69-624: The Royal Society of Literature Jerwood Awards for Non-Fiction were financial awards made to assist new writers of non-fiction to carry out new research, and/or to devote more time to writing. The awards were administrated by the Royal Society of Literature on behalf of the Jerwood Charitable Foundation . Recipients must have a publishing contract and be citizens of either the UK or Ireland, or have been residents in one of these for at least
138-698: A British visa. ( John le Carré used Bagot as a model for Connie Sachs in his spy novels featuring "George Smiley". Bagot was the first to warn that Kim Philby of MI6 was probably spying for the USSR.) Koestler describes the period 1939 to 1940 and his incarceration in Le Vernet in his memoir Scum of the Earth . Shortly before the German invasion of France, Koestler joined the French Foreign Legion in order to get out of
207-656: A fellow Communist activist. They separated amicably in 1937. In 1936, during the Spanish Civil War , he undertook a visit to General Francisco Franco 's headquarters in Seville on behalf of the Comintern , pretending to be a Franco sympathiser and using credentials from the London daily News Chronicle as cover. He collected evidence of the direct involvement of Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany on Franco's side, which at that time
276-575: A friend, Koestler obtained the position of Middle East correspondent for the prestigious Berlin-based Ullstein-Verlag group of newspapers. He returned to Jerusalem, where for the next two years he produced detailed political essays, as well as some lighter reportage, for his principal employer and for other newspapers. He was resident at this time at 29 Rehov Hanevi'im, in Jerusalem. He travelled extensively, interviewed heads of state, kings, presidents and prime ministers, and greatly enhanced his reputation as
345-507: A house built, and for the next twelve years used it as a place for summer vacations and for organising symposia. In May 1958 he had a hernia operation. In December he left for India and Japan, and was away until early 1959. Based on his travels, he wrote the book The Lotus and the Robot . In early 1960, on his way back from a conference in San Francisco, Koestler interrupted his journey at
414-547: A journalist. As noted in his autobiography, he came to realise that he would never really fit into Palestine's Zionist Jewish community, the Yishuv , and particularly that he would not be able to have a journalistic career in Hebrew . In June 1929, while on leave in Berlin, Koestler successfully lobbied at Ullstein for a transfer away from Palestine. In September he was sent to Paris to fill
483-450: A letter to his parents telling them that he was going to Mandate Palestine for a year to work as an assistant engineer in a factory, in order to gain experience to help him obtain a job in Austria. On 1 April 1926 he left Vienna for Palestine . For a few weeks Koestler lived in a kibbutz , but his application to join the collective ( Kvutzat Heftziba ) was rejected by its members. For
552-609: A niece of Lytton Strachey , was also a former communist; other associates included Rupert Crawshay-Williams , Michael Polanyi , Storm Jameson and, most significantly, Bertrand Russell , who lived close by. In 1948, when war broke out between the newly declared State of Israel and the neighbouring Arab states, Koestler was accredited by several newspapers, American, British and French, and travelled to Israel. Mamaine Paget went with him. They arrived in Israel on 4 June and stayed there until October. Later that year they decided to leave
621-688: A result of Adolf Hitler's rise to power in January 1933, Koestler was no longer able to visit Germany. Koestler left the Soviet Union in 1933, and in September of that year he returned to Paris and for the next two years was active in anti-Fascist movements. He wrote propaganda under the direction of Willi Münzenberg , the Comintern's chief propaganda director in the West. In 1935 Koestler married Dorothy Ascher (1905-1992),
690-564: A scriptwriter for propaganda broadcasts and films. In his spare time he wrote Arrival and Departure , the third in his trilogy of novels that included Darkness at Noon . He also wrote several essays, which were subsequently collected and published in The Yogi and the Commissar . One of the essays, titled "On Disbelieving Atrocities" (originally published in The New York Times ), was about
