Available Copies from Independent Booksellers
Aldous Huxley. The Doors of Perception. Harper & Brothers, 1954.
Price: US$124.99 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: The critically acclaimed novelist and social critic Aldous Huxley describes his personal experimentation with the drug mescaline and explores the nature of visionary experience. The title of this classic comes from William Blake's "The Marriage of Heaven and Hell: " "If the doors of perception were cleansed every thing would appear to man as it is, infinite. For man has closed himself up, till he sees all things through narrow chinks of his cavern." Stated 1st Edition, printing m-c. Missing Dust Jacket. Book Condition: VG. Some rubbing on spine and foredge corners. Browning on endpapers. Previous owner's signature on first free endpaper.
Seller: Bergen Book Studio, Hillsdale, NJ, U.S.A.
Huxley, Aldous. The Doors of Perception. Harper & Brothers, New York, 1954.
Price: US$150.00 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: Spine ends lightly rubbed. Stated "First Edition" on verso of the title page.
Seller: By Books Alone, Woodstock, NY, U.S.A.
Aldous Huxley. The Doors of Perception. Harper & Brothers, 1954.
Price: US$150.00 + shipping
Condition: Good
Description: Later printing; February, 1959 according to Harper printing code of B-I. Unclipped jacket shows price of $1.75. Jacket shows moderate wear overall; dampstaining to spine; tape to spine on both verso and recto; rubbing and a few small tears. Jacket now in protective mylar. Black cloth boards with silver stamping to spine. Boards show mild shelf wear; corners lightly bumped; softening to spine ends. Offsetting around gutters of front and rear. Pages unmarked; no bookplates, ex libris stamps, etc. Binding tight
Seller: Book Alley, Pasadena, CA, U.S.A.
Huxley, Aldous. The Doors of Perception. Harper + Bros, 1954.
Price: US$195.00 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: C-D printed on copyright page. Aqua blue cloth cover. Dust jacket is price clipped, small tear, some chipping at spine. Some marks on back cover. Slightly yellowed, Owner's name on front end paper.
Seller: tim hildebrand books, Janesville, WI, U.S.A.
Price: US$650.00 + shipping
Condition: Good
Description: General wear: soiled boards, yellowing but text still bright, discolored rear inner board DATE PUBLISHED: 1954 EDITION: FIRST ED 79
Seller: Princeton Antiques Bookshop, Atlantic City, NJ, U.S.A.
Huxley, Aldous. The Doors of Perception [Signed]. Harper & Brothers, New York, 1954.
Price: US$1985.08 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: FIRST EDITION with SIGNED page laid in. The single sheet is SIGNED in full in black ink by author Aldous Huxley. The otherwise-blank sheet measures 18.5 x 12cm, almost the same size as the pages of the book, & appears to be very similar paper to the endpapers - possibly either tipped-in at some point or removed from another volume. FIRST EDITION, stated on copyright page. Additionally, the printed letters "M-C" appear below the First Edition statement, indicating the month & year of printing (December 1953). The first US edition (Harper & Brothers) was published simultaneously with the first UK edition (Chatto & Windus), both 1954. Huxley's well-known classic work, an account of his use of mescaline, which has been described as "the most influential single work on the use of psychedelic drugs". This mid-1950s work sparked a generation of drug experimentation. The Doors famously took their band name from the title. From inner flaps of dustjacket (in full): "'One bright May morning', writes Mr Huxley, 'I swallowed four-tenths of a gram of mescalin dissolved in half a glass of water and sat down to wait for the results'. One of the results was this most unusual and compelling book. Mescalin is the active principle of peyote - the desert cactus long used by the Indians of Mexico and the Southwest in their religious rites. Though harmless, at any rate for persons in good health, the drug produces profound alterations of consciousness. In Blake's phrase, it 'cleanses the doors of perception', so that the world is transfigured and takes on a beauty, a significance, a quality of infiniteness, undreamed of at ordinary times. Mr. Huxley describes these cleansed perceptions and discusses, as he goes along, a number of the problems in philosophy, in art, in religious experience, on which they throw a new and revealing light. Whether the reader agrees with Mr. Huxley's conclusions or not, The Doors of Perception remains a unique glimpse into the mind of one of the greatest living writers, and a challenging discussion of the human personality". Set in Linotype Times Roman. Format by Robert Cheney. Manufactured by The Haddon Craftsmen. Printed in the USA. Bound in publisher's original light blue cloth backed by black cloth spine with bright silver lettering. NO DUSTJACKET (Lacking both front & rear panels). The only remnants of the original dustjacket are the two INNER FLAPS, both of which are laid in (with original first edition published price of $1.50 intact). Mild bump to top edge of front board, very slight shelfwear, otherwise a nice clean tight solid hardcover copy. 79pp. Scarce SIGNED copy of the uncommon first edition of this cult classic. RARE.
Seller: Bookwood, Melbourne, VIC, Australia
Huxley, Aldous. The Doors of Perception.. Harper & Brothers, Publishers, New York, 1954.
Price: US$4000.00 + shipping
Description: First American edition of this classic work. Octavo, original cloth. Boldly signed by Aldous Huxley on the front free endpaper. Near fine in a very good dust jacket. Rare and desirable signed. The Doors of Perception is a philosophical essay detailing his experiences when taking mescaline. The book takes the form of Huxley's recollection of a mescaline trip that took place over the course of an afternoon in May 1953. The book takes its title from a phrase in William Blake's 1793 poem The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, "If the doors of perception were cleansed, everything would appear to man as it is, infinite." Huxley recalls the insights he experienced, which range from the "purely aesthetic" to "sacramental vision". Huxley's biographer and friend, the author Sybille Bedford, the book combined sincerity with simplicity, passion with detachment. "It reflects the heart and mind open to meet the given, ready, even longing, to accept the wonderful. The Doors is a quiet book. It is also one that postulates a goodwill â" the choice once more of the nobler hypothesis. It turned out, for certain temperaments, a seductive book.â For biographer David King Dunaway, The Doors of Perception, along with The Art of Seeing, can be seen as the closest Huxley ever came to autobiographical writing. The book was the influence behind Jim Morrison's naming his band The Doors in 1965.
Seller: Raptis Rare Books, Palm Beach, FL, U.S.A.