Hilaritas Press grew out of a desire to keep the books of Robert Anton Wilson in print and to fulfill Bob’s wish to provide for his children, something that during his life was difficult when authors typically receive less than ten percent of the money generated by their work. Bob’s daughter Christina and his friend Rasa, directing enterprises of the Robert Anton Wilson Trust, created Hilaritas Press as a way to fulfill Bob’s wishes and insure that his legacy remains robust. We’ve enlisted the aid of a small group of Bob’s treasured friends and others who are advising and helping out the Trust on RAW related matters. Bob would have loved that. Throughout his life he generously gave thanks and returned support for the many people who were touched by his heart, humor and wisdom.

Publishing rights to nineteen of Robert Anton Wilson’s books have reverted to the RAW Trust which will republish these books through Hilaritas Press. While editing, reformatting and publishing Bob’s books in eBook and Print editions, a huge task that will take us a while, Hilaritas Press is slowly inviting other adventurous authors to become members of the Hilaritas Press family. Check out our Author’s page for details.

Like many writers, Bob had, shall we say, a colorful relationship with his publishers. With the advent of new publishing technologies, Bob’s family (the RAW Trust) is eager to offer new and improved editions of his books. We are going word-by-word through each book, and finding a number of  needed corrections (mostly typos), as well as improving book graphics. While editing, we are keeping in mind Bob’s observation from Prometheus Rising, “Wilson’s Tenth Law: no matter how many times a writer proofs a book, hostile critics will always find at least one error that he missed.”

Instead of hostile critics, we have friendly editors, and the help of Bob’s friends when a typo presents a challenge. Such was the case when editing Quantum Psychology. One paragraph describing Bob’s thoughts on an aspect of quantum mechanics had a typo that probably left many readers aware of an issue, but unsure of what the correction should be. We had an idea for a fix, and sent that idea off to physicist Nick Herbert (one of the physicists featured in Quantum Psychology). Nick verified that our correction was correct (minor celebrations here in the office that we actually understood that aspect of quantum mechanics!). Needless to say, this is a tedious process, but fortunately, we never tire from re-reading the works of Robert Anton Wilson. After this initial setup, Hilaritas Press will be actively looking for adventurous authors with new works to include in the Hilaritas Press family. Keep tuned for future details. Use the form on this page to signup for the RAW Trust Newsletter and receive the latest RAW Trust news!

Bob said that he first got the word hilaritas from Ezra Pound’s Cantos which was quoting the Byzantine philosopher Gemistus Pletho who said “you can recognize gods even in their human form by their outstanding hilaritas.” Bob notes that in Pletho’s time, hilaritas meant “cheerfulness, good humor we would say, but not in the sense of always joking.” For many years Bob would often sign his letters, and then emails with “amor et hilaritas”, or simply “hilaritas”.