In My Own Way: An Autobiography, 1915-1965 [Hardcover]

Alan Watts (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: 1972

In this new edition of his acclaimed autobiography — long out of print and rare until now — Alan Watts tracks his spiritual and philosophical evolution from a child of religious conservatives in rural England to a freewheeling spiritual teacher who challenged Westerners to defy convention and think for themselves. From early in this intellectual life, Watts shows himself to be a philosophical renegade and wide-ranging autodidact who came to Buddhism through the teachings of Christmas Humphreys and D. T. Suzuki. Told in a nonlinear style, In My Own Way wonderfully combines Watts’ own brand of unconventional philosophy and often hilarious accounts of gurus, celebrities, psychedelic drug experiences, and wry observations of Western culture. A charming foreword written by Watts’ father sets the tone of this warm, funny, and beautifully written story of a compelling figure who encouraged readers to “follow your own weird” — something he always did himself, as his remarkable account of his life shows.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 400 pages
• Publisher: Pantheon Books; 1st edition (1972)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0394469119
• ISBN-13: 978-0394469119
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.5 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #552,738 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

49 of 49 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars In My Own Way: Alan Watts, His Own Way, December 19, 1999

By 

J. H. Minde "Everything I need is right here" (Boca Raton, Florida and Brooklyn, New York) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: IN MY OWN WAY: An Autobiography 1915 - 1965 (Paperback)

This autobiography, published 1972, by Alan Wilson Watts, the expatriate British orientalist and philosopher, is a joy to read, a document of Watts' life, and a history of the 1960s counterculture.

Watts early on evidenced a love for eastern philosophy. At the age of 20, he was already one of the major writers and thinkers on subjects such as Zen Buddhism and Taoism. He was a major exponent of the Zen outlook of Thou Art That.

Watts, an unfrocked Episcopal priest, has often been derided (wrongfully) as a 'popularizer' of subjects more properly reserved for serious study and practice, and (more rightly) as sometimes glib and definitely irreverent. This book is a record of Watts' indulgence in the pleasures of the flesh with a high spiritual purpose.

Watts wrote more than 20 books, and this is Watts at his irreverent best. Written with his tongue firmly jammed into his cheek, it is a compendium of a lifetime's worth of exuberant fun and learning for the joy of it.

Watts gleefully recounts tales of spiritual masters with stomachaches, hidebound bishops drinking fine wines, and sexy women discovering their Buddha-nature.

Nothing is too minor or too major for Watts's wit, and his reminiscences carry us from the bathroom of his childhood home in England to Canterbury Cathedral, from New York City to Big Sur, and touch on almost every major and many minor figures of the 1950s and 1960s.

Watts unabashedly tells us that he finds his life intensely interesting. Anyone reading IN MY OWN WAY would agree.

40 of 42 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A bit disappointing, October 19, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: In My Own Way: An Autobiography, 1915-1965 (Hardcover)

I didn't find this autobiography as appealing as many of the other flowery reviews. I like Alan Watts' philosophical pieces a lot, but there was something in the tone of his autobiography that was arrogant and misleading. His writing is beautiful, as usual, but there is lack of intimacy that I would have expected in a candid autobiography, especially from someone who claims to be a spiritual entertainer. The prose is sprinkled with reminders of how he realizes the ego is a fiction, and how he is enlightened in that sense. Which is fine, I suppose, but I thought the frequent reminders were a little unnecessary, or as he likes to put it, "putting legs on a snake."

More importantly, his recounting of his life completely lacks a sense of problems or misfortunes. Some people really do lack this, but from his biographies it is evident that Alan Watts did not. He does not (at the request of his father) talk about his relationship with his mother at all in the book, and he also does not discuss at all his alcoholism problems. He also does not discuss the sexual problems which led to his first marriage dissolving, and doesn't really explain why he divorced his second wife. I found this disappointing because he probably had a lot of wisdom to share about this. It also makes him seem less human. ...

Despite all this, the autobiography is entertaining and definitely worth reading for anyone interested in an inside view of the counterculture movement. His reflections, though at times a little too confident, are still mostly interesting to read.

However, I would recommend reading this book along with an objective biography like "Zen Effects- the Life of Alan Watts" to get a more balanced view on his life.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars a courageous and original mind, May 6, 2004

By 

Robert J. Crawford (Balmette Talloires, France) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: In My Own Way: An Autobiography, 1915-1965 (Hardcover)

Though I was skeptical when handed this book - I am neither into religion nor do I desire to have a hip-zen lifestyle in Southern California - I was immediately drawn in to the way this amazing man's life unfolded. Early on, he set out to be an independent intellectual, constantly learning and living in his "own way." He succeeded, in spite of the odds, on the terms that he set out for himself. This was deeply inspiring to me, and it turned out that despite the surface differences of interest, Alan Watts had a lot to say about the choices one makes in life and how to go about living.

The book is also filled with details that are as fascinating as they are hilarious. A friend of his youth made a pilgrimage to a famous and ancient monastery, which he discovered was "an elaborate homosexual organization." Though he lacked a university degree, Watts was allowed to study at Northwestern, which he described as "the type of place where philosphers worked from 9 to 5." Later, in LA, he hung out with Aldous Huxley, experimenting with hallucinogens, beating drums all night long, and listening to the incredible rhythm of that brilliant man's speech, which he says arrested all conversation in entire restaurants. The list goes on and on.

Warmly recommended.