The following are the "essential" books by Colin Wilson, according to his bibliographer, Colin Stanley. As Stanley has probably read more of Wilson's work than any other individual (except, perhaps, for Wilson himself), I will defer to his knowledge of the subject. I have also included some brief comments that Mr. Stanley has made about some of the more recent works.
For both the acquainted and the unacquainted, I also highly recommend Howard F. Dossor's book, Colin Wilson: The Man and His Mind, which is an excellent summation and interpretation of Wilson's work in its entirety.
The Outsider.
Religion and the Rebel.
The Age of Defeat.
The Strength to Dream.
Origins of the Sexual Impulse.
Beyond the Outsider.
Introduction to the New Existentialism.
Voyage to a Beginning: A Preliminary Autobiography.
The Occult.
Mysteries.
New Pathways in Psychology: Maslow and the Post-Freudian Revolution.
Bernard Shaw: A Reassessment.
Access to Inner Worlds. A very important little book, could be considered as a pendant to the Outsider Cycle.
Essay on the "New" Existentialism. A very good precis of his philosophical ideas.
The Essential Colin Wilson. Best of Wilson chosen by the man himself.
Beyond the Occult. Mostly repetitive but some important chapters at the end.
Ritual in the Dark.
The Black Room.
The Philosophers Stone.
God of the Labyrinth.
The Mind Parasites. A novel which best sums-up the human condition.
Spider World (all three books). The balance between education and entertainment is exactly right in these novels. A pity that the publishers have not commissioned further volumes.
For a bit more information on these books, and alternate US titles/translations, see the bibliography.
Back to The Colin Wilson Page.