Aldous Huxley

Aldous Huxley was an English writer born in Godalming, Surrey, on 26 July 1894, into a family prominent in science and letters. His grandfather was the biologist T. H. Huxley. He studied at Oxford, began with poems and witty satirical novels about the restless upper classes of the 1920s, and became one of the sharpest social observers of his time. He later moved to the United States, where he lived for the rest of his life, mostly in California. His best-known novel, Brave New World, imagines a future of engineered contentment and remains a touchstone for debates about technology, pleasure and freedom. He also wrote essays, travel writing and works on philosophy and mysticism, and he was deeply curious about science, religion and the mind. His account of his experiments with mescaline drew wide attention. He died on 22 November 1963. Readers still value him for his intelligence, his range and his warnings about comfortable forms of control.