Lawrence Sutin

An official portrait of the influential novelist's life and career explores how Dick's writings expanded the scope of the science fiction genre, served as the inspirations for blockbuster movies, and influenced the written works of such contemporaries as Thomas Pynchon, Don Delillo, and David Foster Wallace. Original.

A Life of Philip K. Dick

Divine Invasions

Rochelle Sutin

Jack Sutin

The authors recount how they escaped from Nazi ghetto labor camps and became resistance fighters

A Holocaust Story of Love and Resistance

Jack and Rochelle

Aleister Crowley was a blustery coward, an arrogant, misogynistic racist with fascist leanings, and a callous user, as often threatened by his sexuality as he claimed to be liberated by it. But he was also a groundbreaking poet and an iconoclastic visionary whose literary and cultural legacies extend far beyond the limits of his reputation. This controversial individual, a frightening mixture of egomania and self-loathing, has inspired passionate--but seldom fair--assesments by historians. Sutin, by treating Crowley as a cultural phenomenon, and not simply a sorcerer or a charlatan, convinces skeptic readers that the self-styled "Beast" remains a fascinating study in eccentricity.

A Life of Aleister Crowley

Do What Thou Wilt

A humorous & insightful memoir of everday life told through pieces inspired by a series of quirky antique postcards.

A Postcard Memoir

Do What Thou Wilt: An exploration into the life and works of a modern mystic, occultist, poet, mountaineer, and bisexual adventurer known to his contemporaries as "The Great Beast" Aleister Crowley was a groundbreaking poet and an iconoclastic visionary whose literary and cultural legacy extends far beyond the limits of his notoriety as a practitioner of the occult arts. Born in 1875 to devout Christian parents, young Aleister's devotion scarcely outlived his father, who died when the boy was twelve. He reached maturity in the boarding schools and brothels of Victorian England, trained to become a world-class mountain climber, and seldom persisted with any endeavor in which he could be bested. Like many self-styled illuminati of his class and generation, the hedonistic Crowley gravitated toward the occult. An aspiring poet and a pampered wastrel - obsessed with reconciling his quest for spiritual perfection and his inclination do exactly as he liked in the earthly realm - Crowley developed his own school of mysticism. Magick, as he called it, summoned its users to embrace the imagination and to glorify the will. Crowley often explored his spiritual yearnings through drug-saturated vision quests and rampant sexual adventurism, but at other times he embraced Eastern philosophies and sought enlightenment on ascetic sojourns into the wilderness. This controversial individual, a frightening mixture of egomania and self-loathing, has inspired passionate - but seldom fair - assessments from historians. Lawrence Sutin, by treating Crowley as a cultural phenomenon, and not simply a sorcerer or a charlatan, convinces skeptic readers that the self-styled "Beast" remains a fascinating study in how one man devoted his life to the subversion of the dominant moral and religious values of his time.

At times a Dickensian tale of a poor boy made good, at other times an exploration of the intricate relations between writers and their readers, this inventive novel spans nearly two centuries, following the life of the little-known author Hector de Saint-Aureole and the impact of his self-published autobiography on those to whom the book finds its way. The narrative form is an ongoing series of intertwined shorts with six photographic interludes. The worldwide settings range from early twentieth-century France to the future United States of the year 2059, when books have become nearly obsolete. The shifting points-of-view include those of Saint-Aureole, his wife, his daughter, and his assorted readers. There are also visitations to Saint-Aureole by Jesus Christ and the Hindu goddess Lakshmi. Those familiar with Lawrence Sutin's innovative illustrated autobiography, A Postcard Memoir, or his biographies of the enigmatic authors Philip K. Dick and Aleister Crowley, will be delighted to find past themes newly explored in a richly evocative novel. Those new to Sutin will find When to Go into Water a fascinating introduction to an author who delights in the strange and the whimsical.

Lawrence Sutin

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