About the Author

Aldous Leonard Huxley was born on July 26, 1894, in Godalming, Surrey, England, the third son of writer Leonard Huxley, and grandson of zoologist, Thomas Henry Huxley. After being schooled in his father's botanical laboratory, he attended Hillside School in Malvern, with his mother as a teacher. Following that, he attended Eton College. Huxley's mother died in 1908, and he suffered an illness in 1911, which left him blind for nearly three years. He volunteered for the Army during World War I, but was rejected due to his eyesight. After that, he studied English literature at Balliol College, Oxford. Following graduation, he taught French at Eton, where George Orwell was one of his students. Although that only lasted a year, as he was a poor teacher, he impressed others with his use of words. During the 1920s, he worked at a chemical plant. Aldous wrote his first novel at the age of seventeen, though it remained unpublished, followed by his famous social satire, "Crome Yellow" in 1921. Huxley married Maria Nys in 1919 and they lived with their son Matthew in Italy, where he became friends with D. H. Lawrence. During this period, he wrote his most famous work, "Brave New World." In 1937, the family moved to Hollywood, California. There he wrote screenplays, such as "Madame Curie," "Pride and Prejudice," and "Jane Eyre." His script for "Alice in Wonderland" was rejected by Walt Disney however, as being too difficult to understand. There, he became friends with Ray Bradbury. Huxley applied for U. S. citizenship after World War II, but was turned down because he was a pacifist. By the 1950s, he was experimenting with drugs, such as LSD, peyote, and mescaline. His wife Maria died from breast cancer in 1955, and he married Laura Archera in 1956, who was also an author. In 1960, Huxley was diagnosed with cancer of the larynx, which left him unable to speak. He instructed his wife to inject him with multiple shots of LSD, which she did, and he died several hours later, on November 22, 1963, at the age of 69, the same day as John F. Kennedy and C. S. Lewis. Though he died in Los Angeles, he is buried in Compton, Surrey, England.