Science fiction author, winner of the 1986 Prometheus Hall of Fame Award for The Illuminatus! Trilogy (1975)
See also: FreedomPedia
Robert Anton Wilson (born Robert Edward Wilson, 1932-2007) was an author, futurist, psychologist and self-described agnostic mystic. Recognized within Discordianism as an Episkopos, pope and saint, Wilson helped publicize Discordianism through his writings and interviews. In 1999 he described his work as an "attempt to break down conditioned associations, to look at the world in a new way, with many models recognized as models or maps, and no one model elevated to the truth". Wilson's goal was "to try to get people into a state of generalized agnosticism, not agnosticism about God alone but agnosticism about everything."
Born
18 Jan 1932, in Brooklyn, New York City
Died
11 Jan 2007, in Santa Cruz, California
Awards Received
1986 Prometheus Hall of Fame Award, by Libertarian Futurist Society, Prometheus Hall of Fame Award
For The Illuminatus! Trilogy
For The Illuminatus! Trilogy
Websites
RAWilson.com - The Robert Anton Wilson Website
Personal website, now maintained by Wilson's daughter, Christina; sections include biograhy, books (with excerpts), thoughts, poetry, jokes and related links
Personal website, now maintained by Wilson's daughter, Christina; sections include biograhy, books (with excerpts), thoughts, poetry, jokes and related links
Web Pages
Robert Anton Wilson - Libertarian: Advocates for Self-Government
Includes biography, photo, quotes and remembrances from libertarians
Includes biography, photo, quotes and remembrances from libertarians
A college newspaper called him a 'sage, a prophet, a psychologist, a guru, a futurist, a guerilla ontologist, an adept, and a postmodernist.' An audiotape company called him a 'visionary, poet, futurist, and libertarian philosopher.' And a movie reviewer called him a 'raconteur, gadfly, libertarian, conspiracist, stand-up comedian, poet, prankster, mystic, and madman.' Take your pick; they may all be true.
Robert Anton Wilson - Libertarianism.org
Short profile and links to essays, videos and other resources about Wilson
Short profile and links to essays, videos and other resources about Wilson
Dr. Robert Anton Wilson was the author (along with Robert Shea) of the popular Illuminatus! trilogy, which won the Prometheus Hall of Fame award for science fiction in 1986. His other books have found great acclaim as well, many of them achieving 'cult classic' status. Wilson has been described at various times throughout his life as a novelist, philosopher, psychologist, essayist, editor, playwright, poet, futurist, civil libertarian and agnostic mystic.
Articles
Check Your History, by B. K. Marcus, 11 Mar 2014
Discusses the leftist meme "check your privilege" (criticized in another article by Sarah Skwire) and offers a second, historical point based on the etymology of the word "privilege"
Discusses the leftist meme "check your privilege" (criticized in another article by Sarah Skwire) and offers a second, historical point based on the etymology of the word "privilege"
My own path out of the default leftism I grew up with ... did not begin with Ayn Rand or Murray Rothbard. Of greater influence was Robert Anton Wilson's Illuminatus! trilogy. In a scene ... we find our anarchist hero Hagbard Celine ... undercover at a Council on Foreign Relations banquet. The topic of conversation is Mortimer Adler's claim that "we and the Communists share the same Great Tradition ... and we must join together against the one force that really does threaten civilization—anarchism!" Our hero interrupts the ensuing conversation:
"I can put the Great Tradition in one word," he said calmly. "Privilege." ...
Related Topic: The State
Illuminated Manuscripts: The legacy of Robert Anton Wilson, by Jesse Walker, 16 Jan 2007
Short memorial essay, noting the paucity of attention to Wilson's death in the mainstream press contrasted to the multiple tributes on the internet
Short memorial essay, noting the paucity of attention to Wilson's death in the mainstream press contrasted to the multiple tributes on the internet
The novelist, satirist, journalist, and philosopher Robert Anton Wilson passed away last Thursday, just a week shy of his 75th birthday. When he was alive he sometimes complained—or maybe it was a boast—that his books were never reviewed in The New York Times. The paper of record did pay its respects when he died, though, with a brief piece about his life and work. It wasn't entirely accurate, but the author of Illuminatus! would have enjoyed that. ... Given his enormous influence on pop culture, from Lost to Laura Croft, you might have expected Wilson's death to get more attention in the mainstream press.
