Huxley, Aldous |
| AUTHOR, PHILOSOPHER (ENGLAND) |
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BORN 26 Jul 1894, Godalming, Surrey - DIED 22 Nov 1963, Los Angeles, California BIRTH NAME Huxley, Aldous Leonard CAUSE OF DEATH cancer GRAVE LOCATION Compton, Surrey: Compton Cemetery (ashes interred in Huxley family grave) |
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Aldous Huxley was the son of the author and schoolmaster Leonard Huxley and the grandson of the zoologist and Darwinist Thomas Huxley. His mother Julia was a niece of the poet Matthew Arnold. His mother died in 1908. In 1911 the eye disease Keratitis punctata made him as good as blind for three years. In 1913 he started his study of English literature at Balliol College, Oxford. In 1916 he volunteered for the army but he was refused because at that time he was still half-blind in one eye. After his studies he taught French at Eton College for a year and Eric Blair (better known as George Orwell) was one of his students. In 1919 he married the Belgian refugee Maria Nys. In the 1920s he published his first novels. "Crome Yellow" was published in 1921 and "Antic Hay" followed in 1923. He wrote his fifth novel "Brave new World" in 1931 and it was published in 1932. In 1937 he moved to Hollywood with Maria, their son Matthew (1920-2005) and his friend Gerald Heard. He became a friend of the Indian philosopher Jiddu Krishnamurti. In the late 1930s he made a lot of money as a screenwriter and with it he supported Jews and left-wing refugees from Germany. Anita Loos brought him into contact with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer that hired him to write further scripts. In 1953 he and Maria applied for US Citizenship, but after he refused to state that his refusal to bear arms for the US was based on religious grounds, he was forced to withdraw his application. Maria died of cancer in 1955 and in 1956 he married the violinist and psychotherapist Laura Archera (1911-2007). In 1958 he refused a British knighthood and he continued to live in the US. He was diagnosed with laryngeal cancer in 1960. In 1962 his utopian novel "Island" was published and he died on 22 November 1963 in Los Angeles after asking his wife for a dose of LSD and receiving it. On the same day C.S. Lewis died and John F. Kennedy was murdered. After his death, his friend Igor Stravinsky dedicated his last orchestral work "Variations" to him. It was first performed on 17 April 1965 in Chicago. In 1971 his ashes were interred in the family grave in Compton, Surrey. Family • Father: Huxley, Leonard Related persons • was painted by Bell, Vanessa • visited Lee, Vernon • was a friend of Stravinsky, Igor |
| Images | |
 The grave of Aldous Huxley at Compton Cemetery, Compton. Picture by Androom (27 Mar 2016) |
 The grave of Aldous Huxley at Compton Cemetery, Compton. Picture by Androom (27 Mar 2016) |
Sources • Aldous Huxley - Wikipedia |
