Colin Wilson’s Followers (1,289)

Colin Wilson

Born

in Leicester, Leicestershire, England

June 26, 1931

Died

December 05, 2013

Website

http://www.colinwilsonworld.net

Genre

Literature & Fiction, Nonfiction, Philosophy

Influences

George Bernard Shaw, George Gurdjieff, Friedrich Nietzsche, Edmund Hus ...more

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Librarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.

Colin Henry Wilson was born and raised in Leicester, England, U.K. He left school at 16, worked in factories and various occupations, and read in his spare time. When Wilson was 24, Gollancz published The Outsider (1956) which examines the role of the social 'outsider' in seminal works of various key literary and cultural figures. These include Albert Camus, Jean-Paul Sartre, Ernest Hemingway, Hermann Hesse, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, William James, T. E. Lawrence, Vaslav Nijinsky and Vincent Van Gogh and Wilson discusses his perception of Social alienation in their work. The book was a best seller and helped popularize existentialism in Britain. Critical praise t Librarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.

Colin Henry Wilson was born and raised in Leicester, England, U.K. He left school at 16, worked in factories and various occupations, and read in his spare time. When Wilson was 24, Gollancz published The Outsider (1956) which examines the role of the social 'outsider' in seminal works of various key literary and cultural figures. These include Albert Camus, Jean-Paul Sartre, Ernest Hemingway, Hermann Hesse, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, William James, T. E. Lawrence, Vaslav Nijinsky and Vincent Van Gogh and Wilson discusses his perception of Social alienation in their work. The book was a best seller and helped popularize existentialism in Britain. Critical praise though, was short-lived and Wilson was soon widely criticized.

Wilson's works after The Outsider focused on positive aspects of human psychology, such as peak experiences and the narrowness of consciousness. He admired the humanistic psychologist Abraham Maslow and corresponded with him. Wilson wrote The War Against Sleep: The Philosophy of Gurdjieff on the life, work and philosophy of G. I. Gurdjieff and an accessible introduction to the Greek-Armenian mystic in 1980. He argues throughout his work that the existentialist focus on defeat or nausea is only a partial representation of reality and that there is no particular reason for accepting it. Wilson views normal, everyday consciousness buffeted by the moment, as "blinkered" and argues that it should not be accepted as showing us the truth about reality. This blinkering has some evolutionary advantages in that it stops us from being completely immersed in wonder, or in the huge stream of events, and hence unable to act. However, to live properly we need to access more than this everyday consciousness. Wilson believes that our peak experiences of joy and meaningfulness are as real as our experiences of angst and, since we are more fully alive at these moments, they are more real. These experiences can be cultivated through concentration, paying attention, relaxation and certain types of work. ...more

Combine Editions
Colin Wilson’s books

Average rating: 3.91 · 34,924 ratings · 3,083 reviews · 400 distinct works • Similar authors

	The Outsider by Colin Wilson, Friedrich Nietzsche (Contributor), Rainer Maria Rilke (Contributor) 4.03 avg rating — 4,526 ratings — published 1956 — 48 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Occult 3.91 avg rating — 2,101 ratings — published 1971 — 74 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Mind Parasites: The Supernatural Metaphysical Cult Thriller 3.72 avg rating — 1,648 ratings — published 1967 — 62 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Space Vampires 3.29 avg rating — 991 ratings — published 1976 — 41 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	A Criminal History of Mankind 3.90 avg rating — 772 ratings — published 1985 — 18 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Philosopher's Stone 3.91 avg rating — 733 ratings — published 1969 — 33 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	From Atlantis to the Sphinx 3.79 avg rating — 569 ratings — published 1996 — 20 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Serial Killers: a Study in the Psychology of Violence [Paperback] by Colin Wilson, Donald Seaman 3.66 avg rating — 566 ratings — published 1990 — 24 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Mysteries 4.10 avg rating — 492 ratings — published 1978 — 16 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Ritual in the Dark 3.74 avg rating — 462 ratings — published 1960 — 42 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

More books by Colin Wilson…

Series by Colin Wilson

The Outsider Cycle (7 books)
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Colin Wilson

4.00 avg rating — 5,632 ratings

Occult Trilogy (3 books)
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Colin Wilson

3.94 avg rating — 2,852 ratings

Gerard Sorme (3 books)
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Colin Wilson

3.72 avg rating — 857 ratings

Written in Blood Series (4 books)
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Colin Wilson

3.92 avg rating — 266 ratings

Criminal trilogy (3 books)
by

Colin Wilson

3.67 avg rating — 125 ratings

More series by Colin Wilson…

Quotes by Colin Wilson (?)

“Life itself is an exile. The way home is not the way back.”
― Colin Wilson

144 likes

“The average man is a conformist, accepting miseries and disasters with the stoicism of a cow standing in the rain.”
― Colin Wilson

133 likes

“I've always believed that a writer has got to remain an outsider.”
― Colin Wilson

95 likes

See all Colin Wilson's quotes »

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Billy Liar - Keith Waterhouse

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The Master and Margarita - Mikhail Bulgakov

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The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea - Yukio Mishima

3 votes, 20.0%

Sexual Personae: Art and Decadence from Nefertiti to Emily Dickinson - Camille Paglia

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Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert

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Mr Norris Changes Trains - Christopher Isherwood

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Awopbopaloobop Alopbamboom: The Golden Age of Rock - Awopbopaloobop Alopbamboom: The Golden Age of Rock

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Nat Tate: An American Artist: 1928-1960 - William Boyd

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A Clockwork Orange - Anthony Burgess

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The Outsider - Colin Wilson

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15 total votes

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Colin Wilson

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