80 WHO KILLED CLAUDE KENDALL? THE MYSTERY MURDER OF CHARLES FORT’S PUBLISHER
Millions of Americans celebrated Thanksgiving in the comfort of their homes on 25 November 1937, but for one man fate reserved a different outcome. That same night, in a room on the eighth floor of a New York hotel, Claude Kendall was brutally beaten to death. At that time, he was a New York publisher of some repute. He had brought sensational books to the fore, like Octave Mirbeau’s Torture Garden and Twisted Clay, a controversial novel featuring a female psychopath on a rampage, including patricide, prostitution, drugs and suicide. The book was even banned in Australia and Canada. Today he is especially remembered as the man who published Charles Fort’s last two books, Lo! and Wild Talents.
Described at the time of his death as “a publisher of esoteric literature” and of moderately successful mystery thrillers,Kendall had also earned a less savoury reputation in some quarters: “Speaking of the late Claude Kendall, the publisher of books definitely more spicy and erotic, if you please, than exotic or esoteric… what kind of books was the late Mr Kendall most noted as publishing? It was a view that persisted after his death. In his biography of Fort, Damon Knight calls him “a rather dubious publisher”, but he doesn’t explain why.
