"Fort is generally remembered, when he is, as a crank's crank and a skeptical satirist, but Steinmeyer seems to argue for a more nuanced view; after all, Fort greatly influenced conspiracy maven Robert Anton Wilson, among other notables. Relying heavily on Fort's correspondence, Steinmeyer details Fort's relationship with Theodore Dreiser, who served as Fort's champion and protector, a post necessitated by Fort's far-reaching criticism and contrarian reactions to the thoughts and writings of other luminaries of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In his career, Fort wrote about victims of spontaneous combustion, introduced the concept of teleportation, and indulged in conspiracy theories and UFO yarns. Crank or delineator of modern concepts of the supernatural, he is a figure worthy of rediscovery. Esteemed not only by Dreiser, Fort was also dismissed by the New York Times and called a damnable bore by H.G. Wells, thus achieving a certain balance of critical appraisal in his own time. Steinmeyer's comprehensive work may allow readers to draw their own conclusions and certainly will afford them much entertainment."—Booklist