Tiffany Thayer-Fortean Society-bizarre letters to Limited Editions Club-TLS-1935

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Tiffany Thayer-Fortean Society-bizarre letters to Limited Editions Club-TLS-1935:
$110.00

Tiffany Ellsworth Thayer (1902-1959), author, actor and co-founder of The Fortean Society of New York. Two bellicose letter to George Macy, founder of the Limited Editions Club. The first letter is typed and hand signed in green ink: \"Tiffany Thayer.\" Two pages on Paramount Productions, Hollywood, stationery, dated October 9, 1934. The second is a manuscript letter in green ink on plain yellow stationery, signed \"Tiffany.\"
In the first letter, Thayer takes issue with the Limited Edition Club\'s usage of the word \"secure\" in a book prospectus, the usage of periods inside of quotation marks, and with spectacular vehemence, the Club\'sdecision to have Christopher Morley write the preface for their edition of Tristram Shandy. In the second letter, Thayer complains of not receiving Limited Editions Club books due him. Sizes: 8.5\" x 11\" and 8.5\" x 13\". Tiffany ThayerFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Tiffany Ellsworth Thayer(March 1, 1902 – August 23, 1959) was an American actor, author and founder of theFortean Society.

Contents[show]

Biography[edit]

Born inFreeport, Illinois, Thayer quit school at age 15 and worked as an actor, reporter, and used-book clerk in Chicago, Detroit, and Cleveland. Aged 16, he toured as the teenaged hero in theCivil WardramaThe Coward. Thayer contacted American authorCharles Fortin 1924. In 1926, Thayer moved to New York City to act, but soon spent more time writing.

In 1931 Thayer co-founded theFortean SocietyinNew York Cityto promote Fort\'s ideas. Primarily based in New York City, the Society was headed by first presidentTheodore Dreiser, an old friend of Fort who had helped to get his work published. Early members of the original Society in NYC included such luminaries asBooth Tarkington,Ben Hecht,Alexander WoollcottandH. L. Mencken. The first 6 issues ofDoubt, the Fortean Society\'s newsletter, were each edited by a different member, starting with Theodore Dreiser. Thayer thereafter took over editorship of subsequent issues. Thayer began to assert extreme control over the society, largely filling the newsletter with articles written by himself, and excommunicating the entire San Francisco chapter, reportedly their largest and most active, after disagreements over the society\'s direction, and forofferding them to use the name Fortean. During World War II, for example, Thayer used every issue ofDoubtto espouse his politics. He celebrated the escape ofGerhart Eisler, and namedGarry Davisan Honorary Fellow of the Society for renouncing his American citizenship. In particular, Thayer frequently expressed opposition to Civil Defense, going to such lengths as encouraging readers to turn on their lights in defiance of air raid sirens. In contrast to the spirit of Charles Fort, he dismissed not only flying saucers as nonsense but also the atomic bomb as a hoax by the US government.[1]

Thayer also wrote several novels, including the bestsellerThirteen Women(1930) which was filmed asThirteen Women(1932) and released byRKO Radio Pictures. Thayer wrote a number of novels which contain elements ofscience fictionorfantasy, includingDr. Arnoldi(1934) about a world where no-one can die.[2][3]He also wrote \"America Needs Indians\" and \"Raped Again!\", the latter described as a blueprint for enslaving entire populations.[1]Thayer also wrote an edition ofFrançois Rabelaisfor children,Rabelais for Boys and Girls(1939).[4]

In the profile inTwentieth Century Authors, Thayer was described as \"anatheist, an anarchist-in philosophy aPyrrhonean- and regrets the legitimacy of his birth.\"[4]He listed his hobbies as painting, fencing, and book collecting.[4]

Towards the end of his life, Thayer had championed increasingly idiosyncratic ideas, such as aFlat Earthand opposition to thefluoridationof water supplies.[citation needed]

TheFortean Society Magazine(also calledDoubt) was published regularly until Thayer\'s death inNantucket, Massachusettsin 1959, aged 57, when the society and magazine came to an end. The magazine and society are not connected to the present-day magazineFortean Times.

