The seeds for LaVeyan Satanism were planted in the 1950s, when LaVey and several others formed a group known as the Order of the Trapezoid; the group worked with a combination of magick and LaVey's hedonistic, egoistic philosophy. Seeking to change the world with his ideas, LaVey later decided that only a religion, and not a mere philosophy, would be sufficient to do so; with this in mind, he founded the Church of Satan in 1966. Three years later, in 1969, LaVey wrote and published the Satanic Bible, drawing heavily upon Redbeard's 1890's virulent satire, Might is Right.

Indeed; he also was inspired by Neitzsche, Ayn Rands objectivism, athiesm, and magicians and occultists such as Eliphaz Levi, John Dee, and of course-Aleister Crowley.

I would also be interesting to note that the legendary history that now starts off his Satanic Bible about his past life before he began the CoS and HIS version of Satanism{not knocking it} is largely,if not allmost completely, made up history and not real. For example, he never worked for the S.F. Police as a photographer{etc}. His daughter Zeena exposed the confabulations; I've not yet been able to contact ALL the people involved in that past to find out the story, but I was interested to find out if he had lied or if perhaps it was just a false attack on him, so I conctaed the SFPD myself and asked, they confirmed that Zeena's telling the truth about her dad{at leats in those regards}
Lavey, legend and reality.
http://www.churchofsatan.org/lavey.html

It's also interesting to note that for his confabultaions, his vision was still a rational one and it's unfortunate that the character of those that took over the church{CoS} after his passing corrupted it even into attitudes and actions Lavey himself may have not been favorable of.

As for the Satanic Bible, it's a neat pieace of work; but as noted, the first book "the book of satan" is just a blatant plagiarization of Ragnar Redbeards "might is right"{though he later admitted to this, he would've been wise to note it in the satanic bible itself}, and there are some mistakes in it, for example-the book of Lucifer begins out mentioning Lucifer as the roman god of enlightenment, but the Romans never ahd a god named "Lucifer";Lucifer or "Lux{light}" and "ferre{Bearer}"-translated "Lucifer", was actually just a poetic name the Romans gave the planet Venus in it's morning{and night} brilliance.
The Satanic Bible is a cool book; has a few original ideas in it indeed, but also some misinformation that Satanists need to address. At times it's a rather rushed effort, which makes sense as Avon Books approaced him and suggested he write a Satanic Bible and he had a deadline. Nonetheless, it is a great primer for Modern Satanism,Symbolic Satanism, and Satanic thought{though not the be all-end all}.

Many say that you either love or hate Lavey; I think there are many that are somewhere inbetween the two extremes in their feelings for the man and what he birthed.

In Reason
and hail thyself:
The very irreverand Bill

__________________
"There is no greater weapon against errors of any kind than REASON; I have never used any other and I trust I never shall"-Thomas Paine.

"I have not seen a man who is not god allready"=Austin Osman Spare

" In what other sphere of life is such subservience to tradition acceptable? Medicine? Engineering? Not even politics suffers the anachronism that still dominates our thinking about ethical values and spiritual experience." -Sam Harris{Book= "the end of faith"