Letha Hadady

Letha Charlotte Hadady, born in Hammond, Indiana is the eldest daughter of Jack and Letha Elizabeth Hadady, distant cousins in a Hungarian noble family. Her father worked at the University of Chicago with scientists who split the atom and her mother is a painter who illustrates her daughter's books. In the 1950s the family moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico, where Letha, her sister Michelle and brother Eric attended the University of New Mexico. Letha, a coloratura soprano, was promised a bright career in opera. In 1970 Letha married and moved to Europe. She supported her husband by singing at major European opera houses. A turning point came after she collapsed following a performance of Traviata. In Paris, she received acupuncture treatments and began her studies in alternative medicine. Her health improved after a divorce and moving to New York in 1980. During the 1980s she studied acupuncture in New York and China and Ayurveda in India. She traveled to Tibet to study Buddhism and Thailand and China to work with children in hospitals She wrote articles and books, including Asian Health Secrets: The Complete Guide to Asian Herbal Medicine which became a bestseller with a foreword by H.H. the Dalai Lama. Her other books include Personal Renewal, Healthy Beauty and Feed Your Tiger. She is active on the Internet where she writes columns and answers health questions from around the world. In 1980 Letha became involved with novelist Michael Foster and librarian and poet Barbara Foster in a work-oriented menage of trois of writers. Together they researched and the Fosters wrote two biographies of Alexandra David-Neel: Forbidden Journey and The Secret Lives of Alexandra David-Neel. Their book Three in Love: Menages a Trois from Ancient to Modern Times has been called "racy and engaging" by Entertainment Weekly. The three have been featured in television and radio interviews and a European documentary "Menage a Trois" in 2008 by Catherina Klusemann. Today Letha and Michael live in New York, Vermont, and Florida and Barbara visits them when she can tear herself away from Greenwich Village.