759-628: A supporter of Marxism-Leninism . On 31 December 1931, he applied for membership of the Communist Party of Germany . As noted in his biography, he was disappointed in the conduct of the Vossische Zeitung , "The Flagship of German Liberalism", which adapted to changing times by firing Jewish journalists, hiring writers with marked German Nationalist views, and dropping its longstanding campaign against capital punishment. Koestler concluded that Liberals and moderate Democrats could not stand up against
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#1733093592952828-645: A three-storey Georgian town house on Montpelier Square in London, and sold his houses in France and the United States. The first two volumes of his autobiography, Arrow in the Blue , which covers his life up to December 1931 when he joined the German Communist Party, and The Invisible Writing , which covers the years 1932 to 1940, were published in 1952 and 1954, respectively. A collection of essays, The Trail of
897-610: A vacancy in the bureau of the Ullstein News Service. In 1931, he was called to Berlin and appointed science editor of the Vossische Zeitung and science adviser to the Ullstein newspaper empire. In July 1931, he was Ullstein's choice to represent the paper on board the Graf Zeppelin 's week-long polar flight, which carried a team of scientists and the polar aviator Lincoln Ellsworth to 82 degrees North and back. Koestler
966-503: The Benson Medal for lifetime service in the field of literature . The RSL runs a membership programme offering a variety of events to members and the general public. Membership of the RSL is open to all. The RSL also runs an outreach programme, currently for young people and those in prison. The RSL administers two annual prizes, two awards, and two honours. Through its prize programmes,
1035-636: The New York Drama Critics Award . Koestler donated all his royalties from the play to a fund he had set up to help struggling authors, the Fund for Intellectual Freedom (FIF). In June a bill was introduced in the U.S. Senate to grant Koestler permanent residence in the U.S. Koestler sent tickets for the play to his House sponsor Richard Nixon and his Senate sponsor Owen Brewster , a close confidant of Joseph McCarthy . The bill became law on 23 August 1951 as Private Law 221 Chapter 343 "AN ACT For
1104-491: The University of Michigan , Ann Arbor , where some experimental research was going on with hallucinogens . He tried psilocybin and had a "bad trip". Later, when he arrived at Harvard to see Timothy Leary , he experimented with more drugs, but was not enthusiastic about that experience either. In November 1960 he was elected to a Fellowship of The Royal Society of Literature . In 1962, along with his agent, A D Peters and
1173-511: The White Terror under the right-wing regime of Admiral Horthy . In 1920 the family returned to Vienna, where Henrik set up a successful new import business. In September 1922 Arthur enrolled in the University of Vienna to study engineering, and joined a Zionist duelling student fraternity, 'Unitas.' . When Henrik's latest business failed, Koestler stopped attending lectures and was expelled for non-payment of fees. In March 1926 he wrote
1242-541: The 1960s he took LSD with Timothy Leary . In the 1970s he was still giving lectures that impressed, among others, the young Salman Rushdie . Koestler was born in Budapest to Jewish parents Henrik and Adele Koestler ( née Jeiteles). Henrik's father, Lipót Koestler, was a soldier in the Austro-Hungarian Army . In 1861 Lipót married Karolina Schon, the daughter of a prosperous timber merchant, and their son Henrik
1311-578: The British sculptor Daphne Hardy . They lived together in Paris, and she translated the manuscript of Darkness at Noon from German into English in early 1940. She smuggled it out of France when they left ahead of the German occupation and arranged for its publication after reaching London that year. After the outbreak of World War II , Koestler returned from the South of France to Paris. He attempted to turn himself in to
1380-484: The Communist Party and started work on a new novel, which was published in London under the title Darkness at Noon (1941). Also in 1938 he became editor of Die Zukunft (The Future), a German-language weekly published in Paris. Koestler's breaking with the Communist Party may have been influenced by the similar step taken by his fellow activist Willi Münzenberg . In 1939 Koestler met and formed an attachment to
