The Devil's Notebook is the fourth book written by Anton LaVey

Anton LaVey

Anton Szandor LaVey , born Howard Stanton Levey, was the founder of the Church of Satan as well as a writer, occultist, and musician...

. It was published by Feral House

Feral House

Feral House is a book publisher owned and operated by Adam Parfrey. The publisher itself describes the books it sells as "pure information", and says the topics of the books are "forbidden"....

 in 1992; the first original collection of LaVey's writings to be published in two decades.

The book contains forty-one essays, each lined with the collected wisdom

Wisdom

Wisdom is a deep understanding and realization of people, things, events or situations, resulting in the ability to apply perceptions, judgements and actions in keeping with this understanding. It often requires control of one's emotional reactions so that universal principles, reason and...

, humor, and dark observations of the founder of the Church of Satan

Church of Satan

The Church of Satan is an organization dedicated to the acceptance of the carnal self, as articulated in The Satanic Bible, written in 1969 by Anton Szandor LaVey.- History :...

. The High Priest

Anton LaVey

Anton Szandor LaVey , born Howard Stanton Levey, was the founder of the Church of Satan as well as a writer, occultist, and musician...

 speculates on such topics as nonconformity

Nonconformity

Nonconformity may refer to:* Nonconformity , a memoir by Nelson Algren, published posthumously in 1992* Nonconformity , a term in quality management* A type of unconformity in geology...

, occult

Occult

The word occult comes from the Latin word occultus , referring to "knowledge of the hidden". In the medical sense it is used to refer to a structure or process that is hidden, e.g...

 fad

FAD

In biochemistry, flavin adenine dinucleotide is a redox cofactor involved in several important reactions in metabolism. FAD can exist in two different redox states, which it converts between by accepting or donating electrons. The molecule consists of a riboflavin moiety bound to the phosphate...

dism, Nazism

Nazism

Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...

, terrorism

Terrorism

Terrorism is the systematic use of terror, especially as a means of coercion. In the international community, however, terrorism has no universally agreed, legally binding, criminal law definition...

, cannibalism

Cannibalism

Cannibalism is the act or practice of humans eating the flesh of other human beings. It is also called anthropophagy...

, erotic politics

Politics

Politics is a process by which groups of people make collective decisions. The term is generally applied to the art or science of running governmental or state affairs, including behavior within civil governments, but also applies to institutions, fields, and special interest groups such as the...

, the “Goodguy badge,” demoralization and the construction of artificial human

Homunculus

Homunculus is a term used, generally, in various fields of study to refer to any representation of a human being. Historically, it referred specifically to the concept of a miniature though fully formed human body, for example, in the studies of alchemy and preformationism...

 companions.

Like P.T. Barnum, Ben Hecht

Ben Hecht

Ben Hecht was an American screenwriter, director, producer, playwright, and novelist. Called "the Shakespeare of Hollywood", he received screen credits, alone or in collaboration, for the stories or screenplays of some 70 films and as a prolific storyteller, authored 35 books and created some of...

 and H.L. Mencken before him, LaVey zeroes in on humankind’s limitless capacity for self-deceit and self-denial. Included are instructions for the creation of what LaVey terms "total environments," or places of magical evocation, where the enlightened may escape the deleterious effects of contemporary existence.

It includes a foreword by Adam Parfrey

Adam Parfrey

Adam Parfrey is an American journalist, editor, and the publisher of Feral House books, whose work in all three capacities frequently centers on unusual, extreme, or "forbidden" areas of knowledge.-Life:...

and design by Sean Tejaratchi.