Aldous Leonard Huxley collection

Collection

Identifier: 018.AH

Staff Only

Scope and contents

The Aldous Leonard Huxley collection is an assortment of material related to the career and life of author Aldous Huxley (1894-1963). It includes publications by Huxley, including all of his columns in the Chicago Herald and Examiner from 1931-1935, biographical material, reviews and commentary on his works, dust jackets for various books by and about Huxley, and correspondence with David Maxfield, the donor of the collection.

Specific publications by Huxley included in the collection are as follows:

Columns from the Chicago Herald and Examiner (1931-1935) "Death and the Baroque" (Horizon, 1949) Speech given at the Dartmouth Convocation on the Great Issues of Conscience in Modern Medicine (1960) Foreword to Acupuncture: The Ancient Chinese Art of Healing (1962) "Education at the Nonverbal Level" (Daedalus, 1962) "The History of Tension" (Meprobamate and Other Agents Used in Mental Disturbances, 1957) "Voices" (The Atlantic, 1955) "Ozymandias" (Fortnight, 1953) "Mescaline and the 'Other World'" (Proceedings of the Round Table on Lysergic Acid Diethylamide and Mescaline in Experimental Psychiatry, 1956) "The Final Revolution" (A Pharmacologic Approach to the Study of the Mind, 1959) "Drugs That Shape Men's Minds" (The Saturday Evening Post, 1958) "Brave New World Coming True - All Too Fast" (The Evening Bulletin, 1958) "Flames Without Tears" (letter to the editor, Time, 1961) "World Population Explosion Invites Dictatorships" (The Evening Bulletin, 1958) "Who Are You?" (with pictorial comments by James Thurber, Harper's Magazine, 1944)

Dates

Creation: 1894 - 1984

Creator

Thurber, James (Artist, Person)
Huxley, Aldous Leonard, 1894-1963 (Author, Person)
Huxley, Laura Archera (Person)

Language of Materials

All records are in English unless otherwise noted.

Conditions Governing Access

Researchers are asked to request materials 24 hours prior to visiting the the University Archives.

Biographical note

Aldous Leonard Huxley (1894-1963) was an English writer and intellectual best known for his novels, including Brave New World (1931), but he also wrote essays, short stories, stage and screenplays, and poetry. He was also well known as a mystic, associated with the Vedanta movement, and an advocate of the use of psychedelic drugs, on which subject he wrote The Doors of Perception (1954). Huxley was educated at Eton and Balliol College, Oxford, where he suffered an illness that left him nearly blind for two years, and weakened his sight permanently. He was married first to Maria Nys, with whom he had a son, Matthew, and after her death in 1955 to Laura Archera. Huxley spent the later part of his life in the United States, living in California after 1937, although he never became a US citizen due to his pacifism.

Extent

0.4 Linear Feet (1 archive box)

Additional Description

Abstract

Publications, reviews, and biographical material of Aldous Leonard Huxley (1894-1963), British author, intellectual, and mystic, best known for his works Brave New World and The Doors of Perception. The collection includes published articles and essays by Huxley, reviews and commentary on his works, biographical material on his life, a small amount of correspondence, and information concerning the donation of the materials to EMU by David Maxfield in 1984 and the subsequent exhibit held at the library.

Arrangement of materials

The collection is arranged into three series: 1. Published material, including both works by Huxley and reviews and commentary related to his works, and biographical material about him; 2. Dust jackets, a collection of dust jackets from works by and about Huxley; 3. Maxfield correspondence and donation, including a letter from Huxley to David Maxfield in response to a question, and material related to Maxfield's donation of the collection to EMU in 1984 and the subsequent library exhibit.