Editing Colin Wilson (section)

== Reception ==
Howard F. Dossor, author of a book about Wilson's career, wrote appreciatively: "Wilson constitutes one of the most significant challenges to twentieth-century critics. It seems most likely that critics analysing his work in the middle of the twenty-first century, will be puzzled that his contemporaries paid such inadequate attention to him. But it is not merely for their sake that he should be examined. Critics who turn to him will find themselves involved in the central questions of our age and will be in touch with a mind that has disclosed an extraordinary resilience in addressing them."<ref>Howard F. Dossor ''Colin Wilson: the Man and His Mind'' (1990) Element Books, pp 318–319. {{ISBN|1-85230-176-7}}</ref> Critic Nicolas Tredell agreed: "The twenty-first century may look back on Colin Wilson as one of the novelists who foresaw the future of fiction, and something, perhaps, of the future of man."<ref>Nicolas Tredell ''Novels to Some Purpose: the fiction  of Colin Wilson'' (2015) Paupers' Press, . {{ISBN|9780956866363}}</ref>

Science writer [[Martin Gardner]] saw Wilson as an intelligent writer who was duped by [[paranormal]] claims. He once commented that "Colin bought it all. With unparalleled egotism and scientific ignorance he believed almost everything he read about the paranormal, no matter how outrageous." Gardner described Wilson's book ''The Geller Phenomenon'' as "the most gullible book ever written about the [[Uri Geller|Israeli charlatan]]". Gardner concluded that Wilson had decayed into an "occult eccentric" writing books for the "lunatic fringe".<ref>[[Martin Gardner|Gardner, Martin]] (1984). ''Order and Surprise''. Oxford University Press. pp. 361–364. {{ISBN|0-19-286051-8}}</ref> The psychologist [[Dorothy Rowe]] gave Wilson's book ''Men of Mystery'' a negative review and wrote that it "does nothing to advance research into the paranormal".<ref>{{cite news | author= Rowe, Dorothy | author-link= Dorothy Rowe |title= Men of mystery |work= New Scientist |date= 26 January 1981 |pages= 231–232 | location= London}}</ref> [[Benjamin Radford]] has written that Wilson had a "bias toward mystery-mongering" and that he ignored scientific and skeptical arguments on some of the topics he wrote about. Radford described Wilson's book ''The Mammoth Encyclopedia of the Unsolved'' as "riddled with errors and obfuscating omissions, betraying a bizarre disregard for accuracy".<ref>
[[Benjamin Radford|Radford, Benjamin]] (2013). [http://www.centerforinquiry.net/blogs/entry/colin_wilson_a_case_study_in_mystery_mongering/ "Colin Wilson: A Case Study in Mystery Mongering"] {{webarchive |url= https://web.archive.org/web/20160327072616/http://www.centerforinquiry.net/blogs/entry/colin_wilson_a_case_study_in_mystery_mongering/ |date= 27 March 2016 }}. Center for Inquiry. Retrieved 16 March 2014.</ref>

In 2016 the first full-length biography of Wilson, ''[[Beyond the Robot|Beyond the Robot: The Life and Work of Colin Wilson]]'', by [[Gary Lachman]], appeared. It received a positive endorsement from [[Philip Pullman]], who wrote that "Wilson was always far better and more interesting than fashionable opinion claimed, and in Lachman he has found a biographer who can respond to the whole range of his work with sympathy and understanding, in a style which, like Wilson's own, is always immensely readable." [[Michael Dirda]] in ''[[The Washington Post]]'' called Wilson a "controversial writer who explored the nature of human consciousness in dozens of books" and said that Lachman, a "leading student of the [[western esoteric tradition]], writes with "exceptional grace, forcefulness, and clarity."<ref>"Ufos, alien abductions, the occult: to one man, the building blocks of scholarship" Michael Dirda ''The Washington Post'' 31 August 2016.</ref> Brett Taylor "enjoyed" the biography, but said that "a more critical author might have written a book that argued for the subject's worth in a broader and more convincing context. Lachman displays credulity on occult matters and an admiration for Wilson's sometimes dodgy philosophy."<ref>{{cite journal |last1= Taylor |first1= Brett |title= Colin Wilson's Idiosyncratic Literary Legacy |journal= [[Skeptical Inquirer]] |date= 2018 |volume= 42 |issue= 2 |pages= 54–56}}</ref>

On 1 July 2016, the First International Colin Wilson Conference took place at the University of Nottingham. A second conference took place at the same venue on 6 July 2018. The Third Conference was held in Nottingham on September 1-3, 2023 which included the premiere of the Figgis-West eight-part documentary film series ''Colin Wilson: his life and work''. Directed and edited by [[Jason Figgis]], the documentary is a detailed study of Wilson's life and work which includes interviews with [[Uri Geller]], [[Gary Lachman]],[[Tahir Shah]], Damon Wilson, [[Jason Figgis]], John West, Martha Rafferty and [[Philip Pullman]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://pauperspress.co.uk/conference.html|title = Colin Wilson Conference}}</ref>

Wilson's archive is held at the Manuscripts and Special Collections Department at the University of Nottingham in the United Kingdom. It contains the entirety of his published work plus manuscripts, correspondence and journals.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://mss-cat.nottingham.ac.uk/CalmView/Overview.aspx?src=CalmView.Catalog&q=Related_Name_Code:NA78779|title = Colin Wilson Archive}}</ref>