Here's Frank Edwards' Fortean magnum opus, a whopping 118 strange cases spread out over 237 pages! Some beautiful cover art reflects the swirling madness within. It's everything and the kitchen sink as Edwards blasts through entry after entry, most barely a page long. The effect is numbing after the tenth example of a ghost, UFO, weird dream or coincidence, etc., and contrary to the interior blurb it's hardly "FULLY DOCUMENTED!" Says researcher Garth Haslam at his Anomalies database :
Edwards was always an entertainer first... and, as such, he often spiced up stories to make them more interesting or to expand them to fill time on the radio, which means he often added new details that were never there before. And because of how popular Edwards' books were, many following "researchers" started to repeat Edwards' new versions of older tales complete with the new fictional details!
The very second entry is just such an example, with those damn Venezuelan hairy dwarfs that would later show up in Warren Smith's work. Haslam has an excellent collection of fact checks on Edwards stories, including several from this very volume. Some other bogus stories include the lost cosmonauts, the Patang Snowman, the restless coffins of Barbados, and psychic "thoughtographer" Ted Serios.
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| Ace Star edition, 1964 |
Other frequent flyer Forteana who make an appearance are Pennsylvania's purple blob, the Tasmanian globster, and many, many strange rains of animals. Again, the sheer repetition leaves the mind well and truly boggled!
Bantam Books, 1969 (original pub. 1964)
Well and truly indeed. Love the links and all the time you spent researching!
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