Charles Albert Watts
Charles Albert Watts | |
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Rationalist Press Association | |
Relatives | Charles Watts (father) |
Charles Albert Watts (27 May 1858 – 15 May 1946) was an English
Life and career
Charles Albert Watts was the son of Charles Watts and his first wife Mary Ann Watts, and was the nephew of John Watts, all of whom were active in the rationalist and secularist movement in London, based around Charles Bradlaugh. John and Charles Watts both edited the National Reformer, and founded a radical publishing house, Watts & Co., in London in 1864. Charles Watts co-founded the National Secular Society in 1866, and became a leading spokesman for the group after his brother's death, but broke with Bradlaugh in 1877 and, in 1883, emigrated to Toronto, Ontario, Canada, leaving his son Charles Albert to run his publishing house and continue his editorial work.[1]
In November 1885, the younger Watts established a journal, Watts's Literary Guide. In the first issue, which sold for one
C. A. Watts himself remained anonymous. He was described as "...decisive but self-effacing. He encouraged controversy in his pages, though he shrank from it himself." He did not allow his own name to appear in the magazine until his sixtieth birthday, in 1918. He edited the regular journal for over 60 years until his death, writing editorial content himself and drawing on contributors from a wide range of disciplines, including Annie Besant, Walt Whitman, and H. G. Wells.[1]
He also expanded the work of his business,
Charles Albert Watts died in 1946 at the age of 87. The magazine was later renamed The Humanist, and then New Humanist.