Huxley was educated at Eton College in Berkshire from 1908-1913.
College/University
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1915
Aldous Huxley
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Oxford OX1 3BJ, United Kingdom
Huxley received his Bachelor of Arts in English from Balliol College in Oxford, in 1916.
Career
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1925
Aldous Huxley
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1927
Aldous Huxley
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1930
Aldous Huxley
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1940
Aldous Huxley
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1945
Aldous Huxley
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1946
Aldous Huxley
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1946
Aldous Huxley
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1946
Aldous Huxley
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1947
Aldous Huxley
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1948
Aldous Leonard Huxley is being interviewed in London after a 12 year absence from England.
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1948
Aldous Huxley sitting at the LIFE Round Table
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1950
Aldous Huxley
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1954
Aldous Huxley
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1954
Aldous Huxley
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1956
Aldous Huxley
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1957
Aldous Huxley
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1957
Aldous Huxley with dictionary of Peter Bayle
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1957
Aldous Huxley
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1959
Aldous Huxley with his brother, Julian
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1961
Aldous Huxley
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Aldous Huxley in the 1950s
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(from left to right) Authors Gerald Heard and Christopher Isherwood, scientist Julian Huxley and his brother, author Aldous Huxley, and chemist Linus Pauling at a meeting to honor Julian.
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(from left to right) Authors Christopher Isherwood and Gerald Heard, architect Richard Neutra, scientist Julian Huxley, chemist Linus Pauling, and Huxley's brother, author Aldous, at meeting to honor Julian.
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Christopher Isherwood (left) and Aldous Huxley, mid 1950s
(from left to right) Authors Gerald Heard and Christopher Isherwood, scientist Julian Huxley and his brother, author Aldous Huxley, and chemist Linus Pauling at a meeting to honor Julian.
(from left to right) Authors Christopher Isherwood and Gerald Heard, architect Richard Neutra, scientist Julian Huxley, chemist Linus Pauling, and Huxley's brother, author Aldous, at meeting to honor Julian.
(In the book, Huxley satirises the fads and fashions of th...)
In the book, Huxley satirises the fads and fashions of the time. It is the witty story of a house party at "Crome" (a lightly veiled reference to Garsington Manor, a house where authors such as Huxley and T. S. Eliot used to gather and write). We hear the history of the house from Henry Wimbush, its owner and self-appointed historian; apocalypse is prophesied, virginity is lost, and inspirational aphorisms are gained in a trance. Our hero, Denis Stone, tries to capture it all in poetry and is disappointed in love.
(Antic Hay is one of Aldous Huxley's earlier novels, and l...)
Antic Hay is one of Aldous Huxley's earlier novels, and like them is primarily a novel of ideas involving conversations that disclose viewpoints rather than establish characters; its polemical theme unfolds against the backdrop of London's post-war nihilistic Bohemia.
(Aldous Huxley's profoundly important classic of world lit...)
Aldous Huxley's profoundly important classic of world literature, Brave New World is a searching vision of an unequal, technologically-advanced future where humans are genetically bred, socially indoctrinated, and pharmaceutically anesthetized to passively uphold an authoritarian ruling order–all at the cost of our freedom, full humanity, and perhaps also our souls.
(Aldous Huxley examines common issues in a unique fashion,...)
Aldous Huxley examines common issues in a unique fashion, discusses the relationship between the theories and the practices of reformers and the nature of the universe. He argues that our beliefs about the ultimate nature of reality help us formulate conceptions of right and wrong, not only in our private life, but also in the sphere of politics and economics. Far from being irrelevant, our philosophical beliefs are the final determining factor in our actions.
(A Hollywood millionaire with a terror of death, whose per...)
A Hollywood millionaire with a terror of death, whose personal physician happens to be working on a theory of longevity-these are the elements of Aldous Huxley's caustic and entertaining satire on man's desire to live indefinitely. With his customary wit and intellectual sophistication, Huxley pursues his characters in their quest for the eternal, finishing on a note of horror.
