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New Biography Reveals Details of the Life of the Man Behind Llewellyn Publications
WOODBURY, MN (September, 2018)
Llewellyn Worldwide is well-known for its extensive line of books exploring topics ranging from Witchcraft and Paganism to alternative health and healing, but until now, the man who built the company into what it is today has remained a bit of a mystery. A new biography, Carl Llewellyn Weschcke: Pioneer and Publisher of Body, Mind, and Spirit by Melanie Marquis sheds light on the life of this visionary whose championing of alternative spirituality, witchcraft, astrology, and metaphysics earned him the nickname of “Father of the New Age.”
Carl Llewellyn Weschcke , who purchased Llewellyn Publications in 1961 and guided the company until his death in 2016, had chosen to live a private life after having spent many years in the spotlight advocating for his vision of education, enlightenment, and empowerment. During the civil rights era, he garnered media attention for his work with the NAACP, helping to secure fair housing legislation in Minnesota and urging national leaders to speed up school desegregation efforts. In the 1970s, he opened the country’s largest metaphysical bookstore, housing over 100,000 volumes on everything from E.S.P. to ancient magic. He opened a school of magical learning and hosted gatherings and festivals, bringing like-minded people together to share ideas and experiences in the budding New Age of expanded consciousness. Weschcke soon became a spokesperson for astrology, witchcraft, and many other metaphysical subjects.
When Weschcke acquired Llewellyn, occult books were difficult to obtain in America, but he was determined to change that and did so by resurrecting old classics that had gone out of print and publishing exciting new authors with fresh perspectives on a vast variety of esoteric disciplines. He brought to a new generation the works of Aleister Crowley and Dion Fortune. He was the first to publish the work of Raymond Buckland, introducing countless Americans to the new religion of the Wicca. In the process, he managed to transform the small mail-order based publisher of astrology pamphlets he had purchased into a thriving multi-million dollar business with customers around the globe.
“Weschcke believed in equal opportunity for every human to become more than they are, and throughout the course of his life, he poured his body, mind, and spirit into doing his part to help further this great work in which he felt all people must play a role,” says Weschcke’s friend and biographer Melanie Marquis. Marquis is the author of several witchcraft books and the creator of Modern Spellcaster’s Tarot , a deck of fortunetelling cards. Her latest book, Carl Llewellyn Weschcke: Pioneer and Publisher of Body, Mind, and Spirit shares the details of Weschcke's work and vision, as well as the secrets to success he used to grow his company, create a movement, and transform an industry. The book also delves into Weschcke’s later years, revealing the personal challenges and motivations that led him to embark on a new career as an author at the age of 79.
Other books by Marquis:
Witchy Mama (co-authored with Emily A. Francis)
Llewellyn is the oldest and largest independent New Age publisher in the United States, celebrating over a century of leadership in the industry on such subjects as self-help, metaphysical studies, mysticism, alternative health, divination, astrology, tarot, the paranormal, witchcraft, paganism, Wicca, magick, Goddess lore, and garden witchery.
Praise for Carl Llewellyn Weschcke:
"Weschcke's large American life and counterculture passions make for fascinating reading." ― ForeWord Reviews
“With this book, another major piece goes into place in the jigsaw of the history of modern American Paganism and witchcraft. It is an excellent biography—lucid, fast-paced and comprehensive—of one of the most important and best regarded personalities in the formation of those traditions. Most important, it embodies precisely those qualities, of efficiency mixed with love, which summed up the person whom it portrays." —Ronald Hutton, historian and author of The Triumph of the Moon: A History of Modern Pagan Witchcraft
“Author Melanie Marquis has done a masterful job of presenting Carl Llewellyn Weschcke as the gentle, insightful, spiritual innovator that he was. Reading this book illuminated those early years of Carl's life that we were not privy to, and made us long for a time machine that would let us experience the adventure of a 1970s Gnosticon Festival, the uniqueness of the purple Gnostica Bookstore, or a ghostly thrill at the old haunted Griggs Mansion. These are just a few of the gems that ornamented the life of a man who was truly instrumental in spreading all manner of spiritual knowledge and magical know-how." ―Chic Cicero and Sandra Tabatha Cicero, co-authors and co-editors of The Tree of Life and Gold: Israel Regardie's Lost Book of Alchemy
Book information:
Carl Llewellyn Weschcke: Pioneer and Publisher of Body, Mind, and Spirit
by Melanie Marquis
Llewellyn Publications, September 2018
ISBN-10: 0738753270
ISBN-13: 978-0738753270
https://www.llewellyn.com/product.php?ean= 9780738753270
Author information:
