Editing Colin Wilson (section)

== Career ==

=== Non-fiction writing ===
Wilson became associated with the "[[angry young men]]" of British literature. He contributed to ''[[Declaration (anthology)|Declaration]]'', an anthology of manifestos by writers associated with the movement, and was also anthologised in a popular paperback sampler, ''Protest: The [[Beat Generation]] and the Angry Young Men''.<ref name="Maschler">{{cite book|title=''Declaration''|editor=Maschler, Tom|year=1957|location=London|publisher=MacGibbon and Kee}}</ref><ref name="Feldman and Gartenberg">{{cite book|title=''Protest: The Beat Generation and the Angry Young Men''|editor-last1=Feldman|editor-first1=Gene|editor-last2=Gartneberg|editor-first2=Max|year=1958|location=New York|publisher=Citadel Press}}</ref> Some viewed Wilson and his friends [[Bill Hopkins (novelist)|Bill Hopkins]] and [[Stuart Holroyd]] as a sub-group of the "Angries", more concerned with "religious values" than with liberal or socialist politics.<ref name="Allsop">{{cite book|title=''The Angry Decade; A Survey of the Cultural Revolt of the Nineteen Fifties''|author=Allsop, Kenneth|year=1958|location=London|publisher=Peter Owen Ltd}}</ref> Critics on the left swiftly labelled them as fascist; commentator [[Kenneth Allsop]] called them "the law givers".<ref name="Allsop"/><ref name="Holroyd">
{{cite book|title=''Contraries: A Personal Progression''|author=Holroyd, Stuart|year=1975|location=London|publisher=The Bodley Head Ltd}}
</ref> Controversially, during the 1950s Wilson expressed critical support for some of the ideas of [[Oswald Mosley]] the leader of [[Union Movement]] and after Mosley's death in December 1980, Wilson contributed articles to Mosley's former secretary [[Jeffrey Hamm]]'s ''Lodestar'' magazine.<ref>Skidelsky, Robert ''Oswald Mosley'' p.503, p.511, ''Lodestar'' No.1-Winter 1985/86, No.4-Autumn/Winter 1986, No.7-Winter 1987/88, No.8-Spring 1988, No.9-Summer 1988, No.11-Spring 1989,
 No.12-Summer 1989</ref>

Wilson's second book, ''[[Religion and the Rebel]]'' (1957), was universally panned by critics although Wilson himself claimed it was a more comprehensive book than the first one. While ''The Outsider'' was focused on documenting the subject of mental strain and near-insanity, ''Religion and the Rebel'' was focused on how to expand our consciousness and transform us into visionaries. ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'' magazine published a review, headlined "Scrambled Egghead", that pilloried the book.<ref>Colin Wilson, ''The Angry Years'' Robson Books, 2007</ref> Undaunted, Wilson continued to expound his positive "new" existentialism in the six philosophical books known as "The Outsider Cycle", all written within the first ten years of his literary career. These books were summarised by ''Introduction to the New Existentialism'' (1966). When the book was re-printed in 1980 as ''The New Existentialism'', Wilson wrote: "If I have contributed anything to [[existentialism]] – or, for that matter, to twentieth century thought in general, here it is. I am willing to stand or fall by it."

In ''The Age of Defeat'' (1959) – book 3 of "The Outsider Cycle" – he bemoaned the loss of the hero in twentieth century life and literature, convinced that we were becoming embroiled in what he termed "the fallacy of insignificance". It was this theory that encouraged celebrated American psychologist [[Abraham Maslow]] to contact him in 1963. The two corresponded regularly and met on several occasions before Maslow's death in 1970. Wilson wrote a biography and assessment of Maslow's work, ''New Pathways in Psychology: Maslow and the Post-Freudian Revolution'', based on audiotapes that Maslow had provided, which was published in 1972. Maslow's observation of "peak experiences" in his students – those sudden moments of overwhelming happiness that we all experience from time to time – provided Wilson with an important clue in his search for the mechanism that might control the Outsider's "moments of vision". Maslow, however, was convinced that peak experiences could not be induced; Colin Wilson thought otherwise and, indeed, in later books like ''Access to Inner Worlds'' (1983) and ''Super Consciousness'' (2009), suggested how they could be induced at will.

