Selected Letters of Aldous

by Aldous Huxley, James Sexton (Introduction), James Sexton (Editor)

Overview

Of the ten thousand letters that Aldous Huxley wrote, only a fraction have been published. Those that were once considered too sensitive for publication can now be included in a wholly new collection. James Sexton's thoughtful selection opens new perspectives on one of the giants of prose. Huxley's letters movingly depict his courageous battle with almost total blindness. Later letters to his patroness demonstrate the brilliance that would soon gain Huxley an international reputation as one of his generation's major satirists. Gradually the letters reveal a shift from cynical satirist to a committed critic of fascism. The letters also provide plentiful insights into the London and New York theater scenes, and vivid discussions of Hollywood's film industry.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781566636292
Publisher:	Dee, Ivan R. Publisher
Publication date:	10/29/2007
Pages:	512
Product dimensions:	6.53(w) x 9.47(h) x 1.64(d)

About the Author

Aldous Huxley is best known for his novels Brave New World, Antic Hay, and Point Counter Point, and essays. James Sexton teaches English at Camosun College in Victoria, British Columbia.

What People are Saying About This

Isaiah Berlin

"Huxley...played with ideas so freely, so gaily, with such virtuosity, that the responsive reader was dazzled and excited."

John Gross

"Aldous Huxley's letters represent a valuable contribution to literary history--and an entertaining one."

T.S. Eliot

His reading was immense, his taste was impeccable, and his ear acute...His place in English literature is unique and is certainly assured.

Roger Kimball

"A fascinating glimpse into the mental engine room of one of the twentieth-century's most commanding men of letters."

David Pryce Jones

"These newly published letters of Aldous Huxley are like the discovery of buried treasure."

T. S. Eliot

"His reading was immense, his taste was impeccable, and his ear acute.... His place in English literature is certainly assured."

David Pryce-Jones

These newly published letters of Aldous Huxley are like the discovery of buried treasure. It is as if some leading figure from the Age of Enlightenment had survived into the present. Expressing himself so naturally and often wittily in these letters, he sets a lasting example of intelligence and humanity.

Editorial Reviews

Brings a new perspective on the personal and intellectual life of a giant of modern English prose.

Sarasota Herald-Tribune

These newly published letters of Aldous Huxley are like the discovery of buried treasure. It is as if some leading figure from the Age of Enlightenment had survived into the present. Expressing himself so naturally and often wittily in these letters, he sets a lasting example of intelligence and humanity.

David Pryce Jones

Huxley was among the few writers who played with ideas so freely, so gaily, with such virtuosity, that the responsive reader was dazzled and excited.

Isaiah Berlin

A fascinating and revelatory glimpse into the mental engine room of one of the twentieth-century's most commanding men of letters. Huxley knew everybody, and everybody knew him: these letters provide a vital record of an extraordinary moment in Europe's history as well as a portrait of an extraordinary man. A volume as entertaining as it is illuminating.

Roger Kimball

There are wonderful things in these letters: dazzling historical, literary-critical and etymological excursions; very funny gossip; reflections on Huxley's writing…and on his increasingly religious reading and sympathies.

Times Literary Supplement - JEREMY TREGLOWN

A powerful gathering of his personal and intellectual life in letters-most of them published for the first time.

Midwest Book Review

We see Huxley's full range: husband, traveler, lover, aesthete, and scathing social commentator....Sexton has done an invaluable service.

The New Criterion - ELLIE THERMANSEN

Aldous Huxley's letters represent a valuable contribution to literary history-and an entertaining one. They reflect his high seriousness, and the extraordinary range of his cultural interests; at the same time they abound in witty gossip and shrewdly observed social detail. They also reveal many unexpected aspects of his personality and his private life. The Huxley who emerges from these pages is both formidable and very human. He can sometimes be arrogant or wrong-headed, too-but that doesn't make him any less readable.

John Gross

His reading was immense, his taste was impeccable, and his ear acute...His place in English literature is unique and is certainly assured.

T. S. Eliot

A book of letters, many previously unpublished, reinforces the impression that Aldous Huxley was attracted to eccentric ideas ... ENGROSSING.