1449-546: The Dinosaur and Other Essays , on the perils he saw facing western civilisation, was published in 1955. On 13 April 1955 Janine Graetz, with whom Koestler had an on-off relationship over a period of years, gave birth to his daughter Cristina. Despite repeated attempts by Janine to persuade Koestler to show some interest in her, Koestler had almost no contact with Cristina throughout his life. Early in 1956 he arranged for Cynthia Jeffries to have an abortion when she became pregnant; it
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#17330935929521518-553: The Loyalists, the wife of one of Franco's ace fighter pilots. Koestler was one of the few authors to have been sentenced to death, an experience he wrote about in Dialogue with Death . As he noted in his autobiography, his estranged wife Dorothy Ascher had greatly contributed to saving his life by intensive, months-long lobbying on his behalf in Britain. When he went to Britain after his release,
1587-593: The Nationalist rebels were still trying to conceal. He had to escape after he was recognised and denounced as a Communist by a German former colleague. Back in France he wrote L'Espagne Ensanglantée , which was later incorporated into his book Spanish Testament . In 1937 he returned to Loyalist Spain as a war correspondent for the News Chronicle , and was in Málaga when it fell to Mussolini's troops, who were fighting on
1656-616: The Nazi atrocities against the Jews. Daphne Hardy, who had been doing war work in Oxford, joined Koestler in London in 1943, but they parted company a few months later. They remained good friends until Koestler's death. In December 1944 Koestler travelled to Palestine with accreditation from The Times . There he had a clandestine meeting with Menachem Begin , the head of the Irgun paramilitary organisation, who
1725-586: The Night . When he returned to England, Mamaine Paget, whom he had started to see before going out to Palestine, was waiting for him. In August 1945 the couple moved to the cottage of Bwlch Ocyn, an isolated farmhouse owned by Clough Williams-Ellis , in the Vale of Ffestiniog . Over the next three years, Koestler became a close friend of writer George Orwell . The region had its own intellectual circle, which would have been sympathetic to Koestler: Williams-Ellis' wife, Amabel ,
1794-569: The RSL published a volume that provides a description and history of the society, written by one of its fellows, Isabel Quigly . In 2020, the RSL celebrated its 200th anniversary with the announcement of RSL 200, "a five-year festival launched with a series of major new initiatives and 60 new appointments championing the great diversity of writing and writers in the UK". Initiatives included RSL Open (electing new Fellows from communities, backgrounds and experiences currently under-represented in UK literary culture), RSL International Writers (recognising
1863-482: The RSL receives no regular public or government funding, relying on the support of its Members, Patrons, Fellows and friends to continue its work. The RSL has about 600 Fellows, elected from among the best writers in any genre currently at work. Additionally, Honorary Fellows are chosen from those who have made a significant contribution to the advancement of literature, including publishers, agents, librarians, booksellers or producers, or who have rendered special service to
1932-473: The RSL roll book. The RSL's 2022–23 Open initiative aimed to recognise writers from backgrounds currently underrepresented in UK literary culture by electing 60 fellows over a two-year period from communities, backgrounds and experiences currently under-represented in UK literary culture, through drawing on a broad range of writers from "different parts of the UK, from different communities, different demographics", as Bernardine Evaristo noted. The * before
2001-478: The RSL supports new and established contemporary writers. The Council of the Royal Society of Literature is central to the election of new fellows, and directs the RSL's activities through its monthly meetings. Council members serve for a fixed term of four years, with new members being elected by Council when members retire. The Royal Society of Literature comprises more than 600 Fellows, who are entitled to use
2070-620: The RSL. Paid membership is open to all and offers a variety of benefits. The society publishes an annual magazine, The Royal Society of Literature Review , and administers a number of literary prizes and awards, including the RSL Ondaatje Prize , the RSL Giles St Aubyn Awards for Non-Fiction, the RSL Encore Award for best second novel of the year and the V. S. Pritchett Memorial Prize for short stories. In 2000,
