Aldous Huxley was one of the twentieth century's most prescient thinkers. This new biography charts the phases of Huxley's life and writing: from the early satirist who depicted the glamorous despair of the postwar generation, to the committed pacifist of the 1930s, the spiritual seeker of the 1940s, the psychedelic sage of the 1950s who affirmed the spiritual potential of mescaline and LSD, to the New Age prophet. While Huxley is best-known as the author of Brave New World, Poller argues that it is The Perennial Philosophy, The Doors of Perceptionand Island- Huxley's blueprint for a utopian society- that have had the most impact on culture at large. A rich and lucid account of Huxley's life and work.

About the Author
Jake Poller teaches in the English department at Queen Mary, University of London. He is the author of Aldous Huxley and Alternative Spirituality (2019) and the editor of Altered Consciousness in the Twentieth Century (2019).

Reviews
Jake Poller, in his new biography of Aldous Huxley, does the impossible. He covers the ground revealed previously by other scholars, but also manages to add fresh details, knowledgeable insights and astute critiques-and in far fewer pages than in any earlier treatments. This book is not only a marvel of concise and readable scholarship but a welcome and necessary update of the life of one of the 20th century's most provocative intellectuals.-Dana Sawyer, professor of religion and philosophy, Maine College of Art and author of Aldous Huxley: A Biography (2015)



Book Information
ISBN 9781789144277
Author Jake Poller
Format Paperback
Page Count 240
Imprint Reaktion Books
Publisher Reaktion Books