Outsider literature

Outsider literature is a term used loosely to describe writing and authors outside of the mainstream or establishment. Its proponents may be known as outsider writers.
Publisher R.B. Russell has suggested on the Wormwoodiana blog that the term is drawn from outsider art/art brut and to qualify for the classification, outsider literature must therefore be:
*Naïve/self taught
*Driven by a need to write rather than publish
*Not recognised at the time of composition by the literary establishment
Russell suggests that outsider writing "should be at pains to be like the Outsider Art movement and keep itself free from writers who simply fail to make the grade". Despite the suggestion that outsider writers should be driven by a need to write rather than publish, Russell appears to admit authors who have self- or vanity-published.
Outsider writers
*Sandor Berger (1925-2006), an Australian eccentric driven to self-publish many books and booklets, of poetry and his letters to newspaper editors.
*Henry Darger (1892-1973), a recognised Outsider Artist, but also the author of the fantasy manuscript The Story of the Vivian Girls.
*Charles Dellschau (1830-1923), American writer and artist who created drawings, collages and watercolours of airplanes and airships and bound them in 12 large scrapbooks that were discovered after his death.
*Paulin Gagne (1808-1876), a French poet, essayist, lawyer, politician, inventor, and eccentric, best known for the very long poem, The Woman-Messiah.
*June Gibbons (1963), British author of The Pepsi-Cola Addict (vanity published).
*Joseph Gould (1889-1957), an American author who claimed to have written the longest book ever, An Oral History of the Contemporary World (only fragments of which have been found and published).
*Adolf Wölfli (1864-1930), recognised Outsider Artist, but also the author of a semi-autobiographical epic in 45 volumes.
Further reading
*Outsider Theory, Jonathan P. Eburne, Minnesota University Press, 2018
*"Which writers really deserve to be called ‘outsiders’?", Philip Hensher, The Spectator, 28 October 2017
*"The centre cannot hold", Terry Eagleton, The Spectator, 23 Jun 2001
*"Outsider Literature: Writing from the Urgent Edges", The University of Arizona Poetry Centre

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