Dear Martin / Dear Marcello

Gardner and Truzzi on Skepticism

Dana Richards

• Publisher: WSPC
• Year: 2017
• ISBN:
  9789813203723
• Topic: Mathematics
• Subtopic: Mathematical Analysis
• Index: Mathematics

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In 1952, Martin Gardner wrote the book Fads and Fallacies in the Name of Science, which has become a modern classic of the skeptical movement. He is best known as the Father of Recreational Mathematics, but was also a frank critic of pseudoscientists and a contributor to the Skeptical Inquirer magazine.

Marcello Truzzi was one of the founders of the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal in 1976. He left that and founded the Center for Scientific Anomalies Research, which was more aligned with his views.

Dana Richards presents the unedited, colorful correspondence between these two well-known figures within the skeptical movement as they probed and wrestled with fundamental questions such as:

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• The demarcation problem — how to distinguish good from bad science?
• How should scholars on the fringe (paranormalists) be treated?

--> --> Contents:

• Introduction
• The Road to CSICOP
• The Demarcation Problem
• The Dissolution
• Return to Cordiality
• Index

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--> Readership: Students, researchers and anyone who are interested in the opinions of Gardner and Truzzi on skeptical science. -->
Martin Gardner;Philosophy of Science;Demarcation Problem;Skepticism Key Features:

• Both figures are well-known and well-published; Martin Gardner published over 100 books
• There are no competing titles
• It is simply unique in the skeptical literature
• Even in the larger "science" arena, it is extremely unusual to have such a lengthy correspondence focused on one problem

Chapter 1

The Road to CSICOP

The beginning of the correspondence is quite heavy with letters to Marcello from Martin. This is because Martin did not retain either part of the correspondence. His volume of letter writing was always large and he never kept letters that he would not use again. On the other hand, Marcello did retain Martin’s letters but not his own. (Apparently that was his practice in all his correspondence at the time.)

Before long we have both sides of the conversation. However, throughout this book, there will be letters responding to another letter that was not retained. We have resisted the urge to say what the missing parts were; the reader may be more qualified to guess than we are.

These letters show the natural progression of ideas in the pre-CSICOP thinking. In these letters Marcello takes positions that seem more strident or, at least, less conciliatory than he voiced after leaving CSICOP. For example, he wants to embark on a book project that would embarrass people, he later called protoscientists. Also in a letter to Randi (September 10, 1975) he wrote “I particularly liked your tone in discussing the duped scientists. You were far kinder than I would have been.”

It shows that plans for the new improved Zetetic were underway before Kurtz got involved. In fact, Paul Kurtz is rarely mentioned at all. The events surrounding Marcello’s departure are not the center of any letter. Martin was never directly steering the Committee and Marcello knew that.

Two notes. Occasionally a letter from a third party is included. This is because that letter was filed with this correspondence and enhances it. Second, we have indicated for each letter the letterhead that was used, since it indirectly indicates “where they were coming from.”

[Euclid Avenue]

19 May 1970

Dear Mr. Truzzi

Yes, I saw and clipped that NY Times piece, was intrigued by it, and would indeed be delighted to see a copy of your newsletter. I’m sure you’ve thought of making a book anthology out of it—as McConnell did with selections from his Worm Runner’s Digest.

Our interests certainly overlap enormously—including circuses and carnivals. I was a friend of William Gresham (Nightmare Alley, etc), and numerous ex-carnies. One of the great regrets of my life is that I never joined a carnival for a while in my youth. An old friend in my home town of Tulsa, OK, Roger Montandon used to publish The Juggler’s Bulletin. I myself once got as far as 4 balls—or rather 4 rolled-up socks, which I used for practice after washing them (in my bachelor days).

