Aldous Leonard Huxley was an English writer and philosopher, notable for his extensive bibliography that spans nearly 50 books, including novels, non-fiction works, essays, narratives, and poems.

Huxley was born into the prominent Huxley family and graduated from Balliol College, Oxford, with a degree in English literature. Early in his career, he published short stories and poetry and edited the literary magazine Oxford Poetry. He also ventured into travel writing, satire, and screenplays.

In 1937, Huxley relocated to the United States and lived in Los Angeles until his passing. By the end of his life, he was widely recognized as one of the foremost intellectuals of his time, being nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature nine times and elected as a Companion of Literature by the Royal Society of Literature in 1962.

Huxley was a pacifist fascinated by philosophical mysticism and universalism, subjects he explored in works like The Perennial Philosophy (1945) and The Doors of Perception (1954), the latter of which recounts his experiences with mescaline. His most renowned novel, Brave New World (1932), and his final novel, Island (1962), depict his visions of dystopia and utopia, respectively.