author
E. D. (Edward Dwight) Walker
1859–1890
A late-19th-century editor and spiritual writer, this American author is best remembered for exploring reincarnation in a thoughtful, wide-ranging book that helped introduce the subject to Western readers. His life was brief, but his work still stands out for its curiosity and ambition.
1 Audiobook
Reincarnation : A study of forgotten truth
by E. D. (Edward Dwight) Walker
About the author
Born in New Haven in 1859, Edward Dwight Walker was an American editor and author associated with the literary and magazine world of the late nineteenth century. Sources describe him as a graduate of Williams College who went on to work in publishing, including at Harper’s and later in connection with Cosmopolitan.
Walker is best known for Reincarnation: A Study of Forgotten Truth (1888), a book that gathered philosophical, religious, and literary arguments in support of reincarnation. Written for a Western audience, it aimed to treat the subject seriously and helped give the idea a wider hearing among English-language readers interested in spirituality and Theosophy.
He died in 1890, still very young, which gives his career a sense of promise cut short. Even so, his reputation has lasted through this one unusual and influential work, which continues to attract readers interested in religion, esotericism, and the history of spiritual thought.