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British author. From the description of Collection, 1951-1962. (Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center (HRC); University of Texas at Austin). WorldCat record id: 122597893 Colin Henry Wilson (born June 26, 1931 in Leicester) is a prolific British writer.

He first came to prominence as a philosopher and has since written widely on true crime, mysticism, fiction and other topics. From the description of Colin Wilson collection. (University of Victoria Libraries). WorldCat record id: 676801149.

Contents • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • Early life [ ] Wilson was born on 26 June 1931 in, the first child of Arthur and Annetta Wilson. His father worked in a shoe factory. At the age of eleven he attended Gateway Secondary Technical School, where his interest in science began to blossom. By the age of 14 he had compiled a multi-volume work of essays covering many aspects of science entitled A Manual of General Science. But by the time he left school at sixteen, his interests were already switching to literature.

His discovery of 's work, particularly, was a landmark. He started to write stories, plays, and essays in earnest – a long 'sequel' to Man and Superman made him consider himself to be 'Shaw's natural successor.' After two unfulfilling jobs – one as a laboratory assistant at his old school – he drifted into the Civil Service, but found little to occupy his time. In the autumn of 1949, he was drafted into the Royal Air Force but soon found himself clashing with authority, eventually feigning homosexuality in order to be dismissed. Upon leaving he took up a succession of menial jobs, spent some time wandering around Europe, and finally returned to Leicester in 1951. There he married his first wife, (Dorothy) Betty Troop, and moved to London, where a son was born. But the marriage rapidly disintegrated as he drifted in and out of several jobs.

During this traumatic period, Wilson was continually working and reworking the novel that was eventually published as Ritual in the Dark (1960). He also met three young writers who became close friends –,. Another trip to Europe followed, and he spent some time in Paris attempting to sell magazine subscriptions. Returning to Leicester again, he met Joy Stewart – later to become his second wife and mother of their three children – who accompanied him to London.

There he continued to work on Ritual in the Dark, receiving some advice from (no relation) – then deputy superintendent of the – and slept rough (in a sleeping bag) on to save money. On Christmas Day, 1954, alone in his room, he sat down on his bed and began to write in his journal. He described his feelings as follows: It struck me that I was in the position of so many of my favourite characters in fiction: Raskolnikov, Malte Laurids Brigge, the young writer in Hunger: alone in my room, feeling totally cut off from the rest of society.

It was not a position I relished.. Yet an inner compulsion had forced me into this position of isolation. I began writing about it in my journal, trying to pin it down. And then, quite suddenly, I saw that I had the makings of a book.

So please, my boy, have a seat in the darkest corner of the room. Another person's excuse to not reply to my arguments. You tried in some way to criticise my post (not even the argument inside it lol) and even then, your claims were invalid. And not a lot of it.

I turned to the back of my journal and wrote at the head of the page: 'Notes for a book The Outsider in Literature' The Outsider [ ]. Main article: published the 24-year-old Wilson's in 1956. The work examines the role of the social 'outsider' in seminal works by various key literary and cultural figures – such as,,,,,,, and – and discusses Wilson's perception of in their work. The book became a best-seller and helped popularise existentialism in Britain. It has never been out of print and has been translated into more than thirty languages.