Colin Wilson

The Outsider, by Colin Wilson.

“The Outsider is the seminal work on alienation, creativity & the modern mind-set. First published over forty years ago, it made its youthful author England's most controversial intellectual. The Outsider is an individual engaged in an intense self-exploration-a person who lives at the edge, challenges cultural values & "stands for Truth." Born into a world without perspective, where others simply drift thru life, the Outsider creates his own set of rules & lives them in an unsympathetic environment. The relative handful of people who fulfilled Wilson's definition of the Outsider in the 1950s have now become a significant social force, making Wilson's vision more relevant today than ever. Thru the works & lives of various artists--including Kafka, Camus, Eliot, Hemingway, Hesse, Lawrence, Van Gogh, Nijinsky, Shaw, Blake, Nietzsche & Dostoyevski--Wilson explores the psyche of the Outsider, his effect on society & society's effect on him. Wilson illuminates the struggle of those who seek not only the transformation of Self but also the transformation of society as a whole. The book is essential for everyone who shares his conviction that "a new religion is needed". – Goodreads. This used to be Mike’s copy.

Ranking: Keeper.

File Code: Philosophy. Sociology. Softcover.

The Craft of the Novel, by Colin Wilson.

“The Evolution of the Novel and the Nature of Creativity.” “Links the development of the form to the evolution of human consciousness and explores the creative process.” - AbeBooks. This used to be Mike’s book.

Ranking: Keeper.

File Code: Sociology. Softcover.

The Occult, by Colin Wilson.

“Colin Wilson’s classic work is an essential guide to the mind-expanding experiences and discoveries of the occult in the 20th century. He produces a wonderfully skillful synthesis of the available material—one that sees the occult in the light of reason and reason in the light of the mystical and paranormal. The result is a wide-ranging survey of the subject that provides a comprehensive history of magic, an insightful exploration of our latent powers, and a journey of enlightenment.” – Amazon. A groovy, chatty book, that never really asserts anything but implies much. It’s sort of an advanced version of the Daniel Cohen books of my youth with a dash of Wilson’s psychological theories. Browser, reference, dude speculation, this was Mike’s book.

Ranking: Keeper.

File Code: Speculative History. Softcover.

The Mammoth Book of the Supernatural, by Colin Wilson.

“The most comprehensive survey of the supernatural and the occult ever is written by perhaps the most knowledgeable and creative thinker in the field. Provocative and encyclopedic, the book covers subjects from psychic detection, reincarnation and alternative history to vampires, doppelgangers and Odic forces.” -Google Books. The book to read when you are in a mood brought on by reading Robert Anton Wilson and William S. Burroughs. It’s odd; UFOs, magicians, Bigfeet, lake monsters, ghosts, and other such penumbral phenomena form their own ill-defined genre, not quite a belief system, more of a suspension-of-disbelief system. Its main function seems to be to evoke doubt, wonder, and fear.

Ranking: Keeper, almost Essential.

File Code: Supernatural. Reference. Softcover.