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Aldous Huxley

Page 54

by Nicholas Murray


  1940

  August, after earlier ill-health, begins work on Grey Eminence.

  1941

  May finishes Grey Eminence (published October); works on screenplay of Jane Eyre; starts on Time Must Have A Stop.

  1942

  February, Huxleys move to desert house at Llano del Rio; at work on Jane Eyre; April starts The Art of Seeing (published October).

  1943

  Resumes work on novel; July stays with Gerald Heard at Trabuco College; October, Huxleys take a flat at South Doheny Drive, Beverly Hills in addition to Llano (to 1945).

  1944

  February finishes Time Must Have A Stop (published August); May starts The Perennial Philosophy.

  1945

  March, finishes Perennial Philosophy (published September); June buys mountain chalet in Wrightwood, California; writing Science, Liberty and Peace; November to December works with Walt Disney on Alice and Wonderland.

  1946

  Spending most of time at Llano in Mojave Desert; March Science, Liberty and Peace; July to October at work on script of The Gioconda Smile for Universal; September, at work on stage version of same story.

  1947

  Finally abandons Llano for Wrightwood; March starts historical novel on Catherine of Siena which is never completed; September leaves California for first time since 1938 by car for New York; November to December returned from New York to write Ape and Essence.

  1948

  February The Gioconda Smile published as play in US as Mortal Coils, released as film with title A Woman’s Vengeance; 3 June, stage version of Gioconda Smile opens in London for nine month run; 24 June, Huxleys sail for Europe (not seen since 1937) from New York; Paris, Siena, Rome, London; August, Ape and Essence; October return to New York; November to December in Palm Desert on doctor’s orders; at work on stage version of Ape and Essence.

  1949

  February Paris stage version of Gioconda Smile; May buy house at 740 North King’s Road, Los Angeles (but May to September at Wrightwood).

  1950

  April, Themes and Variations; Matthew marries Ellen Howde in New York; May sails on Queen Mary to France; Paris, Rome, Siena, London, Villa Rustique at Sanary; Paris; September, returns to New York; October, New York production of Gioconda Smile; visits Frieda Lawrence on way back to LA; November to December, starts work on The Devils of Loudun.

  1951

  March, virus infection followed in July by severe attack of iritis.

  1952

  January, Maria seriously ill, has treatment for breast cancer; October, The Devils of Loudun.

  1953

  May, first mescalin experience with Dr Humphry Osmond; June tour through northwestern states followed by work on The Doors of Perception.

  1954

  February, The Doors of Perception; 7 April, sails to Cherbourg; attends parapyscholocy conference, Vence; then Paris, Ismailia, Cairo, Jerusalem, Beirut, Cyprus, Athens, Rome, Paris, London; 21 August sails for New York; 7 September, returns to Los Angeles; October, lecturing, finishes The Genius and The Goddess; November, collaborates with Beth Wendell on stage version of The Genius and the Goddess.

  1955

  12 February, Maria dies; April to May drives by car to New York via Southern states; May to June at 1035 Park Avenue, New York working on stage production of The Genius and the Goddess; novel appears June; July to August, summer with Matthew at Guilford, Connecticut; September to December back in Los Angeles

  1956

  February, Heaven and Hell; 19 March, marries Laura Archera at Yuma, Arizona; July, couple move to 3276 Deronda Drive, Los Angeles; starts work on Island (not published until 1961); October, Adonis and the Alphabet.

  1957

  July to November, at Shoreham Hotel, New York working on stage version of The Genius and The Goddess; December, begins Brave New World Revisited.

  1958

  July to August, travels in Peru and Brazil; September, Italy; October, London, Paris, Venice; October, Brave New World Revisited; November, lectures at Turin and other Italian cities; December, returns to Los Angeles.

  1959

  February to May, first course of lectures at Santa Barbara on ‘The Human Situation’; July, serious fall; September to December, second series of lectures at Santa Barbara.

