Aldous
Huxley was born on July 26, 1894, in Surrey, England, into a
distinguished scientific and literary family; his grandfather was the
noted scientist and writer, T.H. Huxley. Following an eye illness at age
16 that resulted in near-blindness, Huxley abandoned hope of a career
in medicine and turned instead to literature, attending Oxford
University and graduating with honors. While at Oxford, he published two
volumes of poetry. Crome Yellow, his first novel, was published in 1927
followed by Antic Hay, Those Barren Leaves, and Point Counter Point.
His most famous novel, Brave New World, published in 1932, is a science
fiction classic about a futuristic society controlled by technology. In
all, Huxley produced 47 works during his long career, In 1947, Huxley
moved with his family to southern California. During the 1950s, he
experimented with mescaline and LSD. Doors of Perception and Heaven and
Hell, both works of nonfiction, were based on his experiences while
taking mescaline under supervision. In 1959, Aldous Huxley received the
Award of Merit for the Novel from the American Academy of Arts and
Letters. He died on November 22, 1963.
