Alan Watts
Alan Wilson Watts was a British philosopher, writer, and speaker, best known as an interpreter and populariser of Eastern philosophy for a Western audience. Born in Chislehurst, England, he moved to the United States in 1938 and began Zen training in New York. Pursuing a career, he attended SeaburyWestern Theological Seminary, where he received a masters degree in theology. Watts became an Episcopal priest in 1945, then left the ministry in 1950 and moved to California, where he joined the faculty of the American Academy of Asian Studies.
Watts was born to middle class parents in the village of Chislehurst, Kent , in 1915, living at Holbrook Lane. His father, Laurence Wilson Watts, was a representative for the London office of the Michelin Tyre Company his mother, Emily Mary Watts , was a housewife whose father had been a missionary. With modest financial means, they chose to live in pastoral surroundings and Alan, an only child, grew up playing at brookside, learning the names of wildflowers and butterflies. Probably because of the influence of his mothers religious family the Buchans, an interest in ultimate things seeped in. But it mixed with Alans own interests in storybook fables and romantic tales of the mysterious Far East.
Source: Wikipedia