my personal reactions [REDACTED] the Mystery of Columbus, which is the only one I have read.
The book was brought to my attention by the pamphleteer, Frank A. Parker. (I see that [REDACTED]) I was attracted because for seven years I have been studying intensively in Renaissance politics, and so, of course, I had come to know how little of the Columbus legend is truly historical: damned little.
Later I read the review [REDACTED] in the World of Books and realized that the work was sufficiently heterodox to interest Forteans. (The book list enclosed will show you the kind of book we offer to our members.)
When I read the book, I was left with three impressions. (1) That the author had taken advantage of the lacunae in the life of Columbus (whom I prefer to call “Colon”), in the same way that one “Notovitch” in an earlier day took advantage of the lacunae in the life of Christ. I hardly need tell you that “Notovitch” wrote The Unknown Life of Jesus Christ, and no scholar or priest can say the book is fiction, simply because the author was at pains to learn all that was “known” about his subject before he painted in the holes to please himself. I think that is what you have done with our friend Cristobal Colon. (2) That the author employed certain rhetorical dodges and elisions (nowadays called “semantics”) whenever facts failed him, from the very beginning of the book. We who write for a living – day in, day out – call this “weaseling”, and being an old hand at it myself I can mark every instance of weaseling in your canon. I do not chide you for it, but you must understand that whenever I come upon it, I am aware that the author is selling me his point of view. The premise to be proved was determined a priori, and then history was semanticised to that end. (Nor can I refrain from mentioning the very numerous typographical errors.) (3) That the author was a Freemason, and that – in all likelihood – I was reading something dictated by the discipline of that order.
Those were my honest impressions. The more nearly accurate they are, the firmer will be your denial of each point.
Since then, I have these [REDACTED] unpublished work, I find nothing in the additional data to change my earlier impressions, but I stand ready to be corrected at all points.
As Secretary, once again, I was surprised at your wish to join us, but delighted if the impulse sprang from Fortean motives. You are [REDACTED]. The Society is of necessity anarchistic. You are [REDACTED], and probably an [REDCATED], – but did you observe the names of Scott Nearing, Norman Thomas, and Harry Leon Wilson Jr., among our Honorary Founders and Accepted Fellows? All three are known for their work for the advancement of the Negro. You have [REDACTED] of which you are proud: the Society accepted all Conscientious Objectors to World Fraud II as honorary members for the duration. You are an admitted patriot, [REACTED] (or at least a [REDACTED]), that is to say, a member of a parasitic class of reactionaries which wants reforming. You are a Christian, an admitted conformist in formal religious observance: the Society is largely atheist (although this not absolutely essential to good Forteanism), and you must have observed the names of prominent Jews among our honored, Ben Hecht and Morris Ernst, for example.
On only one point does your work and attitude conform with ours, that is in anti-Catholicism, and even that you veil and obscure, probably for tactical reasons.
Thus, you see, that while we are glad to bring [REDACTED] to the attention of the membership, we cannot become very ardent boosters. In a word, we suspect your motives, and we do not agree that spirituality is this world’s panacea.
Sincerely,
c/ TIFFANY THAYER
Secretary
TT:m
[REDACTED GREETING TO JENNINGS C. WISE]
This Society is in deepest sympathy with all efforts toward independent thinking, and we shall call the attention of the membership to your work. However, there is no escaping the emphasis you place upon spirituality, so that you are, in the last analysis, a lay preacher, with unbounded faith in your own doctrine. We cannot embrace that faith or espouse your doctrine, since to do so would lead us down a by-path and, eventually, to another stagnation.
The foregoing is my official expression as Secretary of this Society. Before I continue in that capacity, let me give you my personal reactions [REDACTED] the Mystery of Columbus, which is the only one I have read.
The book was brought to my attention by the pamphleteer, Frank A. Parker. (I see that [REDACTED]) I was attracted because for seven years I have been studying intensively in Renaissance politics, and so, of course, I had come to know how little of the Columbus legend is truly historical: damned little.
Later I read the review [REDACTED] in the World of Books and realized that the work was sufficiently heterodox to interest Forteans. (The book list enclosed will show you the kind of book we offer to our members.)
When I read the book, I was left with three impressions. (1) That the author had taken advantage of the lacunae in the life of Columbus (whom I prefer to call “Colon”), in the same way that one “Notovitch” in an earlier day took advantage of the lacunae in the life of Christ. I hardly need tell you that “Notovitch” wrote The Unknown Life of Jesus Christ, and no scholar or priest can say the book is fiction, simply because the author was at pains to learn all that was “known” about his subject before he painted in the holes to please himself. I think that is what you have done with our friend Cristobal Colon. (2) That the author employed certain rhetorical dodges and elisions (nowadays called “semantics”) whenever facts failed him, from the very beginning of the book. We who write for a living – day in, day out – call this “weaseling”, and being an old hand at it myself I can mark every instance of weaseling in your canon. I do not chide you for it, but you must understand that whenever I come upon it, I am aware that the author is selling me his point of view. The premise to be proved was determined a priori, and then history was semanticised to that end. (Nor can I refrain from mentioning the very numerous typographical errors.) (3) That the author was a Freemason, and that – in all likelihood – I was reading something dictated by the discipline of that order.
Those were my honest impressions. The more nearly accurate they are, the firmer will be your denial of each point.
Since then, I have these [REDACTED] unpublished work, I find nothing in the additional data to change my earlier impressions, but I stand ready to be corrected at all points.
As Secretary, once again, I was surprised at your wish to join us, but delighted if the impulse sprang from Fortean motives. You are [REDACTED]. The Society is of necessity anarchistic. You are [REDACTED], and probably an [REDCATED], – but did you observe the names of Scott Nearing, Norman Thomas, and Harry Leon Wilson Jr., among our Honorary Founders and Accepted Fellows? All three are known for their work for the advancement of the Negro. You have [REDACTED] of which you are proud: the Society accepted all Conscientious Objectors to World Fraud II as honorary members for the duration. You are an admitted patriot, [REACTED] (or at least a [REDACTED]), that is to say, a member of a parasitic class of reactionaries which wants reforming. You are a Christian, an admitted conformist in formal religious observance: the Society is largely atheist (although this not absolutely essential to good Forteanism), and you must have observed the names of prominent Jews among our honored, Ben Hecht and Morris Ernst, for example.
On only one point does your work and attitude conform with ours, that is in anti-Catholicism, and even that you veil and obscure, probably for tactical reasons.
Thus, you see, that while we are glad to bring [REDACTED] to the attention of the membership, we cannot become very ardent boosters. In a word, we suspect your motives, and we do not agree that spirituality is this world’s panacea.
Sincerely,
c/ TIFFANY THAYER
Secretary
TT:m
FBI Note on the Preceding Letter
T-1 advised his membership card was numbered [REDACTED] plus, indicating a membership in this number. It should be noted T-1 returned his membership card.
