logologo-optometry

The art of seeing

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Catalogue Number: 2211
The art of seeing
Category: Book
Sub-Category: Hewett collection
Author: HUXLEY Aldous
Year Of Publication/Manufacture: 1943
Time Period: 1940 to 1999
Place Of Publication/Manufacture: London
Publisher/Manufacturer: Chatto and Windus
Description Of Item: Original green cloth, 144 pages. Library stamp for WJ Aird and Wood Melbourne optometrists in the first half of the 20thC. Victorian College of Optometry stamp on front fly leaf. Book reviews from journals pasted on front leaves. Signature of Reg Holdsworth (Caulfield optometrist) on title page. Handwritten notes by Holdsworth back fly leaf.
Historical Significance: Aldous Leonard Huxley (1894 - 1963) was an English writer and one of the most prominent members of the famous Huxley family. He spent the latter part of his life in the United States, living in Los Angeles from 1937 until his death. Best known for his novels and wide-ranging output of essays, he also published short stories, poetry, travel writing, and film stories and scripts. Huxley was a humanist but was also interested towards the end of his life in spiritual subjects such as parapsychology and philosophical mysticism. By the end of his life Huxley was considered, in some academic circles, a leader of modern thought and an intellectual of the highest rank. He was well known for advocating and taking LSD, including on his death bed.This book is about the Bates Method of better eyesight without glasses See Cat Nos 98, 250, 475 for Bates books) . Huxley was nearly blind because of a childhood illness (despite the partial recovery which had enabled him to study at Oxford). In 1939, he encountered the Bates Method. A year later he claimed his sight improved dramatically and that he was able to read without glasses and drive a car along the dirt road beside his ranch. While he believed his vision had improved, other evidence suggests that Huxley may have been fooling himself. In 1952, Bennett Cerf reported that Huxley pretended to read his talks but in fact had learned them by heart.(Second copy cat No 699)
How Acquired: Ex Nathan Library
Condition: Fair
Location: Nathan Library. Hewett collection

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