Laird Maurice Wilcox was born to Laird Wilcox, Jr. and AuDeene (Stromer) Wilcox on November 28, 1942 in San Francisco, California. The family moved around while Wilcox was growing up, living in California, Nevada, Minnesota, and elsewhere before settling in the Kansas City area.

From 1961 to 1962, Wilcox attended Washburn University of Topeka, Kansas, and from 1963 to 1965 he studied at the University of Kansas, where he was a leader in the radical student movement of the 1960s. He served as editor and publisher of the Kansas Free Press, the University's first radical student newspaper of that period.

In 1964, Wilcox's collection of political ephemera earned first prize in KU's student book collecting contest. Emerging from that nucleus, the Wilcox Collection of Contemporary Political Movements was established at the University of Kansas in 1965, with Wilcox as its founder. Located in the University's Kenneth Spencer Research Library, with later contributions by Wilcox and others, the collection contains thousands of books, pamphlets, serials, brochures, flyers, posters, and clippings, as well as correspondence and many audiotapes.

In 1966, Wilcox left the radical left but continued his avid research and publishing regarding political movements and ideologies. He has been widely featured by the media as an authority on the psychology of political extremism, ideological movements, mystical and religious belief systems, cults, and terrorism, including issues of civil liberties.

Wilcox was an active member of Mensa and a fellow of the Augustan Society. His many publications include The Wilcox Report; Civil Liberties Review; Guide to the American Left; Guide to the American Right; Guide to the American Occult; Spectrum: A Guide to the Independent Press and Informative Organizations; and Nazis, Communists, Klansmen, and Others on the Fringe; Political Extremism in America (co-authored with John George). He won the Freedom of Information Award from the Kansas Library Association and the Mencken Award from the Free Press Association for his efforts.

Laird Wilcox married Cheryl and had two daughters, Elizabeth (Wilcox) Carrier and Carrie Wilcox, as well as two stepsons, Ross and Barry Thompson. Laird M. Wilcox passed away on November 4, 2023.

[Information retrieved from Wilcox's obituary, https://www.penwellgabelkc.com/Obituary/270214/Laird-Wilcox/Olathe-KS, accessed November 16, 2023.]