Fulton Oursler American journalist Date of Birth: 22.01.1893 Country: USA

1. Early Life and Education
2. Journalistic Career
3. Crusade Against Fraudulent Spiritualism
4. Editorship and Alcoholics Anonymous
5. Religion and Writing
6. Film and Literary Contributions

Early Life and Education

Fulton Oursler was born in Baltimore, Maryland, a bustling port city on the east coast of the United States. As a child, he developed a passion for reading and stage magic. Raised in a devout Baptist family, he declared himself an agnostic at the age of 15.

Journalistic Career

Oursler's early employment was as a reporter for the Baltimore American, a broadsheet newspaper that closed in 1986. Upon moving to New York City, he became an editor for The Music Trades, a trade magazine. As a freelance writer, Oursler contributed to numerous publications early in his career. His short stories soon appeared in magazines such as The Black Cat, Detective Story Magazine, and The Thrill Book, with Mystery Magazine featuring many of his tales. Several of Oursler's stories, such as "The Magician Detective," integrated the subject of magic into the narrative.

Crusade Against Fraudulent Spiritualism

During the 1920s, Oursler assisted illusionist Harry Houdini in his crusade against fraudulent spiritualists and mediums. As part of this crusade, Oursler adopted the pseudonym Samri Frikell, a play on the names of two other magicians, Samuel "Samri" Baldwin and Wiljalba Frikell. From 1921 to 1941, Oursler served as the controlling editor of various magazines and newspapers owned by Bernarr Macfadden, a physical culture promoter. Macfadden encouraged the writer to drop the name "Charles," so he became more widely known as Fulton Oursler.

Editorship and Alcoholics Anonymous

Oursler became the editor of Liberty magazine, a general interest weekly publication, in 1931 when Macfadden acquired it. In the fall of 1939, Oursler, still as editor of Liberty, promoted the nascent Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) organization in an article titled "Alcoholics and God." The article generated approximately 800 inquiries to the AA headquarters in New York City. Oursler left Liberty shortly after Macfadden was forced out of his publications company. Oursler had been associated with the company almost continuously from 1921 to 1941, except for a brief period after the success of his 1928 play "The Spider."

Religion and Writing

In 1944, Oursler became Editor-in-Chief of Reader's Digest magazine, where his son would eventually serve as Managing Editor. Earlier in his life, Oursler had married Rose Kaigher, but the marriage ended in divorce after the birth of two children. He remarried in 1925 to Grace Perkins, a former actress who had been raised Catholic but became an agnostic in her youth. The couple raised their children without religious affiliation. Perkins became a significant contributor to Macfadden publications, and several of her novels were made into films.

In 1935, the Ourslers traveled to the Middle East and spent a week in the Holy Land. During the journey home, the author began writing a book called "A Skeptic in the Holy Land."

"I began the book a skeptic," Oursler later wrote, "but in the final chapter, I came close to being converted."

Oursler had assumed that after completing "A Skeptic in the Holy Land," he would put aside religious subjects. However, as the threat of Nazism and communism grew, he found himself increasingly drawn to Christian ethics.

Stricken by the lack of knowledge about the life and teachings of Jesus Christ, Oursler decided to write a narrative of Jesus's story "as simply and interestingly as the most fascinating serialized fiction in the popular magazines." The result was "The Greatest Story Ever Told."

In 1943, Oursler was received into the Roman Catholic Church. The following year, his son converted to Catholicism, and the next year, Grace Perkins returned "to the faith of her childhood." The couple's daughter found faith in 1948. "The Greatest Story Ever Told" was published in 1949, followed by "The Greatest Book Ever Written" in 1951 and "The Greatest Faith Ever Known."

The latter work was completed by Oursler's daughter, April Oursler Armstrong, who published "The Greatest Faith Ever Known" after her father's death in 1953. A film based on Oursler's book, "The Greatest Story Ever Told," was released in 1965.

Film and Literary Contributions

Under the pseudonym Anthony Abbot, Oursler also wrote short stories for Reader's Digest that were used as the basis for the 1947 film "Boomerang!," which follows a prosecutor's pursuit of justice in the murder of a priest. Oursler also co-wrote "Father Flanagan of Boy's Town" (1949), the story of Father Edward J. Flanagan, the founder of Boys' Town, with his son Will Oursler, a noted writer in his own right.

Fulton Oursler died in New York City on May 24, 1952, while working on his autobiography.