Julian Huxley

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Julian Huxley bigraphy, stories - Evolutionary biologist, humanist and internationalist

Julian Huxley : biography

22 June 1887 – 14 February 1975

Sir Julian Sorell Huxley FRS (22 June 1887 – 14 February 1975) was an English evolutionary biologist, eugenicist, and internationalist. He was a proponent of natural selection, and a leading figure in the mid-twentieth century evolutionary synthesis. He was Secretary of the Zoological Society of London (1935–1942), the first Director of UNESCO, and a founding member of the World Wildlife Fund.

Huxley was well known for his presentation of science in books and articles, and on radio and television. He directed an Oscar-winning wildlife film. He was awarded UNESCO’s Kalinga Prize for the popularisation of science in 1953, the Darwin Medal of the Royal Society in 1956, and the Darwin–Wallace Medal of the Linnaean Society in 1958. He was also knighted in that same year, 1958, a hundred years after Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace announced the theory of evolution by natural selection. In 1959 he received a Special Award of the Lasker Foundation in the category Planned Parenthood – World Population. Huxley was a prominent member of the British Eugenics Society and its president from 1959–1962.

Life

Huxley came from the distinguished Huxley family. His brother was the writer Aldous Huxley, and his half-brother a fellow biologist and Nobel laureate, Andrew Huxley; his father was writer and editor Leonard Huxley; and his paternal grandfather was Thomas Henry Huxley, a friend and supporter of Charles Darwin and proponent of evolution. His maternal grandfather was the academic Tom Arnold, his great-uncle was poet Matthew Arnold and his great-grandfather was Thomas Arnold of Rugby School.

Early life

Huxley was born on 22 June 1887, at the London house of his aunt, the novelist Mary Augusta Ward, while his father was attending the jubilee celebrations of Queen Victoria. Huxley grew up at the family home in Surrey, England, where he showed an early interest in nature, as he was given lessons by his grandfather, Thomas Henry Huxley. When he heard his grandfather talking at dinner about the lack of parental care in fish, Julian piped up with "What about the stickleback, Gran’pater?" Also, according to Julian himself, his grandfather took him to visit J. D. Hooker at Kew.Personal communication, Julian Huxley to Ronald Clark, the biographer of the Huxley family.

At the age of thirteen Huxley attended Eton College as a King’s Scholar, and continued to develop scientific interests; his grandfather had influenced the school to build science laboratories much earlier. At Eton he developed an interest in ornithology, guided by science master W. D. "Piggy" Hill. "Piggy was a genius as a teacher… I have always been grateful to him."Huxley J. 1970. Memories. George Allen & Unwin, London, p50. In 1905 Huxley won a scholarship in Zoology to Balliol College, Oxford.

Student life

In 1906, after a summer in Germany, Huxley took his place in Oxford, where he developed a particular interest in embryology and protozoa. In the autumn term of his final year, 1908, his mother died from cancer at only 46: a terrible blow for her husband, three sons, and eight-year old daughter Margaret. That same year he won the Newdigate Prize for his poem "Holyrood". In 1909 he graduated with first class honours, and spent that July at the international gathering for the centenary of Darwin’s birth, held at the University of Cambridge. Also, it was the fiftieth anniversary of the publication of the Origin of species.

