Book description
WITH A FORWARD BY J. G. BALLARD
In 1953, in the presence of an investigator, Aldous Huxley took
four-tenths of a gramme of mescalin, sat down and waited to see what
would happen. When he opened his eyes everything, from the flowers in
a vase to the creases in his trousers, was transformed. Huxley
described his experience with breathtaking immediacy in The Doors
of Perception. In its sequel Heaven and Hell, he goes on
to explore the history and nature of mysticism. Still bristling with a
sense of excitement and discovery, these illuminating and influential
writings remain the most fascinating account of the visionary
experience ever written.
Aldous Huxley was born on 26th July 1894 near Godalming, Surrey. He
began writing poetry and short stories in his early twenties, but it was
his first novel,
'Crome Yellow
' (1921), which established his literary reputation. This was swiftly
followed by
'Antic Hay
' (1923),
'Those Barren Leaves'
(1925) and
'Point Counter Point'
(1928) - bright, brilliant satires in which Huxley wittily but
ruthlessly passed judgement on the shortcomings of contemporary society.
For most of the 1920s Huxley lived in Italy and an account of his
experiences there can be found in
'Along The Road'
(1925). The great novels of ideas, including his most famous work
'Brave New World' (published in 1932 this warned against the
dehumanising aspects of scientific and material 'progress') and the
pacifist novel
'Eyeless in Gaza'
(1936) were accompanied by a series of wise and brilliant essays,
collected in volume form under titles such as
'Music at Night'
(1931) and
'Enda and Means'
(1937). In 1937, at the height of his fame, Huxley left Europe to live
in California, working for a time as a screenwriter in Hollywood. As the
West braced itself for war, Huxley came increasingly to believe that the
key to solving the world's problems lay in changing the individual
through mystical enlightenment. The exploration of the inner life
through mysticism and hallucinogenic drugs was to dominate his work for
the rest of his life. His beliefs found expression in both fiction
(
'Time Must Have a Stop'
, 1944 and '
Island'
, 1962) and non-fiction ('
The Perennial Philosophy'
, 1945,
'Grey Eminence'
, 1941 and the famous account of his first mescalin experience,
'The
Doors of Perception'
, 1954. Huxley died in California on 22nd November 1963.
