Book description
Taken together, Arthur Koestler's volumes of autobiography constitute
an unrivalled study of twentieth-century man and his dilemma. Arrow
in the Blue ended with his joining the Communist Party and
The Invisible Writing covers some of the most important
experiences in his life.
This book tells of Koestler's travels through Russia and remote
parts of Soviet Central Asia and of his life as an exile. It puts in
perspective his experiences in Franco's prisons under sentence of
death and in concentration camps in Occupied France and ends with his
escape in 1940 to England, where he found stability and a new home.
Arthur Koestler was born in Budapest in 1905. He attended the
university of Vienna before working as a foreign correspondent in the
Middle East, Berlin and Paris. For six years (1932-38) he was an active
member of the Communist Party, and was captured by Franco's troops in
the Spanish Civil War and imprisoned under sentence of death. In 1940 he
came to England, adopting the language with his first book,
Scum of
the Earth
. His publications manifest a wide range of political, scientific and
literary interests, and include
Darkness at Noon, Arrow in the Blue
and
The Invisible Writing
. He died in 1983 by suicide, having frequently expressed a belief in
the right to euthanasia.
