One of the major novelists and social critics of the 20th century, Huxley was born in Surrey, England in 1894 into a prominent family of scientists and intellectuals. A serious illness in youth left him partially blind, but he recovered his sight sufficiently to attend Eton and Balliol College. Huxley suffered from weak eyesight for the rest of his life, a challenge he overcame in becoming a successful writer.

He attracted notice early on with his novels Crome Yellow (1921) and Antic Hay (1923), which satirized artistic and intellectual pretensions of the post-World War I era. Inspired by anxieties about the contemporary political scene, Huxley wrote Brave New World (1932), which extended his satirical gifts in the direction of dystopian fantasy. This book marked a watershed in Huxley’s career and would remain his most famous work. Brave New World proved to be Huxley’s emblematic work, exploring scientific and social issues that interested him deeply and resonated strongly with contemporary audiences. In Brave New World Revisited Huxley checked his earlier prophesies against present-day reality, finding them alarmingly fulfilled.

After living in Italy for some time, Huxley settled in California in 1938. There, in addition to his novels and essays, he wrote several Hollywood screenplays including Pride and Prejudice (1940) and Jane Eyre (1943).