(The life of Father Joseph, Cardinal Richelieu's aide, was...)
The life of Father Joseph, Cardinal Richelieu's aide, was a shocking paradox. After spending his days directing operations on the battlefield, Father Joseph would pass the night in prayer, or in composing spiritual guidance for the nuns in his care. He was an aspirant to sainthood and a practising mystic, yet his ruthless exercise of power succeeded in prolonging the unspeakable horrors of the Thirty Years War. In his masterful biography, Huxley explores how an intensely religious man could lead such a life and how he could reconcile the seemingly opposing moral systems of religion and politics.
(Explains the Bates method for improving one's eyesight, d...)
Explains the Bates method for improving one's eyesight, discusses causes of visual problems, and describes techniques for relaxing and exercising the eyes
(In this savage novel, using the form of a film scenario, ...)
In this savage novel, using the form of a film scenario, he transports us to the year 2108. The setting is Los Angeles where a "rediscovery expedition" from New Zealand is trying to make sense of what is left. From chief botanist Alfred Poole we learn, to our dismay, about the twenty-second-century way of life.
(In 1643 an entire convent in the small French village of ...)
In 1643 an entire convent in the small French village of Loudun was apparently possessed by the devil. After a sensational and celebrated trial, the convent's charismatic priest Urban Grandier, accused of spiritually and sexually seducing the nuns in his charge, was convicted of being in league with Satan. Then he was burned at the stake for witchcraft.
(The critically acclaimed novelist and social critic Aldou...)
The critically acclaimed novelist and social critic Aldous Huxley, describes his personal experimentation with the drug mescaline and explores the nature of visionary experience.
(In his final novel, which he considered his most importan...)
In his final novel, which he considered his most important, Aldous Huxley transports us to the remote Pacific island of Pala, where an ideal society has flourished for 120 years.
(Huxley's bold, nontraditional narrative tells the loosely...)
Huxley's bold, nontraditional narrative tells the loosely autobiographical story of Anthony Beavis, a cynical libertine Oxford graduate who comes of age in the vacuum left by World War I. Unfulfilled by his life, loves, and adventures, Anthony is persuaded by a charismatic friend to become a Marxist and take up arms with Mexican revolutionaries. But when their disastrous embrace of violence nearly kills them, Anthony is left shattered; and is forced to find an alternative to the moral disillusionment of the modern world.
(This volume is a collection of most of the poems by Aldou...)
This volume is a collection of most of the poems by Aldous Huxley contained in four books of verse published between 1916 and 1931: The Burning Wheel, The defeat of Youth and Other Poems, Leda, and The Cicadas and Other Poems.
Aldous Leonard Huxley was an English writer, novelist, philosopher, and prominent member of the Huxley family. Though authored nearly fifty books, Huxley is particularly known for his novel, Brave New World.
Background
Huxley was born on July 26, 1894, in Godalming, Surrey, England; the third son of Leonard Huxley, the writer and editor of Cornhill Magazine, and his first wife, Julia Arnold. Aldous was the grandson of Thomas Henry Huxley, the zoologist, agnostic, and controversialist. His brother Julian Huxley and half-brother Andrew Huxley also became outstanding biologists. Aldous had another brother, Noel Trevelyan Huxley.
Education
Huxley envisioned a future career in science from an early age. He studied at Hillside School near Godalming. After Hillside, he went on to Eton College. As a result of eye disease, which made him partially blind, Huxley abandoned his dreams of becoming a scientist and decided to focus on a literary career.
In October 1913, Huxley went up to Balliol College, Oxford, where he read English Literature. In January 1916, he volunteered to join the British Army in the Great War, but was rejected on health grounds, being half-blind in one eye. In 1916 he edited Oxford Poetry and in June of that year graduated Bachelor of Arts with First Class honours.
Early in his writing career, Huxley worked as a teacher, including a stint at Eton instructing a young Eric Blair, who would eventually become known to the world as George Orwell. Huxley published his first book, a collection of poems titled The Burning Wheel, in 1916. Three years later he engaged in literary journalism and joined the staff of the Athenaeum, edited by John Middleton Murry, remaining there for two years.
