The Book of the Damned, published 1919, was the first of four books by Charles Fort. It takes its title from the "damned" data collected by Fort, phenomena which science could not account for, or refused to explain because it did not fit in with prevaling scientific notions.

Much of Fort's damned data has been recuperated by the advances of science since his day, while much remains anomalous or is embraced only by pseudo-scienctists and paranormal researchers. However, Fort's mocking irreverence towards the positivism of the scientists of his day and towards the haste with which scientists or journalists attempted to explain away anomalous phenomena or dismiss them altogether, is still relevant.