JOHN KEEL NOT AN AUTHORITY ON ANYTHING

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This photo and article appeared in the Perry Herald, August 30, 1956.  Pattern for Adventure would soon be published as Jadoo; and John would soon be promoting it with his cobra act in a shop window on Times Square.

John Keel bestows the prestigious Falling Frog Award on Timothy Green Beckley. This solemn ceremony took place at a meeting of the New York Fortean Society, sometime in the late ’80s or early ’90s.

John put out 11 issues of his newsletter, Anomaly, from 1969 to 1974.  He never copyrighted it or sold it; he used it mostly to collect and distribute fortean newspaper clippings to his mailing list.  (They have been posted at www.scribd.com.)  The 12th issue was never issued, but he did paste it up.  It’s only four pages long; and contains a farewell note, two pages of clippings, and a list of his books.  I apologize for the yellowed newsprint and browning rubber cement, but I thought you’d like to see it as is.

John Keel published several booklets in the ’90s, under the imprint of the New York Fortean Society. They reprinted articles he’d published earlier, elsewhere (see the bibliography for details).

One of these was The Flying Saucer Subculture, from 1994. It contained an article John had written in 1973 for The Journal of Popular Culture (published in 1975), with an added “Afterword.”

The article is a thorough history of ufology, detailing its literature, personalities, and theories. John took delight in adding 105 footnotes, as well as a three-page bibliography. His assessment was, as is to be expected, negative: he dismissed most of the literature as “almost totally paranoid and insane,” and a “sea of trash.” He did, however, single out many researchers for approval, including John Michell, Brad Steiger, Jacques Vallee, and Gordon Creighton.

The “Afterword,” coming twenty years later, expressed even more disaffection with the field. He noted the deaths of many prominent writers, and dismissed the remaining crop of buffs as “pathetic mediocrities and discombobulated psychopaths”; and concluded that “American ufology remains a sad little hobby for a tiny group of severely maladjusted people.” He noted that “great progress has been made in Europe and elsewhere,” and decried the diminishing quality of the American literature: “The collapse of all cultural standards in the late 1970s meant that the Madison Avenue publishers no longer applied sensible criteria or followed a code of ethics.”

I drew the cover for this booklet; John and I had great fun with all the ufological in-jokes.

This poem appeared in the March 1948 issue of Chief, a small (only four pages) publication “edited and published by Dr. Clyde F. Noel” in Seattle.

Project “B” 1966 was a small pamphlet that John put together in 1967: only six pages, photocopied, and stapled together.  It was intended for other researchers; Otto Binder, for one, summarized it in his book What We Really Know About Flying Saucers (1967).

There were an unusual number of UFO reports in 1966; and in these few pages, John analyzed and categorized them by their time and location.  Wednesdays were the most active day of the week; the 4th week of March the most active week of the year; Ohio the most active state.  August 16, between 9:00 and 11:00 pm, was the largest “flap” that year, with many sightings, landings and auto chases reported across the country.  John also reprinted an article he wrote for the Flying Saucer Review (March-April 1967), “North America 1966.”

He also gave his conclusions.  John’s position on UFOs changed over the years; this is what he thought in 1967.

This photo appeared in the New York World-Telegram on July 25, 1949.  It accompanied the column “Teen Talk,” which spotlighted other up-and-coming adolescents.  And speaking of the Bowery News, one of John’s fellow contributors made this sketch of him at around the same time.

And, for good measure, a picture of Ben “Hobo” Benson as well.

Keel and Moseley in the same room!  Watch out!  Duck and cover!

The two arch-rivals are seen here in a photo from the May, 1969 issue of Beyond; accompanying an article by Timothy Green Beckley, “Red-Eyed Winged Creature Terrorizes W. Virginia Town.”

I’ll bet it was quite a party…

1967 was a particularly strange year for John. He had realized that he was increasingly unhappy writing for television, and had turned away from the field. By late 1967, he had become a full-time ufologist and fortean, and was fielding a daily barrage of bizarre reports from witnesses and from other researchers, and puzzling over strange letters and phone calls.

Many other researchers were too; and the field had become a tangled mess of rumors, disinformation, hoaxes, tests, accusations, and suspicions. It seems as if UFOS were often forgotten in the confusion. Gray Barker was in the middle of it all, and known to stir things up for the fun of it. I suspect that was the case here: he sent this letter to John, addressed to fellow researcher Jim Moseley; the references to “the old man,” the numbers, and the odd signature seem designed to promote paranoia. John suspected it was a prank, but also considered the possibility that it was a hoax by someone else to test his response, sow dissension, or track channels of communication; and he and his contacts exchanged long letters about these possibilities. As I said, it was a strange year.

ADDENDUM (12/12/12): I’ve posted a better scan of the letter. And I’m adding John’s notes on the letter.