Thereafter he devoted himself largely to his own writing. In 1921 Huxley published his first novel, Crome Yellow, which established Huxley as an important writer and sold well enough to allow him to pursue his literary destiny.
For the greater part of 1923-1930 Huxley lived in Italy; after 1926 he spent much time there with D. H. and Frieda Lawrence. Lawrence was a strong influence on Huxley, particularly in his mistrust of intellect and trust in vital promptings. During this time Huxley produced the commercially successful novels Antic Hay (1923), Those Barren Leaves (1925) and Point Counter Point (1928).
Huxley’s greatest work, however, was still to come. Published in 1932, Brave New World marks the apogee of Huxley’s abilities as a satirist. Huxley followed Brave New World with the 1936 novel Eyeless in Gaza, which showed his blossoming interest in Eastern philosophy and mysticism.
In the late 1930s, Huxley settled in California, having previously completed a work on pacifism titled Ends and Means. During his time in Los Angeles, author began working for studios as a screenwriter. Among his more notable film credits are Pride and Prejudice (1940), Jane Eyre (1943) and Madame Curie (1943).
In between screenplays Huxley continued his prolific literary output, completing the novels After Many a Summer Dies the Swan (1939), Time Must Have a Stop (1944) and Ape and Essence (1948) and the nonfiction works The Art of Seeing (1943), The Perennial Philosophy (1946) and The Devils of Loudon (1952).
During that time Huxley became interested in Eastern mysticism, which led Huxley to experiment with the hallucinogen mescaline. He later wrote about his experiments in his 1954 collection of essays The Doors of Perception.
In 1955 Huxley published his next novel, The Genius and the Goddess. Three years later, he published a collection of essays titled Brave New World Revisited, in which he took stock of the present day and argued that it alarmingly resembled the reality of his 1932 novel.
In 1960 Huxley was diagnosed with cancer. For the next two years he persevered, however, completing what would prove to be his last novel, The Island (1962), which placed a more positive spin on some of the themes Huxley addressed in Brave New World. He also gave lectures on "Human Potentialities" both at the UCSF Medical Center and at the Esalen Institute.
Huxley was a humanist and pacifist. He was interested in philosophical mysticism and universalism.
Huxley's early period was characterized by skeptical, brilliant portraits of a decadent society. This was the period of the novels Crome Yellow (1921), Antic Hay (1923), and Point Counter Point (1928). Huxley's disgust with much of the modern world became explicit in Brave New World (1932) and Eyeless in Gaza (1936).
In 1938 Huxley encountered the Bates method of eye training. He said of the method that it demonstrated in that particular sphere "the possibility of becoming the master of one's circumstances…. Similar techniques for controlling other unfavorable circumstances have been independently developed…. All these techniques, however, are secondary … to a great central technique. This central technique, which teaches the art of obtaining freedom from the fundamental human disability of egotism, has been repeatedly described by the mystics of all ages and countries. It is with the problem of personal, psychological freedom that I now find myself predominantly concerned."
Huxley's The Perennial Philosophy (1945) was in a sense a documentation of this statement. Through its initial statement of somatic psychology, it illustrated well the modern interest in psychological necessity. But Huxley's most famous dramatization of the possibility of dehumanizing kinds of control through the use of conditioning, drugs, and economic necessity was Brave New World. In a sequel, Brave New World Revisited, he considered ways of solving the threat of the so-called population explosion.
Huxley's "mystical" phase is linked to his long association with Gerald Heard. Huxley's most successful later work was The Devils of Loudon (1952), which dealt with the hysteria that swept a French Ursuline convent in the 17th century and the martyrdom of a priest. All along, of course, Huxley had shown interest in any means of liberation from the bondage of the ego, and his The Doors of Perception (1954), dealing with the drug mescaline, can be seen as an interesting anticipation of the interest more than a decade later in the psychedelic experience. He said that he had helped his wife, Maria, die by using the medieval Ars moriendi,and it is said that while he was dying, his mind was "liberated" by drugs.
