Arthur Koestler [antikvár]

Preface In July 1998 a distinguished panel of writers and intellectuals, including Maya Angelou, A. S. Byatt, Arthur Schlesinger Jr, WiUiam Styron and Gore Vidal ranked Darkness at Noon by Arthur Koestler as the eighth best novel of the century. To millions of readers around the world Koestler is stiU known mainly for this literary and political milestone. But there was far more to his life and work than that, much of it deliberately hidden by Koestler, his acolytes and biographers. This book is the first comprehensive evaluation of Koestler's life and work since his death in 1983 and the only one written without his influence over its contents or interventions by those with a stake in his reputation. The Homeless Mind grew out of an idea for a study of Arthur Koestler as a Jew who exemplified the Jewish experience in Europe during the twentieth century. However, Koestler's Ufe and interests could not be restricted to Jewishness, no matter how central that may have been to his existence, consciously or otherwise. Conversely his Jewishness could not be seen in isolation from the rest of his career. So an investigation into Koestler as Jew broadened into an account of Koestler the man and his achievements as a whole. Koestler himself wrote four volumes of autobiography covering his life from 1905 to 1940. He was co-writing a fifth volume with his third wife, Cynthia, at the time of his death. Covering the period up to 1956, it was edited by Harold Harris and published posthumously. In addition, Celia Goodman edited the letters and diaries of Koestler's second wife, Mamaine, her twin sister, which encompassed the years 1945 to 1955. A full length biography by Iain Hamilton appeared in 1982. However, Koestler's version of his own life, which furnished the raw material for most biographical and literary studies, needs to be treated with great caution. Although Hamilton had access to the personal papers of Koestler and Mamaine, he was restrained from telling aU that they revealed. Hamilton also ran out of time and sympathy when it came to recounting the last