The history of ILLUMINATUS!

Here is a short article by Robert Anton Wilson that goes into the curious history of ILLUMINATUS!, which has never been a best-seller but has continued to sell since it was published in the 1970s.

Particularly interesting in Wilson's discussion about the apparently audience for the book. He says the readers "tend to be youngish" and are "a very motley group indeed — political libertarians, sci-fi buffs (Shea and I never thought of the book as science fiction while we were writing it), neo-pagans, witches, Futurists, space colony advocates, longevity and vitamin freaks, and (among the more 'mature') a lot of psychologists, psychiatrists, radical M.D.s, and other professionals concerned with the illnesses of our nation. There are also a lot of people who don't want the Feds taking their dope away, and an assort ment of anti-IRS 'cranks'."