About the Man Behind the World

Aldous Huxley

“Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you mad.” - Aldous Huxley

1894-1963

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Aldous Leonard Huxley was born at Godalming, Surrey on July 26^th, 1894. He was born into an upper-middle class family with many relatives in the literature business, such as Mrs. Humphrey, a favourite aunt and popular Victorian novelist, and Matthew Arnold, a great-uncle who was a poet. Huxley’s father was a biographer, editor, and a poet. Huxley’s mother tragically died when he was only fourteen.

Huxley attended at the Eton College in Berkshire but had to leave with he suffered an eye infection that nearly blinded him. After his vision improved, despite only having one eye to truly read with and now able to read Braille, Huxley continued his education at Balliol College in Oxford with a Bachelor of Arts in English in 1916. Unable to pursue his dreams as a scientist, nor as a fighter in the World War, Huxley turned to writing.

Huxley published his first volume of poems, The Burning Wheel, in 1916. He created a satirical novel, Chrome Yellow, in 1921, followed by Antic Hay and Point Counter Point in 1923 and 1928.

Huxley published his most famous novel, Brave New World, in 1932 after visiting America and being startled by their vicarious and startling culture.

In 1937, Huxley and his wife Maria moved to Southern California where he began working on screenplays for movies, such as Pride and Prejudice while continuing to publish novels and essays. During the 1950’s, Huxley experimented with mescaline and wrote essays about the experiences called The Doors of Perception and, the sequel, Heaven and Hell. In 1958, Huxley published Brave New World Revisited to re-evaluate some of his ideas, mostly about the fact there were only two types of living to choose from – utopia or savage – as he believed his dystopian future was approaching faster than he ever imagined.

After his last novel in 1962, Island an undeclared ‘sequel’ utopia to Brave New World, Huxley died of cancer in California on November 22, 1963 – coincidentally the same day that John F. Kennedy was assassinated.

Work Cited:

Author Unknown. Aldous Huxley. 2000-2010. Jalic Inc.

http://www.onlin-e-literature.com/aldous_huxley/ 2010.