Author Guide · Philosophy · Fiction · The Occult
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In the mid-1950s Colin Wilson, a school-leaver from Leicester, spent his days in the Reading Room of the British Museum and for a time slept in a sleeping bag on Hampstead Heath. The book he wrote there, The Outsider, came out on 28 May 1956, when he was 24. Gollancz printed 5,000 copies; it became a bestseller, made him a national celebrity almost overnight, and has not been out of print since. Within a year the same critics had turned on him. He went on to write more than a hundred books — existentialist philosophy, crime novels, Lovecraftian science fiction, histories of murder and of the occult — most of them from a house in Cornwall. This guide covers his 13 key books, in order, and where to begin.
By Lisanne Swart · 13 key books · 1956–2004 · Updated October 2026
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Quick answer
Colin Wilson wrote more than a hundred books. The best known are The Outsider (1956), his study of alienated artists and thinkers, The Occult (1971), the novel The Mind Parasites (1967) and The Space Vampires (1976), filmed as Lifeforce. Start with The Outsider: almost everything he wrote afterwards develops the questions it raises.
Where to Start with Colin Wilson
If you want the book that made his name
→ The Outsider (1956) — the 1956 study of alienation that started it all.
If you want his ideas in a novel
→ The Mind Parasites (1967) — short, fast science fiction built on his philosophy.
If you want his big book on the paranormal
→ The Occult (1971) — the 1971 history that opened his second career.
If you want his fiction at its most literary
→ Ritual in the Dark (1960) — his first novel, set in London.
13 Colin Wilson Books, in Order
The Outsider
A study of the alienated individual, the person who cannot accept everyday life as the whole of reality, traced through writers and artists from Dostoevsky, Nietzsche, Kafka, Hesse, Camus and Sartre to van Gogh, Nijinsky, T. E. Lawrence and Blake. Cyril Connolly called it “one of the most remarkable first books I have read for a long time”. It became a bestseller and has been translated into more than thirty languages.
Religion and the Rebel
His second book, continuing the argument of The Outsider. It arrived just as opinion turned against him and was widely panned; Time headlined its review “Scrambled Egghead”.
Ritual in the Dark
His first novel, published by Gollancz, and the first to feature Gerard Sorme, a young man in London who becomes fascinated by a killer. Reviews were mixed, but it is often counted among his most lasting works.
Encyclopaedia of Murder
A reference work on murder cases, written with Patricia Pitman. It began the interest in the psychology of crime that runs through dozens of his later books, from A Casebook of Murder (1970) to A Criminal History of Mankind.
The Mind Parasites
Humanity has for centuries been held back by entities feeding on the mind; breaking free of them brings powers such as telepathy and telekinesis. Wilson wrote it after criticising H. P. Lovecraft in The Strength to Dream, when Lovecraft’s publisher August Derleth prompted him to try the form himself.
The Philosopher’s Stone
A second Lovecraftian novel. It begins as a scientific and philosophical quest to extend human life and consciousness, and turns into the discovery that sleeping, indifferent Old Ones have long kept humanity in thrall.
The Occult
A 600-page survey first published by Random House, in three parts: the subject itself, a history of magic, and “Man’s Latent Powers”. It covers figures from Paracelsus, Mesmer and Casanova to Blavatsky, Rasputin, Gurdjieff and Crowley. Joyce Carol Oates called it “one of those rich, strange, perplexing, infinitely surprising works”; other critics thought his wish to prove psychic powers weakened the scholarship.
New Pathways in Psychology
A book on the psychologist Abraham Maslow, with whom Wilson had corresponded since 1963, and his work on “peak experiences”. Maslow believed such experiences could not be induced; Wilson disagreed, and later books suggest ways to bring them about.
The Space Vampires
Part space opera, part horror: parasitic alien beings that feed on human life force are brought back to Earth. Tobe Hooper filmed it as Lifeforce (1985), adapted by Dan O’Bannon, and the novel was reissued in the US under that title the same year.
Mysteries
The sequel to The Occult, published by Hodder and Stoughton, continuing his investigation of the paranormal and the hidden powers of the mind. A third volume, Beyond the Occult, followed in 1988.
A Criminal History of Mankind
A history of human violence and crime, published by Granada, which he revised and updated in 2005. It brings together his two long-running subjects, murder and the evolution of human consciousness.
