Editing Aldous Huxley (section)

=== Life in the United States ===
In 1937, Huxley moved to [[Hollywood, Los Angeles|Hollywood]] with his wife Maria, son [[Matthew Huxley]], and friend Gerald Heard. [[Cyril Connolly]] wrote, of the two intellectuals (Huxley and Heard) in the late 1930s, "all European avenues had been exhausted in the search for a way forward – politics, art, science – pitching them both toward the US in 1937."<ref>{{cite web |last1=Bucknell |first1=Katherine |url=https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/aldous-huxley-christopher-isherwood-writing-script-gay-liberation/ | title=Aldous Huxley and Christopher Isherwood: Writing the Script for Gay Liberation |website=LARB Los Angeles Review of Books |date=28 February 2014 |access-date=7 October 2023 |ref=Aldous Huxley and Christopher Isherwood}}</ref> Huxley lived in the U.S., mainly southern [[California]],<ref>{{cite book |last1=Symons |first1=Allene |title=Aldous Huxley's Hands: His Quest for Perception and the Origin and Return of Psychedelic Science |date=2015 |publisher=Prometheus Books |isbn=978-1-63388-116-7 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3cvYCwAAQBAJ |language=en}}<!-- https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/allene-symons/aldous-huxleys-hands/ --></ref><ref>{{cite web |title=a book review by Stephen Hren: Aldous Huxley's Hands: His Quest for Perception and the Origin and Return of Psychedelic Science |url=https://www.nyjournalofbooks.com/book-review/aldous |website=nyjournalofbooks.com |access-date=23 August 2022}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |title='Aldous Huxley Slept Here' – Illustrated Talk October 12 at West Hollywood Library |url=https://www.larchmontbuzz.com/the-swarm/aldous-huxley-slept-illustrated-talk-october-12-west-hollywood-library/ |access-date=23 August 2022 |work=Larchmont Buzz |date=8 October 2016}}</ref> until his death, and for a time in [[Taos, New Mexico]], where he wrote ''Ends and Means'' (1937). The book contains tracts on [[war]],{{sfn|Huxley|1937|loc=Chapter IX: War}} [[Economic inequality|inequality]],{{sfn|Huxley|1937|loc=Chapter XI: Inequality}} [[religion]]{{sfn|Huxley|1937|loc=Chapter XIII: Religious practices; Chapter XIV: Beliefs}} and [[ethics]].{{sfn|Huxley|1937|loc=Chapter XV: Ethics}}

Heard introduced Huxley to [[Vedanta]] ([[Upanishads|Upanishad-centered philosophy]]), [[meditation]], and [[vegetarianism]] through the principle of [[ahimsa]]. In 1938, Huxley befriended [[Jiddu Krishnamurti]], whose teachings he greatly admired. Huxley and Krishnamurti entered into an enduring exchange (sometimes edging on debate) over many years, with Krishnamurti representing the more rarefied, detached, ivory-tower perspective and Huxley, with his pragmatic concerns, the more socially and historically informed position. Huxley wrote a foreword to Krishnamurti's quintessential statement, ''[[The First and Last Freedom]]'' (1954).<ref>{{cite book |last=Vernon |first= Roland |year= 2000 |title= Star in the East |publisher= Sentient Publications |location= Boulder, CO |isbn= 978-0-0947-6480-4 |pages= 204–207 }}</ref>

Huxley and Heard became Vedantists in the group formed around [[Hindu]] [[Swami Prabhavananda]], and subsequently introduced [[Christopher Isherwood]] to the circle. Not long afterwards, Huxley wrote his book on widely held spiritual values and ideas, ''[[The Perennial Philosophy]]'', which discussed the teachings of renowned mystics of the world.<ref>{{cite book |editor-last1= Berg |editor-first1= James J. |editor-last2= Freeman |editor-first2= Chris |year= 2020 |title= Isherwood in Transit |last= Chandra Roy |first= Bidhan |chapter= Chapter 14: In Search of a Spiritual Home: Christopher Isherwood, The Perennial Philosophy, and Vedanta |pages= 190–201 |publisher= University of Minnesota Press |doi= 10.5749/j.ctv1220r9f.18 |jstor= 10.5749/j.ctv1220r9f.18 |isbn= 978-1-5179-0910-9 |s2cid= 225709456 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last= Robb |first= David |year= 1985 |title= Brahmins from abroad: English expatriates and spiritual consciousness in modern America |journal= American Studies |volume= 26 |issue= 2 |pages= 45–60 |jstor= 40641960 }}</ref>

Huxley became a close friend of Remsen Bird, president of [[Occidental College]]. He spent much time at the college in the [[Eagle Rock, Los Angeles|Eagle Rock]] neighbourhood of Los Angeles. The college appears as "Tarzana College" in his satirical novel ''[[After Many a Summer]]'' (1939). The novel won Huxley a British literary award, the 1939 [[James Tait Black Memorial Prize]] for fiction.{{sfn|Reiff|2009|p=113}} Huxley also incorporated Bird into the novel.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://britishheritage.org/en/aldous-huxley | title=Aldous Huxley }}</ref>