Wilson was also known for what he termed "Existential Criticism", which suggested that a work of art should not just be judged by the principles of literary criticism or theory alone but also by what it has to say, in particular about the meaning and purpose of existence. In his pioneering essay for ''[[Chicago Review]]'' (Volume 13, no. 2, 1959, pp.&nbsp;152–181) he wrote:

<blockquote>No art can be judged by purely aesthetic standards, although a painting or a piece of music may appear to give a purely aesthetic pleasure. Aesthetic enjoyment is an intensification of the vital response, and this response forms the basis of all value judgements. The existentialist contends that all values are connected with the problems of human existence, the stature of man, the purpose of life. These values are inherent in all works of art, in addition to their aesthetic values, and are closely connected with them.</blockquote>

He went on to write several more essays and books on the subject. Among the latter were ''The Strength to Dream'' (1962), ''Eagle and Earwig'' (1965), ''Poetry and Mysticism'' (1970) ''The Craft of the Novel'' (1975), ''The Bicameral Critic'' (1985) and ''The Books in My Life'' (1998). He also applied existential criticism to many of the hundreds of book reviews he wrote for journals including  ''Books & Bookmen'', ''[[The Literary Review]]'', ''[[The London Magazine]]'', ''John O'London's'', ''[[The Spectator]]'' and ''The Aylesford Review'' throughout his career. Some of these were gathered together in a book entitled ''Existential Criticism: Selected Book Reviews'', published in 2009.

Meanwhile, the prolific Wilson found time to write about other subjects that interested him, even on occasion when his level of expertise might be questionable. The title of his opinionated 1964 volume on music appreciation, ''Brandy of the Damned'', inspired by his enthusiasm for record collecting,<ref>[http://ericsams.org/index.php/music-reviews/history-and-aesthetics-of-music/757-colin-wilson-on-music Eric Sams. 'Colin Wilson on Music' in ''The Musical Times'', April 1967, p 329-330]</ref>  used for its title a self-deprecating reference from the onetime music critic Bernard Shaw. The full quote (from ''Man and Superman'') is: "Hell is full of musical amateurs: music is the brandy of the damned. May not one lost soul be permitted to abstain?”

By the late 1960s Wilson had become increasingly interested in [[metaphysics|metaphysical]] and [[occult]] themes. In 1971, he published ''[[The Occult: A History]]'', featuring [[exegesis|interpretations]] on [[Aleister Crowley]], [[George Gurdjieff]], [[Helena Blavatsky]], [[Kabbalah]], primitive [[magic (paranormal)|magic]], [[Franz Mesmer]], [[Grigori Rasputin]], [[Daniel Dunglas Home]] and [[Paracelsus]], among others. He also wrote a markedly unsympathetic biography of Crowley, ''Aleister Crowley: The Nature of the Beast'', and has written biographies on other spiritual and psychological [[visionary|visionaries]], including Gurdjieff, [[Carl Jung]], [[Wilhelm Reich]], [[Rudolf Steiner]], and [[P. D. Ouspensky]].

Originally, Wilson focused on the cultivation of what he called "Faculty X", which he saw as leading to an increased sense of [[Meaning (existential)|meaning]], and on abilities such as [[telepathy]] and the awareness of other [[Energy (psychological)|energies]]. In his later work he suggests the possibility of [[Afterlife|life after death]] and the existence of spirits, which he personally analyses as an active member of [[the Ghost Club]].

He also wrote non-fiction books on crime, ranging from encyclopedias to studies of [[serial killing]]. He had an ongoing interest in the life and times of [[Jack the Ripper]] and in [[sex crime]] in general.

