Huxley, Aldous Leonard

(1894-1963). British author and social commentator who, later in his life, was increasingly concerned with Hindu philosophy and mysticism. He was born at Godalming, Surrey, on July 26, 1894, the third son of Leonard Huxley and the grandson of Thomas Henry Huxley. He was educated at Eton and Balliol College, Oxford. His early novels, such as Antic Hay (1923) and Those Barren Leaves (1925) established his reputation in literature and his pessimistic novel Brave New World (1932) was a devastating criticism of the dehumanizing trend of modern science. Of particular interest to theosophists and students of comparative religion is his The Perennial Philosophy (1946) which was an attempt to distill the essence of all the major religious teaching and the sages.

Huxley was one of the first modern writers to experiment and write about the effects of hallucinogenic drugs, such as mescaline (The Doors of Perception, 1954). He died on November 22, 1963, at Los Angeles, California.

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