Happy birthday, Beau Brummell

It is the birthday of British fashion figure Beau Brummell (1778), who is credited with establishing the modern standard of men's fashion, with tailored dark coats, full-length trousers, pressed shirts and neckties. Although he was educated at Eton and then Oxford, he wasn't as wealthy as his fellow students. In the British Army, he became close friends with the Prince of Wales (who would become King George IV). The Prince was fascinated with Brummell's fashion sense and attention to grooming details. By force of his own personality, Brummell influenced students and later much of London society, spending most of his resources on fashion. He was considered a genius at combining colors, texture and shape of clothing to great effect. Though later he had a falling out with the Prince, such was his stature that he remained influential. Eventually, though, he ran up enormous debt and had to flee to France to avoid debtor's prison. In France, he died penniless at age 61. Books about Brummell include The Life of Beau Brummell (1844), Of Dandyism and of George Brummell (1845), Wits and Beaux of Society (1861), Beau Brummell: His Life and Letters (1925), Beau Brummell (1948), and The Dandy: Brummell to Beerbohm (1960). Brummell's style inspired plays and movies as well.

Aldous Huxley wrote Brave New World

Aldous Huxley

It is the birthday of English writer Aldous Huxley (1894), whose science fiction novel Brave New World (1932) is considered among the best English-language novels of the 20th century.

The book predicted the loss of individual identity in a world of mass production. Huxley wrote it partly as a parody of H.G. Wells' A Modern Utopia (1905) and his Men Like Gods (1923), books that presented an upbeat vision of the future. Huxley took a dim view of what was to come. When it was published, Brave New World was widely panned by critics but has since come into favor in literary circles.

Huxley came from a family of overachievers. His father was an educator and writer. His grandfather was a prominent biologist and such a staunch advocate of Charles Darwin's theory of evolution that he earned the appellation "Darwin's Bulldog." His brother and half brother were also biologists.

Huxley first trained in his father's botanical lab and was taught by his mother until she died. Then he went to Eton College and later Oxford. He was exempted from military duty during World War I because of an illness that left him mostly blind, though in later years he recovered most of his eyesight.

He taught French at Eton for a year and proved to be a terrible teacher, unable to maintain discipline in his classes. Among his students was Eric Blair, who later became George Orwell. He eventually started writing and wrote several novels and many magazine articles. He was a regular contributor to Vanity Fair.

Huxley moved to Hollywood in 1937 and lived there until his death in 1963, though he lived for a brief time in Taos, New Mexico. He wrote Ends and Means (1937), a collection of essays on ethics, nationalism, religion, and war. He was a vocal pacifist.

 He tried writing for the movies, completing a screenplay for Madame Curie for MGM and contributing to the studio's 1940 version of Pride and Prejudice. He also worked on the 1943 production of Jane Eyre for 20th Century Fox. But his leisurely style didn't fit energetic Hollywood.

He later became interested in spiritualism and psychedelic drugs. He became associated with Swami Prabhavananda in Hollywood and became active with the Vedanta Society of Southern California. He wrote extensively for the organization.

Huxley died on the same day that John F. Kennedy was assassinated. Author C.S. Lewis also died that day. Christian theology writer Peter Kreeft was inspired by those events to write the novel Between Heaven and Hell: A Dialog Somewhere Beyond Death with John F. Kennedy, C.S. Lewis, and Aldous Huxley (1982), in which the three men discuss Jesus from different points of view.

Brave New World was adapted as a TV movie in 1998.