Aldous Huxley, the Bates Method, The Art of Seeing, and Frederick Matthias Alexander: An Unexpected, Overhauled History

Abstract

This case study cites the only known letter of Aldous Huxley to F. Matthias Alexander. The letter reveals that in Dr. Jean Baptiste Claverie taught Huxley the Bates Method of eye exercises in 1938. At the time, Claverie -- a French WWI war hero who had studied osteopathy and the Bates Method of eye exercises -- had a flourishing practice in Los Angeles where he treated eye disorders like hyperopia, strabismus, and myopia. Research leans that Huxley in 1939 switched teachers of the Bates Method and became a pupil of Bates Method teacher Margaret Corbett.

Keywords: Frederick Matthias Alexander, Dr. William Horatio Bates, Dr. Jean Baptiste Claverie, Edwin Cox, Margaret Souders Darst Corbett, Aldous Leonard Huxley, Bernarr Adolphus Macfadden. Alexander Technique, Bates Method, bodybuilding, physical culture