  1960

  March to April, Visiting Professor at Menninger Foundation, Kansas; May, cancer diagnosed; June, radium treatment; September to November, Visiting Professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

  1961

  January, visits Hawaii; February, control of the mind conference, San Francisco; 12 May, Deronda Drive house destroyed by fire; June, finishes Island, visits London; July at Vence; August, Switzerland, Copenhagen; September, returns to Los Angeles to stay at 6233 Mulholland Highway; November India, Japan.

  1962

  February to May, Visiting Professor at Berkeley; March, Island, conference at Santa Barbara on technology in the modern world; April to May, addresses further conferences in the US; June, illness recurs, The Genius and the Goddess performed in England; July minor operation; August to September, Brussels for meeting of World Academy of Arts and Sciences; September, London; November, lectures in Mid West.

  1963

  March, at Rome conference of UN Food and Agricultural Organisation; March to April, lecturing at US universities; April to May, another relapse; August, Stockholm for meeting of World Academy of Arts and Sciences, London, Dartington, Italy; September, Literature and Science (his last book); 22 November, dies in Los Angeles; 17 December, Memorial Service, Friends House, London.

  Acknowledgements and Sources

  I should like to express particular thanks to Laura Archera Huxley, Matthew Huxley, and Sybille Bedford who kindly agreed to be interviewed by me and who encouraged me in writing this book. Their reminiscences and critical opinions were invaluable.

  I have drawn on the extensive amount of unpublished material which exists in library collections in the United Kingdom, United States and Belgium and would like to thank the following institutions for allowing me access to their collections and granting permission to quote from materials in their care: The Huntington Library, San Marino, California (Huxley collection, oral history transcripts, the diary of Grace Hubble, Isherwood papers); The Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center, The University of Texas at Austin, Texas (Huxley collection, Huxley–Ottoline Morrell correspondence, Huxley–Mary Hutchinson correspondence, Maria Huxley–Ottoline Morrell correspondence, Maria Huxley–Mary Hutchinson correspondence, Hutchinson papers); Archives et Musée de la Littérature, Bibliothèque Royale Albertine, Brussels (Huxley correspondence, Maria Huxley correspondence, Suzanne Nys memoir); University of Southern California, Los Angeles, Charles E. Young Research Library, Department of Special Collections (Huxley collection, Heard collection); The British Library (Huxley correspondence); The Bodleian Library, Oxford, Department of Special Collections and Western Manuscripts (Huxley correspondence); King’s College Cambridge Centre for Modern Archives (Huxley correspondence); University of Reading Library, Department of Archives (restricted Huxley–Chatto papers); National Sound Archive (Huxley television and radio recordings); Stanford University, California (Huxley correspondence); New York Public Library (Huxley correspondence); University of Princeton Library, Department of Rare Books and Special Collections (Huxley correspondence); National Library of Wales (Huxley correspondence); Wellcome Institute Library and Galton Institute (Huxley correspondence in Eugenics Society archives); Lambeth Palace Library (Huxley–Dick Sheppard correspondence); Eton College Library (Huxley correspondence). I should also like to thank M. Didier Martina-Fieschi, Service du Patrimonie, Mairie de Sanary Sur Mer; Claude B. Zachary, University of Southern California Archivist and Manuscripts Librarian; Cathy Henderson, Shannon Lawson, Pat Fox,(Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center), Sue Hodson, Romaine Ahlstrom (Huntington Library); Michael Bott (Reading University Library); Hugues Robaye, Amélie Schmitz (Musée de la Littérature, Brussels); Je
ff Rankin (UCLA); Jennifer Kerns (Newnham College, Cambridge); Michelle Duke (Random House); Colin Harris (Bodleian Library); John Timson (Galton Institute); Lesley Hall (Wellcome Institute); Michael Meredith (Eton College); Raymond-Josué Seckel (Bibliothèque Nationale de France); Margaret Sherry (Princeton University Library).

  I should like to express special thanks to Mr John Deutsch FRCS FRCOphth, Consultant Ophthalmologist, Victoria Eye Hospital, Hereford for his valuable insights into Huxley’s eye disease. My research in the United States was significantly extended by the skilful research assistance of my wife, Susan Murray.

