Leonard Huxley Annotated Bibliography

Aldous Leonard Huxley was born in Laleham, Godalming, Surrey, England on July 26, 1894 (“Huxley, Aldous, 1894-1963”) into the renowned Huxley Family. He was the third of four children born to Leonard Huxley, a teacher, writer, and editor of the Cornhill Magazine (“The Cornhill Magazine”), and Julia Arnold, the founder of Prior’s Field School (“The History of...”).. Though Huxley rarely mentioned memories of his personal life or childhood, the only thing he had shared was his nickname “Ogie,” which is short for “Ogre” (A. Huxley 2). “The Ogre was a pretty little boy, the photographs … show the high forehead, the [then] clear gaze, the tremulous mouth and a sweetness of expression” that differed amongst the looks of other boys when presented

Huxley 2). This lineage of scholars who have excelled in the arts, sciences, and literature starts from Huxley’s grandfather, Thomas Henry Huxley, also known as “Darwin’s bulldog” (Blinderman and Joyce). After many years of work and diligence, T. H. Huxley became a professor and president of the Royal Society (Sansom), which is “a Fellowship of many of the world 's most eminent scientists,” one of the oldest scientific institutions to this day (“About Us”). The most prominent of T. H. Huxley’s children was Aldous Huxley’s father. Along with Leonard Huxley being a writer, he was also an herbalist (“Aldous Leonard Huxley”), following his father’s scientific path. Julia Huxley, née Arnold, was the niece of “poet and essayist, Matthew Arnold” (A. Huxley 2). She attended Somerville College, Oxford, being one of the first women to do so during her time

He began his career as a writer and in 1921, published his first novel Crome Yellow (“Aldous Leonard Huxley”). For some time, Huxley resided in Italy and edited the letters of D. H. Lawrence, an English novelist with whom he formed a close relationship with (A. Huxley 6). In 1937, Huxley, along with his wife and son, moved to Taos, New Mexico, with a family friend, Gerald Heard (“Aldous Leonard Huxley”). Here, he was introduced to the concept of Vedanta, “meditation and vegetarianism through the principle of ahimsa, or the abhorrence of violence against any living thing” (“Aldous Leonard Huxley”). Shortly after his stay in New Mexico, Huxley and his family moved to Llano, California, where he began his work as a screenwriter (Brack). Years later, in 1955, Maria Huxley passed away due to breast cancer (“Aldous Leonard Huxley”). A year following the death of his wife, Huxley married an Italian psychotherapist and violinist, Laura Archera (A. Huxley