Aldous Huxley

Aldous Huxley was born on the 26 of July, 1894 and died 22 of November 1963. He was a premier novelist of the 1920's and onward. Aldous was part of the famous Huxley family, containing famous biologists, humanitarians, and at least one famous author. Huxley was supremely influenced by the industrial and later psychological revolutions that occurred in the 1910s and 20s, and later in the 1950s and 60s, respectively. Huxley's interest in psychoactives can be seen throughout his life, he is often regarded as a pioneer of LSD generation. many of his ideas about the world and it's inhabitants are clearly portrayed in his prose, Brave New World used ideas of consumer culture and mass production to forge a future that is not completely unreasonable. Even in that early work Huxley shows much interest in drugs, mainly as a measure of social regulation in that novel one of the main characters in the story says, "There's always soma to calm your anger, to reconcile you to your enemies, to make you patient and long-suffering. In the past you could only accomplish these things by making a great effort and after years of hard moral training. Now, you swallow two or three half-gramme tablets, and there you are. Anybody can be virtuous now. You can carry at least half your morality about in a bottle. Christianity without tears-that's what soma is."
Huxley was born in Surrey to a writer and biologist named Leonard Huxley, he started learning about biology early due to his father's well equipped botanical laboratory. His grandfather was a famous naturalist, often called "Darwin's Bulldog" for his strong defense of evolution. This upbringing is clearly shown in his work, much of his writing deals with human nature and the tampering one can do with it. This transparency can be found in many of his works, all the ideas that ate floating through his head are clearly interpreted to text, almost becoming a book of ideas and concepts rather than a traditional book that focuses on plot and characters.
Huxley got much inspiration from a brief employment at a technologically advanced Brunner and Mond chemical plant, In Brave New World he actually names the leader of western Europe Mustapha Mond. The industrial revolution as a whole greatly influenced Huxley, mass production and consumer culture are prominent themes in some of his work. In Brave New World Revisited, published 26 years after the original publication, Huxley states that the world is in fact growing closer and closer to the dystopia seen in Brave New World, and at a quicker pace than he had originally predicted.
Only a few years after the publication of Brave New World Huxley moved to Hollywood, California and was introduced the eastern spiritual practice Vedanta. During his time in Hollywood he managed to make some money in the film business as a screenwriter, writing the screenplay for Pride and Prejudice, and producing a screenplay for Alice In Wonderland that was rejected because of it's overly literary style. Despite some successes his work in Hollywood was not a total success, as his literary style was not fit for Hollywood.
Huxley in his later life Huxley became very interested in Psychedelics, using LSD, Mescaline, and other psychedelics extensively from the early fifties until his death in 1963. On his death bed Huxley requested a strong 100μg dose of LSD. These psychedelics greatly influenced his writings, in the book Doors of Perception he openly acknowledges their influence. His final novel, Island, could be considered the antithesis of his most famous one, Brave New World, in the way that it was a genuine utopia. in Brave New World the drug soma is prescribed to control the masses, in Island the inhabitants use a type of psychedelic to gain actual spiritual awareness.
Aldous Huxley was an extremely prolific writer, producing countless novels, short stories, poems, and essays. He was perhaps the most renowned member of the famous Huxley family. Huxley, along with George Orwell, Ray Bradbury, and Isaac Asimov, revolutionized the science fiction genre, not only making predictions at the future but providing poignant social commentary of the present.