Aldous Huxley
English · 1894–1963
English writer and philosopher, best known for the dystopian novel Brave New World (1932), which imagined a future society stabilised by genetic engineering, conditioning, and the soma-fuelled pursuit of hedonic pleasure. Late in life he wrote Island (1962), a utopian counterpart depicting voluntary psychedelic enlightenment. Brother of the biologist and eugenicist Julian Huxley and grandson of Darwin's bulldog T. H. Huxley, he was a central figure in 20th-century debates about science, drugs, and consciousness.