Aldous Huxley

Aldous Leonard Huxley (1894–1963) was an English writer, novelist, philosopher, and prominent member of the Huxley family. He graduated from Balliol College at the University of Oxford with a first-class honours degree in English literature.

The author of nearly fifty books, Huxley was best known for his novels (among them Brave New World, set in a dystopian future); for nonfiction works, such as The Doors of Perception, in which he recalls his experiences taking psychedelic drugs; and for his wide-ranging essays. Early in his career, Huxley published short stories and poetry and edited the literary magazine Oxford Poetry. He went on to publish travel writing, film stories, satire, and screenplays. He spent the latter part of his life in the United States, living in Los Angeles from 1937 until his death.

Huxley was a humanist and a pacifist. He became interested in spiritual subjects such as parapsychology and philosophical mysticism, and in particular universalism. By the end of his life, Huxley was widely acknowledged as one of the pre-eminent intellectuals of his time. He was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature seven times. In 1962, a year before he died, Huxley was elected Companion of Literature by the Royal Society of Literature.