The article in Psyche was just a cut and edited version of my chapter on Fort in Fads and Fallacies; they obtained rights from Dover without telling Dover anything about the nature of the forthcoming periodical. My only pseudo-science in recent years was an article on D.O.P (dermo-optical perception)—about those Russian ladies who read with their fingers. It appeared in Science, February 11, 1966, and has been reprinted in a Scott Foresman paperback anthology, Research in Psychology, edited by B. L. Kintz and J. L. Bruning.

I’m generally a poor correspondent—but I’ll do my best, and I certainly look forward to your book on occultism and would enjoy seeing your paper. I have been too busy with other things to keep up with the fantastic upsurge in occultism, astrology, (even Scientology!), though I clip articles of interest when I happen on them. (I’m sure you saw the good exposé of Ted Serios in Popular Photography, October 1967.) (I have an amusing letter from Rhine in which he praises Eisenbud as a competent scientist, and he says he is reserving judgment on Serios until more research has been done!)

All best,
Martin Gardner

[Euclid Avenue]

28 May 1970

Dear Mr. Truzzi

This calls for no response—just a quick note of thanks for the delightful material you sent—all of which I read with utmost interest.

Only two items come to mind worth mentioning:

In 1939 a mimeographed book appeared from Pyramid Publishers (Box 116, Edgewood P.O., Providence RI) called Hurry, Hurry, Hurry! (42 pages) subtitled “A Handbook of the Modern Carnival Midway,” by “Doc” and “The Professor.” Alas, I no longer have a copy and it’s probably hard to locate. I mention it because it is not well-known and because it is the best reference I have seen on carnival game gaffs and it is accurate. (There is a detailed explanation for the loose floorboard technique of controlling a vertical wheel.)

The reference in your newsletter to Mencken’s piece on Veblen (which I have in my files) prompts me to say I once wrote a curious short story (Esquire, April 1947) about Veblen, of whom I have been a lifelong admirer. It is called “The Conspicuous Turtle” and was about a Prof. at the Univ. of Chicago who taught Veblen’s economic views by day and at night was a jewel thief who stole the most outrageous examples of conspicuous waste. Copies of this, too, have slipped out of my hands. I recall that I ended with a horrible pun, “The Veb and the Rocks.”

I mentioned you a few days ago to William Kaufmann, editor of W. H. Freeman and Co. (now owned by Scientific American), as a possible source for a book of excerpts from the newsletter (or some other book). He seemed genuinely intrigued and took your name, so you may hear from him. If you have no publisher for your book on the occult revival, he might be interested. It is a small firm, but has excellent distribution in college bookstores.

Best,
Martin Gardner

P.S. Your paper on the occult boom is excellent—I learned a lot from it.

[Euclid Avenue]

6 June 1970

Dear Mr. Truzzi

Greatly enjoyed the newsletter you sent and was pleased also to get Sanderson’s piece. I know of his society but do not take his journal. We have exchanged some letters on this and that, but I cannot count myself among his admirers—he is a charming rogue, not very knowledgeable in the sciences—and it’s hard to say how much of what he has written he really takes seriously.

I did not know of Braithwaite’s book, which sounds worth looking into when I get a chance. I checked a folder on carnivals and pass along the following references for whatever they may be worth:

Time, August 30, 1956, p. 38+ (on sociologist Krassowski, who joins a carny every summer and seems to have made a special study of them.)

Time, September 29, 1958, p. 41+ (long article on carnies.)

NYT Book Review, March 13, 1960, no page recorded (Gresham’s review of the novel And Where it Stops Nobody Knows, by David Mark, Doubleday.

NYT Book Review, February 19, 1956, p. 5 (Gresham’s long review of Herbert Gold’s novel The Man Who Was Not with It, Atlantic-Little Brown.)

Life, September 13, 1948 (long article by Gresham, “The World of Mirth”.)

NYT Magazine, May 18, 1952 (“Carny Biz—Bigger Than Ever,” by Gilbert Millstein)

You know, of course, of the recent Trident Press book on Carnivals, which I have not yet seen, though I have heard the author on the Long John Nebel radio talk show here. (Long John himself is an ex-carny. He reviewed the book for NYT Book Review, but I failed to record the date.)

