The Outsider is theseminal work on alienation, creativity & the modern mind-set. Firstpublished over forty years ago, it made its youthful author England'smost controversial intellectual. The Outsider is an individual engagedin an intense self-exploration-a person who lives at the edge,challenges cultural values & "stands for Truth." Born into a worldwithout perspective, where others simply drift thru life, the Outsidercreates his own set of rules & lives them in an unsympatheticenvironment. The relative handful of people who fulfilled Wilson'sdefinition of the Outsider in the 1950s have now become a significantsocial force, making Wilson's vision more relevant today than ever. Thruthe works & lives of various artists--including Kafka, Camus,Eliot, Hemingway, Hesse, Lawrence, Van Gogh, Nijinsky, Shaw, Blake,Nietzsche & Dostoyevski--Wilson explores the psyche of the Outsider,his effect on society & society's effect on him. Wilson illuminatesthe struggle of those who seek not only the transformation of Self butalso the transformation of society as a whole. The book is essential foreveryone who shares his conviction that "a new religion is needed".