Gerald Heard

British writer Gerald Heard was born Henry Fitzgerald Heard in London, England, in 1889. He graduated from Cambridge University. After World War I he took an assignment to work with the Protestant and Catholic sides in an effort to ease tensions and sectarian violence. That assignment was cut short when one night Heard was staying at the home of a colleague and the house was blown up. He was not injured, but shortly thereafter he returned to England. In 1925 he began publishing non-fiction books, beginning with a study of architecture. In 1929 he published "The Ascent of Humanity", for which he won the Henrietta Hertz Award from the British Academy. His next book was "The Social Substance of Religion" (1931). He was offered a job as science commentator for the British Broadcasting Corp., a position he held for five years. He became involved in efforts to avert another war, which resulted in a close association with Aldous Huxley. Frustrated with the public's apathy on the issue, Heard finally moved to the US in 1937, settling in Hollywood, CA. He died in Santa Monica, CA, in 1971 at age 81.