Aldous Huxley - Dystopian Author

Aldous Huxley was an English writer and essayist, known for his poetry, wide range of essays, films scripts, but many people know him through his dystopian novel Brave New World. He was a member of the famous Huxley family. He was also interested in parapsychology and philosophical mysticism as well as psychedelic drugs. He wrote more than 30 books, 600 short stories, numerous poems, essays and plays. He has won the AmericanAcademy of Arts and Letters Award.

Aldous Huxley was born in England in 1894. He was studied at Eton College. When he was 16 he suffered an illness (keratitis punctata) and he was blind for 18 months. When his eyesight recovered sufficiently, he took his B.A degree in English at BalliolCollege, Oxford.

He was teaching French at Eton, where Eric Blair (known by his pseudonym George Orwell) was one of his students.

He finished his first novel when he was only 17. His first poems was published in 1916. The publication of his first novel Crome Yellow appeared in 1921. Next came Antic Hay (1923), Those Barven Leaves (1925), Point Counter Point (1928). His is best-known for his dystopian novel Brave New World (1932).

He also wrote utopian novel Island.

He moved in California in 1937, where he used the Bates Method to improve his eyesight. The results of this method he recounted in The Art of Seeing (1942).

His later works are inspired by both mysticism and his experience with the psychedelic drugs. This experience was used as inspiration for his essays The Doors of Perception (1954). In that time he was also interested in Hindu philosophy. He also wrote screenplays, his best was Pride and Prejudice (1954).

He died in 1963, in Los Angeles.