2139-551: The U.S. and the UK. In 1949 he also published the non-fiction Insight and Outlook . This too received lukewarm reviews. In July Koestler began work on Arrow in the Blue , the first volume of his autobiography. He hired a new part-time secretary, Cynthia Jefferies, who replaced Daphne Woodward . Cynthia and Koestler eventually married. In the autumn he started work on The Age of Longing , on which he continued to work until mid-1950. Koestler had reached agreement with his first wife, Dorothy, on an amicable divorce, and their marriage
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2208-560: The UK for a while and move to France. News that his long-pending application for British nationality had been granted reached him in France in late December; early in 1949 he returned to London to swear the oath of allegiance to the British Crown . In January 1949 Koestler and Paget moved to a house he had bought in France. There he wrote a contribution to The God That Failed and finished work on Promise and Fulfilment: Palestine 1917-1949 . The latter book received poor reviews in both
2277-564: The Universe", which also became the book's subtitle. Copernicus and Galileo were added to Kepler as the major subjects of the book. Later in 1956, as a consequence of the Hungarian Uprising , Koestler became busy organising anti-Soviet meetings and protests. In June 1957 Koestler gave a lecture at a symposium in Alpbach , Austria, and fell in love with the village. He bought land there, had
2346-479: The authorities as a foreign national several times and was finally arrested on 2 October 1939. The French government first detained Koestler at Stade Roland Garros until he was moved to Le Vernet Internment Camp among other "undesirable aliens", most of them refugees. He was released in early 1940 in response to strong British pressure. Milicent Bagot , an intelligence officer at MI5 , recommended his release from Camp Vernet, but said that he should not be granted
2415-551: The autumn he went to the United States on a lecture tour, during which he lobbied for permanent resident status in the U.S. At the end of October, on impulse, he bought Island Farm , a small island with a house on it on the Delaware River near New Hope, Pennsylvania . He intended to live there at least for part of each year. In January 1951 a dramatised version of Darkness at Noon , by Sidney Kingsley , opened in New York. It won
2484-483: The best writers in any genre currently at work. Additionally, Honorary Fellows are chosen from those who have made a significant contribution to the advancement of literature, including publishers, agents, librarians, booksellers or producers. The society is a cultural tenant at London's Somerset House . The Royal Society of Literature (RSL) was founded in 1820, with the patronage of George IV , to "reward literary merit and excite literary talent", and its first president
2553-483: The circle of the Comintern agent Willi Münzenberg , through whom he met the leading German Communists [and fellow-travellers] of the era, including Johannes Becher , Hanns Eisler and Bertolt Brecht . Afraid of being caught by the Gestapo while fleeing France, he borrowed suicide pills from Walter Benjamin . He took them several weeks later when it seemed he would be unable to get out of Lisbon, but he did not die. Along
2622-479: The contribution of writers across the globe to literature in English) and Sky Arts RSL Writers Awards. In 2021, the RSL launched "Literature Matters: Reading Together", a project aiming to make recreational reading accessible to young people across the UK. The society maintains its current level of about 600 Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature : generally 14 new fellows are elected annually, who are accorded
2691-483: The country. He deserted in North Africa and tried to return to England. He heard a false report that the ship on which Hardy was travelling had sunk, and that she and his manuscript were lost. He attempted suicide , but survived. Arriving in the UK without an entry permit, Koestler was imprisoned pending examination of his case. He was still in prison when Daphne Hardy's English translation of his book Darkness at Noon
2760-498: The couple tried to resume their marriage, but Koestler's gratitude to her proved an insufficient foundation for a daily life together. Koestler returned to France, where he agreed to write a sex encyclopaedia to earn money to live on. It was published to great success under the title The Encyclopœdia of Sexual Knowledge , under the pseudonyms of "Drs A. Costler, A. Willy, and Others". In July 1938 Koestler finished work on his novel The Gladiators . Later that year he resigned from
