Watts, Alan Witson (1915–1973)

British-born US philosopher. Educated in England, Watts was a longtime student of Eastern religions and published The Spirit of Zen (1936). He emigrated to the USA in 1939, graduated from the Seabury-Weston Theological Seminary, and was ordained in the Episcopal Church in 1944. Briefly serving as chaplain at Northwestern University, he moved to California and taught philosophy at the College of the Pacific 1951–57. As a popular lecturer and author, he became a spiritual leader of the ‘beat generation’ of the 1950s. His books include The Way of Zen (1957).