L. W. de Laurence was an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 author and publisher on 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...

 and spiritual

Spirituality

Spirituality can refer to an ultimate or an alleged immaterial reality; an inner path enabling a person to discover the essence of his/her being; or the “deepest values and meanings by which people live.” Spiritual practices, including meditation, prayer and contemplation, are intended to develop...

 topics. He was born in 1868 and died on 11 September 1936 in Chicago, Illinois, USA at the age of 68. His publishing company (De Laurence, Scott & Co.) and spiritual supply mail order house was located in Chicago, Illinois.

Although he is mocked and reviled among modern occultists for his plagiarism (or, more properly, book-pirating) of the Pictorial Key to the Tarot

Pictorial Key to the Tarot

The Pictorial Key to the Tarot is A. E. Waite's influential guide to divinatory tarot, published in England in 1911 in conjunction with the Rider-Waite-Smith deck...

by Arthur Edward Waite

Arthur Edward Waite

Arthur Edward Waite was a scholarly mystic who wrote extensively on occult and esoteric matters, and was the co-creator of the Rider-Waite Tarot deck. As his biographer, R.A...

, he also wrote his own works, including The Master Key, and The Great Book of Hindu Magic.