2829-517: The family moved temporarily to a boarding house in Vienna. When the war ended, the family returned to Budapest. As noted in Koestler's autobiography, he and his family were sympathetic to the short-lived Hungarian Bolshevik Revolution of 1919. Though the small soap factory owned at the time by Koestler's father was nationalised, the elder Koestler was appointed its director by the revolutionary government and
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2898-475: The last three years. In 2017, the awards were replaced by the Giles St Aubyn Awards for Non-Fiction . Royal Society of Literature The Royal Society of Literature ( RSL ) is a learned society founded in 1820 by King George IV to "reward literary merit and excite literary talent". A charity that represents the voice of literature in the UK, the RSL has about 600 Fellows, elected from among
2967-658: The name denotes an Honorary Fellow. The list is online at the RSL website. The RSL International Writers programme is a new life-long honour and award recognizing the contribution of writers across the globe to literature in English, and the power of literature to transcend borders in bringing people together, the inaugural list of recipients being announced in 2021. Arthur Koestler Arthur Koestler CBE ( UK : / ˈ k ɜː s t l ər / , US : / ˈ k ɛ s t -/ ; German: [ˈkœstlɐ] ; Hungarian : Kösztler Artúr ; 5 September 1905 – 1 March 1983)
3036-605: The next 43 years, Koestler espoused many political causes and wrote novels, memoirs, biographies, and numerous essays. In 1949, Koestler began secretly working with a British Cold War anti-communist propaganda department known as the Information Research Department (IRD), which would republish and distribute many of his works, and also fund his activities. In 1968, he was awarded the Sonning Prize "for [his] outstanding contribution to European culture". In 1972, he
3105-538: The next twelve months he supported himself with menial jobs in Haifa , Tel Aviv , and Jerusalem . Frequently penniless and starving, he often depended on friends and acquaintances for survival. He occasionally wrote or edited broadsheets and other publications, mostly in German. In early 1927 he left Palestine briefly for Berlin , where he ran the Secretariat of Ze'ev Jabotinsky 's Revisionist Party. Later that year, through
3174-581: The official version of events by the Soviet government, he claimed that those starving were "enemies of the people who preferred begging to work." Koestler wrote a book on the Soviet Five-Year Plan , but it did not meet with the approval of the Soviet authorities and was never published in Russian. Only the German version, extensively censored, was published in an edition for German-speaking Soviet citizens. As
3243-548: The post-nominal letters FRSL . New fellows of the Royal Society of Literature are elected by its current fellows. To be nominated for fellowship, a writer must have published two works of literary merit, and nominations must be seconded by an RSL fellow. All nominations are presented to members of the Council of the Royal Society of Literature, who vote biannually to elect new fellows. Nominated candidates who have not been successful are reconsidered at every election for three years from
3312-662: The privilege of using the post-nominal letters FRSL. Past and present fellows include Samuel Taylor Coleridge , J. R. R. Tolkien , W. B. Yeats , Rudyard Kipling , Thomas Hardy , George Bernard Shaw , Arthur Koestler , Chinua Achebe , Ruth Prawer Jhabvala , Robert Ardrey , Sybille Bedford , Muriel Spark , P. J. Kavanagh , Hilary Mantel , and Sir Roger Scruton . Present Fellows include Margaret Atwood , Bernardine Evaristo , David Hare , Kazuo Ishiguro , Andrew Motion , Paul Muldoon , Zadie Smith , Nadeem Aslam , Sarah Waters , Geoffrey Ashe , J. K. Rowling , and Nick Cave . A newly created fellow inscribes his or her name on
3381-646: The relief of Arthur Koestler". In 1951 the last of Koestler's political works, The Age of Longing , was published. In it he examined the political landscape of post-war Europe and the problems facing the continent. In August 1952 his marriage to Mamaine collapsed. They separated, but remained close until her sudden and unexpected death in June 1954. The book Living with Koestler: Mamaine Koestler's Letters 1945–51 , edited by Mamaine's twin sister Celia Goodman, gives insight into their lives together. Koestler decided to make his permanent home in Britain. In May 1953 he bought
