Colin Wilson, The Occult

Colin Stanley (University of Nottingham)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.09: English Writing and Culture: Postwar and Contemporary Britain , 1945-present.
Vol. editors: Gina Lyle (University of York), Graham MacPhee (University of Manchester), Kerry Myler (Birmingham Newman University), Jenni Ramone (The Nottingham Trent University)

Domains

Parapsychology/ Occult

Dates

First circulation or publication 1971

Places

England (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Non-fictional prose

Resources

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The Occult

was Colin Wilson's first commissioned book and he made no secret of the fact that, at first, it was not a subject that interested him greatly. When he sought the advice of the poet Robert Graves [1895-1985] on whether he should write it, he was told very firmly that he should not. However, with a young family to support, Wilson needed the money and fortunately went ahead with the project. During the course of his research, he found his attitude to the subject changing:

Although I have always been curious about the “occult”... it has never been one of my major interests, like philosophy, or science, or even music ... It was not until two years ago, when I began the systematic research for this book, that I realised the remarkable consistency of the evidence for such

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3901 words

Citation: Stanley, Colin. "The Occult". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 03 March 2010 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=23939, accessed 26 November 2024.]