Aldous Huxley 1894 – 1963

Biography

Aldous Huxley was an English writer best known for his dystopian novel Brave New World. Born in Godalming in 1894 into a distinguished intellectual family, he studied at Eton and Oxford, where worsening eyesight nearly blinded him. He began as a satirical novelist with Crome Yellow and Point Counter Point, then achieved worldwide fame in 1932 with Brave New World, his vision of a society controlled by pleasure, drugs, and conditioning. In 1937 he moved to California, where he wrote screenplays, explored mysticism and psychedelics in The Doors of Perception, and published the utopian novel Island. His essays ranged over science, art, and philosophy. He died in Los Angeles on November 22, 1963, the same day as John F. Kennedy and C. S. Lewis. His dystopia remains a standard point of reference in debates about technology, freedom, and control, and his essays are still widely read today.