Leda: “If one's different, one's bound to be lonely”

By Aldous Huxley

Aldous Leonard Huxley was born in Godalming, Surrey, on 26th July 1894.

He was educated for a time by his mother and then entered Oxford University and obtained a degree in English Literature.

As a young man he contracted the eye disease keratitis punctate, that left him, to all intents, blind for almost three years until partial sight was restored. It was to trouble him for the rest of his life.

During the First World War, Huxley spent much of his time at Garsington Manor, near Oxford, working as a farm labourer where he met several members of the Bloomsbury set.

In 1919 he met and quickly married the Belgian refugee Maria Nys. Their son, Matthew, was born on 19th April 1920.

By now he had written several volumes of poetry and some short stories. Now he pursued novels.

In ‘Crome Yellow’ (1921) he caricatured the Garsington lifestyle. He followed up with further social satires, ‘Antic Hay’ (1923), ‘Those Barren Leaves’ (1925), and ‘Point Counter Point’ (1928).

In 1937 Huxley moved to Hollywood with his wife and child. He would live in the U.S., mainly in southern California, and for a time in Taos, New Mexico, until his death.

As a Hollywood screenwriter Huxley used much of his earnings to bring Jewish and left-wing writer and artist refugees from Hitler's Germany to the US. He worked for many of the major studios including MGM and Disney.

In 1953, Huxley and Maria applied for United States citizenship. When Huxley refused to bear arms for the U.S. and would not state his objections, he had to withdraw his application. Nevertheless, he remained in the U.S.

In the spring of 1953, Huxley had his first experience with the psychedelic drug mescaline. Undoubtedly, he was drawn to their mind-altering powers and was a firm believer thereafter.

In 1955, Maria Huxley died of cancer.

The following year, 1956, Huxley married Laura Archera, also an author, as well as a violinist and psychotherapist. She would later write ‘This Timeless Moment’, a biography of Huxley.

Huxley was diagnosed with laryngeal cancer in 1960; in the years that followed, with his health deteriorating, he wrote the Utopian novel ‘Island’, and gave lectures on "Human Potentialities".

On his deathbed, unable to speak due to advanced laryngeal cancer, Huxley made a written request to Laura for "LSD, 100 µg, intramuscular." She obliged with an injection at 11:20 a.m. and a second dose an hour later; Aldous Leonard Huxley died aged 69, at 5:20 p.m. on 22nd November 1963.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Portable Poetry
• Release date: Jul 19, 2019
• ISBN: 9781787806726

Book preview

Leda by Aldous Huxley

Aldous Leonard Huxley was born in Godalming, Surrey, on 26th July 1894.

He was educated for a time by his mother and then entered Oxford University and obtained a degree in English Literature.

As a young man he contracted the eye disease keratitis punctate, that left him, to all intents, blind for almost three years until partial sight was restored.  It was to trouble him for the rest of his life.

During the First World War, Huxley spent much of his time at Garsington Manor, near Oxford, working as a farm labourer where he met several members of the Bloomsbury set.

In 1919 he met and quickly married the Belgian refugee Maria Nys.  Their son, Matthew, was born on 19th April 1920.

By now he had written several volumes of poetry and some short stories.  Now he pursued novels. 

In ‘Crome Yellow’ (1921) he caricatured the Garsington lifestyle. He followed up with further social satires, ‘Antic Hay’ (1923), ‘Those Barren Leaves’ (1925), and ‘Point Counter Point’ (1928).

In 1937 Huxley moved to Hollywood with his wife and child. He would live in the U.S., mainly in southern California, and for a time in Taos, New Mexico, until his death.

As a Hollywood screenwriter Huxley used much of his earnings to bring Jewish and left-wing writer and artist refugees from Hitler's Germany to the US. He worked for many of the major studios including MGM and Disney. 

In 1953, Huxley and Maria applied for United States citizenship. When Huxley refused to bear arms for the U.S. and would not state his objections, he had to withdraw his application. Nevertheless, he remained in the U.S.

In the spring of 1953, Huxley had his first experience with the psychedelic drug mescaline. Undoubtedly, he was drawn to their mind-altering powers and was a firm believer thereafter.

In 1955, Maria Huxley died of cancer.

The following year, 1956, Huxley married Laura Archera, also an author, as well as a violinist and psychotherapist. She would later write ‘This Timeless Moment’, a biography of Huxley.

Huxley was diagnosed with laryngeal cancer in 1960; in the years that followed, with his health deteriorating, he wrote the Utopian novel ‘Island’, and gave lectures on Human Potentialities.

On his deathbed, unable to speak due to advanced laryngeal cancer, Huxley made a written request to Laura for LSD, 100 µg, intramuscular. She obliged with an injection at 11:20 a.m. and a second dose an hour later; Aldous Leonard Huxley died aged 69, at 5:20 p.m. on 22nd November 1963.

Index of Contents

LEDA

THE BIRTH OF GOD

ON HAMPSTEAD HEATH

SYMPATHY

MALE AND FEMALE CREATED HE THEM

FROM THE PILLAR

JONAH

VARIATIONS ON A THEME

A MELODY BY SCARLATTI

A SUNSET

LIFE AND ART

FIRST PHILOSOPHER’S SONG

SECOND PHILOSOPHER’S SONG

FIFTH PHILOSOPHERS SONG

NINTH PHILOSOPHER’S SONG

MORNING SCENE

VERREY’S

FRASCATI’S

FATIGUE

THE MERRY-GO-ROUND

BACK STREETS

LAST THINGS

GOTHIC

EVENING PARTY

BEAUTY

SOLES OCCIDERE ET REDIRE POSSUNT

ALDOUS HUXLEY – A SHORT BIOGRAPHY

ALDOUS HUXLEY – A CONCISE BIBLIOGRAPHY

LEDA

Brown and bright as an agate, mountain-cool,

Eurotas singing slips from pool to pool;

Down rocky gullies; through the cavernous pines

And chestnut groves; down where the terraced vines

And gardens overhang; through valleys grey

With olive trees, into a soundless bay

Of the Ægean. Silent and asleep

Lie those pools now: but where they dream most deep,

Men sometimes see ripples of shining hair

And the young grace of bodies pale and bare,

Shimmering far down—the ghosts these mirrors hold

Of all the beauty they beheld of old,

White limbs and heavenly eyes and the hair’s river of gold,

For once these banks were peopled: Spartan girls

Loosed here their maiden girdles and their curls,

And stooping o’er the level water stole

His darling mirror from the sun through whole

Rapturous hours of gazing.

The first star

Of all this milky constellation, far

Lovelier than any nymph of wood or green,

Was she whom Tyndarus had made his queen

For her sheer beauty and subtly moving grace—

Leda, the fairest of our mortal race.

Hymen had lit his torches but one week

About her bed (and still o’er her young cheek

Passed rosy shadows of those thoughts that sped

Across her mind, still virgin, still unwed,

For all her body was her own no more),

When Leda with her maidens to the shore

Of bright Eurotas came, to escape the heat

Of summer noon in waters coolly sweet.

By a brown pool which opened smooth and clear

Below the wrinkled water of a weir

They sat them down under an old fir-tree

To rest: and to the laughing melody

Of their sweet speech the river’s rippling bore

A liquid burden, while the sun did pour

Pure colour out of heaven upon the earth.

The meadows seethed with the incessant mirth

Of grasshoppers, seen only when they flew

Their curves of scarlet or sudden dazzling blue.

Within the fir-tree’s round of unpierced shade

The maidens sat with laughter and talk, or played,

Gravely intent, their