Frederic Brown’s Madball (Fawcett paperbacks) is an amusing carnival novel. Clayton Rawson’s Headless Lady is an earlier mystery about carny life.

Gresham’s ex-wife, Joy Davidson, by the way, married C. S. Lewis, the Anglican Church apologist. (His book titled Surprised by Joy, puns on the event. It’s a wild story—too long to tell now. When Gresham saw the book, his comment was: “It should have been called Overwhelmed by Joy.)

Will look forward to your carnival paper. This demands no reply.

All Best,
Martin Gardner

[Postcard]

8 June 1970

Dear Mr. Truzzi:

It occurs to me that Dennis Flanagan, editor of Scientific American [address withheld] might see in your talk on the occult revival the basis of an article. Anyway, if interested, you might send him a copy with a note saying I asked you to do so. (If I give him mine, I may never get it back!). He’s a grad of the Univ. of Michigan, by the way.

Best,
Martin Gardner

[Euclid Avenue]

26 June 1970

Dear Marcello

I did indeed enjoy the Newsletter you sent. The only reason I don’t seek a subscription is that much of the humor is inside humor among sociologists, so I miss much of it—but what I do understand is top grade.

I’m a Sherlockian only in my admiration for the Holmes saga and I knew the late Bill Baring-Gould who did the mammoth Annotated Sherlock Holmes for Clarkson Potter Inc (2 vols, $25.00). I’ve attended one Baker Street Irregular Annual NYC Dinner as a guest, but I am not a member. (I sneaked some Sherlockian material into the footnotes of my Annotated Casey at the Bat—e.g. one footnote explains that Mudville, for a short time before it vanished, changed its name to Moorville (in Kansas). This clears up the mystery of Moorville mentioned in “The Adventure of the Three Garridebs.” (I said nothing about the story in my footnote, but the Irregulars spotted it and reported it in their publication.)

The Humbug Book is a great idea. I do keep some refs on anti-Xmas items and here is what I have:

1. Time—Dec 23, 1966, p. 44. Full page story headed “A Black Christmas.” It reports on various anti-Xmas articles that year in December issues of Esquire, McCall’s, Holiday, Red Book, Reader’s Digest, and other magazines.

2. NY Times—Dec 25, 1966. Russell Baker’s essay, on editorial page, is anti-Xmas—very funny. (another Baker essay on Xmas on December 14, 1967.)

3. NY Times—Dec 19, 1966, p. 1. Article headed “Office Parties? Humbug! Santa? Needs Analysis!” Refers to article in The American Sociologist, by Warren O. Hagstrom, on “What is the Meaning of Santa Claus?”, Nov/66 issue. (Hagstrom then at the U of Wisconsin.)

4. NYT Magazine—Dec 17, 1967. “Singing those Christmas Holiday Blues,” article by Edwin Diamond.

5. Time—Dec 10, 1965. Long picture article (several pages) on “The Great Festival”. Not specially anti-Xmas, but an interesting round-up of pros and cons.

6. NY Times—Dec 15, 1968. News story headed “Youth in Sweden Stage Protest: Against Xmas” about three anti-Xmas youth organizations in Sweden that put up anti-Xmas posters in department store windows, etc., and their reasons for opposition to Xmas.

7. There must be many anti-Xmas parodies of “Night before Xmas.” I heard one read one night, by a radio personality here, Jean Shepherd (station WOR), which he said was by H. I. Phillips, but he did not give the source. It is about a tired sales girl visited in her dingy apartment by Saint Nick, ending with him calling “Merry Xmas!” as he goes up the air shaft and she yells back “Sez you!”. A correspondent, Dorman Luke [address withheld] collects parodies of Moore’s classic and he tells me he has more than 30. Don’t know if he has the Phillips one or not, but you might induce him to xerox for you any anti-Xmas parodies in the lot.

