text: Renowned British intellectual Aldous Huxley was one of the most important figures in the early history of LSD. He was a figure of high repute in the world of letters and had become internationally famous through his novels Crome Yellow, Antic Hay and his dystopian novel Brave New World. His experiments with psychedelic drugs (initially mescaline) and his descriptions of them in his writings did much to spread awareness of psychedelic drugs to the general public and arguably helped to glamorize their recreational use, although Huxley himself treated them very seriously.
  Huxley was introduced to psychedelic drugs in 1953 by a friend, psychiatrist Humphry Osmond. Osmond had become interested in hallucinogens and their relationship to mental illness in the 1940s. During the 1950s, he completed extensive studies of a number of drugs, including mescaline and LSD. As noted above, Osmond had some remarkable success in treating alcoholics with LSD.
  In May 1953 Osmond gave Huxley his first dose of mescaline at the Huxley home. In 1954 Huxley recorded his experiences in the landmark book The Doors of Perception; the title was drawn from a quotation by British artist and poet William Blake. Huxley tried LSD for the first time in 1955, obtained from "Captain" Al Hubbard.