Alaric Alfred Watts (18 February 1825 – 22 January 1901), best known as A. A. Watts, was a British government clerk, spiritualist and writer.

He was the son of a literary couple, poet and editor Alaric Alexander Watts and editor Priscilla 'Zillah' Maden Wiffen, who were close friends of William Howitt and Mary Howitt, the parents of his wife Anna Mary Howitt. Alfred was educated at University College School and worked as a clerk at the Inland Revenue Office from 1844 onwards.Boase, Frederic. (1921). Modern English Biography: (Supplement v.1-3). Netherton and Worth. p. 2273 A year later William Michael Rossetti became his colleague. Like his father he was also a poet. Before 1856, Watts contributed his poems anonymously to the literary annual The Keepsake and the weekly Chambers's Edinburgh Journal. Watts Watts In 1859 he married Anna Mary Howitt."Alaric Alfred Watts". Dickens Journals Online. Like his wife, Watts was a convinced spiritualist.Bevis, Matthew. (2013). The Oxford Handbook of Victorian Poetry. Oxford University Press. p. 432. In 1882 with his friend William Stainton Moses, he formed The Ghost Club.Brock, William Hodson. (2008). William Crookes (1832-1919) and the Commercialization of Science. Science, Technology, and Culture, 1700-1945. Ashgate Publishing. p. 440. Luckhurst, Roger. (2012). The Mummy's Curse: The True History of a Dark Fantasy. Oxford University Press. p. 46. He was a member of the London Spiritualist Alliance.Oppenheim, Janet. (1988). The Other World: Spiritualism and Psychical Research in England, 1850-1914. Cambridge University Press. p. 57.

Watts was member of the Society for Psychical Research. He resigned after some of its members such as Eleanor Sidgwick dismissed the medium William Eglinton as fraudulent.Oppenheim, Janet. (1988). The Other World: Spiritualism and Psychical Research in England, 1850-1914. Cambridge University Press. p. 140.

Watts published jointly with his wife, a volume entitled Aurora: a volume of verse.

Publications

Aurora: A Volume of Verse (1875) Alaric Watts: A Narrative of His Life (Volume 1, Volume 2 1884)

References