Laura Huxley (née Archera; 2 November 1911 – 13 December 2007) was an American

musician A musician is someone who Composer, composes, Conducting, conducts, or Performing arts#Performers, performs music. According to the United States Employment Service, "musician" is a general Terminology, term used to designate a person who fol ...

author In legal discourse, an author is the creator of an original work that has been published, whether that work exists in written, graphic, visual, or recorded form. The act of creating such a work is referred to as authorship. Therefore, a sculpt ...

, psychotherapist and

lecturer Lecturer is an academic rank within many universities, though the meaning of the term varies somewhat from country to country. It generally denotes an academic expert who is hired to teach on a full- or part-time basis. They may also conduct re ...

. She was married to author

Aldous Huxley Aldous Leonard Huxley ( ; 26 July 1894 – 22 November 1963) was an English writer and philosopher. His bibliography spans nearly 50 books, including non-fiction novel, non-fiction works, as well as essays, narratives, and poems. Born into the ...

from 1956 until his death in 1963.

Early life

Laura Archera was born in

Turin Turin ( , ; ; , then ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital from 1861 to 1865. The city is main ...

, Italy, on 2 November 1911. She began playing the

violin The violin, sometimes referred to as a fiddle, is a wooden chordophone, and is the smallest, and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in regular use in the violin family. Smaller violin-type instruments exist, including the violino picc ...

at the age of ten, studying in

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

and

Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...

, where she earned a diploma of musical teaching at 17. She also studied at the

Curtis Institute of Music The Curtis Institute of Music is a private conservatory in Philadelphia. It offers a performance diploma, a Bachelor of Music, Master of Music in opera, and a Professional Studies Certificate in opera. All students attend on a full scholarshi ...

Philadelphia Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

, played in a major

symphony orchestra An orchestra (; ) is a large instrumental ensemble typical of classical music, which combines instruments from different families. There are typically four main sections of instruments: * String instruments, such as the violin, viola, cello, ...

and played before the Queen of Italy at the age of 14, and performed at

Carnegie Hall Carnegie Hall ( ) is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. It is at 881 Seventh Avenue (Manhattan), Seventh Avenue, occupying the east side of Seventh Avenue between 56th Street (Manhattan), 56th and 57th Street (Manhattan), 57t ...

in her teens.

Life and career

In 1949, she was working as a freelance

documentary A documentary film (often described simply as a documentary) is a nonfiction Film, motion picture intended to "document reality, primarily for instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". The American author and ...

filmmaker. According to her obituary in the ''

Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American Newspaper#Daily, daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo, California, El Segundo since 2018, it is the List of new ...

'', Archera called

philosopher Philosophy ('love of wisdom' in Ancient Greek) is a systematic study of general and fundamental questions concerning topics like existence, reason, knowledge, Value (ethics and social sciences), value, mind, and language. It is a rational an ...

and author

at home, saying that

John Huston John Marcellus Huston ( ; August 5, 1906 – August 28, 1987) was an American film director, screenwriter and actor. He wrote the screenplays for most of the 37 feature films he directed, many of which are today considered classics. He rec ...

had promised to finance her proposed documentary film on the

Palio di Siena The Palio di Siena (; known locally simply as ; from Latin ) is a horse race held twice each year, on 2 July and 16 August, in Siena, Italy. Ten horses and riders, bareback (the horses, not the riders) and dressed in the appropriate colours, re ...

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 Self-help or self-improvement is "a focus on self-guided, in contrast to professionally guided, efforts to cope with life problems" —economically, physically, intellectually, or emotionally—often with a substantial psychological basis. When ...

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 an interview with American Legends website, she recalled that she and Huxley led a simple life walking in the hills around Griffith Park and usually having dinner at home. Huxley never lost his fascination with Los Angeles. he would tell Laura: "There is everything in Los Angeles," and the city was "like Venice in the 17th century--where East and West would meet and everything would happen here." In 1977 she founded Children: Our Ultimate Investment, also known as "Our Ultimate Investment" or just OUI, a

non-profit A nonprofit organization (NPO), also known as a nonbusiness entity, nonprofit institution, not-for-profit organization, or simply a nonprofit, is a non-governmental (private) legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public, or so ...

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 A documentary film (often described simply as a documentary) is a nonfiction motion picture intended to "document reality, primarily for instruction, education or maintaining a historical record". The American author and media analyst Bill Ni ...

, and an assistant film editor at RKO. Huxley appeared in '' Hofmann's Potion: The Early Years of

LSD Lysergic acid diethylamide, commonly known as LSD (from German ; often referred to as acid or lucy), is a semisynthetic, hallucinogenic compound derived from ergot, known for its powerful psychological effects and serotonergic activity. I ...

'', a documentary from the

National Film Board of Canada The National Film Board of Canada (NFB; ) is a Canadian public film and digital media producer and distributor. An agency of the Government of Canada, the NFB produces and distributes documentary films, animation, web documentaries, and altern ...

. 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 Cancer is a group of diseases involving Cell growth#Disorders, abnormal cell growth with the potential to Invasion (cancer), invade or Metastasis, spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Po ...

, aged 96, at her

Hollywood Hills The Hollywood Hills is a residential neighborhood in the central region of Los Angeles, California. It borders Studio City, Universal City and Burbank on the north, Griffith Park on the north and east, Los Feliz on the southeast, Hollyw ...

home.

Awards and honours

Huxley received widespread recognition for her

humanitarian Humanitarianism is an ideology centered on the value of human life, whereby humans practice benevolent treatment and provide assistance to other humans to reduce suffering and improve the conditions of humanity for moral, altruistic, and emotiona ...

achievements, including: * Honorary Doctorate of Human Services from

La Sierra University La Sierra University (La Sierra or LSU) is a Private university, private, Seventh-day Adventist university in Riverside, California. Founded in 1922 as La Sierra Academy, it later became La Sierra College, a liberal arts college, and then was ...

* Honoree of the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is the Earth, global intergovernmental organization established by the signing of the Charter of the United Nations, UN Charter on 26 June 1945 with the stated purpose of maintaining international peace and internationa ...

Fellow of the International Academy of Medical Preventics * The 1990 World Health Foundation for Development and Peace Prize * The 2003 Association of Prenatal and Perinatal Psychology and Health Thomas R. Verny Award, for outstanding contributions to the field of prenatal and perinatal psychology.

Bibliography

* 1963 - ''You Are Not the Target'' - Metamorphous Press; Reissue edition (August 1995) , foreword by Aldous Huxley * 1969 - ''This Timeless Moment'' - Celestial Arts; New Ed edition (December 2000) , * 1974 - ''Between Heaven and Earth'' - Hay House; Reprint edition (February 1, 1991) , * 1986 - ''Oneaday Reason to be Happy'' - Compcare Publications , * 1987 - ''The Child of Your Dreams'' (with Piero Ferrucci) - Compcare Publications ,

Notes

References

* * *
Los Angeles Times obituary
*

External links

*
Children: Our Ultimate Investment

* * Documentary of the life of Laura and husband Aldou
Huxley On Huxley
* 'Hofmann's Potion: The Early Years of LSD'
Hofmann's Potion
{{DEFAULTSORT:Huxley, Laura American motivational speakers American women motivational speakers American self-help writers Deaths from cancer in California Italian emigrants to the United States Italian violinists Italian women violinists People from Greater Los Angeles 1911 births 2007 deaths 20th-century American biographers American women biographers 20th-century American violinists American women violinists 20th-century Italian musicians Laura 20th-century American women musicians 21st-century American women