William Roger Corliss (born August 28, 1926 in Stanford, Connecticut) is an American physicist and writer who has become known for his interest in collecting data regarding anomalous phenomena.
Arthur C. Clarke has described him as "Fort's latter-day - and much more scientific - successor."
Since 1974, Corliss has published a number of works in the "Sourcebook Project". Each volume is devoted to a scientific field (archeology, astronomy, geology, et cetera) and features articles culled almost exclusively from scientific journals. Corliss was inspired by Charles Fort, who decades earlier also collected reports of unusual phenomena. Unlike Fort, Corliss offers little in the way of his own opinions or editorial comments, preferring to let the articles speak for themselves. Corliss quotes all relevant parts of articles (often reprinting entire articles or stories, including illustrations). Many of the articles in Corliss's works were earlier mentioned by Fort works.
In his book Unexplained!, Jerome Clark describes Corliss as "essentially conservative in outlook". He explains, "Corliss [is] more interested in unusual weather, ball lighting, geophysical oddities, extraordinary mirages, and the like — in short, anomalies that, while important in their own right, are far less likely to outrage mainstream scientists than those that delighted Fort, such as UFOs, monstrous creatures, or other sorts of extraordinary events and entities." Arthur C. Clarke said:
Corliss has written many other books and articles, notably including 13 educational books about astronomy, outer space and space travel for NASA and a similar number for the Atomic Energy Commission and the National Science Foundation.