3450-658: The rising Nazi tide and that the Communists were the only real counter-force. In the early 1930s, Koestler moved to the Soviet Union . In 1932 Koestler travelled in Turkmenistan and Central Asia, where he met and traveled with Langston Hughes . During his stay in the Soviet Union, he also lived for a time in the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic , alongside physicist and writer Alexander Weissberg . At
3519-493: The side of the Nationalists. He took refuge in the house of retired zoologist Sir Peter Chalmers Mitchell , and they were both arrested by Franco's chief propagandist, Luis Bolín , who had sworn that if he ever got his hands on Koestler, he would "shoot him like a dog". From February until June, Koestler was imprisoned in Seville under sentence of death. He was eventually exchanged for a "high value" Nationalist prisoner held by
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#17330935929523588-428: The society's official roll using either Byron's pen, T. S. Eliot 's fountain pen , which replaced Dickens 's quill in 2013, or (as of 2018) George Eliot 's pen, with pens belonging to Jean Rhys and Andrea Levy being additional choices from 2020. From time to time, the RSL confers the honour and title of Companion of Literature to writers of particular note. Additionally, the RSL can bestow its award of
3657-486: The time, the Ukrainian SSR was in the middle of a catastrophic man-made famine . Much later he would describe how in the train station of Kharkiv , "[Ukrainian peasant women] held up to the carriage windows horrible infants with enormous wobbling heads, sticklike limbs, and swollen, pointed bellies" as a result of the widespread malnutrition. Nevertheless, at this time he remained a convinced Soviet sympathiser, and echoing
3726-586: The way he had lunch with Thomas Mann , got drunk with Dylan Thomas , made friends with George Orwell , flirted with Mary McCarthy and lived in Cyril Connolly 's London flat. In 1940 Koestler was released from a French detention camp, partly thanks to the intervention of Harold Nicolson and Noël Coward . In the 1950s he helped to found the Congress for Cultural Freedom , together with Melvin Lasky and Sidney Hook . In
3795-522: The year in which they were proposed. Newly elected fellows are introduced at the Society's AGM and summer party. While the President reads a citation for each, they are invited to sign their names in the roll book which dates back to 1820, using either T. S. Eliot 's fountain pen or Byron 's pen. In 2013, Charles Dickens ' quill was retired and replaced with Eliot's fountain pen, and in 2018 George Eliot 's pen
3864-587: Was Jonas Mischel Loeb Jeitteles , a prominent 18th-century physician and essayist, whose son Juda Jeitteles became a well-known poet ( Beethoven set some of his poems to music). Adele's father, Jacob Jeiteles, moved the family to Vienna , where she grew up in relative prosperity until about 1890. Faced with financial difficulties, Jacob abandoned his wife and daughter and emigrated to the United States. Adele and her mother moved from Vienna to Budapest to stay with Adele's older married sister. Henrik and Adele met in 1898, and married in 1900. Arthur, their only child,
3933-540: Was Thomas Burgess , Bishop of St David's (who was later translated as Bishop of Salisbury ). As of 2018, the RSL's patron is Queen Camilla , who took over in the role from Elizabeth II . At the heart of the RSL is its Fellowship, "which encompasses the most distinguished writers working today", with the RSL Council responsible for its direction and management, being drawn from the Fellowship. As an independent charity,
4002-429: Was an Austro-Hungarian -born author and journalist. Koestler was born in Budapest , and apart from his early school years, was educated in Austria. In 1931, Koestler joined the Communist Party of Germany , but he resigned in 1938 after becoming disillusioned with Stalinism . Having moved to Britain in 1940, he published his novel Darkness at Noon , an anti- totalitarian work that gained him international fame. Over
4071-445: Was born on 18 August 1869 in the town of Miskolc in northeastern Hungary. Henrik left school at age 16 and took a job as an errand boy with a firm of drapers. He taught himself English, German and French, and eventually became a partner in the firm. He later set up his own business importing textiles into Hungary. Arthur's mother, Adele Jeiteles, was born on 25 June 1871 into a prominent Jewish family in Prague . Among her ancestors
