In My Own Way

“Enthralling … a most engrossing autobiography … unlike anything you’ve ever read … Those who like myself have found the solution to at least one momentous riddle of the universe inside each of Mr. Watts’s memorable books will be enlightened beyond expectations by this chronicle of the web of interlacing experiences and ideas which have constituted his inner life.” — Henry A. Murray, MD, Harvard University“Exuberant … It is possible to categorize Watts’s autobiography as merely a diverting, candid, brilliantly written egocentric memoir of one’s man’s expeditious use of philosophy, religion, even science and the arts, to achieve name, fame, a good living and a secure niche in the current cultural scene. Actually In My Own Way cannot be dismissed in quite such simplistic terms, for it is the account of an exceptional man’s search for the basic truth of his own nature…” — Nancy Wilson Ross, New York Times Book Review“A beautiful presentation as only the old master could do it.” — John C. Lilly“A thoroughly entertaining book.” — Publisher’s Weekly

Alan Watts was born in England in 1915 and received his early education at King’s School, Canterbury. He received a master’s degree from Seabury-Western Theological Seminary in Illinois and an honorary doctorate of divinity from the University of Vermont. He wrote his first book, The Spirit of Zen, at the age of twenty and went on to write over twenty other books including The Way of Zen, The Book, and Tao: The Watercourse Way, which though never fully completed was published after the author’s death and introduced thousands of readers to Taoist thought.