Arthur Koestler

Hungarian-British author and journalist (1905-1983) · United Kingdom · Writers · Died at 77

Arthur Koestler is read about 663 times a day, in 56 languages.

A typical day, 30 days to 23 October 2026

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A Communist who left the Party and spent the rest of his life writing against it. Darkness at Noon made him famous in 1940 - a novel about Stalin's show trials written by someone who'd seen the machinery from inside.

Writers Writer / Author Literature Philosophy Fiction Journalism Screenwriting Stand Up

A life in dates

1983Died1 March 19831976“The evidence from anthropology concurs with history in refuting the popular belief in a Jewish race descended from the biblical tribe.”In their wordsThe Thirteenth Tribe (1976)Read the whole statement

1972Commander of the Order of the British EmpireAward1968Sonning PrizeAward1959“The sixth pre-Christian century - the miraculous century of Buddha, Confucius and Lâo-Tse, of the Ionian philosophers and Pythagoras - was a turning point for the human species.”In their wordsThe Sleepwalkers: A History of Man's Changing Vision of the Universe (1959)Read the whole statement

1955“Creative activity could be described as a type of learning process where teacher and pupil are located in the same individual.”In their wordsDrinkers of Infinity: Essays 1955-1967 (1967)Read the whole statement

1949“Men cannot be treated as units in operations of political arithmetic because they behave like the symbols for zero and the infinite, which dislocate all mathematical operations.”In their wordsFrom his essay in The God that Failed: Six Studies in Communism (ed. Richard Crossman, 1949), p. 68Read the whole statement

1946“Today we know that on the sub-atomic level the fate of an electron or a whole atom is not determined by its past.”In their wordsEpilogue [footnote referenced E.T. Whittaker's Space and Spirit (1946)]Read the whole statement

1941“In old days, temptation was of carnal nature. Now it takes the form of pure reason. The values change.”In their wordsDarkness at Noon, translated by Daphne Hardy (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1941), p. 149Read the whole statement

1905Born5 September 1905

Also in Deutsch

Photos 8

Arthur Koestler (1969)

Arthur Koestler (1969) (cropped)

8 Montpelier Square, London

Arthur Koestler opende tentoonstelling in galerie Mokum van kunstwerken gemaakt , Bestanddeelnr 922-0069

Arthur Koestler opende tentoonstelling in galerie Mokum van kunstwerken gemaakt , Bestanddeelnr 922-0070

Arthur Koestler opende tentoonstelling in galerie Mokum van kunstwerken gemaakt , Bestanddeelnr 922-0071

Arthur Koestler opende tentoonstelling in galerie Mokum van kunstwerken gemaakt , Bestanddeelnr 922-0076

Arthur Koestler Promise and Fulfilment 1949 title

In their own words 10

Arthur Koestler

10 statements, newest first

The evidence from anthropology concurs with history in refuting the popular belief in a Jewish race descended from the biblical tribe.
1976, The Thirteenth Tribe (1976), Own words
I profoundly admire Aldous Huxley, both for his philosophy and uncompromising sincerity.
1967, Return Trip to Nirvana from The Sunday Telegraph (1967), Own words
The sixth pre-Christian century - the miraculous century of Buddha, Confucius and Lâo-Tse, of the Ionian philosophers and Pythagoras - was a turning point for the human species.
1959, The Sleepwalkers: A History of Man's Changing Vision of the Universe (1959), Own words

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Awards

Commander of the Order of the British Empire1972

Sonning Prize1968

Family

Father Henrik Koestler

Arthur Koestler

Partners

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About this person

Koestler was born in Budapest in 1905 and educated mostly in Austria. He joined the Communist Party of Germany in 1931, then resigned seven years later after disillusionment with Stalinism. He moved to Britain in 1940 and published Darkness at Noon, the anti-totalitarian novel that brought international fame. Over the next four decades he wrote novels, memoirs, biographies, and essays, and from 1949 secretly worked with Britain's Cold War Information Research Department, which republished his work and funded his activities. He was awarded the Sonning Prize in 1968 and made a CBE in 1972. Diagnosed with Parkinson's in 1976 and terminal leukaemia in 1979, Koestler and his wife Cynthia died by suicide together at their London home on 1 March 1983.

Country

United Kingdom

In common with Arthur

Walter KohutAlso in Drei Tage bis Mitternacht (1966)

Immy SchellAlso in Drei Tage bis Mitternacht (1966)

Writers from the United Kingdom 4

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