This is a collection of articles, edited, introduced (and partly written) by Colin Wilson, the well-known writer of innovative fiction and thought-provoking (but nor cranky) philosophy, about famously enigmatic men. Wilson himself contributes on Rasputin and Gurdjieff, Christmas Humphreys on Madame Blavatsky, Kit Pedler on Nikola Tesla, Oliver Marlow Wilkinson on Aleister Crowley, Pat Silver and Jesse Lasky on Sir Francis Dashwood, Uri Geller and Nostradamus, and Peter Tompkins on Franz Anton Mesmer. It is a stimulating and fascinating collection of substantial essays, highlighting the many unanswered questions surrounding its exceptional subjects, and should be read by those with open minds, however convinced they may feel about the value of such occult matters. ( )