These following facts about Aldous Huxley should definitely give you much information about about this writer. Aldous Huxley was an English writer and a prominent member of the Huxley family. Best known for his novels including “Brave New World”, set in a dystopian London, “The Doors of Perception”, which recalls experiences when taking a psychedelic drug, and a wide-ranging output of essays. Huxley also edited the magazine “Oxford Poetry”, and published short stories, poetry, travel writing, film stories and scripts. Furthermore, to get to know more about this writer, here are some facts about Aldous Huxley you might be interested in.
Facts about Aldous Huxley 1: Humanist, Pacifist, and Satirist
Huxley was a humanist, pacifist, and satirist. He became deeply concerned that human beings might become subjugated through the sophisticated use of the mass media or mood-altering drugs, or tragically impacted by misunderstanding or the misapplication of increasingly sophisticated technology.
Facts about Aldous Huxley 2: Parapyschology
Huxley later became interested in spiritual subjects such as parapsychology and philosophical mysticism, in particular, Universalism.
Facts about Aldous Huxley 3: Bloomsbury Set
During the First World War, Huxley spent much of his time at Garsington Manor, home of the Lady Ottoline Morell, working as a farm labourer. Here he met several Bloomsbury figures including Bertrand Russell and Clive Bell. Later, in “Crome Yellow” (1921) he caricatured the Garsington lifestyle. Jobs were very scarce, but in 1919 Middleton Murray was reorganizing the Athenaeum and invited Huxley to join the staff.
Facts about Aldous Huxley 4: Personal Life
He married Maria Nys (10 September 1899 – 12 February 1955), a Belgian he met at Garsington, in 1919. They had one child, Matthew Huxley (19 April 1920 – 10 February 2005), who had a career as an author, anthropologist, and prominent epidemiologist. Maria died of breast cancer.
Facts about Aldous Huxley 5: Non-fiction Works
Starting from this period, Huxley began to write and edit non-fiction works on pacifist issues, including “Ends and Means”, “An Encyclopedia of Pacifism” and “Pacifism and Philosophy”, and was an active member of the Peace Pledge Union.
Facts about Aldous Huxley 6: Occidental College
Huxley became a close friend of Remsen Bird, president of Occidental College. He spent much time at the college, which is in the Eagle Rock neighbourhood of Los Angeles. The college appears as “Tarzana College” in his satirical novel “After Many a Summer (1939). The novel won Huxley that year’s James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction.Huxley also incorporated Bird into the novel.
Facts about Aldous Huxley 7: Disney’s Denial
Disney rejected Huxley’s screen play of Alice in Wonderland. There were simply too many big words. However, the final portrayal of the hookah-smoking caterpillar is supposedly a nod to Huxley.
Facts about Aldous Huxley 8: The Art of Seeing
He wrote a book about his successes with the Bates Method, “The Art of Seeing”, which was published in 1942 (US), 1943 (UK). It was from this period, with the publication of the generally disputed theories contained in the latter book, that a growing degree of popular controversy arose over the subject of Huxley’s eyesight.
Facts about Aldous Huxley 9: Death
On his deathbed, unable to speak, Huxley made a written request to his wife Laura for “LSD, 100 µg, intramuscular”. According to her account of his death in “This Timeless Moment”, she obliged with an injection at 11:45 am and a second dose a few hours later; Huxley died aged 69.
Facts about Aldous Huxley 10: Legacy
Huxley’s literary legacy continues to be represented by the literary agency headed by Georgas Borchardt.
Hope you would find those Aldous Huxley facts really interesting, useful and helpful for your additional reading.
