Profile of the Day: Aldous Huxley

Remember reading Brave New World? On this day in 1894, author Aldous Huxley was born.

Image: Aldous Huxley / Archivo Historico Sinaloa, Flickr

Huxley was the third son of Leonard Huxley, a writer and school master, and Julia Arnold, founder of Prior’s Field School. The Huxley family was a prominent and well-educated family in Britian. Huxley’s paternal grandfather, Thomas Henry Huxley, was a biologist and specialist in comparative anatomy. He was instrumental in developing scientific education in Britain and became known as “Darwin’s Bulldog” for his advocacy of Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution.

Huxley completed his first novel at the age of 17, although it was unpublished. During his 20s, he began writing seriously and published several books throughout the 1920s. In 1931, he published his fifth book, Brave New World, which was set in a dystopian future. The novel would become one of Huxley’s most celebrated works and is still read around the world today.

Huxley died on November 22, 1963 at his home in Los Angeles, California. He was 69 years old.

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