Aldous Leonard Huxley collection 018.AH Finding aid prepared by Julia Pope This finding aid was produced using the Archivists' Toolkit June 27, 2012 Describing Archives: A Content Standard Eastern Michigan University Archives 2012 June 13 Halle Library, Room 310 Ypsilanti, Michigan, 48197 734-487-0020
Table of Contents Summary Information... 3 Biographical note...5 Scope and contents... 5 Arrangement of materials... 5 Administrative Information...6 Controlled Access Headings...6 Collection Inventory... 8 Published Material... 8 Maxfield correspondence and donation... 9 - Page 2 -
Summary Information Repository Eastern Michigan University Archives Creator - Author Huxley, Aldous Leonard Creator Huxley, Laura Archera Creator - Artist Thurber, James Title Aldous Leonard Huxley collection Date [inclusive] 1894-1984 Extent 0.4 Linear feet 1 archive box Language English Language of Materials note All records are in English unless otherwise noted. Abstract Publications, reviews, and biographical material of Aldous Leonard Huxley (1894-1963), British author, intellectual, and mystic, best known for his works Brave New World and The Doors of Perception. The collection includes published articles and essays by Huxley, reviews and commentary on his works, biographical material on his life, a small amount of correspondence, and information concerning the donation of the materials to EMU by David Maxfield in 1984 and the subsequent exhibit held at the library. Preferred Citation note - Page 3 -
Please cite materials from the University Archives in the following manner: Item. Collection Title. Eastern Michigan University Archives. - Page 4 -
Biographical note Aldous Leonard Huxley (1894-1963) was an English writer and intellectual best known for his novels, including Brave New World (1931), but he also wrote essays, short stories, stage and screenplays, and poetry. He was also well known as a mystic, associated with the Vedanta movement, and an advocate of the use of psychedelic drugs, on which subject he wrote The Doors of Perception (1954). Huxley was educated at Eton and Balliol College, Oxford, where he suffered an illness that left him nearly blind for two years, and weakened his sight permanently. He was married first to Maria Nys, with whom he had a son, Matthew, and after her death in 1955 to Laura Archera. Huxley spent the later part of his life in the United States, living in California after 1937, although he never became a US citizen due to his pacifism. Scope and contents The Aldous Leonard Huxley collection is an assortment of material related to the career and life of author Aldous Huxley (1894-1963). It includes publications by Huxley, including all of his columns in the Chicago Herald and Examiner from 1931-1935, biographical material, reviews and commentary on his works, dust jackets for various books by and about Huxley, and correspondence with David Maxfield, the donor of the collection. Specific publications by Huxley included in the collection are as follows: Columns from the Chicago Herald and Examiner (1931-1935) "Death and the Baroque" (Horizon, 1949) Speech given at the Dartmouth Convocation on the Great Issues of Conscience in Modern Medicine (1960) Foreword to Acupuncture: The Ancient Chinese Art of Healing (1962) "Education at the Nonverbal Level" (Daedalus, 1962) "The History of Tension" (Meprobamate and Other Agents Used in Mental Disturbances, 1957) "Voices" (The Atlantic, 1955) "Ozymandias" (Fortnight, 1953) "Mescaline and the 'Other World'" (Proceedings of the Round Table on Lysergic Acid Diethylamide and Mescaline in Experimental Psychiatry, 1956) "The Final Revolution" (A Pharmacologic Approach to the Study of the Mind, 1959) "Drugs That Shape Men's Minds" (The Saturday Evening Post, 1958) "Brave New World Coming True - All Too Fast" (The Evening Bulletin, 1958) "Flames Without Tears" (letter to the editor, Time, 1961) "World Population Explosion Invites Dictatorships" (The Evening Bulletin, 1958) "Who Are You?" (with pictorial comments by James Thurber, Harper's Magazine, 1944) Arrangement of materials - Page 5 -
The collection is arranged into three series: 1. Published material, including both works by Huxley and reviews and commentary related to his works, and biographical material about him; 2. Dust jackets, a collection of dust jackets from works by and about Huxley; 3. Maxfield correspondence and donation, including a letter from Huxley to David Maxfield in response to a question, and material related to Maxfield's donation of the collection to EMU in 1984 and the subsequent library exhibit. Administrative Information Publication Information Eastern Michigan University Archives 2012 June 13 Conditions Governing Access note Researchers are asked to request materials 24 hours prior to visiting the the University Archives. Immediate Source of Acquisition note Donated by David K. Maxfield, 1984. Controlled Access Headings Corporate Name(s) Chicago Herald and Examiner. Genre(s) Books--Reviews Personal Name(s) - Page 6 -
Maxfield, David K. Aldous Leonard Huxley collection 018.AH Subject(s) Authors Authors, English Authors--20th century--biography Eastern Michigan University Huxley, Aldous, 1894-1963 Literature--History and criticism Literature. Psychotropic drugs - Page 7 -
Published Material Collection Inventory Published Material Publications by Aldous Huxley 1931-1958 Text (32307023999486) Box 1 1 Folder Chicago Herald & Examiner columns 1931-1935 Text (32307023999486) Box 1 2 Folder Reviews, commentaries, and biographical material 1923-1977 Text (32307023999486) Box 1 3 Folder Dust jackets - Page 8 -
Maxfield correspondence and donation Text (32307023999486) Maxfield correspondence and donation 1945-1984 Box Folder 1 4-6 Box 1 Folder 7 - Page 9 -