The Dennis Wheatley 'Museum' - DW's Library

Dennis Wheatley's Library – non-fiction

DW with part of his book collection
Grove Place, 1967

As earlier pages show, DW always intended his Library to contain both fiction and fact, and the factual side was substantial, although smaller.

It might be expected that the factual side of DW’s Library would have had a heavy leaning towards the occult – but this was not the case. While he had enough material on the occult to serve as research for his ‘Black Magic’ novels, much of the factual side of his Library was devoted to ancient and modern history (DW had a particular fascination for the Napoleonic period, both for its own sake and for his work) as well as to psychology, religion and sex.

His May 1964 catalogue gives an interesting insight into his interests. Although the novels are listed by author, they are interspersed in alphabetical order by sections on various factual topics – so Atlases are listed sequentially and in a discreet group after ‘Aveline, Claude’ and before ‘Balzac, Honoré’. A strange way of cataloguing, but presumably this was how DW saw his Library himself – and perhaps it was the way in which he actually ordered the books on his shelves.

The factual topics listed in the May 1964 catalogue are :

Provenance of May 1964 Catalogue : Private collection