About the Collection
Aldous Huxley was born in Godalming, England in 1894. His plans of a career in the medical profession were dashed when at 16 he was stricken with a disease of the eyes that left him temporarily blind.
Instead he became a renowned writer, publishing not only novels but also poetry, plays, short stories, artistic criticisms, and many essays. His early work is characterized by consisting of mostly social satire, while his later work reflects mysticism and prophecy mixed with self-righteousness. He was known to have experimented with mind-altering drugs in order to have his mystical experiences, including the drug mescaline. Huxley was educated at Balliol College and at Oxford and taught briefly at Eton College in England.
He married twice and had one child, a son named Matthew, and died in Hollywood, California in 1963. Perhaps Huxley's most famous work is Brave New World, a terrifying picture of the future as a hellish distopia. Notable among his other works are Doors of Perception, Eyeless in Gaza, Point Counter Point, and Heaven and Hell. Special Collections holds about 90 bound items by and about Aldous Huxley, including many signed, limited editions. Also included is a small collection of magazine and newspaper articles relating to Huxley.
This collection of mostly first editions, many signed and/or numbered, was donated largely by Mr. Robert H. Jackson of Cleveland, Ohio from 1991 to 1995.