Colin Henry Wilson (June 26, 1931 – December 5, 2013) was an English writer born in Leicester, England.
Colin was born into a poor, working-class family. He was late to school, leaving early at the age of sixteen to help his father. He worked various jobs, some of which helped him read in his spare time. Due to his varied and extensive reading, he published his first book, The Outsider (1956), at the age of twenty-five. In it, he addressed the isolation of creative people (poets and philosophers) from their society and peers, and their constant questioning. He attributed this to a deep desire to find an objective and clear religion that could be transmitted to others, without them having to spend their lives searching for it. The book was a huge success, generating strong critical acclaim and making the poor young Colin a star in London’s intellectual circles, with his personal life appearing in the gossip columns. This deeply affected Colin, who began to take sides with journalists and critics, who quickly reciprocated, attacking his book as “fake” and full of hypocrisy. Despite this, the book is still widely regarded as having contributed significantly to the widespread dissemination of existentialist philosophy in Britain.