Brave New World.

First Edition of Aldous Huxley's Brave New World; With three page Autographed Letter Signed by Huxley

Brave New World.

HUXLEY, Aldous.

Item Number: 104233

London: Chatto & Windus, 1932.

First edition of Huxley’s masterpiece. Octavo, original blue cloth. With a lengthy autograph letter signed by Aldous Huxley to English philosopher L.P. Jacks, dated July 3, 1936, three pages, La Gorguette letterhead, which reads in full, “Dear Dr. Jacks, Thank you for your letter and the extremely interesting article which accompanied it. I like the idea of an international trust fund very much. Apart from the fundamental question of the willingness or otherwise of the nations to constitute such a fund, I imagine the difficulty of transferring sums of such magnitude from one country to an international authority in another. The history of reparations makes it sufficiently clear that they can’t be transferred in cash. The sums can only be paid in goods and services – except in the cause of creditor nations whose favorable balance allows them to make overseas investments and who could direct the sums ordinarily used for investment to the league. I know much too little, however, about economics to be able to criticize the scheme in detail but what I am sure of is that the idea of making the league serve among other things as a kind of international trustee, factor and insurance company is very valuable. Idealism has got to translate itself into terms of good business to make itself effective. And this would very soon reveal itself as good business. Except of course for the vested interests. These remain a very serious problem – perhaps most serious of all: The great mass of men and women who have no enormous stake in any existing institutions have only a psychological objection to change; but there is a minority whose objection is also economic – and so long as it retains presents, such change as that which you propose will be very hard to carry through. Meanwhile how depressing is the spectacle of left-wing enthusiasm for a military league? The saber rattling in the liberal press has been really deafening during these last weeks. With thanks for the article, I am your sincerely, Aldous Huxley.” Dr. Jacks served as the editor of the Hibbert Journal from its founding in 1902 until 1948. Under his editorship the Journal became one of the leading forums in England for work in philosophy and religion, and introduced the work of Alfred Loisy to British readers. In September 1915, he wrote in support of the war effort, citing the need to defeat German militarism and defend “the liberties of our race.” His article, titled The Peacefulness of Being at War in The New Republic, argued that the war had “brought to England a peace of mind such as she had not possessed for decades,” claiming that the sense of common purpose brought on by the war had overcome social fragmentation and improved English life. Jacks was interested in parapsychology and was President for the Society for Psychical Research. Fine in a near fine dust jacket with light rubbing and a small chip. A very nice example.

"A nightmarish prognostication of a future in which humanity has been destroyed by science… easily Huxley's most popular (and many good judges continue to think his best) novel" (DNB). "After the success of his first three novels, Huxley abandoned the fictional milieu of literary London and directed his satire toward an imagined future. He admitted that the original idea of Brave New World was to challenge H.G. Wells' Utopian vision… The novel also marks Huxley's increasing disenchantment with the world, which was to result in his leaving England for California in 1937 in search of a more spiritual life. The book was immediately successful" (Parker & Kermode, 161-62). Named by Modern Library as one of the 100 Greatest Novels of the twentieth century.

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