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Periodical: Anomaly

Summary: From Pat Deveney's database:

Anomaly.
A Journal of Forteana.
1969--1976 Irregular, "published at indecent intervals"
New York, NY.
Editor: John A. Keel.
Publisher: Specialized Research.
No. 1, May 1969-1976.
4-32 typewritten and reproduced pages; later in print format.
"Not sold by subscription," free copy sent on receipt of a stamped self-address envelope.

Keel (originally Alva John Kiehle, 1930-2009) had been writing on UFOs and anomalies generally in the 1960s in pulp men's magazines like Male and Men and had written the successful The Mothman Prophecies (1967), which popularized the phenomena of "M.I.B. (Men in Black). In true Fortean fashion, in the first issue, devoted to UFOs, Keel wrote: "We hope to establish Anomaly as an irregular newsletter devoted entirely to the statistical and scientific analysis of all the many neglected ecological, parapsychological and psychiatric aspects surrounding the study of aerial anomalies (AA). We are primarily concerned with collecting and correlating all known AA events in a systematic manner so that we may eventually produce a valid body of statistical and corroborated evidence. . . . We have no ax to grind, no 'cause' to prove." This high-minded purpose to study UFOs scientifically soon fell by the wayside and the newsletter was soon almost entirely reduced to printing newspaper clippings and notices on all anomalous topics:

"The Girl Who Usurped a Boy's Body"
"Giant Cannibals in Nevada"
"Hopis Get Prophecy Sign From UFOs"
"The Abominable Chicken Man"
"Mugged While Watching for UFOs"
"Is the Loch Ness Monster Related to UFOs?"
"Vermont Man Says He Visited Venus"
"Water Turns Hair of Coeds Green"
Etc.

Interspersed with these National-Enquirer style clippings were occasional studies ("the highest percentage of UFO sightings seem to take place on Wednesdays") and articles by Keel and others, like Jacques F. Vallee ("A Possible 'M.I.B.' Encounter in Italy, 1952"), Ivan T. Sanderson and William S. Burroughs ("Mind Control") on various mysteries, especially those involving M.I.B. and E. Howard Hunt. The entire run of the newsletter has now been reprinted in paperback as The Collected Issues of the Irregular Newsletter Anomaly (2020).

Issues:Anomaly N0 Prospectus
Anomaly N1 May 1969
Anomaly N2 Sep 1969
Anomaly N4 Jul 1970
Anomaly N5 Oct 1970
Anomaly N6 Feb 1971
Anomaly N7 Fall-winter 1971
Anomaly N8 Summer 1972
Anomaly N10 Nov 1973


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