Aldous
Huxley was born the 26th of July of 1894, in Godalming, Surrey,
England. He was the third son of Leonard Huxley, a writer and school master;
and his first wife Julia Arnold, niece of poet, essayist and critic Mathew
Arnold. His brothers were Julian (a biologist), Trevelyan and his half brother
Andrew (also a biologist). Aldous was the grandson of the zoologist, agnostic
and controversialist Thomas Huxley (Darwin’s Bulldog).
Huxley studied at Eton College.
Then he studied English Language and literature at Balliol College, Oxford. His
first poetry collection was “The Burning Wheel”, published in 1916; then he
wrote “Jonah” (1917), “The Defeat of Youth” (1918) and “Leda” (1920). Then he
wrote his first short story collection, “Limbo” in 1920. In 1921 he wrote his
first novel social satire, called “Crome Yellow”; but he cemented his
reputation as thought-provoking writer of fiction in 1928, with his book “Point
Counter point”.
His life was marked with a lot
of tragic events: his mother died of cancer when he was only a schoolboy at
1908, and his brother Trevelyan committed suicide in 1914 because of clinical
depression. Aldous was unfit for military service and to participate at the
First World War, so he worked as a farm labourer at Lady Ottoline Morrel’s
Garsington Manor after he left Oxford; here he met D.H. Lawrence, Bertrand
Rusell, Clive Bell, Mark Gertler and a Belgian refugee, Maria Nys, who ended up
being his first wife in 1919.
Having writer’s kin and friends,
living both World Wars and looking the death of his mother and brother, are
events that marked him and his literature.
Finally, he died in his house in
Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, United States, the 22nd of
November of 1963 because of cancer.
