Gilbert, R(obert) A(ndrew) (1942-)

Book dealer and authority on the history of magic and esoteric organizations. He was born October 6, 1942, in Bristol, England, and attended the University of Bristol (B.A. honors, 1964). Since 1966 Gilbert and his wife have been antiquarian book dealers. Gilbert is also a trustee of the Yarker Library Trust and the Hermetic Research Trust and is a member of the Churches' Fellowship for Psychical and Spiritual Studies. He has written a number of books and articles, but is possibly most known for his work on the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn and in particular one of its members, occult author Arthur E. Waite.

Gilbert has stated that his aim is:

"to promote those elements within the esoteric traditions of Western Europe and of the Judeo-Christian tradition which have been unjustly neglected on account of their presumed un-orthodoxy. I wish to demonstrate their compatibility with orthodox Christianity. In addition, I continue to work on the questions of the nature and communication of mystical experience, the distribution of life within the universe, and the religious implications of cosmology."

He has been an incisive critic of the pretentious and the charlatanic in occultism.

Sources:

Gilbert, Robert A. A. E. Waite: A Bibliography. Wellingbo-rough, England: Aquarian Press, 1983.

——. A. E. Waite: Magician of Many Parts. Wellingborough, England: Aquarian Press, 1987.

——. The Golden Dawn Companion. Wellingborough, England: Aquarian Press, 1986.

——. The Golden Dawn: Twilight of the Magicians. Welling-borough, England: Aquarian Press, 1983.

——, ed. The Sorcerer and His Apprentice: Hermetic Writings of S. L. McGregor Mathers & J. W. Brodie Innes. Wellingborough, England: Aquarian Press, 1983.

—— [Edward Dunning]. Selected Masonic Writings of A. E. Waite. Wellingborough, England: Aquarian Press, 1988.

Gilbert, Robert A., and Michael A. Cox, eds. The Oxford Book of English Ghost Stories. Oxford: Oxford University Press; New York: Oxford University Press, 1989.

Gilbert, Robert A., and W. N. Birks. The Treasure of Montsegur. Crucible, 1987.

Waite, Arthur Edward. Hermetic Papers of A. E. Waite. Edited by R. A. Gilbert. Wellingborough, England: Aquarian Press, 1987.