Arthur Koestler

Hungarian-born British writer, journalist, and political thinker. In his youth, he leaned toward communism and joined the German Communist Party, but broke with communism due to disillusionment with the Stalinist regime and the Moscow Trials. He experienced being detained by Franco's forces and sentenced to death during the Spanish Civil War, as well as internment and escape in France during World War II. He sharply depicted the impact of totalitarianism and ideology on individuals, becoming a representative writer of anti-totalitarian literature. His representative works include Darkness at Noon, Dialogue with Death, and his autobiography The Invisible Writing. He was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 1972.

Timeline

Category
Element

Year	Arthur Koestler
1905	Birth of Arthur Koestler (Period: September 5, 1905, Location: Budapest, Hungary (part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire at the time of birth))
1922	Studies at the University of Vienna (Age: 16 years old, Period: 1922–1926, Location: Vienna, Austria)
1926	Life in Palestine and beginning of journalistic activities (Age: 20 years old, Period: 1926–1929, Location: British Mandate for Palestine at the time)
1931	Joining the Communist Party of Germany (Age: 25 years old, Period: 1931, Location: Germany)
1935	Marriage (Arthur Koestler, Dorothy Asher, Age: 29 years old, Period: 1935, Location: Exact location is difficult to confirm)
1936	Spanish Civil War (Age: 30 years old, Period: 1936–1939, Location: Barcelona, Spain, etc.) Moscow Trials and Great Purge during the Stalin era (Age: 30 years old, Period: Centered on 1936–1938, the 1930s, Location: Soviet Union, Moscow)
1937	Detention and death sentence during the Spanish Civil War (Age: 31 years old, Period: 1937, Location: Malaga and Seville, Spain)
1938	Writing and publication of Darkness at Noon (Age: 32 years old, Period: 1938–1941, Location: Writing mainly in France, early English edition published in Britain)
1939	World War II (Age: 33 years old, Period: 1939–1945, Location: Britain, North Africa, Mediterranean region, etc.) Internment in France's Vernet camp (Age: 33 years old, Period: 1939–1940, Location: Le Vernet-d'Ariège, southern France)
1940	Migration to Britain and military service (Age: 34 years old, Period: Around 1940–1942, Location: London, England, etc.) Anti-communist activities and writing in Britain (Age: 34 years old, Period: Late 1940s–1970s, Location: Europe-wide, centered on Britain)
1941	Publication of the memoir Scum of the Earth (Age: 35 years old, Period: 1941, Location: London, England)
1950	Marriage (Arthur Koestler, Mamaine Paget, Age: 44 years old, Period: 1950, Location: Exact location is difficult to confirm)
1965	Marriage (Arthur Koestler, Cynthia May Jeffries, Age: 59 years old, Period: 1965, Location: Exact location is difficult to confirm)
1968	Receiving the Sonning Prize (Age: 62 years old, Period: 1968, Location: Copenhagen, Denmark)
1972	Appointment as Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE, Age: 66 years old, Period: 1972, Location: Britain)
1976	Late-life illness and death (Age: 70 years old, Period: 1976–1983, Location: London, England)
1983	Death of Arthur Koestler (Age: 77 years old, Period: March 1, 1983)

Map

Category
Element

Europe World

Related Links

Group	List
NATO	Winston Churchill Charles de Gaulle Harold Macmillan Ernest Bevin Konrad Adenauer Paul-Henri Spaak Pierre Mendès France Margaret Thatcher Helmut Schmidt
British Conservative Party	Anthony Eden Winston Churchill Harold Macmillan Alec Douglas-Home Edward Heath Margaret Thatcher John Major
British Labour Party	Clement Attlee Harold Wilson James Callaghan Michael Foot Neil Kinnock
Culture and Thought	Francis Bacon Jean-Paul Sartre Simone de Beauvoir Albert Camus Hannah Arendt George Orwell Arthur Koestler Umberto Eco Italo Calvino Jean-Philippe Arthur Dubuffet
Science and Technology	John Cockcroft Francis Crick James Watson Dennis Gabor Dorothy Hodgkin Tim Berners-Lee Paul Flory

Other Languages

Arthur Koestler (Español) Arthur Koestler (Français) Arthur Koestler (Deutsch) 阿瑟·凯斯特勒 (中文) アーサー・ケストラー (日本語)

People Timeline

Arthur Koestler

Arthur Koestler

Timeline

Map

Related Links

Other Languages

Comments

About

Other Languages