Born in New Jersey in 1955, Gary Lachman is an author and musician. His numerous books, translated into more than a dozen languages, cover topics ranging from the evolution of consciousness and western esoteric tradition to a rock and roll memoir of the 1970s, hermeticism, literary suicides, popular culture, studies in positive existentialism, as well histories of mystical teachings. He has written biographies of Aleister Crowley, Rudolf Steiner, C. G. Jung, Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, Emanuel Swedenborg, P. D. Ouspensky, Colin Wilson, and the recently published Maurice Nicoll: Forgotten Teacher of the Fourth Way. A founding member of the rock group Blondie, Gary was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2006.