Spider World
The first of four novels set on a far-future Earth where the surviving humans live under the rule of giant spiders. Wilson wrote the series after Roald Dahl suggested he write a children’s novel. In the US it was split into three volumes, The Desert, The Tower and The Fortress.
Dreaming to Some Purpose
His autobiography, from his childhood in Leicester and the years of odd jobs, through the fame and fall of The Outsider, to the decades of writing that followed.
In What Order to Read Colin Wilson
Apart from the Spider World novels and the loosely linked Gerard Sorme books, nothing in Wilson needs to be read in sequence, so you can follow your interest: philosophy, crime, the paranormal or fiction. Most of his books do share one argument, that human beings can widen their consciousness through intelligence and will, and The Outsider is where that argument begins.
The non-fiction falls into rough cycles. The Outsider opened a series of books on existentialism that runs to Introduction to the New Existentialism (1966); The Occult, Mysteries and Beyond the Occult form a second trilogy. The novels put the same ideas into crime and science-fiction plots, and are the quickest way in if his essays feel dense.
A reading path
1. The Outsider (1956)
2. The Mind Parasites (1967)
3. Ritual in the Dark (1960)
4. New Pathways in Psychology (1972)
5. The Occult (1971)
Everything Else Colin Wilson Published
Beyond the 13 key books: 25 more, grouped by kind.
Open a group with the + to see every book in it.
The Outsider cycle and philosophy
6
6 books · 1959–2009
- 1959The Age of Defeat
- 1961The Strength to Dreamon literature and the imagination, including his critique of Lovecraft
- 1963Origins of the Sexual Impulse
- 1965Beyond the Outsider
- 1966Introduction to the New Existentialismhis own “new existentialism” in short form
- 2009Super Consciousness
Novels
8
8 books · 1961–2003
- 1961Adrift in Sohohis second novel
- 1964Necessary Doubt
- 1966The Glass Cage
- 1970The Killer
- 1987Spider World: The DeltaSpider World 2
- 1992Spider World: The MagicianSpider World 3
- 2002The Tomb of the Old Ones
- 2003Spider World: ShadowlandSpider World 4
Crime, the occult and the paranormal
6
6 books · 1970–1996
- 1970A Casebook of Murder
- 1973Strange Powers
- 1981Poltergeist!
- 1988Beyond the Occultthe third book after The Occult and Mysteries
- 1989Written in Blooda history of forensic detection
- 1996From Atlantis to the Sphinx
Biography, criticism and memoir
5
5 books · 1969–2007
- 1969Voyage to a Beginning
- 1981The Quest for Wilhelm Reich
- 1984Lord of the Underworldon Carl Jung
- 1998The Books in My Life
- 2007The Angry Yearson the Angry Young Men
The years · 1931–2013
Quick facts about Colin Wilson
- Known for
- Colin Wilson is known for The Outsider, the 1956 bestseller that helped popularise existentialism in Britain, and for a lifelong argument, across philosophy, crime and the occult, that human consciousness can be expanded.
- 1931
- Born in Leicester
- 1956
- The Outsider
- 1971
- The Occult
- 1985
- Lifeforce, the film of The Space Vampires
- 2004
- Autobiography, Dreaming to Some Purpose
- 2013
- Dies in St Austell, Cornwall
- Born
- 26 June 1931, Leicester, England
- Died
- 5 December 2013, St Austell, Cornwall, aged 82
- Education
- Left school at 16; worked as a lab assistant, civil servant, labourer and factory worker
- First book
- The Outsider (1956), written largely in the British Museum Reading Room
- Output
- More than a hundred books
- Philosophy
- What he called “new existentialism”
- Family
- Second wife Joy Stewart; three children
The red mark is 1956: The Outsider, published when he was 24.
How Colin Wilson Writes: Reading as a Way of Thinking
Wilson built his arguments out of other people’s books. The Outsider moves from one writer or artist to the next — Dostoevsky, Nietzsche, Hesse, van Gogh, Nijinsky — and uses their lives and characters as evidence for a single case about alienation. He kept that method for half a century, in philosophy, in his histories of crime and in The Occult, which is as much a gallery of people as a history of ideas.
Where Sartre and Camus ended in despair, Wilson insisted on optimism. He called his position “new existentialism”: the belief that people can raise their consciousness through intelligence and will. His names for it changed — “Faculty X”, Maslow’s “peak experiences” — but the idea runs through nearly everything he wrote, which is also why critics found his books repetitive and his treatment of the paranormal too willing to believe.
