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Laura Huxley

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American musician, author, psychotherapist and lecturer
Laura Huxley
BornLaura Archera
(1911-11-02)2 November 1911
Turin, Italy
Died13 December 2007(2007-12-13) (aged 96)
Hollywood, Los Angeles, U.S.
Occupation
  • Musician
  • author
  • psychotherapist
  • lecturer
NationalityAmerican
Period1963–1987
GenreSelf-help, biography
Spouse Aldous Huxley ​ ​(m. 1956; died 1963)​

Laura Huxley (née Archera; 2 November 1911 – 13 December 2007) was an American musician, author, psychotherapist and lecturer. She was married to author Aldous Huxley from 1956 until his death in 1963.

Early life

Laura Archera was born in Turin, Italy, on 2 November 1911. She began playing the violin at the age of ten, studying in Berlin, Paris and Rome, where she earned a diploma of musical teaching at 17. She also studied at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, played in a major symphony orchestra and played before the Queen of Italy at the age of 14, and performed at Carnegie Hall in her teens.

Life and career

In 1949, she was working as a freelance documentary filmmaker. According to her obituary in the Los Angeles Times, Archera called philosopher and author Aldous Huxley at home, saying that John Huston had promised to finance her proposed documentary film on the Palio di Siena if she could get Huxley to agree to write a screenplay. Archera then became close friends with Huxley and his first wife Maria, who died in 1955. In 1956, Archera married Huxley. She wrote several self-help books concerning human relations, including You Are Not the Target (1963) with a foreword written by Aldous Huxley.

After his death in 1963, she wrote This Timeless Moment: a personal view of Aldous Huxley (1968), a book describing life with her husband.

In 1977 she founded Children: Our Ultimate Investment, also known as "Our Ultimate Investment" or just OUI, a non-profit organization dedicated to the nurturing of the possible human. The organization sponsored a four-day conference also entitled Children: Our Ultimate Investment.

Film

She was a producer of documentary films, and an assistant film editor at RKO. Huxley appeared in Hofmann's Potion: The Early Years of LSD, a documentary from the National Film Board of Canada. Laura felt inspired to illuminate the story of their provocative marriage through Mary Ann Braubach's 2010 documentary, "Huxley on Huxley".

Death

Laura Huxley died of cancer, aged 96, at her Hollywood Hills home.

Awards and honours

Huxley received widespread recognition for her humanitarian achievements, including:

Bibliography

See also

Notes

  1. Valerie Corral (Spring 2008). "O Nobly Born". MAPS Bulletin. xviii (1). Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies, Inc.: 42–48.
  2. "Huxley on Huxley". Dir. Mary Ann Braubach. Cinedigm, 2010. DVD. Archived from the original on 2014-11-08. Retrieved 2013-08-05. {{cite web}}: External link in |others= (help)CS1 maint: others (link) CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  3. "Laura Huxley: Widow of Aldous Huxley". The Independent. December 17, 2007.
  4. Fox, Margalit (December 19, 2007). "Laura Huxley, Her Husband's Biographer, Dies at 96". The New York Times – via NYTimes.com.
  5. "Association of Prenatal and Perinatal Psychology and Health, Thomas R. Verny Award". Archived from the original on 2012-09-23. Retrieved 2012-06-21.

References

External links

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