Bibliography and Timeline
Alan Watts was born on January 6, 1915 in Kent, England. During his formative years Alan's mother taught children of Christian missionaries in China, and as a result he became fascinated with Oriental art.
In training to become an Anglican priest, he attended King's School next door to Canterbury Cathedral. There he learned to write skillfully, and was trained in public speaking in preparation for a lifetime on the pulpit.
During this period he discovered an esoteric bookstore in London, where he found books on the Far East. He also discovered The Buddhist Lodge, where he met Christmas Humphries and D.T. Suzuki. Alan Watts became editor of the Buddhist Lodge quarterly, The Middle Way.
The Early Writings of Alan Watts. Celestial Arts, Berkeley 1987 (at left)
The Modern Mystic. Element Books, Shaftesbury, England, 1990 (also pub. as Seeds of Genius. Element Books, Boston, 1996.)
The Spirit of Zen. John Murray, London, 1936.
Alan Watts married Eleanor Everett in 1938, and moved to New York.
The Meaning of Happiness. Harper, New York, 1940.
Behold the Spirit. Pantheon, New York, 1940.
In 1941, Watts decided to reconcile his interest in Eastern mysticism with his Christian training, and enrolled in the Seabury Western Theological Seminary in Evanston, Illinois. In 1944 he was ordained as an Episcopalian priest.
The Supreme Identity. Faber & Faber, London, 1948.
Easter: Its Story and Meaning. Abelard-Schuman, New York, 1950.
Myth and Ritual in Christianity. Thames and Hudson, London, and Vanguard, New York, 1950.
In 1951, Alan Watts left the Church and his first wife to begin a new life in Millbrook, New York with Dorothy Dewitt. After a memorable New Year's Eve dinner at their small farmhouse with Joseph Campbell, Jean Erdman, and Luisa Coomaraswami, Alan Watts left for California in early 1951 with his new wife to accept a teaching position at the Academy of Asian Studies in San Francisco.
