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The best of Colin Wilson in one fantastic volume. Containing extracts from Wilson's work on existentialism, criminology, psychology and the occult, this is an invaluable introduction to one of the late twentieth-century's most incisive thinkers. This is a new edition of the classic Colin Wilson collection The Essential Colin Wilson (first published in 1985), updated and introduced by Wilson's bibliographer Colin Stanley. It is the only book to contain extracts from Colin Wilson's most important work in one volume, including The Outsider (1956), A Criminal History of Mankind (1983), The New Existentialism (1966), The Occult (1971), New Pathways in Psychology (1972) and Mysteries (1978), as we...
The classic study of alienation, creativity and the modern mind 'Excitingly written, with a sense of revelation' GUARDIAN 'Exhaustive, luminously intelligent' OBSERVER THE OUTSIDER was an instant literary sensation when it was first published in 1956, thrusting its youthful author into the front rank of contemporary writers and thinkers. Wilson rationalised the psychological dislocation so characteristic of Western creative thinking into a coherent theory of alienation, and defined those affected by it as a type: the outsider. Through the works and lives of various artists, including Kafka, Camus, Hemingway, Hesse, Lawrence, Van Gogh, Shaw, Nietzsche and Dostoevsky, Wilson explored the psyche of the outsider, his effect on society and society's on him. Nothing that has happened in the decades since has made THE OUTSIDER any less relevant; it remains the seminal work on this most persistent of modern-day preoccupations.
Historian Gary Lachman delivers a fascinating, rollicking biography of literary and cultural rebel Colin Wilson, one of the most adventurous, hopeful, and least understood intellects of the past century. You will embark on the intellectual ride of a lifetime in this rediscovery of the life and work of writer, rebel, and social experimenter Colin Wilson (1931-2013). Author of the classic The Outsider, Wilson, across his 118 books, purveyed a philosophy of mind power and human potential that made him one of the least understood and most important voices of the twentieth century. Wilson helped usher in the cultural revolution of the 1960s with his landmark work, The Outsider, published in 1956....
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When the archive of the English philosopher and polymath Colin Wilson (1931-2013) was officially opened at the University of Nottingham, UK, in the summer of 2011, it was agreed among those present that a conference should be held there to discuss his work. In July 2016, the First International Colin Wilson Conference was staged with the Proceedings being published a year later. The success of that conference inevitably meant that a second was arranged and held two years later in July 2018. This volume—which will be of interest to scholars and fans of Wilson’s work, in addition to students of philosophy and consciousness studies—contains the transcripts of the papers presented on July 6, 2018: day one of that second conference. Experts, scholars and fans, from around the globe, gathered to hear and present papers on a variety of Wilson-related topics ranging from Existentialism to the Occult; from Robert Musil to classical music; and from Transpersonal Psychology to Transcendental Evolution.
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. “I am very impressed by this book, not only by its erudition but…above all for the good-natured, unaffected charm of the author whose reasoning is never too far-fetched, who is never carried away by preposterous theories.”—Sunday Times
Wilson, who is acknowledged for the consistently high quality of his prose, whether it be fiction, nonfiction, or criticism, has refused to accept the limitations of genre or form, or to be placed in some literary cubbyhole. Clifford P. Bendau here covers Wilson's work, from his first appearance as a literary enfant terrible, to the publication of his landmark novel, The Space Vampyres (1976), regarded by many critics as one of his finest works.
The classic study of existential despair, The Outsider brought Wilson instant fame, followed by revilement by those same critics who had previously hailed him. Now in his seventy-fourth year the writer and philosopher sums up his thinking. He brings new thoughts to bear on his work, and clearly illustrates the discoveries he has made, showing how these can provide an antidote to the pessimism of 20th Century thought. At the core of his philosophy are the concepts of 'intentionality' and the 'peak experience'. Wilson shows us that if we will only open our eyes and direct perception properly we can use our minds in the most positive sense, to change ourselves and the world around us. Wilson also talks about his writings on philosophy, criminology and the occult. Sometimes controversial, often challenging and always interesting, this interview by writer and journalist Brad Spurgeon, conducted at the author's home in Gorran Haven, in Cornwall,
Reprint of the ed. published by Houghton Mifflin, Boston.