=== Fiction ===
Wilson explored his ideas on [[Aptitude|human potential]] and consciousness in fiction, mostly [[detective fiction]] or science fiction, including several [[Cthulhu Mythos]] pieces; often writing a non-fiction work and a novel concurrently – as a way of putting his ideas into action. He wrote:

{{bquote|For me [fiction] is a manner of philosophizing....Philosophy may be only a shadow of the reality it tries to grasp, but the novel is altogether more satisfactory. I am almost tempted to say that no philosopher is qualified to do his job unless he is also a novelist....I would certainly exchange any of the works of [[Alfred North Whitehead|Whitehead]] or [[Wittgenstein]] for the novels they ought to have written.<ref>''Voyage to a Beginning'' (Cecil Woolf, 1968, p.&nbsp;160-1)</ref>}}

Like some of his non-fiction work, many of Wilson's novels from ''Ritual in the Dark'' (1960) onwards have been concerned with the psychology of murder—especially that of serial killing. However, he has also written science fiction of a philosophical bent, including ''[[The Mind Parasites]]'' (1967), ''[[The Philosopher's Stone (novel)|The Philosopher's Stone]]'' (1969), ''[[The Space Vampires]]'' (1976) and the four-volume ''Spider-World'' series: ''[[Spider World: The Tower]]'' (1987), ''[[Spider World: the Delta]]'' (1987), ''Spider World: The Magician'' (1992) and ''Spider World: Shadowland'' (2003); novels described by one critic as "an artistic achievement of the highest order... destined to be regarded to be one of the central products of the twentieth century imagination."<ref>Howard F Dossor: ''Colin Wilson: the man and his mind'', Element, 1990, p. 284</ref> Wilson wrote the ''Spider World'' series in response to a suggestion made to him by Roald Dahl to 'write a novel for children.' He also said he'd 'like to be remembered as the man who wrote ''Spider World.’''

In ''The Strength to Dream'' (1961) Wilson attacked [[H. P. Lovecraft]] as "sick" and as "a bad writer" who had "rejected reality"—but he grudgingly praised Lovecraft's story "[[The Shadow Out of Time]]" as capable science fiction. [[August Derleth]], incensed by Wilson's treatment of Lovecraft in ''The Strength to Dream'', then dared Wilson to write what became ''[[The Mind Parasites]]''—to expound his philosophical ideas in the guise of fiction.<ref>{{cite book| last = Wilson| first = Colin |title = The Mind Parasites (original preface)| publisher = Monkfish| year = 2005| page = xvii| isbn = 0974935999 }}</ref> In the preface to ''The Mind Parasites'', Wilson concedes that Lovecraft, "far more than Hemingway or [[William Faulkner|Faulkner]], or even [[Kafka]], is a symbol of the outsider-artist in the 20th century" and asks: "what would have happened if Lovecraft had possessed a private income—enough, say, to allow him to spend his winters in Italy and his summers in Greece or Switzerland?" answering that in his [Wilson's] opinion "[h]e would undoubtedly have produced less, but what he did produce would have been highly polished, without the pulp magazine cliches that disfigure so much of his work. And he would have given free rein to his love of curious and remote erudition, so that his work would have been, in some respect, closer to that of [[Anatole France]] or the contemporary Argentinian writer [[Jorge Luis Borges]]".<ref>
{{cite book| last = Wilson| first = Colin |title = The Mind Parasites| publisher = Oneiric Press| year = 1975| page = 112| url = https://www.amazon.com/Mind-Parasites-Colin-Wilson/dp/B000WU0PP8}}
</ref>
Wilson also discusses Lovecraft in ''Order of Assassins'' (1972) and in the prefatory note to ''The Philosopher's Stone'' (1969). His short novel ''The Return of the Lloigor'' (1969/1974) also has roots in the Cthulhu Mythos – its central character works on the real book the [[Voynich manuscript]], but discovers it to be a mediaeval Arabic version of the ''[[Necronomicon]]'' – as does his 2002 novel ''The Tomb of the Old Ones''.