Live From Chapel Perilous: We're living in Robert Anton Wilson's world, by Jesse Walker, Reason, Dec 2003
Contrasts Thomas Pynchon's Gravity's Rainbow and Wilson's (and Robert Shea's) Illuminatus! and argues that Wilson has had a much larger cultural influence than Pynchon
Contrasts Thomas Pynchon's Gravity's Rainbow and Wilson's (and Robert Shea's) Illuminatus! and argues that Wilson has had a much larger cultural influence than Pynchon
Robert Anton Wilson is the unacknowledged elephant in our cultural living room: a direct and indirect influence on popular books, movies, TV shows, music, games, comics, and commentary. ... Wilson is a primary source for the ironic style of conspiracism, a sensibility that treats alleged cabals not as intrigues to be exposed or lies to be debunked but as a bizarre mutant mythos to be mined for laughs, metaphors, and social insights. ... Somewhere between absolute belief and absolute incredulity, he tells us, the universe contains a maybe. To which anyone who follows the news these days can reply: No doubt.
Robert Anton Wilson, by Jeff Riggenbach, 15 Aug 2011
Biographical essay, including a lengthy digression on the thought of Ralph Borsodi, founder of the publisher of a magazine co-edited by Wilson in the early 1960's; transcript of "The Libertarian Tradition" podcast of 4 Aug 2011
Biographical essay, including a lengthy digression on the thought of Ralph Borsodi, founder of the publisher of a magazine co-edited by Wilson in the early 1960's; transcript of "The Libertarian Tradition" podcast of 4 Aug 2011
Robert Anton Wilson was born January 18, 1932 in Brooklyn ... From Brooklyn Tech he went, in 1952, after a couple of years of working and saving his money, to the Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn ... As the early sixties became the midsixties, he moved on to Ralph Ginzburg's Fact back in New York, and then to Hugh Hefner's Playboy in Chicago. He stayed there seven years ... The biggest success of his subsequent freelance career was Illuminatus!, a three-volume satirical novel written in collaboration with fellow late-sixties Playboy editor Robert Shea.
Books Authored
The Illuminatus! Trilogy: The Eye in the Pyramid, The Golden Apple, Leviathan
by Robert Shea, Robert Anton Wilson, 1975
Contents: Illuminatus! Part I: The Eye in the Pyramid - Book One: Verwirrung - Book Two: Zweitracht - Illuminatus! Part II: The Golden Apple - Book Three: Unordnung - Book Four: Beamtenherrschaft - Illuminatus! Part III: Leviathan - Book Five: Grummet
by Robert Shea, Robert Anton Wilson, 1975
Contents: Illuminatus! Part I: The Eye in the Pyramid - Book One: Verwirrung - Book Two: Zweitracht - Illuminatus! Part II: The Golden Apple - Book Three: Unordnung - Book Four: Beamtenherrschaft - Illuminatus! Part III: Leviathan - Book Five: Grummet
- ISBN 0440539811: Paperback, Dell, 1984
- ISBN 1567312373: Paperback, MJF Books, 1998
Prometheus Rising, 1983
Partial contents: The Thinker & The Prover - Hardware & Software: The Brain & Its Programs - The Oral Bio-Survival Circuit - The Anal Emotional Territorial Circuit - Dickens & Joyce: The Two-Circuit Dialectic - The Time-Binding Semantic Circuit
Partial contents: The Thinker & The Prover - Hardware & Software: The Brain & Its Programs - The Oral Bio-Survival Circuit - The Anal Emotional Territorial Circuit - Dickens & Joyce: The Two-Circuit Dialectic - The Time-Binding Semantic Circuit
- ISBN 0941404196: Paperback, Falcon Press, 1984
- ISBN 1561840564: Paperback, New Falcon Publications, 2009
Schrödinger's Cat Trilogy, 1979
Contents: The Universe Next Door - The Trick Top Hat - The Homing Pigeons
Contents: The Universe Next Door - The Trick Top Hat - The Homing Pigeons
- Kindle Book available at Amazon
- ISBN 0440500702: Paperback, Dell Publishing, Reissue edition, 1988
Videos
Dr. Demento, Walter Block and Robert Anton Wilson: Sex, Drugs, and Rock n' Roll, by Walter Block, Dr. Demento, Robert Anton Wilson, 5 Sep 1987
Panel discussion at the 1987 Libertarian National Convention
Related Topic: Libertarianism
Subversion for Fun and Profit: An Evening with Karl Hess and Robert Anton Wilson, by Karl Hess, Robert Anton Wilson, Sep 1987
Wilson and Hess at the Libertarian Party national convention, fielding questions from the audience on numerous topics
Related Topic: Libertarianism
The introductory paragraph uses material from the Wikipedia article "Robert Anton Wilson" as of 8 Feb 2025, which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0.