Literature and the Theosophical Movement

UNDER CONSTRUCTION
UNDER CONSTRUCTION
Art as an expression of spirituality is important to the Theosophical Movement. This article explores how Theosophy has influenced literature, how Theosophists have written fiction and poetry informed by Theosophical concepts. See also:

Art and the Theosophical Movement

Music and the Theosophical Movement

Performing Arts and the Theosophical Movement

Popular Culture and the Theosophical Movement

Occult fiction

Fiction writers influenced by Theosophy

These are writers of novels and short fiction who were Theosophists, were influenced by Theosophy, or were influential to Theosophists.

• L. Frank Baum (1856–1919) was an American author of children's books, best known for writing The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. He and his wife Maud were members of the Theosophical Society.
• Algernon Blackwood (1869–1951) was an English short story writer and novelist, one of the most prolific writers of ghost stories in the history of the genre. He was active in Theosophical lodges in Toronto and London.
• Helena Petrovna Blavatsky (1831-1891) the Russian-American founder of the Theosophical Society wrote some ghost stories but is best known for The Secret Doctrine and other works delineating Theosophy.
• Edward Bulwer-Lytton (1803-73) was a English aristocrat and a member of the English Rosicrucian Society. His enormously popular novels were much appreciated by early Theosophists.
• Edgar Rice Burroughs (1875–1950) was an American writer best known for his creations of the jungle hero Tarzan and the heroic Mars adventurer John Carter, although he produced works in many genres. There is evidence in his novels of Theosophical influence.
• Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859–1930) was a British physician and writer who is most noted for his novels and stories about the detective Sherlock Holmes, which are generally considered milestones in the field of crime fiction. His interest in Spiritualism and Theosophy is well documented.
• Francis Marion Crawford (1854–1909) was an American writer noted for his many novels set in Italy, and for his classic weird and fantastic stories. His novel Mr. Isaacs was well known to early Theosophists.
• Edward Douglas Fawcett (1866-1960) was an English writer who knew Helena Petrovna Blavatsky. He wrote fiction, poetry, and nonfiction about many topics, including metaphysics and flying.
• Nicolas Camille Flammarion (1842-1925) was a French astronomer, prolific author of more than fifty titles and member of the Theosophical Society. His writings include popular science works about astronomy, several notable early science fiction novels, and works on psychical research and related topics.
• Dion Fortune (1890-1946) was a prominent British Occultist and Theosophist who founded the Society of the Inner Light. She wrote occult novels such as The Sea Priestess and many non-fiction works.
• Sir Henry Rider Haggard (1856–1925) was an English writer of adventure novels set in exotic locations, predominantly Africa, and a founder of the Lost World literary genre. He is most famous for his book King Solomon's Mines. He was aware of Theosophy and Mme. Blavatsky praised one of his books, She.
• Manly Palmer Hall ([1901–1990) was a Canadian-born mystic, eclectic philosopher and founder of the Philosophical Research Society. He was the 20th century’s most prolific writer on mysticism, magic, and ancient philosophies, authoring more than 200 books. Some were fiction, such as the occult stories in Shadow Forms.
• Robert E. Howard (1906–1936) was an American author who wrote fiction in several genres. He is well known for his character Conan the Barbarian and is regarded as the father of the sword and sorcery subgenre. Howard was influenced by H. P. Lovecraft, and also by Theosophists H. P. Blavatsky and William Scott-Elliott.
• Marc Edmund Jones was an American writer, lecturer, and Presbyterian minister. An active Theosophist and Rosicrucian, he has been called "the dean of American astrology." Jones wrote numerous screenplays and novelizations of films.
• Alma Karlin (1889–1950) was a Slovene traveler, writer, poet, collector, polyglot and Theosophist. She was one of the first European women who circled the globe alone. Her written works include novels and occult non-fiction.
• D. H. Lawrence (1885–1930) was an English novelist, poet, playwright, essayist, literary critic and painter. As a member of the Symbolist movement, he was influenced by the Theosophical literature.
• Jack London]] (1876–1916) was an American author, journalist, and social activist. He was a pioneer in the field of commercial magazine fiction and was one of the first fiction writers to achieve worldwide celebrity. He wrote of the influence of reading Theosophical literature.
• H. P. Lovecraft (1890–1937) was an American author who achieved posthumous fame through his influential works of horror fiction. He was influenced by Theosophists H. P. Blavatsky and William Scott-Elliott.
• Edward Maitland (1824-1897) was an English Theosophist, writer, and humanitarian. He is best known for his collaboration with Dr. Anna Kingsford on their 1882 book, The Perfect Way, or the Finding of Christ, but he also wrote several novels, some describing dystopian futures.
• Kenneth Morris (1879-1937) was a Welsh writer of fantasy novels. He lived at the Point Loma colony of Theosophists from 1908 to 1930 as a staff member.
• Talbot Mundy(1879–1940) was an English novelist and short story writer. He was a friend of Katherine Tingley and joined the Point Loma community. Many of his stories and 35 novels like King of the Khyber Rifles featured exotic locations and mystical experiences.
• Countess Lydia Alexandrovna de Pashkov (1845-19xx) was a Russian writer who was an early friend of Helena Petrovna Blavatsky. She wrote novels in French under the name Lydie Paschkoff.
• Dane Rudhyar (1895-1985) was a French-American composer, writer, artist, and astrologer. He wrote several novels and numerous non-fiction works.
• Clark Ashton Smith (1893–1961) was a self-educated American poet, sculptor, painter and author of short stories. Smith was one of the main contributors to the American horror and fantasy pulp fiction magazine Weird Tales. His work is marked chiefly by an extraordinarily wide and ornate vocabulary, a cosmic perspective and a vein of sardonic and sometimes ribald humor.
• Leo Tolstoy (1828–1910) was a Russian writer known for his novels and short stories, plays and essays. Mme. Blavatsky held him in high regard, and he had her books.
• Violet Tweedale (1862–1936), was a Scottish psychic who became involved in Spiritualism and Theosophy, and was a close associate of Helena Blavatsky. Tweedale became also a member of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn. She was a prolific writer of short stories, published as anthologies, and novels, often with a romantic or supernatural theme.

