Arthur Koestler

Arthur Koestler (September 5, 1905 - March 3, 1983) was a journalist, novelist, political activist, and social philosopher. He was the author of many popular books including Arrow in the Blue, (Volume I of his autobiography), The Yogi and the Commissar (a collection of essays, many dealing with Communism), The Sleepwalkers, The Act of Creation, and The Thirteenth Tribe. His most famous work is Darkness at Noon, a novel about the Purges of the Soviet state during the Stalin era.

Biography

Autobiography in chronological order

• ' (1952)
• ' (1954)
• Spanish Testament (1937)
• Scum of the Earth (1941)
• Stranger on the Square (1984)

The following books also contain some biographical details, The Lotus and the Robot, The God that failed, Von Weissen Nächten und Roten Tagen (experiences in USSR, extremely difficult to obtain), as do his collections of numerous essays.

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Other biographies

• J. Atkins, Arthur Koestler (1956)
• S.A. Pearson, Arthur Koestler (1978), ISBN 0805766995
• Iain Hamilton, Koestler – A Biography (1982), ISBN 0025476602
• George Mikes, Arthur Koestler – The Story of a Friendship (1983), ISBN 0233976124
• M. Levene, Arthur Koestler (1984), ISBN 080446412X
• Mamaine Koestler, Living with Koestler (1985), ISBN 0297785311 or ISBN 0312490291
• David Cesarani, Arthur Koestler: The Homeless Mind (1998), ISBN 0684867206
• Christian G. Buckard, Arthur Koestler – Ein extremes Leben 1905–1983 (2004, in German), ISBN 3406521770

Langston Hughes's autobiography also documents their meeting in Turkestan during Soviet times.

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