The Archive in Print

The bibliography

Every book, booklet, contribution, and article, 1932 to now, from the archive’s own register. The brochures and catalogues of the day join from the vault as they are scanned.

Alan Watts in the 1930sThe author, in the 1930s
1937-1973

Books22 entries

1937The Legacy of Asia and Western Man: A Study of the Middle Way
1940The Meaning of Happiness: The Quest for Freedom of the Spirit in Modern Psychology and the Wisdom of the East
1947Behold the Spirit: A Study in the Necessity of Mystical Religion
1950Easter: Its Story and Meaning
1950The Supreme Identity: An Essay on Oriental Metaphysic and the Christian Religion
1951The Wisdom of Insecurity: A Message for an Age of Anxiety
1953Myth and Ritual in Christianity
1957The Way of Zen
1958Nature, Man, and Woman
1959Beat Zen, Square Zen, and Zen
1960This Is It: And Other Essays on Zen and Spiritual Experience
1961Psychotherapy East and West
1962The Joyous Cosmology: Adventures in the Chemistry of Consciousness
1963The Two Hands of God: The Myths of Polarity
1964Beyond Theology: The Art of Godmanship
1966The Book: On the Taboo Against Knowing Who You Are
1967Nonsense
1968Does it Matter? Essays on Man’s Relation to Materiality
1971Erotic Spirituality: The Vision of Konarak
1972In My Own Way: An Autobiography, 1915-1965
1972The Art of Contemplation: A Facsimile Manuscript with Doodles
1973Cloud-Hidden, Whereabouts Unknown: A Mountain Journal
Alan Watts, 1950s
1975-2023

Posthumous books36 entries

1975Tao: The Watercourse Way [completed by Al Chung-liang Huang]
1977The Essence of Alan Watts [the complete Essence booklet series compiled as one book]
1977Three [Three books in one: The Way of Zen; Nature, Man, and Woman; Psychotherapy East and West]
1978Uncarved Block, Unbleached Silk: The Mystery of Life
1980Om: Creative Meditations
1982Play to Live: Selected Seminars
1983The Way of Liberation: Essays and Lectures on the Transformation of the Self
1985The Essential Alan Watts
1985Out of the Trap: Selected Lectures of Alan W. Watts
1987Diamond Web: Selected Lectures of Alan W. Watts
1987The Early Writings of Alan Watts: The British Years (1931-1938): Writings in Buddhism in England
1990The Modern Mystic: A New Collection of Early Writings of Alan Watts
1994Talking Zen
1995Become What You Are
1995Buddhism: The Religion of No-Religion · The Edited Transcripts
1995The Philosophies of Asia: The Edited Transcripts
1995The Tao of Philosophy: The Edited Transcripts
1996Myth and Religion: The Edited Transcripts
1997Seeds of Genius: The Early Writings of Alan Watts [U.S. version of The Modern Mystic]
1997Taoism: Way Beyond Seeking · The Edited Transcripts
1997Zen and the Beat Way
1998The Culture of Counter-Culture: The Edited Transcripts
2000Eastern Wisdom: Three Classics in One Volume · What is Zen? · What is Tao? · An Introduction to Meditation
2000Still the Mind: An Introduction to Meditation
2000What is Tao?
2000What is Zen?
2002Zen, The Supreme Experience: The Newly Discovered Scripts
2006Eastern Wisdom, Modern Life: Collected Talks, 1960-1969
2006The Essential Alan Watts: Seven Things We Thought We Knew About God and the Cosmos (But Didn’t)
2017Out of Your Mind: Tricksters, Interdependence, and the Cosmic Game of Hide-and-Seek
2017Alan Watts—In the Academy: Essays and Lectures, edited by Peter J. Columbus and Donadrian L. Rice
2017The Collected Letters of Alan Watts
2020Just So: Money, Materialism, and the Ineffable, Intelligent Universe
2020The Fish Who Found the Sea
2021There Is Never Anything But the Present: and Other Inspiring Words of Wisdom
2023Tao for Now: Wisdom of the Watercourse
“A person that thinks all the time has nothing to think about except thoughts, and so loses touch with reality.”Alan Watts
1951-1973

