Founded in 1931 to promote the science-debunking ideas of Charles Hoy FORT by two of Fort’s longtime friends, well-known novelist Theodore Dreiser and Tiffany Thayer. Other members included renowned literary men of the time, such as Alexander Woollcott, Booth Tarkington, Ben Hecht, Burton Rascoe, and John Cowper Powys. Fort himself opposed the idea of founding a society, and it is said that he was brought to the foundation dinner on January 26, 1931, by deception.
In 1937 Thayer, at his own expense, began to issue The Fortean Society Magazine, renamed Doubt in 1944. The publication’s main purpose seemed to be to embarrass scientists by asking questions they could not answer and printing embarrassing articles about their private lives. Thayer died in 1959 and the society disbanded the following year.