Poets influenced by Theosophy

• James Henry Cousins (1873-1956) was an Irish writer, poet, playwright, actor, critic, editor, and educator who was active in the Theosophical Society in India.
• Jean Delville (1867–1953) was a Belgian symbolist painter, who also wrote at least four volumes of poetry. He was the first General Secretary of the Theosophical Society in Belgium, from 1911-1913.
• Robert Duncan (1919–1988) was an American poet and key figure in the San Francisco Renaissance. He was adopted by a family of devoted Theosophists, and became a student of the Western esoteric tradition.
• Jean Overton Fuller was an English writer of poetry and biographies, and a member of the Theosophical Society based in Adyar, India. She published numerous volumes of poetry.
• George Cardinal LeGros (1905-1988) was a Theosophist and astrologer who was widely known in Theosophical circles for his writings, magazines, poetry, and correspondence courses.
• Maurice Maeterlinck (1862–1949) was a Belgian playwright, poet, and essayist who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1911. His plays form an important part of the Symbolist art movement, which was influenced by Theosophy.
• Ella Wheeler Wilcox (1850–1919) was an American who was keenly interested in Theosophy, New Thought, Rosicrucianism, Spiritualism, and the Order of the Star in the East. She was an enormously popular and prolific writer of poetry and magazine articles, and also wrote a few novels.
• Ella Young (1867–1956) was an Irish poet and Celtic mythologist active in the Irish literary revival of the late 19th century. She was interested in Theosophy, and was an early member of the Hermetic Society, the Dublin branch of the Theosophical Society, where she met writer Kenneth Morris. She was also acquainted with "Æ" (George William Russell).

Numerous other Theosophists wrote poetry, but were not primarily known as poets. Some were Burton Callicott, Clara Codd, Dorothy Codd, C. Jinarajadasa, Alma Karlin, Anna Bonus Kingsford, Charles E. Luntz, Robert Logan,

Poets important to Theosophists

• Edwin Arnold (1832–1904) was an English poet and journalist, who is best known for his poetic story of Gautama Buddha, The Light of Asia, which is much admired by Theosophists. He mastered Sanskrit, Arabic, Turkish, and Persian languages and was a skilled artist.
• Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882), was a American writer, lecturer, and poet whose beliefs founded the Transcendentalism movement. Originally a Unitarian pastor, he soon became disillusioned with the conventional forms of worship, becoming a renowned lecturer who advocated the natural intuition of the soul. H. P. Blavatsky and other Theosophists greatly admired his work.
• Kahlil Gibran (1883–1931) was a Lebanese artist, poet, and writer. Many of his writings deal with Christianity, especially on the topic of spiritual love, but his mysticism is a convergence of several different influences such as Christianity, Islam, Sufism, Judaism and Theosophy.
• Gerald Massey (1828-1907) was an English poet and writer. A radical and freethinker, he was keenly interested in Egyptology and wrote about the possible Egyptian origins of Christianity. His writings had a large impact on many Theosophists including Paul Gauguin.

See also

• Artists

Additional resources

Bibliographies

• Bibliography on Arts and Music from the Henry S. Olcott Memorial Library.