I have no easy access to a photocopier (I used to have one, but it broke down and I tossed it out last year), but I can let you borrow any of the above items if you like. They are hardly suitable as items for the book, but they might be of use to you in doing your introduction.

Chesterton, in Tremendous Trifles, has a charming essay, “A Shop of Ghosts,” that has as its theme the apparent perpetual dying of Santa Claus. If you want to close the book on a positive note, this could be it. I don’t own any of the many pro-Xmas collections, so I don’t know if this essay by GK was caught by any of the editors or not.

All Best,
Martin

[Euclid Avenue]

9 July 1970

Dear Marcello

No reply to this called for—I am sometimes a compulsive answerer—even worse than waiting 6 months—but I do want to thank you for the delightful book on caldron recipes, and your amusing inscription (and the marvelous jacket photo!).

I knew of the comic book buffs (through friends who used to write comic books for a living) and had heard of the French Crepitator, but not of the book about him. I, too, am not yet convinced he is not imaginary, but several people assure me he is not. The Agony Column Book was new to me also, and I shall look it up and mention it to Dover.

Yes, Holmes’ inductions were pretty awful and even most of the plots are not very good. But the strong sense of reality Doyle achieved, not only for Holmes and Watson, but also for Victorian London, is amazing. I wish I knew how he did it!

Re: Those curious in-groups. I subscribe to two periodicals on origami, to the Baum Bugle (devoted to L. Frank Baum and Oz; the Oz fans have national and regional conventions), to Kalki (about James Branch Cabell), The Wellsian (British society of H G Wells admirers), Jabberwocky (British Lewis Carroll group) and Word Ways (a quarterly on recreational linguistics). Magic became so specialized that about 15 years ago a periodical devoted only to magic with thimbles was being published!

I hope you will consider Freeman and Co as a publisher. They are owned by Scientific American (which assumes good advertising in S.A.) and their distribution to college bookstores is better than the trade book publishers. I have just switched to them (from Simon and Schuster) as the publisher for my Scientific American column collections.

All Best,
Martin

[Euclid Avenue]

4 August 1970

Dear Marcello

Your carnival paper is certainly excellent in all respects, and thank you very much for the advance look at it. I was particularly glad to get an explanation of the z-language, the details of which I did not know.

The issue of American Behavioral Scientist devoted to Velikovsky, was later expanded into a hardcover book, The Velikovsky Affair, edited by Alfred de Grazia (University Books, 1966). It is still available, I think, in remainder stores at a greatly reduced price (original price, $5.95). I have made no attempt to keep up with Velikovsky articles, pro or con, and don’t know of any important anti-V material in response to the American Behavioral Scientist blasts. There is a chapter on V in Daniel Cohen’s Myths of the Space Age (Dodd, Mead, 1967), but it is mostly a reprinting of a Science Digest (which he edited—perhaps still does) article.

Just back from a week in Vermont, with a big backlog of mail and work to hand, so I’ll stop for now.

Cordially,
Martin

[Postcard]

5 February 1971

Dear Marcello:

Thoroughly enjoyed your Sherlock piece (I hadn’t realized he had so much to say about scientific method and theories!) Have passed it along to my old friend, John Shaw, now of Santa Fe. He spoke in NYC last month, at the annual dinner (picketed in 1970 by Women’s Lib!) on pornography in the Canon (unintended word play, etc.). I’ll retrieve the text when your book is published.

All best and thanks,
Martin

[Euclid Avenue]

27 April 1972

Dear Marcello

Many thanks for putting me on the list to receive Explorations. The forthcoming Norman Cousins magazine, World, has asked me to do a long review of Koestler’s Roots of Coincidence (to be published here soon as a companion volume to his book on Kammerer), and I will try to remember to send you a copy. It is an incredibly naive book, t...