Book contributions11 entries

1951“Introduction” in Spiritual Practices of India, by Frederic Spiegelberg
1963“Preface” in Outlines of Mahayana Buddhism, by D. T. Suzuki
1967“Foreword” in The Secret Oral Teachings in Tibetan Buddhist Sects, by A. David-Neel and L. Yongden
1968“Foreword” in The Ecstatic Adventure, edited by Ralph Metzner
1968“The Point is that Life is a Gesture” in The Ecstatic Adventure, edited by Ralph Metzner
1968“The Spirit of Violence and the Matter of Peace” in Alternatives to Violence: A Stimulus to Dialogue, edited by Larry Ng
1969“The Individual as Man/World” in The Subversive Science: Essays Toward an Ecology of Man, edited by P. Shepard and D. McKinley
1970“The Future of Religion” in Toward Century 21: Technology, Society and Human Values, edited by C. S. Wallia
1970“Western Mythology: Its Dissolution and Transformation” in Myths, Dreams, and Religion, edited by Joseph Campbell
1973“Foreword” in Embrace Tiger, Return to Mountain: The Essence of T’ai Chi, by Chungliang Al Huang
1973“Foreword” in The Religion of Logos and Sophia: From the Writings of Dimitrije Mitrinovic on Christianity, by H. C. Rutherford
1932-1975

Booklets19 entries

1932An Outline of Zen Buddhism
1936Seven Symbols of Life: Being an Essay on Eternal Verities as Expressed in the Images of the Lotus, of Water, Wind, Fire, Man, Woman, and Child
1939The Psychology of Acceptance: The Reconciliation of the Opposites in Eastern Thought and in Analytical Psychology
1944Theologia Mystica: Being the Treatise of Saint Dionysius, Pseudo-Areopagite, on Mystical Theology, Together with the First and Fifth Epistles
1946The Meaning of Priesthood
1947Zen Buddhism: A New Outline and Introduction
1948Zen [republication of Zen Buddhism (1947)]
1955The Way of Liberation in Zen Buddhism
1965The “Deep-in” View: A Conversation with Alan Watts
1971The Theologia Mystica of Saint Dionysius
1974The Essence of Alan Watts: Vol. 1 · God
1974The Essence of Alan Watts: Vol. 2 · Meditation
1974The Essence of Alan Watts: Vol. 3 · Nothingness
1975The Essence of Alan Watts: Vol. 4 · Death
1975The Essence of Alan Watts: Vol. 5 · The Nature of Man
1975The Essence of Alan Watts: Vol. 6 · Time
1975The Essence of Alan Watts: Vol. 7 · Philosophical Fantasies
1975The Essence of Alan Watts: Vol. 8 · Ego
1975The Essence of Alan Watts: Vol. 9 · Cosmic Drama
Alan Watts, 1936The young author, 1936
1952-1973

Magazine and newspaper articles17 entries

1952The Aim Is to Know. New York Times, February 3, p. BR3.
1960The Ways of the Mind. New York Times, October 16, p. BR35.
1961Aftermath: The Decline of the East. Esquire, April, pp. 156-157.
1963Man Cannot Live Without Myth. San Francisco Chronicle, December 8, p. 42.
1965The Circle of Sex. Playboy, 12(12): pp. 134-135.
1966A Redbook Dialogue: Shirley MacLaine and Alan Watts, in Redbook, May: pp. 52-53, 98, 100-103
1967The Houseboat Summit [Featuring Timothy Leary, Gary Snyder, Alan Watts, and Allen Ginsberg]. SF Oracle, Vol 1., No 7.
1968Manifesto to Cut the Big Hang-Up. East Village Other, January: pp. 1-15.
1968On the Tantra. Mademoiselle, July: p. 47, 136.
1968Wealth Versus Money. Playboy, 15(12).
1969Murder in the Kitchen. Playboy, 16(12).
1970Playboy Panel Discussion: The Drug Revolution. Playboy, 17(2).
1971The Future of Ecstasy. Playboy, 18(1).
1972The Way of Liberation in Zen Buddhism [second edition booklet: Alan Watts Journal]
1972The Sound of Rain. Playboy, 19(5).
1973At the Interface: Technology and Mysticism [co-authored with Arthur C. Clarke]. Playboy, 20(1).
1973The World’s Most Dangerous Book. Playboy, 20(12).
1939-1996

