Aldous Leonard Huxley

Aldous Huxley was a prominent English writer and philosopher who was best known for his dystopian novel Brave New World, published in 1932. He also wrote other novels, such as Point Counter Point, Eyeless in Gaza, and Island, as well as numerous essays on topics ranging from art and literature to politics and religion. He was a member of the famous Huxley family, which included his grandfather Thomas Henry Huxley, a prominent biologist and advocate of evolution, his brother Julian Huxley, a biologist and founding director of UNESCO, and his half-brother Andrew Huxley, a Nobel Prize-winning physiologist. Huxley was born in Godalming, Surrey, England, in 1894. He was the third son of Leonard Huxley, a writer and schoolmaster, and Julia Arnold, a founder of Prior's Field School. He was educated at Eton College and Balliol College, Oxford, where he studied English literature. He began his literary career by publishing poems and short stories in magazines such as The Athenaeum and Oxford Poetry. He also worked as an editor and critic for various publications. In 1919, he married Maria Nys, a Belgian refugee whom he met at Garsington Manor, the country home of Lady Ottoline Morrell. They had one son, Matthew, who became an author and epidemiologist. The couple moved to Italy in 1920 and then to France in 1926. During this time, Huxley wrote some of his most acclaimed novels, such as Crome Yellow (1921), Antic Hay (1923), Those Barren Leaves (1925), and Point Counter Point (1928). He also became friends with other writers and intellectuals, such as D.H. Lawrence, Bertrand Russell, T.S. Eliot, Virginia Woolf, and E.M. Forster. In 1932, Huxley published Brave New World, his most famous work. The novel depicts a futuristic society where human beings are genetically engineered and conditioned to conform to a rigid caste system and a consumerist culture. The novel explores themes such as individuality, freedom, happiness, morality, technology, and the role of art and religion in society. The novel was widely praised for its originality and vision, but also criticized for its pessimism and lack of character development. In 1937, Huxley moved to California with his family. He became interested in Hollywood and wrote several screenplays for films such as Pride and Prejudice (1940) and Jane Eyre (1944). He also continued to write novels, such as After Many a Summer (1939), Time Must Have a Stop (1944), Ape and Essence (1948), The Genius and the Goddess (1955), and Island (1962). He also wrote essays on various subjects, such as The Art of Seeing (1942), The Perennial Philosophy (1945), The Doors of Perception (1954), Heaven and Hell (1956), Brave New World Revisited (1958), Literature and Science (1963), and Ends and Means (1937). Huxley was also interested in mysticism and spirituality. He experimented with psychedelic drugs such as mescaline and LSD and wrote about his experiences in The Doors of Perception and Heaven and Hell. He also studied Vedanta philosophy under Swami Prabhavananda and became a follower of the Ramakrishna Mission. He advocated for a universalist approach to religion and spirituality that transcended the boundaries of dogma and tradition. In 1955, Huxley's wife Maria died of cancer. He remarried in 1956 to Laura Archera, an Italian-born violinist and psychotherapist. They lived in Los Angeles until Huxley's death in 1963. He died of laryngeal cancer on the same day as John F. Kennedy's assassination and C.S. Lewis's death. He was cremated and his ashes were interred at Watts Cemetery in Compton, Surrey, England.