The grandson of the noted biologist T. H. Huxley, he was educated at Eton College and Balliol College, Oxford. Suffering from the effects of keratitis punctata, which he contracted when he was 16 and which had left him nearly blind, he was unable to fight in WWI. Nor could he pursue the career in science which he so desired. Huxley turned to writing, publishing his first work of poetry, The Burning Wheel, in 1916. He worked for the War Office in 1917 and in 1919 became a member of the editorial staff at the Athenaeum. In 1920, he became a drama critic for the Westminster Gazette. In 1921, he published his first novel, Crome Yellow, which had much success and which propelled him in literary circles. Huxley became close friends with D. H. Lawrence and they travelled throughout France and Italy during the 1920's. Huxley lived most of the 1920's in Italy. In 1928, Point Counter Point was published, with Lawrence being one of the main characters. In the 1930's, Huxley moved to France where he wrote Brave New World (1932), the work for which he is best remembered today and considered by many to be a masterpiece of science fiction. In 1937, he moved to California hoping that the climate would be better for his eyes, and began writing screenplays. In 1958, he published Brave New World Revised and, the following year, the sequel Brave New World Revisited appeared. In 1961, his house and papers were destroyed in a fire. Huxley, suffering from throat cancer, died on the same day as President Kennedy's assassination in 1963. In addition to his novels, Huxley was an excellent essayist and also produced numerous short stories and poems. His other works include Do What You Will (1929), Eyeless in Gaza (1936), Ends and Means (1937), Time Must Have a Stop (1944), Ape and Essence (1948), Gioconda Smile (1948), The Devils of Loudon (1952), Adonis and the Alphabet (1956), On Art and Artist (1960) and Island (1962). |
