We were pleased to see this article in the Monitor of the Times-Colonist today. Jim was worried that the photo would be particularly dopey since he was very tired and after endless flashbulbs and the photographer wanting him to look like he was being buried under Huxley material. I've copied the article here so the photo probably won't show up. The TC is picky about people having subscriptions to pick up their stuff online so the link probably won't work unless you have an account.
`Camosun professor hunts down Aldous Huxley
James Sexton knows the famed author better than most folk know their family
SARAH PETRESCUTimes Colonist
spetrescu@tc.canwest.com
Selected Letters of Aldous Huxley
Edited and with an introduction by James Sexton; Ivan R. Dee; 512 pages; $35
Jim Sexton starts his show-andtell of Aldous Huxley documents with a copy of the author’s “lost play,”which he found rummaging through material at the University of Texas in Austin in 1994.
Before long, the Camosun College professor’s dining room table is covered with stacks of books, anthologies, manuscripts and photos. “He was an immensely prolific writer,” Sexton says, pulling out a thick hardcover book that is Huxley’s bibliography. “There’s a lot that is not in here.”
He should know. Sexton went full-throttle into searching for Huxley’s lost or unpublished writings almost 15 years ago and has dug up masses of letters and writings since. In addition to the play, he has edited and published Huxley’s Hearst Essays, co-edited a six-volume collection of essays and is a contributing editor in the Huxley Annual. His latest cache of unpublished Huxley works is newly released in the book he edited, Selected Letters of Aldous Huxley.
Huxley, began his writing career in Britain and died in Beverly Hills on Nov. 22, 1963, (the same day John F. Kennedy was assassinated and British author C.S. Lewis died). He is known for the utopian and dystopian imaginings in such books as Brave New World and his experimentation with LSD.
Huxley’s psychedelic drug experiences are documented in the book Doors of Perception (which is believed to have inspired the name of the band, the Doors). Huxley’s dying request was to have his wife inject him with LSD.
Sexton says this collection of Huxley’s letters reveals more about the man beyond the hard-working writer, satirist and philosopher.
“Some of his letters to Mary Hutchinson are the stuff of a textbook, lovesick Romeo,” Sexton says. Hutchinson was part of Huxley’s social circle and a lover to both him and his first wife, Maria Nys. In a 1925 letter to Hutchinson (who was married with children), after her rendezvous in Paris with the Huxleys, he writes, “… there are three beds in the cabin: One is unoccupied.”
Sexton says it was the racier bits in the letters that prevented their publication years earlier. “There was an embargo on the love letters to Mary,” Sexton says. “My guess is that they might have upset the descendants of Mary Hutchinson that were still around.”
Sexton received the shipment of around 1,000 letters from the University of Texas more than four years ago. Other highlights include Huxley’s letters to Lady Ottoline Morrell of Garsington Manor, of whom the young writer was considered a protègé and regular house guest.
Huxley offended Morrell in 1921 with his first novel, Crome Yellow, which bore characters and a setting too close to the lady’s own life. It would be years before they’d make up, due largely to the mediation of Huxley’s wife, Maria, despite this spirited apology he sent soon after:
“Your letter bewildered me. I cannot understand how anyone could suppose that this little marionette performance of mine [ Crome Yellow] was the picture of a real milieu. … My error, I admit, was to use some of Garsington’s architectural details. I ought to have laid the scene in China.”
The most interesting part of Selected Letters follows the author’s intellectual journey from an innocent seven-year-old and punning teen through his Asian travels, in which he satirizes colonialism, and his personal and professional turmoils in America.
Sexton was given full access to many of Huxley’s documents by his widow, Laura, whom he visited last spring at the home the couple shared in Beverly Hills. Laura Huxley died Dec. 13, peacefully in her home. She was 96.
“Her house is right under the big “D” of the Hollywood sign,” Sexton says, flipping through a stack of pictures of himself, his wife, Janice, and Laura Huxley, referring to her as “a great old lady.”
Sexton says his appetite to discover more about Huxley is far from sated. He has travelled the U.S., Britain and France in search of Huxley’s writings, financed in part by federal grants. “I love the detective work,” Sexton says. “It’s a hobby and a life passion.”
His interest began as a high school student in Vancouver. When he won a writing contest and was awarded a book of choice, Sexton asked for Brave New World. He was given a “less controversial” non-fiction commentary on the novel and his intrigue took off from there.
Working as a half-time faculty member and a research fellow allows Sexton part of the year to dig and write. His wife, Janice, has taken up painting to keep herself occupied while along on their travels. Their home is filled with folk art scenes from the area Huxley lived in the south of France.
“There’s an awful lot of journalism and drama reviews Huxley wrote that have never been published,” Sexton says. He estimates Huxley wrote about 10,000 letters in his lifetime. Only 500 of these appear in Selected Letters.
**We received this email of congratulation from Don and Elaine today...had a real laugh!
Dear Janice and that other guy,
So there I was quietly perusing my morning paper whilst lying in my warm bed this beautiful Sunday morning. All of a sudden I was turning the page when I was suddenly seized with the uncontrollable urge to vomite.Cramping immediately occurred and my vision went blurry.
Never had anything like this happened to me before .After a few minutes – and several passes of gas- I was able to see clearly enough to figure out what had caused this painful moment. Low and behold it was the book section and there was a ¼ page picture of James and an article on his Huxley book.
A great article but there should have been a warning on the front page.
Actually it is a super article and you and James should be proud.
Cheers
Don & Elaine
