Aldous Leonard Huxley (July 26, 1894 – November 22, 1963),was one of the most famous members of the Huxley family, his grandfather being T.H. Huxley, a biologist and H. G. Wells’ teacher.
Aldous Huxley was born in Godalming, Surrey, England. He was the son of the writer and professional herbalist Leonard Huxley by his first wife, Julia Arnold.
His first teacher at Hillside school was his mother, who supervised him until she became seriously ill. She died in 1908,when Aldous was 14. After Hillside, he was educated at Eton College. Three years later he suffered an illness, which left him nearly blind for a few years. Once he gradually recovered from his illness, he continued his education at Balliol College in Oxford.
Following his education at Balliol, Huxley was financially indebted to his father and had to earn a living. For a short while in 1918, he was employed acquiring provisions at the Air Ministry.
Being financially hard-up, he had to take literature as a job.
His earlier works dealt with dehumanization of people,including “Brave New World”, “Eyeless In Gasa” etc.
In 1919 he married Maria Nijs , who was a Belgian. They had one child, Matthew Huxley.
In 1937 Huxley moved to the USA.
After World War II Huxley applied for United States citizenship, but was denied because he would not say he would take up arms to defend America. Nevertheless he remained in the United States.
In the 1960s Huxley actively participated in the experiments with LSD, and wrote a series of essays ( “The Doors Of Perception”, “Heaven And Hell” among them) popularizing it.
On November 22, 1963 Huxley died of cancer, under the influence of LSD.