Aldous Huxley was born on July 26, 1894 in Surrey, England. He was born to Leonard Huxley, who was the son of the well-known biologist Thomas Henry Huxley. Thomas gained the nickname “Darwin’s Bulldog” for his work on Charles Darwin’s ideas. His mother was Julia Arnold, who was related to the nineteenth century poet Matthew Arnold. Being raised in a family of scientist and writers was very well educated, first at home and then at Eton. He had been able to master the English language and also very informed in the new developments of science. Besides his education one other major influence in his writing was his eye disease he obtained through his teenage years. With this disease he became visually impaired and was unable to continue with his chosen profession. He uses blindness and vision as ideas to his writing. Brave New World began a new direction for Huxley’s writing. He combined his facination with science to create a dystopian world where it was being controlled by the totalitarian government who used science and technology to maintain control. This book has been compared to George Orwell’s famous novel 1984. In this book Orwell portrays what the world will be like in 1984 and the book was written in 1949. In the late forties huxley began to experiment with drugs such as LSD and mescaline. Also he began a facination of occults like hypnotism, and seances. While on these drugs Huxley remained to write and wrote about profound influences. Aldous Huxley died on November 22, 1963 in Los Angeles California. Also influencing Huxley in writing this book was the industrial dynamo’s of his century such as Henry Ford and Sigmond Frued. In the book the people refer to these two as gods and the obey everything they believe they had said and created. Huxley was influenced by the industrialized world and portrayed the people from the book worshiped the these two people who are believed to have spearheaded the industrial revolution.