Quotations:
"There is only one corner of the universe you can be certain of improving, and that's your own self."
"There are things known and there are things unknown, and in between are the doors of perception."
"The secret of genius is to carry the spirit of the child into old age, which means never losing your enthusiasm."
"After silence, that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible is music."
"Technological progress has merely provided us with more efficient means for going backwards."
Membership
Early in his career, Huxley spent at Garsington Manor, the home of socialite Lady Ottoline Morrell and a gathering place for intellectuals and writers such as Virginia Woolf, Bertrand Russell, T. S. Eliot and D. H. Lawrence, with whom Huxley would develop a lasting friendship. With his encyclopedic knowledge, matched only by his wit and skill as a conversationalist, it was at Garsington that Huxley first established his reputation as one of the most significant minds in England.
Beginning in 1939 and until his death in 1963, Huxley was associated with the Vedanta Society of Southern California, founded and headed by Swami Prabhavananda. Together with Gerald Heard, Christopher Isherwood and other followers, he was initiated by the Swami and was taught meditation and spiritual practices. From 1941 until 1960, Huxley contributed 48 articles to Vedanta and the West, published by the society. He also served on the editorial board with Isherwood, Heard, and playwright John Van Druten from 1951 through 1962.
Personality
Physical Characteristics:
As a youth Huxley contracted the eye disease (keratitis punctata) which left him practically blind for two to three years. His eyesight later partly recovered, but he would remain partially blind for the rest of his life and read with great difficulty.
At six feet four and a half inches, Aldous Huxley was perhaps the tallest figure in English letters, his height so striking that contemporaries sometimes viewed him as a freak of nature. British novelist Christopher Isherwood found Huxley “too tall. I felt an enormous zoological separation from him.” Virginia Woolf described him as “infinitely long” and referred to him as “that gigantic grasshopper.”
His voice, preserved in recordings easily sampled online, was also part of his charm. Huxley spoke like Laurence Olivier—with exacting British diction and an unerring verbal accuracy that few people, then or now, possess in casual conversation. He talked in silver sentences, treating conversation as a form of theater, or even literature.
Quotes from others about the person
"I believe his blindness was a blessing in disguise. For one thing, it put paid to his idea of taking up medicine as a career. His uniqueness lay in his universalism. He was able to take all knowledge for his province." - Julian Huxley
"When Huxley came of age, human behavior, it seemed to the modernist, was entirely explicable in terms of Libido, Instinct, glandular function or conditioned reflex…. While repudiating the Gods and Goods, Huxley implicitly continued to search for them, applying to the task an integrity that bit like acid through illusion, sentimentality and convention. All his work is a quest for values in the face of scepticism." - Charles J. Rolo
"He rose above the disability but he never minimized the importance of the experience in his life." - Nicholas Murray
"Fearless curiosity was one of Aldous’s noblest characteristics, a function of his greatness as a human being. Little people are so afraid of what the neighbors will say if they ask Life unconventional questions. Aldous questioned unceasingly, and it never occurred to him to bother about the neighbors." - Christopher Isherwood
Connections
In 1919 Aldous Huxley married Maria Nys. She gave birth to their son, Matthew, the following year. In early 1955, Maria died of cancer. In 1956, Huxley married his second wife, Laura, who would later write a biography of their life together titled This Timeless Moment (1968).
Aldous Huxley: A Biography
Nicholas Murray charts Huxley’s Bloomsbury years, his surprising and complex relationship with D. H. Lawrence, and his emigration to America in the late 1930s, where he pursued a career as a screenwriter while continuing his fascination with mysticism and religion. Huxley’s private life was also unconventional, and this book reveals for the first time the extraordinary story of the ménage à trois including Huxley, his remarkable wife, Maria, and the Bloomsbury socialite and mistress of Clive Bell, Mary Hutchinson.