WritersPaul and Ron Willis, publishers ofAnubis, acquired most of the original Fortean Society material and revived the Society as theInternational Fortean Organization(INFO) in the early 1960s. INFO went on to incorporate in 1965, publish a widely respected magazine,The INFO Journal: Science and the Unknown, for more than 35 years and created the world\'s first, and most prestigious, conference dedicated to the work and spirit of Charles Fort, the annualFortFestwhich continues to this day.

Critical reception[edit]

Thayer wrote genre romances that were disliked by contemporary literary critics.[5]Dorothy Parker, in aNew Yorkerreview ofAn American Girl, said \"He is beyond question a writer of power; and his power lies in his ability to make sex so thoroughly, graphically, and aggressively unattractive that one is fairly shaken to ponder how little one has been missing.\"[5]F. Scott Fitzgeraldsaid \"curious children nosed at the slime of Mr. Tiffany Thayer in the drug-store libraries.\"[5]Kunitz and Haycraft cited an anonymous reviewer who described Thayer\'s work as \"obviously meretricious, but disclosing a narrative gift which might be used to better purpose\".William Tenn, recallingDr. Arnoldimore than sixty years after he had read it, characterized it as \"absolutely fascinating---and disgusting. . . . If you ever find a copy, give it to some sf fan you dislike. Your reward will be the baffled misery in his eyes after he\'s read it.\"[6

Fortean SocietyFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

TheFortean Societywas started in the United States in 1931 during a meeting held in the New York flat of Charles Hoy Fort in order to promote the ideas of American writerCharles Fort. The Fortean Society was primarily based in New York City. Its first president wasTheodore Dreiser, an old friend of Charles Fort, who had helped to get his work published. Founding members of The Fortean Society includedTiffany Thayer,Booth Tarkington,Ben Hecht,Alexander Woollcott(and many of NYC\'s literati such as Dorothy Parker), and Baltimore writerH. L. Mencken. Other members includedVincent Gaddis,Ivan T. Sanderson,A. Merritt,Frank Lloyd WrightandBuckminster Fuller. The first 6 issues of the Fortean Society\'s newsletter \"Doubt\" were each edited by a different member, starting with Theodore Dreiser. Tiffany Thayer thereafter took over editorship of subsequent issues. Thayer began to assert extreme control over the society, largely filling the newsletter with articles written by himself, and excommunicating the entire San Francisco chapter, reportedly their most active, after disagreements over the society\'s direction, and forofferding them to use the name Fortean. During World War II, for example, Thayer used every issue of \"Doubt\" to espouse his politics. Particularly, he frequently expressed opposition to Civil Defense, going to such lengths as encouraging readers to turn on their lights in defiance to air raid sirens. In contrast to the spirit of Charles Fort, he not only dismissed flying saucers as nonsense, but also dismissed the atomic bomb as a hoax.[1]

TheFortean Society Magazine(also calledDoubt) was published regularly until Thayer\'s death inNantucket, Massachusettsin 1959, when the society went on hiatus and the magazine came to an end. Writers Paul and Ron Willis, publishers of \"Anubis\", acquired most of the original Fortean Society material and revived The Fortean Society as theInternational Fortean Organization(INFO) in 1961. INFO continues to this day and went on to incorporate in 1965, publish[citation needed]\"The INFO Journal: Science and the Unknown\" for over 35 years and created the first conference dedicated to the work and spirit of Charles Fort, the annual FortFest.

The original magazineDoubtand society were not connected to the present-day magazineFortean Timescreated by a British fortean and long-time correspondent to Paul Willis, Bob Rickard, who encouraged Willis to publish. Much of the Fortean Society material including material from Fort, Dreiser and Hecht, excepting many of the notes of Charles Fort which was donated to the New York Public Library as a collection, was incorporated into the International Fortean Organization (INFO).

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