Robert Anton Wilson died in his home on January 11, 2007, seven days before his 75th birthday.

A former editor at Playboy, Wilson was the coauthor, with Robert Shea, of the The Illuminatus! Trilogy, which won the 1986 Prometheus Hall of Fame Award. His other writings include the Schrodinger's Cat Trilogy, and several nonfiction works such as Prometheus Rising and The New Inquisition.

Wilson saw himself as a futurist, author, and stand-up comic. He made a comedy record (Secrets of Power) and a punk rock record (The Chocolate Biscuit Conspiracy), and his play Wilhelm Reich in Hell was performed at the Edmund Burke Theatre in Dublin, Ireland. His novel Illuminatus! was adapted as a 10-hour science fiction rock epic and performed at Great Britain's National Theatre, where Wilson appeared briefly on stage in a cameo role.

His final blog entry on January 6:

"Do Not Go Gently Into That Good Night

Various medical authorities swarm in and out of here predicting I have between two days and two months to live. I think they are guessing. I remain cheerful and unimpressed. I look forward without dogmatic optimism but without dread. I love you all and I deeply implore you to keep the lasagna flying.

Please pardon my levity, I don't see how to take death seriously. It seems absurd.

RAW"

A memorial will be scheduled sometime in February.

Posted January 12, 2007