Works

  • The individual in the animal kingdom (1911)
  • The courtship habits of the Great Crested Grebe (1914) [a landmark in ethology]
  • Essays of a Biologist (1923)
  • Essays in Popular Science (1926)
  • The stream of life (1926)
  • Animal biology (with J.B.S. Haldane, 1927)
  • Religion without revelation (1927, revised edition 1957)
  • The tissue-culture king (1927) [science fiction]
  • Ants (1929)
  • The science of life: a summary of contemporary knowledge about life and its possibilities (with H.G. & G.P. Wells, 1929–30). First issued in 31 fortnightly parts published by Amalgamated Press, 1929–31, bound up in three volumes as publication proceeded. First issued in one volume by Cassell in 1931, reprinted 1934, 1937, popular edition, fully revised, 1938. Published as separate volumes by Cassell 1934–37: I The living body. II Patterns of life (1934). III Evolution—fact and theory. IV Reproduction, heredity and the development of sex. V The history and adventure of life. VI The drama of life. VII How animals behave (1937). VIII Man’s mind and behaviour. IX Biology and the human race. Published in New York by Doubleday, Doran & Co. 1931, 1934, 1939; and by The Literary Guild 1934. Three of the Cassell spin-off books were also published by Doubleday in 1932: Evolution, fact and theory; The human mind and the behavior of Man; Reproduction, genetics and the development of sex.
  • Bird-watching and bird behaviour (1930)
  • An introduction to science (with Edward Andrade, 1931–34)
  • What dare I think?: the challenge of modern science to human action and belief. Chatto & Windus, London; Harper, N.Y. (1931)
  • Africa view (1931)
  • The captive shrew and other poems (1932)
  • Problems of relative growth (1932)
  • A scientist among the Soviets (1932)
  • If I were Dictator. Methuen, London; Harper, N.Y. (1934)
  • Scientific research and social needs (1934)
  • Elements of experimental embryology (with Gavin de Beer, 1934)
  • Thomas Huxley’s diary of the voyage of HMS Rattlesnake (1935)
  • We Europeans (with A.C. Haddon, 1936)
  • Animal language (photographs by Ylla, includes recordings of animal calls: 1938, reprinted 1964)
  • The present standing of the theory of sexual selection. In Gavin de Beer (ed) Evolution: Essays on aspects of evolutionary biology (pp 11–42). Oxford: Clarendon Press (1938)
  • The living thoughts of Darwin (1939)
  • The new systematics. Oxford. (1940) [this multi-author volume, edited by Huxley, is one of the foundation stones of the ‘New Synthesis’, with essays on taxonomy, evolution, natural selection, Mendelian genetics and population genetics]
  • Democracy marches. Chatto & Windus, London; Harper N.Y. (1941)
  • The uniqueness of man. Chatto & Windus, London. (1941; reprint 1943). U.S. as Man stands alone. Harper, N.Y. 1941.
  • On living in a revolution. Harper, N,Y. (1944)
  • Evolution: the modern synthesis. Allen & Unwin, London. (1942, reprinted 1943, 1944, 1945, 1948, 1955; 2nd ed, with new introduction and bibliography by the author, 1963; 3rd ed, with new introduction and bibliography by nine contributors, 1974). U.S. first edition by Harper, 1943. [this summarises research on all topics relevant to evolution up to the Second World War]. New edition by MIT Press in 2010 with Foreword by Massimo Pigliucci and Gerd B. Müller.
  • Evolutionary ethics (1943)
  • TVA: Adventure in planning (1944)
  • Evolution and ethics 1893–1943. Pilot, London. In USA as Touchstone for ethics Harper, N.Y. (1947) [includes text from both T.H. Huxley and Julian Huxley]
  • Man in the modern world (1947) , essays selected from The uniqueness of man (1941) and On living in a revolution (1944)
  • Soviet genetics and World science: Lysenko and the meaning of heredity. Chatto & Windus, London. In USA as Heredity, East and West. Schuman, N.Y. (1949).
  • Evolution in action (1953)
  • Evolution as a process (with Hardy A.C. and Ford E.B. eds.) Allen & Unwin, London. (1954)
  • From an antique land: ancient and modern in the Middle East. Parrish, London (1954, revised 1966)
  • Kingdom of the beasts (with W. Suschitzky, 1956)
  • Biological aspects of cancer (1957)
  • New bottles for new wine Chatto & Windus, London; Harper N.Y. (1957); repr as Knowledge, morality, destiny. N.Y. (1960)
  • 13 Nov, 13 Nov, 20 Nov, , 27 Nov; The Observer newspaper articles that led to the setting up of the World Wildlife Fund (1960)
  • The humanist frame (as editor, 1961)
  • The coming new religion of humanism (1962)
  • Essays of a humanist (1964) reprinted 1966, 1969, 1992: ISBN 0-87975-778-7
  • The human crisis (1964)
  • Darwin and his world (with Bernard Kettlewell, 1965)
  • Aldous Huxley 1894–1963: a memorial volume. (as editor, 1965)
  • The future of man: evolutionary aspects. (1966)
  • The wonderful world of evolution (1969)
  • Memories (2 vols 1970 & 1973) [his autobiography]
  • The Mitchell Beazley Atlas of World Wildlife. Mitchell Beazley, London; also published as The Atlas of World Wildlife. Purnell, Cape Town. (1973)