His fiction carries the same ideas inside popular forms. Ritual in the Dark uses a murder story to examine a man’s fascination with a killer; The Mind Parasites and The Philosopher’s Stone borrow Lovecraft’s Old Ones but turn his cosmic horror around, so that human beings can outgrow what holds them back. The plots move fast, and long passages of argument sit inside them.
Watch
Colin Wilson in Conversation with Jeffrey Mishlove
Jeffrey Mishlove interviews Colin Wilson for the television series Thinking Allowed about his struggles with panic and depression and his exploration of states of heightened lucidity. Posted in 2013. From the official ThinkingAllowedTV channel.
Frequently asked questions about Colin Wilson’s books
How many books has Colin Wilson written?
More than a hundred, on philosophy, psychology, literature, murder, sexuality and the occult, as well as novels. This page covers 13 key books, from The Outsider (1956) to Dreaming to Some Purpose (2004), and lists 25 more in the bibliography.
What are Colin Wilson’s books in order?
The key books are The Outsider (1956), Religion and the Rebel (1957), Ritual in the Dark (1960), Encyclopaedia of Murder (1961), The Mind Parasites (1967), The Philosopher’s Stone (1969), The Occult (1971), New Pathways in Psychology (1972), The Space Vampires (1976), Mysteries (1978), A Criminal History of Mankind (1984), Spider World: The Tower (1987) and Dreaming to Some Purpose (2004).
Where should I start with Colin Wilson?
With The Outsider (1956). It is his first book and the one most of his later work builds on. If you would rather start with fiction, The Mind Parasites (1967) puts the same ideas into a short science-fiction novel.
What is Colin Wilson’s most famous book?
The Outsider (1956), a study of alienation through writers and artists such as Dostoevsky, Kafka, Camus and van Gogh. It became a bestseller, helped popularise existentialism in Britain and has never been out of print.
Why did critics turn against Colin Wilson after The Outsider?
The first reviews in May 1956 were glowing: Cyril Connolly, Philip Toynbee and Elizabeth Bowen all praised the book. From June the tone changed, with negative reviews from Kingsley Amis and Burns Singer, and later from A. J. Ayer, who said the book never defined its central idea coherently, and Raymond Williams. Religion and the Rebel (1957) was widely panned, and a scandal over his private life, in which the father of his partner Joy Stewart tried to horsewhip him, added to the coverage. Some critics on the left also called him and his circle fascist, and his sympathy in the 1950s for some of Oswald Mosley’s ideas drew criticism.
Was Colin Wilson one of the Angry Young Men?
He was associated with the group in the 1950s. He contributed to the anthology Declaration alongside other young writers of the time, and in 2007 wrote a book about the group, The Angry Years.
Has any Colin Wilson book been filmed?
Yes. The Space Vampires (1976) was filmed by Tobe Hooper as Lifeforce (1985), from a script by Dan O’Bannon.
What is Faculty X?
Wilson’s name for a latent faculty of the mind, which he linked to a heightened sense of meaning and to abilities such as telepathy, and which he believed could be cultivated. It is central to The Occult (1971), where one reviewer summed it up as a faculty meant to unite instinct and intelligence.
In what order should I read the Spider World books?
The Tower (1987), The Delta (1987), The Magician (1992) and Shadowland (2003). In the US the first book was published in three parts: The Desert, The Tower and The Fortress.
Is Colin Wilson still alive?
No. He was born in Leicester on 26 June 1931 and died in St Austell, Cornwall, on 5 December 2013, aged 82.
Footnotes
- Colin Wilson — Wikipedia
- The Outsider (Wilson book) — Wikipedia
- Colin Wilson bibliography — Wikipedia
- Colin Wilson — Encyclopædia Britannica
- Wilson, Colin — The Encyclopedia of Science Fiction
- The Occult: A History — Wikipedia
Bibliography last verified 9 October 2026. Where sources give different first-publication years, this page uses the year in library catalogues or the publisher’s own record.
This list was not put together by a machine.
The notes are all mine,
and the books are all his.
Lisanne x
Written by Lisanne Swart, who has curated reading lists and author guides at lisanneswart.com since 2021.
See more on her personal bookshelf.
“The Outsider is a man who cannot live in the comfortable, insulated world of the bourgeois, accepting what he sees and touches as reality.”
— Colin Wilson, The Outsider (1956)
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