 There are multiple stories of the birth of The Satanic Bible . In the introduction to the 2005 – present edition , High Priest Peter H. Gilmore describes LaVey as having compiled The Satanic Bible on his own from monographs he had written about the Church of Satan and its rituals . Gilmore lists a number of people who influenced LaVey 's writings : Ayn Rand , Friedrich Nietzsche , H. L. Mencken , the members of the carnival with whom LaVey had supposedly worked in his youth , P. T. Barnum , Mark Twain , John Milton , and Lord Byron . 
