Person · English writer & philosopher
Aldous Huxley
Also known as Aldous Leonard Huxley
The English writer and philosopher Aldous Huxley (26 July 1894 - 22 November 1963), author of Brave New World (1932), The Doors of Perception (1954) and Island (1962). Huxley moved from England to Los Angeles in 1937 and became deeply engaged with Vedanta and Mahayana Buddhism through Swami Prabhavananda at the Vedanta Society of Southern California. He developed a close intellectual friendship with Jiddu Krishnamurti from 1938 onwards (they lived close to each other in Los Angeles), with their conversations on consciousness, perception, meditation and human transformation shaping Huxley's later philosophical fiction and the subsequent Western interest in Indian non-dual philosophy. Huxley wrote the preface to Krishnamurti's The First and Last Freedom (1954). His 1962 novel Island drew heavily on Krishnamurti's educational and spiritual ideas. Huxley died at Los Angeles on 22 November 1963 (the same day as John F. Kennedy's assassination).
- Date
- 1894–1963
- Function
- Arts & performance
- Patron dynasty
- United Kingdom · United States
- Confidence
- Established / referenced
Connections (1)
- Court associationJiddu Krishnamurti
Jiddu Krishnamurti developed a close intellectual friendship with Aldous Huxley from 1938 onwards after they met in Los Angeles — the two lived close to each other in the Hollywood Hills and later in Malibu. Their decades-long conversations explored consciousness, perception, meditation, human transformation and the limitations of conventional thought. Huxley wrote the preface to Krishnamurti's The First and Last Freedom (1954), introducing Krishnamurti to a wider Western intellectual audience. Huxley's 1962 novel Island drew heavily on Krishnamurti's educational and spiritual ideas (Pala, the fictional Island society, uses Krishnamurti-style school pedagogy). Their friendship helped introduce Krishnamurti's ideas to the mid-20th century Western intellectual circles that would develop the 1960s counterculture.
Sources
Standard biography; Huxley Society archives.
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