During this period, Huxley earned a substantial income as a Hollywood screenwriter; Christopher Isherwood, in his autobiography ''My Guru and His Disciple'', states that Huxley earned more than $3,000 per week (approximately $50,000<ref>{{Cite web|title=$3,000 in 1937 → 2020 {{!}} Inflation Calculator|url=https://www.in2013dollars.com/us/inflation/1937?amount=3000|website=www.in2013dollars.com|access-date=23 May 2020}}</ref> in 2020 dollars) as a screenwriter, and that he used much of it to transport Jewish and left-wing writer and artist refugees from Hitler's Germany to the US.<ref>{{cite book |last= Isherwood |first= Christopher |author-link= Christopher Isherwood |year= 2013 |orig-year= 1980 |title= My Guru and His Disciple |publisher= Vintage Books |location= London |isbn= 978-0-0995-6123-1 |page= 44 }}</ref> In March 1938, Huxley's friend [[Anita Loos]], a novelist and screenwriter, put him in touch with [[Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer]] (MGM), which hired him for ''[[Madame Curie (film)|Madame Curie]]'' which was originally to star [[Greta Garbo]] and be directed by [[George Cukor]]. (Eventually, the film was completed by MGM in 1943 with a different [[Mervyn LeRoy|director]] and [[Greer Garson|cast]].) Huxley received screen credit for ''[[Pride and Prejudice (1940 film)|Pride and Prejudice]]'' (1940) and was paid for his work on a number of other films, including ''[[Jane Eyre (1943 film)|Jane Eyre]]'' (1944). He was commissioned by [[Walt Disney]] in 1945 to write a script based on ''[[Alice's Adventures in Wonderland]]'' and the biography of the story's author, [[Lewis Carroll]]. The script was not used, however.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.salon.com/2010/04/15/mcsweeneys_intellectual_screenplays/ |title=7 unproduced screenplays by famous intellectuals |date=15 April 2010 |work=Salon |access-date=25 February 2018 }}</ref>

Huxley wrote an introduction to the posthumous publication of [[J. D. Unwin]]'s 1940 book ''Hopousia or The Sexual and Economic Foundations of a New Society''.<ref>{{citation |first=JD |last=Unwin |title=Hopousia or The Sexual and Economic Foundations of a New Society |year=1940 |publisher=Oscar Piest |place=NY}}.</ref>

On 21 October 1949, Huxley wrote to George Orwell, author of ''[[Nineteen Eighty-Four]]'', congratulating him on "how fine and how profoundly important the book is". In his letter, he predicted:
{{Blockquote | "Within the next generation I believe that the world's leaders will discover that infant conditioning and [[wikt:narcohypnosis|narcohypnosis]] are more efficient, as instruments of government, than clubs and prisons, and that the lust for power can be just as completely satisfied by suggesting people into loving their servitude as by flogging them and kicking them into obedience."<ref>{{cite book |last=Huxley |first=Aldous |editor=Grover Smith |title=Letters of Aldous Huxley |url=https://archive.org/details/lettersofaldoush0000unse |url-access=registration |year=1969 |publisher=Chatto & Windus |location=London |isbn=978-0-7011-1312-4}}</ref>}}

In 1953, Huxley and Maria applied for [[Citizenship of the United States|United States citizenship]] and presented themselves for examination. When Huxley refused to bear arms for the U.S. and would not state that his objections were based on religious ideals, the only excuse allowed under the [[McCarran Internal Security Act|McCarran Act]], the judge had to adjourn the proceedings.{{sfn|Reiff|2009|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=8JyRntokmqYC&pg=PA31 31]}}<ref>{{cite book|last=Murray|first=Nicholas|title=Aldous Huxley: An English Intellectual|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7h7CKgXGDi4C&pg=PT309|date=4 June 2009|publisher=Little, Brown Book Group|isbn=978-0-7481-1231-9|page=309}}</ref> He withdrew his application. Nevertheless, he remained in the U.S. In 1959, Huxley turned down an offer to be made a [[Knight Bachelor]] by the [[Harold Macmillan#Prime Minister (1957–1963)|Macmillan government]] without giving a reason; his brother Julian had been knighted in 1958, while his brother Andrew would be knighted in 1974.<ref>''The New Encyclopædia Britannica''. (2003). Volume 6. p. 178</ref>

In the fall semester of 1960 Huxley was invited by Professor [[Huston Smith]] to be the Carnegie Visiting professor of humanities at the [[Massachusetts Institute of Technology]] (MIT).<ref>{{cite magazine|date=3 January 2017|first=Barry|last=Boyce|magazine=[[Lion's Roar (magazine)|Lion's Roar]]|url=https://www.lionsroar.com/huston-smith-fifty-years-on-the-razors-edge|title=Huston Smith's Fifty Years on the Razor's Edge|access-date=13 May 2020|archive-date=26 July 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200726205231/https://www.lionsroar.com/huston-smith-fifty-years-on-the-razors-edge/|url-status=dead}}</ref> As part of the MIT centennial program of events organised by the Department of Humanities, Huxley presented a series of lectures titled, "What a Piece of Work is a Man" which concerned history, language, and art.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://archivesspace.mit.edu/repositories/2/resources/761|title=Aldous Huxley lecture series, "What a Piece of Work Is a Man"|website=archivesspace.mit.edu|access-date=27 September 2019 }}</ref>

[[Robert S. de Ropp]] (scientist, humanitarian, and author), who had spent time with Huxley in England in the 1930s, connected with him again in the U.S. in the early 1960s and wrote that "the enormous intellect, the beautifully modulated voice, the gentle objectivity, all were unchanged. He was one of the most highly civilized human beings I had ever met."<ref>Ropp, Robert S. de, ''Warrior's Way: a Twentieth Century Odyssey'' (Nevada City, CA: Gateways, 2002). p 247</ref>