T. H. Huxley

Marion Spies (Bergische Universität-GHS Wuppertal)
Download PDF Add to Bookshelf Report an Error

Thomas Henry Huxley was born on 4 May 1825 in Ealing, the seventh of eight children of the schoolmaster George Huxley and Rachel Withers Huxley. Only for two years did he attend the school at which his father temporarily taught (1833-5). The family was poor, because George was rather unstable and unsuccessfully tried his hand at various jobs, finally dying in an asylum. As a result, Huxley was largely self-taught. Since his Anglican parents showed sympathy with the town’s Nonconformist weavers, the boy read Unitarian works of theology which – due to their tendency to explain metaphysics as the working of cause and effect – challenged traditional theology and probably whetted his appetite for scientific explanations. Huxley was also teaching himself some German and conducting simple…

1192 words

Citation: Spies, Marion. "T. H. Huxley". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 30 March 2001 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=2284, accessed 19 March 2024.]

2284 T. H. Huxley 1 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

Save this article

If you need to create a new bookshelf to save this article in, please make sure that you are logged in, then go to your 'Account' here

Leave Feedback

The Literary Encyclopedia is a living community of scholars. We welcome comments which will help us improve.