Anton LaVey and the Church of Satan

by Carl Abrahamsson

• ISBN13: 9781644112410
• ISBN10: 1644112418
• Format: Nonspecific Binding
• Copyright: 2022-02-01
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Summary

An intimate exploration of the life, philosophy, and lasting occult influence of Anton LaVey, the founder of the Church of Satan

• Includes never-before-published material from LaVey, including transcripts from his never-released “Hail Satan!” video

• Shares in-depth interviews with intimate friends and collaborators, including LaVey’s partner Blanche Barton, his son Xerxes LaVey, and current heads of the Church of Satan Peter Gilmore and Peggy Nadramia

• Provides inside accounts of the Church of Satan and activities at the Black House, personal stories and anecdotes from the very colorful life of the Black Pope, and firsthand explanations of key principles of LaVey’s philosophy

With his creation of the infamous Church of Satan in 1966 and his bestselling book The Satanic Bible in 1969, Anton Szandor LaVey (1930-1997) became a controversial celebrity who basked in the attention and even made a successful career out of it. But who was Anton LaVey behind the public persona that so easily provoked Christians and others intolerant of his views?

One of privileged few who spent time with the “Black Pope” in the last decade of his life, Carl Abrahamsson met Anton LaVey in 1989, sparking an “infernally” empowering friendship. In this book Abrahamsson explores what LaVey was really about, where he came from, and how he shaped the esoteric landscape of the 1960s. The author shares in-depth interviews with the notorious Satanist’s intimate friends and collaborators, including LaVey’s partner Blanche Barton; his son, Xerxes LaVey; current heads of the Church of Satan, Peter Gilmore and Peggy Nadramia; occult filmmaker Kenneth Anger; LaVey’s personal secretary Margie Bauer; film collector Jack Stevenson; and film historian Jim Morton. Abrahamsson also shares never-before-published material from LaVey himself, including discussions between LaVey and Genesis P-Orridge and transcribed excerpts from LaVey’s never-released “Hail Satan!” video.

Providing inside accounts of the Church of Satan and activities at the Black House, this intimate exploration of Anton LaVey reveals his ongoing role in the history of culture and magic.

Author Biography

Carl Abrahamsson is a writer, publisher, magico-anthropologist, photographer, and filmmaker, most recently producing the documentary Anton LaVey: Into the Devil’s Den. The author of Occulture and Reasonances as well as the editor and publisher of the annual anthology of occulture, The Fenris Wolf, he lives in Stockholm, Sweden.

Table of Contents

FOREWORD
“No More Mr. Nice Guy”
by Mitch Horowitz

PART I
Into the Devil’s Den
1 Step Right Up!
2 Welcome to the Hotel California!
3 Anton LaVey, Magical Innovator
4 Canon Fodder
5 Bewitched, Bothered, and Bewildered
6 Maybe We Should Watch a Movie Now?

PART II
The Interviews
7 Kenneth Anger
8 Blanche Barton
9 Margie Bauer
10 Peter Gilmore
11 Mitch Horowitz
12 Bob Johnson
13 Xerxes LaVey
14 Jim Morton
15 Michael Moynihan
16 Peggy Nadramia
17 Jack Stevenson
18 Ruth Waytz
19 Larry Wessel
20 Interview with Carl Abrahamsson
by Vanessa Sinclair

APPENDIX I
Anton LaVey in His Own Words: Excerpts from “Hail Satan!”

APPENDIX II
Genesis P-Orridge and Anton LaVey in Conversation

APPENDIX III
There Is No Such Thing as Bad Publicity

Acknowledgments

Notes

Index