Academic journal articles27 entries

1939How Buddhism Came to Life: The Wide Difference in the Practice of an Ancient Indian Philosophy in China and Japan. Asia, 39(1): 580-585.
1939The Rusty Swords of Japan. Asia, May: 291-293.
1941The Problem of Faith and Works in Buddhism. Review of Religion, 5(4): 387-402.
1950Review of The Tibetan Book of the Dead by W. Y. Evans-Wentz. The Journal of Religion 30(4): 300.
1951The Negative Way. Vedanta and the West 14(4): 97-101.
1953Asian Psychology and Modern Psychiatry. The American Journal of Psychoanalysis 13: 25-30.
1953On Philosophical Synthesis. Philosophy East and West, 3(2): 99-100.
1953The Language of Metaphysical Experience: The Sense of Non-Sense. The Journal of Religious Thought, 10(2): 132-143.
1954Review of Works of Daisetz Teitaro Suzuki. Philosophy East and West, 4(3): 278-279.
1955Oriental “Omnipotence.” Tomorrow 4(1): 31-36.
1956Convention, Conflict, and Liberation: Further Observations on Asian Psychology and Modern Psychiatry. The American Journal of Psychoanalysis, 16: 63-68.
1958Beat Zen, Square Zen, and Zen. Chicago Review 12(2): 3-11.
1958Zen and the Problem of Control. Contact 1(1).
1959Eternity as the Unrepressed Body [A review of Life Against Death: The Psychoanalytic Meaning of History by Norman O. Brown]. Etc: A Review of General Semantics, 17(1).
1959Review of Psychology and Religion: West and East by Carl G. Jung. Chicago Review 13(1): 84-86.
1961Applied Buddhism. Saturday Review, 44: 19.
1962The Spoor of Eastern Spirits [A review of The Masks of God, Vol. 2: Oriental Mythology, by Joseph Campbell]. Saturday Review, June 2, 1962: 36-37.
1963The Individual as Man/World. Psychedelic Review, 1(1): 55-65.
1964Gods Go West [A review of The Masks of Gods, Vol. 3: Occidental Mythology, by Joseph Campbell]. The New Republic, 151: 25-26.
1964Who Will Run Your Nervous System? [A review of The Beyond Within: The LSD Story, by Sidney Cohen]. The New Republic, 151(22): 15-16.
1964Some Remembrances of Aldous Huxley. The Psychedelic Review, 1(3): 265-267.
1965The Mystic More Freudian than Freud [A review of The Wild Analyst: The Life and Work of Georg Groddeck, by Carl M. Grossman and Sylvia Grossman]. The New Republic.
1967The “Mind-less” Scholar. The Eastern Buddhist, 11(1): 124-127.
1968Psychedelics and Religious Experience. California Law Review, 56(1): 74-85.
1974Psychotherapy and Eastern Religion: Metaphysical Bases of Psychiatry. The Journal of Transpersonal Psychology, 6(1): 18-31
1974Unity in Contemplation. CrossCurrents, 24(2/3): 367-377.
1996Beat Zen, Square Zen, and Zen. Chicago Review, 42(3/4): 48-55. Reprint
The vault

The printed past

The brochures, catalogues, and promotions from back in the day are being scanned from the vault. They arrive here as a gallery, and the deeper set opens to members.

Alan Watts at his desk, 1973At the desk, 1973
The audio collectionsThe archival recordings