KOESTLER, Arthur

(1905-1983)

   Hungarian-born author and journalist who narrowly avoided execution in the Spanish Civil War and spent the rest of his life in the UK and France, becoming a naturalized UK citizen in 1940. All his booksafter the famous DYSTOPIA Darkness at Noon (trans Daphne Hardy 1940) were written in English. Several of the speculative, philosophical works of his later career have a direct interest for sf readers and have probably been influential on sf writers. They include The Sleepwalkers: A History of Man's Changing Vision of the Universe (1959), The Act of Creation (1964),The Case of the Midwife Toad (1971) - about the "Lamarckian" inheritance of acquired characteristics (EVOLUTION; PSEUDO-SCIENCE) - and The Roots of Coincidence (1972). His play, Twilight Bar: An Escapade in Four Acts (written 1933; English version 1945), is a UTOPIAN fantasia set on aworld- ISLAND visited by ALIENS who threaten to destroy human life unless we better ourselves immediately. The Age of Longing (1951), is NEAR FUTURE sf, a discussion novel set in France; it distils his intimate experience with European thought and POLITICS into a prediction of the nature of our response to a threatened INVASION from the East. The Call Girls: A Tragi-Comedy (1972) is a discussion novel on sf-related themes. AK was animportant speculative thinker, many of whose ideas challenged (sometimes with some success) "orthodox" scientific and social thought. He several times expressed contempt for sf.

   JC

   See also: THEATRE.