Discipline: Literature

John Fuller

Discipline: Literature
Region: New England
MacDowell Fellowships: 1971, 1973, 1973, 1974

John Grant Fuller, Jr. (1913-1990) was a New England-based American author of several nonfiction books and newspaper articles, mainly focusing on the theme of extraterrestrials and the supernatural. For many years he wrote a regular column for the Saturday Review magazine, called "Trade Winds". His books include The Ghost of Flight 401, We Almost Lost Detroit, Incident at Exeter, and The Interrupted Journey.

Incident at Exeter (1966) concerned a series of well-publicized unidentified flying object (UFO) sightings in and around the town of Exeter, New Hampshire in the fall of 1965 (see the Exeter incident). Fuller personally investigated the sightings and interviewed many of the eyewitnesses; he also claimed to have seen a UFO himself during his investigation.

The Interrupted Journey: Two Lost Hours "Aboard a Flying Saucer" (1966) tells the story of the Barney and Betty Hill abduction. The Hills were a married couple who claimed to have been abducted in 1961 by the occupants of a UFO in the White Mountains of New Hampshire while returning home from a vacation. The book was the first to seriously claim that competent, reliable witnesses were being abducted by UFOs for medical and scientific experiments.

Aliens in the Skies (1969) is based on transcripts from the July 29, 1968 Congressional Hearing Before the House Committee on Science and Astronautics where experts such as Carl Sagan and J. Allen Hynek testified on the possibility of UFOs.

Fuller wrote The Great Soul Trial (1969) about the disappearance of Arizona Miner James Kidd and the later trial regarding his will, which left his fortune to anyone who could prove the existence of the human soul. The book was published prior to the final resolution of the case in 1971.

Surgeon of the Rusty Knife (1974) was about the life and purported supernatural healing powers of a psychic surgeon in Brazil. A poor review in The Ghost of Flight 401 (1976) was based on the tragic Eastern Air Lines Flight 401 airplane crash in December 1972, and the alleged supernatural events which followed; it was eventually turned into a popular 1978 made-for-television movie.

Are The Kids All Right? (1981) focused on The Who concert disaster at Riverfront Coliseum in Cincinnati on December 3, 1979. Fuller suggested that hard rock music's hypnotic rhythms mean the music "ignites and is responsible for unprecedented and potentially disastrous concert violence on a regular and continuing basis".

He wrote two plays — The Pink Elephant, which opened in 1953, and Love Me Little, which opened in 1958, both on Broadway.