Author, Teacher and Mystic
Paul Hourihan is an award-winning author of four books that have won the Best Spiritual Book Award from the Northern California Publishers and Authors Association.
Early Life
Hourihan was born, raised and educated in Boston where he earned a degree at Harvard and a doctorate in American literature from Boston University. He first became interested in writing after discovering great literature in his sophomore year at Harvard College.
As an aspiring young writer he moved to New York City in the 1940s. But by his early 30s his ambition and goal shifted to spiritual development. This came after a period of decline and personal struggle culminating in a transformative experience. During his years of spiritual seeking, his great hunger for spiritual knowledge led him to study all the major religions and great spiritual teachers. He finally concluded that the ancient Vedanta teachings of India held the highest, most unadulterated truth. His teacher, Swami Ritajananda, who he met in New York during his search, was a revered and beloved swami of the Ramakrishna Order of India. Hourihan’s deep commitment to the spiritual path and its lifestyle continued for the next 45 years of his life.
The Writing Years
Hourihan didn’t return to writing until the early 1980s. In the meantime he completed his education at Boston University, where he earned a doctorate in American literature. He moved to southern Ontario, Canada to teach at the University of Guelph. For five years he taught courses in literature, but for the following 15 years he went on to teach dozens of courses with the Schools of Continuing Education at various universities on the subjects closest to his heart—mysticism and literature. He concentrated mostly on literary mystics such as Henry David Thoreau, Walt Whitman, and William Blake.
He spent his last twenty years writing and polishing a dozen works on different subjects and in different genres. Written from an Eastern philosophical perspective, they provide understanding, insights, and guidance for spiritual seekers based on his experiential knowledge and concentrated study of the world’s spiritual teachings.
He passed away peacefully in 2001 in Redding, California. His wife Anna is carrying on his work through the publication of his writings.
Through his teaching and writing, Paul Hourihan’s goal was to help others come to an understanding and realization of the universality of Truth and the Divine Nature within all, which he had experienced especially as described in the Vedanta philosophy of India. In the spirit of Swami Vivekananda, he boldly presents truths we may intuit, but which are seldom articulated.
Vedantic Shores Press is proud to provide the fruits of this synthesis of the spiritual and literary to the world.
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P.S. One of the coming publications is an autobiographical novel based on the year of transformation that completely changed Paul Hourihan’s life.