Description
This collection contains audio cassette
interviews and transcripts of interviews conducted by David K. Dunaway with twenty-six
people who knew or came into contact with English writer Aldous Huxley (1894-1963) and his
family. A majority of the interviewees are people who knew Huxley while he lived in
California and, for the most part, cover his life after 1937. Some of the interviews include
Lady Juliette Huxley (the widow of Sir Julian Huxley), Christopher Isherwood, Mary Loos,
Burgess Meredith, and Lawrence Clark Powell.
Background
David K. Dunaway is American writer and historian. He received his Phd in American Studies
from the University of California, Berkeley in 1981 and has since held positions at the
University of New Mexico and San Francisco State University. Dunaway's published works
include Huxley in Hollywood (1989) and Aldous Huxley
Recollected (1995).English writer Aldous Huxley 1894-1963 was born in Surrey, England, on July 26, 1894, to a
family distinguished in science, education and literature. He began writing while at Oxford
University. With his first wife, Maria, he departed for California in 1937 and for a time
wrote motion picture screenplays. After the death of Maria, Huxley married Laura Archera and
together they explored the worlds of Eastern religion and drugs. Huxley died on November 22,
1963. His novels include: Brave New World, The Gioconda Smile, The Doors of Perception, and
Brave New World Revisited. He also published poetry and collections of essays. While in
California he wrote the scenario for Pride and Prejudice with Jane Murfin (1940) and the
treatment for Madame Curie (1943), both for M-G-M. In 1944 he wrote the scenario for 20th
Century-Fox's Jane Eyre.