  I should also like to thank the following individuals who provided assistance, encouragement, advice: Rob Archer (Mira Costa College, CA), Chris Silkin, Professor Cecil Y. Lang, Stan Lauryssens, Professor Bernfried Nugel, Jeremy Lewis, Lord Sackville, Michael-De-la-Noy, Patrick Trevor-Roper, Pat Krig, Rob Humphrey, Professor James Knowlson, Dr Richard Price.

  For permission to quote from the published and unpublished writings of Aldous Huxley I am grateful to Dorris Halsey and the Estate of Aldous L. Huxley and Random House (UK). For permission to quote from an unpublished profile of the Huxleys by Mary Hutchinson I am grateful to Lord Hutchinson QC and for permission to quote from the oral history transcripts at the Huntington Library I am grateful to Professor David King Dunaway, University of New Mexico.

  Index

  The index that appeared in the print version of this title does not match the pages of your eBook. Please use the search function on your eReading device to search for terms of interest. For your reference, the terms that appear in the print index are listed below.

  Note: AH = Aldous Huxley

  ‘Abroad in England’ (essay)

  Absalom and Achitophel (Dryden)

  Académie du Var

  Acton, Harold

  Adler, Alfred

  Adonis and the Alphabet (essay collection, 1956) entitled Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow in USA

  After Many a Summer (novel, 1939) radio version stage version

  After Strange Gods (Eliot)

  ‘After the Fireworks’ (short story)

  Air Board

  Albany, The, London

  Albert I, king of the Belgians

  Aldington, Richard

  Alexander, F.M.

  Alexander technique

  Alice in Wonderland (Carroll) Disney film

  Allen, Woody

  Along the Road (essay collection, 1925)

  Alps

  American Academy of Arts and Letters

  American Psychiatric Association

  American Scholar, The (magazine)

  Amis, Kingsley

  Anrep, Boris

  Anthony, Joseph

  Antic Hay (novel, 1923) AH’s childhood depicted in AH’s mother depicted in dramatisation of family anger over film possibility moral outrage over Nancy Cunard depicted in reviews Waugh’s praise of

  anti-Semitism

  Ape and Essence (novel, 1948) stage version

  Après Midi d’un Faune, L’ (Mallarmé; translated by AH) 100

  ‘Arabia Infelix’ (poem)

  Arabia Infelix (poetry collection, 1929)

  Aretino, Pietro

  Arizona desert

  Arnold, Julia, see Huxley, Julia

  Arnold, Matthew (great-uncle); AH’s edition of birthplace death of son ‘Growing Old’ ideas

  Arnold, Thomas (grandfather)

  Art and Letters (magazine)

  ‘Art and the Obvious’ (essay)

  Art of Mental Prayer, The (Frost)

  Art of Seeing, The (book on defective vision, 1942)

  Aspects of the Novel (Forster)

  Asquith, Herbert Henry

  Astor, J.J.

  Athenaeum, The (magazine) Mary Hutchinson’s work for

  Athenaeum club, London

  Atkinson (painter)

  Atman

  Auden, W.H.

  aun aprendo (motto)

  Austen, Jane

  Austria

  Authors Take Sides on the Spanish War (pamphlet)

  Authors’ World Peace Appeal

  Ayer, Freddie

  ‘Babies State Property’ (article)

  Bachardy, Don

  Bagnold, Enid

  Baillot, Juliette, see Huxley, Juliette

  ballet, Russian

  Balliol College, Oxford

  Baltus, George

  Baltus, Marguerite, see Nys, Marguerite

  Balzac, Honoré de

  Bandol, France

  Barbados

  Barth, Karl

  Bates, William H.

