Grover Smith collection of Aldous Huxley correspondence

Grover Cleveland Smith, born Sept. 6, 1923 in Atlanta Georgia, was educated at Columbia University, receiving his B.A. in 1944, M.A. in 1945, and Ph. D. in 1950. Smith taught classes in English at CCNY, Rutgers, and Yale Universities. He was Professor of English at Duke University from 1952 until his retirement in the mid-1980s. His publications include a critical study of T.S. Eliot, entitled "T.S. Eliot's Poetry and Plays."

Aldous Leonard Huxley was born in Godalming, Surrey, England, on July 26, 1894 into a prominent British family, which included his father, Leonard Huxley (biographer, editor, poet), grandfather T.H. Huxley (biologist), and brother Julian Huxley (biologist). He studied at Eton College (1908-13) and received a B.A. in English from Oxford College in 1916. Huxley worked for the War Office in London in 1917 and taught at Eton College and Repton. His first collection of poetry appeared in 1916, and he wrote biographical and architectural articles, screenplays, and reviews of fiction, drama, music, and art.

Huxley married Maria Nys in 1919 and lived in Italy during the 1920s. In 1932, Huxley published his best known work, "Brave New World." In the late 1930s the couple moved to the United States and eventually settled in Southern California in 1947. They had one son. Maria died in 1956, and Huxley married Laura Archera. Huxley died on Nov. 22, 1963.