The New York Times

Letters extend one’s sense of Huxley’s ubiquitous presence in 20th-century intellectual society....Attractive collection represents diligent research....Recommended.

Choice Reviews

There are wonderful things in these letters: dazzling historical, literary-critical and etymological excursions; very funny gossip; reflections on Huxley's writing…and on his increasingly religious reading and sympathies.
— JEREMY TREGLOWN

Tls

We see Huxley's full range: husband, traveler, lover, aesthete, and scathing social commentator....Sexton has done an invaluable service.
— ELLIE THERMANSEN

New Criterion

A book of letters, many previously unpublished, reinforces the impression that Aldous Huxley was attracted to eccentric ideas ... ENGROSSING.

New York Times Book Review

We see Huxley's full range: husband, traveler, lover, aesthete, and scathing social commentator....Sexton has done an invaluable service.
— ELLIE THERMANSEN

The New Criterion

Sexton's attractive collection represents diligent research in dozens of libraries, and his useful introduction places the letters in the context of Huxley's life and friendships.

Choice

Main pleasures here derive from correspondence with two women, one of whom Huxley shared as a lover with his wife.

The New York Times

Letters extend one’s sense of Huxley’s ubiquitous presence in 20th-century intellectual society....Attractive collection represents diligent research....Recommended.

CHOICE

Main pleasures here derive from correspondence with two women, one of whom Huxley shared as a lover with his wife.

New York Times

A series of sharp-minded, sobering and doleful obits...on the state of the American newspaper.
—Jonathan Messinger

TimeOut Chicago

Engrossing collection of letters, many previously unpublished.
—James Campbell

International Herald Tribune

engrossing collection of letters…the main pleasures of Selected Letters are to be found in the social sphere and derive largely from correspondences with two women: Lady Ottoline Morrell, the Bloomsbury hostess who ran a busy country estate at Garsington, Oxfordshire, and Mary Hutchinson, a member of the circle and lover to both Aldous and his wife, Maria, despite being herself married with children.
—The New York Times

James Campbell

The first collection of Huxley's correspondence since 1969, this presents hundreds of letters never before published, including previously embargoed love letters, offering an illuminating look at an author who left an indelible mark on the 20th century. Sexton's selections cover the full span of Huxley's life, from a six-year-old's note to his older brother in 1901 to his last letter to his son two months before Huxley's death from cancer in 1963. The letters, presented chronologically, illustrate Huxley's friendship with his patron, Lady Ottoline Morrell, and detail a young Huxley's search for employment. Huxley wrote fan letters to H.L. Mencken and Margaret Sanger, enjoyed lunching with Noël Coward and found Charlie Chaplin to be "[t]he most ravishing man." Most notable are the playful and intimate letters to his mistress, Mary Hutchinson. To her, he frets about his "book about the future," Brave New World: "It advances slowly-and the future becomes more and more appalling with every chapter." Later letters detailing a plan to help a Jewish woman escape Nazi Germany by marrying an Englishman, show a determined antifascist and peace activist. Sexton, who co-edited Huxley's complete essays, helps reveal Huxley and the fast-changing world he loved to write about more fully than ever before. (Nov.)

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Publishers Weekly

This collection of letters by novelist Huxley (1894-1963), author of the seminal Brave New World, spans almost the entirety of his life-the first letter was written in 1901; the last, in 1963, mere months before his death. This remarkable scope, along with the letters' chronological arrangement, allows the reader to follow Huxley's development as a writer and thinker. Notable are his observations of social interactions among members of different classes and races, especially during his extensive travels, and his comments on and to other writers. Editor Sexton's (English, Camosun Coll., Victoria, B.C.) introduction provides a very brief outline of Huxley's life, and footnotes throughout identify the letters' recipients and other names mentioned. The work is unevenly split into two parts, with the divide being Huxley's 1937 trip to America and the majority of the letters predating it. The collection could use a bit more direction than this. With the gaps between letters and the switch among recipients, it can read choppily at times, like half a conversation. Nevertheless, its hundreds of never-before-published letters recommend it for large academic libraries.
—Paolina Taglienti

Library Journal