4140-600: Was born on 5 September 1905. The Koestlers lived in spacious, well-furnished, rented apartments in various predominantly Jewish districts of Budapest. During Arthur's early years, they employed a cook/housekeeper, as well as a foreign governess. His primary school education started at an experimental private kindergarten founded by Laura Striker ( née Polányi ). Her daughter Eva Striker later became Koestler's lover, and they remained friends all his life. The outbreak of World War I in 1914 deprived Koestler's father of foreign suppliers and his business collapsed. Facing destitution,
4209-454: Was briefly a patient of Sigmund Freud . In interwar Vienna he wound up as the personal secretary of Vladimir Jabotinsky , one of the early leaders of the Zionist movement . Travelling in Soviet Turkmenistan as a young and ardent Communist, he ran into Langston Hughes . While reporting on the Spanish Civil War , he met W. H. Auden at a "crazy party" in Valencia before winding up in one of Franco 's prisons. In Weimar Berlin he fell into
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#17330935929524278-411: Was dissolved on 15 December 1949. This cleared the way for his marriage to Mamaine Paget, which took place on 15 April 1950 at the British Consulate in Paris. In June Koestler delivered a major anti-Communist speech in Berlin under the auspices of the Congress for Cultural Freedom , an organisation funded (though he did not know this) by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) of the United States. In
4347-468: Was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE). In 1976, he was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease and in 1979 with terminal leukaemia . On 1 March 1983, Koestler and his wife Cynthia died of suicide together at their London home by swallowing lethal quantities of barbiturate -based Tuinal capsules. [Koestler] began his education in the twilight of the Austro-Hungarian Empire , at an experimental kindergarten in Budapest. His mother
4416-404: Was offered as a choice, the first time in the RSL's history that a pen that belonged to a woman writer was an option. In 2018, the RSL honoured the achievements of Britain's younger writers through the initiative "40 Under 40", which saw the election of 40 new fellows aged under 40. In 2020, pens belonging to Andrea Levy and Jean Rhys were added to the choices offered to fellows for signing
4485-401: Was published in early 1941. Immediately after Koestler was released, he volunteered for Army service. While awaiting his call-up papers, between January and March 1941, he wrote his memoir Scum of the Earth , the first book he wrote in English. For the next twelve months he served in the Pioneer Corps . In March 1942 Koestler was assigned to the Ministry of Information , where he worked as
4554-402: Was the only journalist on board: his live wireless broadcasts, and subsequent articles and lecture tours throughout Europe, brought him further attention. Soon afterwards he was appointed foreign editor and assistant editor-in-chief of the mass-circulation Berliner Zeitung am Mittag . In 1931, Koestler, encouraged by Eva Striker , and impressed by the achievements of the Soviet Union, became
4623-457: Was then illegal. Koestler's main political activity during 1955 was his campaign for the abolition of capital punishment (which in the UK was by hanging). In July he started work on Reflections on Hanging . Although Koestler resumed work on a biography of Kepler in 1955, it was not published until 1959. In the interim it was entitled The Sleepwalkers . The emphasis of the book had changed and broadened to "A History of Man's Changing Vision of
4692-466: Was wanted by the British and had a 500-pound bounty on his head. Koestler tried to persuade him to abandon militant attacks and accept a two-state solution for Palestine, but failed. Many years later Koestler wrote in his memoirs: "When the meeting was over, I realised how naïve I had been to imagine that my arguments would have even the slightest influence." Staying in Palestine until August 1945, Koestler collected material for his next novel, Thieves in
4761-404: Was well-paid. Even though the autobiography was published in 1953, after Koestler had become an outspoken anti-Communist, he wrote favourably of the Hungarian Communists and their leader Béla Kun . He fondly recalled the hopes for a better future he had felt as a teenager in revolutionary Budapest. Later the Koestlers witnessed the temporary occupation of Budapest by the Romanian Army and then
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