  Bates method Jeanne Neveux and 366; refuted see also Art of Seeing, The

  Baudelaire, Charles

  BBC

  Beach, Sylvia

  Beaton, Cecil

  Beaumont, Francis

  Beaverbrook, Max

  Bedford, Sybille (née von Schoenebeck) on AH’s funeral on AH’s sexual initiation on AH’s stepmother on Chandos interview with AH on Ejutla gun incident first meeting with Huxleys further meetings on Huxleys’ marriage and affairs last meeting with AH lodges with Huxleys on Maria’s appearance on Maria’s bisexuality on Maria’s designation of her own successor

  Beerbohm, Marie

  Beerbohm, Max

  Beirut

  Belgenland, SS

  Belgium see also Brussels; St Trond

  Belize

  Bell, Clive affair with Mary Hutchinson and death of Julian Bell eye problems and palm readings

  Bell, George, Bishop of Chichester

  Bell, Quentin

  Bell, Vanessa

  Belloc, Hilaire

  Below the Equator (film script)

  Benda, Julian

  Bennett, Arnold

  Benoit, Hubert

  Berlin

  Berlin, Isaiah

  Berners, Lord

  Bernstein, Leonard

  Best Poems of 1926, The

  Betts, Frank

  Bevan (clergyman)

  Beyond the Mexique Bay (essay collection, 1934)

  Bienvenu Restaurant, London

  Biran, Maine de

  Birrell, Francis

  Birth of a Nation (film)

  Blacker, C.P.

  Blacker, P.J.

  Blackwell, Basil

  Blake, William

  Bloomsbury Group AH’s relationship with Maria’s dislike of Omega sexual relationships

  Boccaccio, Giovanni

  Bodleian Library

  Bonnet, Mademoiselle (teacher)

  Bonnoli, Alberto

  Bookmark (television programme)

  ‘Bookshop, The’ (short story)

  Bordage, Judith, see Huxley, Judith

  Bouvard et Pécuchet (Flaubert)

  Bracknell Gardens, London

  Bradshaw, David

  Braille

  Braine, John

  Brains Trust, The (television programme)

  Brave New World (novel, 1932) accuracy of predictions AH later revises timing of predictions Australian ban lifted complaint to FBI over current relevance of depiction of motherhood and the family disliked by Wells and eugenics film rights and Fordism hortatory jingles in humour in Island compared with less successful in USA mini-series musical rights possible influence of Kafka’s The Castle Surrey of AH’s childhood depicted in themes anticipated in earlier work themes of themes repeated in later works

  Brave New World Revisited (essay collection, 1958)

  Brazil

  Brett, Dorothy; advises Maria on relationship and career attempt to steal Lawrence’s ashes character decorates Huxleys’ home depicted in Crome Yellow

  Bridges, Robert

  Brief Candles (short story collection, 1930)

  Britannic (liner)

  Broch, Hermann

  Brook, Peter

  Brooke, Rupert

  Brothers Karamazov, The (Dostoyevsky)

  Broughton-Adderley, Peter

  Brown, Harrison

  Browning, Elizabeth Barrett

>   Brussels: peace congress boycott Royal Library

  Buddhism

  Bugatti

  Burlington Magazine

  Burma

  Burning Wheel, The (poetry collection)

  Burr, Courtney

  Burt, Cyril

  Burton-Brown, Beatrice

  Burton-Brown, Mrs (headmistress)

  Buy British campaign

  Byron, Lord

  Cairo

  California, University of: Berkeley Los Angeles Santa Barbara

  Campaign Against Hunger

  Campbell, Herbert

  Campbell, Roy

  Canfield, Cass

  Cannan, Gilbert

  Cannes

  Carey, John

  Carlyle, Thomas

  Carrington, Dorothy AH’s relationship with depicted in Crome Yellow illustrates AH poem suicide

  Carroll, Lewis Muffin Man as character from Victorians as characters from see also Alice in Wonderland

  Castle, The (Kafka)

  Catherine of Siena, St

  Catholicism

  Cecil, David

  Cedars of Lebanon hospital, LA

  ‘Censorship and Spoken Literature’ (essay)

  Central America

  Centre for the Study of Democratic Institutions

  Centre Polytechnique des Études Économiques

  Century (magazine)

  ‘cerebrotonic’

  Chambers, Maria

  Chance (Conrad)

  Chandos, John

  Chapelain, Yvette

  Chaplin, Charlie

  Charterhouse School

  Chartreuse de Parme (Stendhal)

 

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