Colin Wilson books in order
British writer and philosopher
- Lived
- 1931–2013
- Country
- United Kingdom
- Books
- 88
Colin Wilson published 18 novels, 2 novellas, 2 short story collections, 31 non-fiction books, 3 children's books, 1 play and 31 other books, beginning with The Outsider (1956).
Updated September 2026
Where to start with Colin Wilson
Start here
The Outsider
Colin Wilson's most-read book.
Standalone novels in order
The Outsider (1956)
Adrift in Soho (1961)
The Glass Cage (1966)
The Mind Parasites (1967)
The Philosopher's Stone (1969)
The Killer (May 1970)
The Black Room (1971)
Ritual in the Dark (1974)
The Space Vampires (1976)
Lifeforce (1985)
The Personality Surgeon (1985)
The Magician from Siberia (1988)
The Misfits (1988)
The Fortress (Spider World, Book 3) (1989)
Spider World, the Magician (1992)
From Atlantis to the Sphinx (1996)
The Tower (2001)
The Atlantis Blueprint (2002)
Novellas in order
The Return of the Lloigor (1974)
World Famous Strange but True (1994)
Short story collections in order
Poetry and Mysticism (1969)
The Essential Colin Wilson (1985)
Non-fiction in order
Religion and the Rebel (1957)
The Stature of Man (1959)
The Strength to Dream (1962)
Origins of the Sexual Impulse (1963)
Rasputin and the Fall of the Romanovs (1964)
Beyond the Outsider (1965)
Sex and the Intelligent Teenager (1966)
A Casebook of Murder (1969)
Voyage to a Beginning (1969)
The Occult: A History (1971)
Strange Powers (1973)
Tree by Tolkien (1973)
New Pathways in Psychology (1974)
The Quest for Wilhelm Reich (1980)
Poltergeist (1981)
The Directory of Possibilities (1981)
Frankensteins Castle (1982)
The Encyclopedia of Modern Murder, 1962-1982 (1983)
Afterlife (1985)
Jack the Ripper (1987)
Aleister Crowley (1988)
Beyond the Occult (1988)
C. G. Jung (1988)
Written in Blood (1989)
A Criminal History of Mankind (1990)
The Serial Killers (1996)
The Books in My Life (1998)
Rogue Messiahs (2000)
Mysteries (2006)
Serial Killer Investigations (2006)
Scandal! (2007)
Children's books in order
Mysteries of the Universe (1997)
UFOs and Aliens (1997)
Ghosts and the Supernatural (1998)
Plays in order
Strindberg (1970)
Other books in order
The Age of Defeat (1959)
Colin Wilson on Music (Brandy of the Damned) (1964)
Necessary Doubt (1964)
Eagle and Earwig (1965)
Introduction to the New Existentialism (1966)
The God of the Labyrinth (1971)
The Occult (1971)
Enigmas and Mysteries (1976)
Starseekers (1980)
An Essay on the "new" Existentialism (1986)
The Craft of the Novel (1986)
Spider World (1987)
The Encyclopedia of Unsolved Mysteries (1987)
The Mammoth Book of True Crime (1988)
Witches (1988)
Murder in the 1930's (1992)
Unsolved Mysteries Past and Present (1992)
The Strange Life of P.D. Ouspensky (1993)
True Ghost Stories (1994)
A Plague of Murder (1995)
World Famous Crimes (1995)
The Killers Among Us (1996)
Alien Dawn (1998)
The Corpse Garden (1998)
The Mammoth Book of the History of Murder (2000)
The Mammoth Encyclopedia of the Unsolved (2000)
Point Blank (2003)
The World's Greatest True Crime (2004)
Dreaming to Some Purpose (2005)
Illustrated True Crime (2006)
The Murder Casebook (2006)
Film and TV adaptations
- Lifeforce (1985)Film · from The Space Vampires
About Colin Wilson
Colin Henry Wilson was an English existentialist philosopher-novelist. He also wrote widely on true crime, mysticism and the paranormal, eventually writing more than a hundred books. Wilson called his philosophy "new existentialism" or "phenomenological existentialism", and maintained his life work was "that of a philosopher, and (his) purpose to create a new and optimistic existentialism".
Biography from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Photo via Wikimedia Commons.
Colin Wilson FAQ
- How many books has Colin Wilson written?
- Colin Wilson published 18 novels, 2 novellas, 2 short story collections, 31 non-fiction books, 3 children's books, 1 play and 31 other books that we list, as of September 2026.
- What order should I read Colin Wilson's books in?
- Publication order is a safe choice; the full list is above. Most readers start with The Outsider.
- What is Colin Wilson's last book?
- Scandal! (2007).
- What is Colin Wilson's most famous book?
- The Outsider (1956) is Colin Wilson's most widely read book.
- Which Colin Wilson books have been adapted?
- 1 book has been adapted for film or TV, including The Space Vampires (as Lifeforce, film, 1985).
Sources: book lists and dates from Wikidata and Open Library, ratings from Open Library readers. Last updated September 2026.