“one nation solemnly promised to a second nation the country of a third”
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Arthur Koestler
Arthur Koestler was an Austro-Hungarian-born author and journalist. Koestler was born in Budapest, and was educated in Austria, apart from his early school years. In 1931, Koestler joined the Communist Party of Germany but resigned in 1938 after becoming disillusioned with Stalinism.
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culture · Hungarian-British author and journalist (1905–1983) · writer · philosopher · novelist · journalist · screenwriter · autobiographer · political scientist · also Arthur Koestler, Kösztler Artúr, Koestler
Born 5 September 1905 · Died 1 March 1983 · Q78494
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2026· 1 entry
2025· 1 entry
The Guardian: Arthur Koestler
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2018· 1 entry
The Guardian: 'Stubbornly fighting for life': how Arthur Koestler reported the birth of Israel
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2010· 4 entries
The Guardian: The double life of Arthur Koestler, intellectual and sexual adventurer
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The Guardian: The extraordinary Arthur Koestler | William Skidelsky
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The Guardian: Arthur Koestler: flawed crusader
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The Guardian: Arthur Koestler: the indispensable intellectual by Michael Scammell | Book extract
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2009· 2 entries
The Australian: Writer Arthur Koestler had 'hundreds of affairs' during three marriages
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The Guardian: Digested classic: Darkness at Noon by Arthur Koestler
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1998· 1 entry
That Koestler had been a serial rapist, citing the case of the British feminist writer Jill Craigie who said that she had been his victim in 1951
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1983· 1 entry
Died 1983-03-01.
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1980· 1 entry
Was diagnosed with chronic lymphocytic leukaemia
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1978· 1 entry
Koestler published Janus: A Summing Up
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1976· 2 entries
Koestler was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease
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Koestler was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease and in 1979 with terminal leukaemia
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1972· 2 entries
Awarded Commander of the Order of the British Empire (1972).
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Was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE)
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1968· 2 entries
Awarded Sonning Prize (1968).
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Was awarded the Sonning Prize "for [his] outstanding contribution to European culture"
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1967· 1 entry
In the Sunday Telegraph, Koestler wrote about the drug culture and his own experiences with hallucinogens
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1965· 1 entry
Married Cynthia in New York, and they moved to California, where he participated in a series of seminars at the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University
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1962· 1 entry
Along with his agent, A D Peters, and the editor of The Observer, David Astor, Koestler set up a scheme to encourage prison inmates to engage in arts activities and to reward their efforts
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1956· 2 entries
As a consequence of the Hungarian Uprising, Koestler became busy organising anti-Soviet meetings and protests
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Arranged for Cynthia Jeffries to have an abortion when she became pregnant; it was then illegal
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1953· 1 entry
After Koestler had become an outspoken anti-communist, he wrote favourably of the Hungarian Communists and their leader Béla Kun
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1951· 1 entry
The last of Koestler's political works, The Age of Longing, was published
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1950· 1 entry
Argued that Jews should either emigrate to Israel or assimilate completely into the majority cultures they lived in
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1949· 3 entries
Returned to London to swear the oath of allegiance to the British Crown
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Also published the non-fiction book Insight and Outlook
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Koestler began secretly working with a British Cold War anti-communist propaganda department known as the Information Research Department (IRD), which would republish and distribute many of his works, and also fund his a
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1948· 1 entry
When war broke out between the newly declared State of Israel and the neighbouring Arab states, Koestler was accredited by several newspapers, American, British, and French, and travelled to Israel
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1945· 1 entry
“When the meeting was over, I realised how naïve I had been to imagine that my arguments would have even the slightest influence.”
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1943· 1 entry
But they parted company a few months later
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1940· 2 entries
“Espagne ensanglantée was translated into French from German. Koestler is said to have coined the word mimophant, which he later used to describe Bobby Fischer. Quotes In August 1945, Koestler was in Palestine where he read in the Palestine Post about the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima. He said to a friend:”
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Koestler published his novel Darkness at Noon, an anti-totalitarian work that gained him international fame
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1939· 1 entry
Koestler met and formed an attachment to the British sculptor Daphne Hardy
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1938· 1 entry
Became editor of Die Zukunft (The Future), a German-language weekly published in Paris
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1937· 1 entry
Koestler returned to Spain on the side of the Republicans as a war correspondent for the News Chronicle and was in Málaga when it fell to Benito Mussolini's troops, who were fighting on the side of the Nationalists
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1936· 1 entry
During the Spanish Civil War, Koestler undertook a visit to General Francisco Franco's headquarters in Seville on behalf of the Comintern, pretending to be a Franco sympathiser and using credentials from the London daily
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1935· 1 entry
Koestler married Dorothy Ascher (1905−1992), a fellow communist activist
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1933· 1 entry
And in September of that year, he returned to Paris and, for the next two years, was active in anti-fascist movements
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1932· 1 entry
Koestler travelled in Turkmenistan and Central Asia, where he met and traveled with Langston Hughes
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1931· 3 entries
Was called to Berlin and appointed science editor of the Vossische Zeitung and science adviser to the Ullstein newspaper empire
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Koestler, encouraged by Eva Striker and impressed by the achievements of the Soviet Union, became a supporter of Marxism–Leninism
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Koestler joined the Communist Party of Germany but resigned in 1938 after becoming disillusioned with Stalinism
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1922· 1 entry
Studied at TU Wien (1922).
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1920· 1 entry
The family returned to Vienna, where Henrik set up a successful new import business
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1914· 1 entry
Deprived Koestler's father of foreign suppliers, and his business collapsed
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1905· 1 entry
Born 1905-09-05.
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1861· 1 entry
Lipót married Karolina Schon, the daughter of a prosperous timber merchant, and their son Henrik was born on 18 August 1869 in the town of Miskolc in northeastern Hungary
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