Arthur koestler autobiography of benjamin

In April Koestler was awarded the Sonning Prize "for [his] outstanding contribution to European culture". The Ghost in the Machine was published in August of same year and in the autumn he received an honorary doctorate from Queen's University, KingstonCanada. In the later part of November the Koestlers flew to Australia for a number of television appearances and press interviews.

Early in Koestler was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease. The trembling of his hand made writing progressively more difficult. That same year saw the publication of The Thirteenth Tribewhich presents his Khazar hypothesis of Ashkenazi ancestry. In he was diagnosed with chronic lymphocytic leukaemia. His final book, Kaleidoscopecontaining essays from Drinkers of Infinity and The Heel of Achilles: Essays —with some later pieces and stories, was published in During the final years of his life, Koestler, Brian Inglis and Tony Bloomfield established the KIB Society named from the initials of their surnames to sponsor research "outside the scientific orthodoxies".

After his death it was renamed The Koestler Foundation. In his capacity as vice-president of the Voluntary Euthanasia Societylater renamed Exit, Koestler wrote a pamphlet on suicide, outlining the case both for and against, with a section dealing specifically with how best to do it. Koestler and Cynthia killed themselves on the evening of 1 March at their London home, 8 Montpelier Square, with overdoses of the barbiturate Tuinal taken with alcohol.

Shortly before his suicide his doctor had discovered a swelling in the groin which indicated a arthur koestler autobiography of benjamin of the cancer. The purpose of this note is to make it unmistakably clear that I intend to commit suicide by taking an overdose of drugs without the knowledge or aid of any other person. The drugs have been legally obtained and hoarded over a considerable period.

Trying to commit suicide is a gamble the outcome of which will be known to the gambler only if the attempt fails, but not if it succeeds. Should this attempt fail and I survive it in a physically or mentally impaired state, in which I can no longer control what is done to me, or communicate my wishes, I hereby request that I be allowed to die in my own home and not be resuscitated or kept alive by artificial means.

I further request that my wife, or a physician, or any friend present, should invoke habeas corpus against any attempt to remove me forcibly from my house to hospital. My reasons for deciding to put an end to my life are simple and compelling: Parkinson's disease and the slow-killing variety of leukaemia CCI. I kept the latter a secret even from intimate friends to save them distress.

After a more or less steady physical decline over the last years, the process has now reached an acute state with added complications which make it advisable to seek self-deliverance now, before I become incapable of making the necessary arrangements. I wish my friends to know that I am leaving their company in a peaceful frame of mind, with some timid hopes for a de-personalised after-life beyond due confines of space, time and matter and beyond the limits of our comprehension.

This "oceanic feeling" has often sustained me at difficult moments, and does so now, while I am writing this. What makes it nevertheless hard to take this final step is the reflection of the pain it is bound to inflict on my surviving friends, above all my wife Cynthia. It is to her that I owe the relative peace and happiness that I enjoyed in the last period of my life — and never before.

Since the above was written in Junemy wife decided that after thirty-four years of working together she could not face life after my death. I fear both death and the act of dying that lies ahead of us. I should have liked to finish my account of working for Arthur — a story which began when our paths happened to cross in However, I cannot live without Arthur, despite certain inner resources.

Double suicide has never appealed to me, but now Arthur's incurable diseases have reached a stage where there is nothing else to do. She was only 55 years old and was believed to be in good health. In a typewritten addition to her husband's suicide note, Cynthia wrote that she could not live without her husband. Reportedly, few of the Koestlers' friends were surprised by this admission, apparently perceiving that Cynthia lived her life through her husband and that she had no "life of her own".

All their friends were troubled by what Julian Barnes calls "the unmentionable, half-spoken question" of Koestler's responsibility for Cynthia's actions.

Arthur koestler autobiography of benjamin: As a year-old Communist he spent

And "if he didn't bully her into it, why didn't he bully her out of it? The trustees of the estate had great difficulty finding a university willing to establish such a chair. Eventually the trustees reached agreement with the University of Edinburgh to set up a chair in accordance with Koestler's request. Koestler's relations with women have been a source of controversy.

David Cesarani alleged in his biography of Koestler, published inthat Koestler had been a serial rapist, citing the case of the British feminist writer Jill Craigie who said that she had been his victim in Feminist protesters forced the removal of his bust from Edinburgh University. Claims that Koestler had been violent were added by Craigie later, although Scammell concedes that Koestler could be rough and sexually aggressive.

Some critics believed that Cesarani's claims of Koestler having been a 'serial rapist' were unfounded; in his review of Cesarani's biography in The New York Timesthe historian Mark Mazower observed: "Even those who applaud Cesarani for bringing the rape issue forward may wonder whether his approach is not too one-sided to make for a convincing portrait.

Koestler was a domineering man. But he attracted women and many remained close friends after they had slept with him. It is implausible to write them all off as masochists, as Cesarani effectively does. Some broke with him; but then so did many other friends and acquaintances. Cesarani and others claim that Koestler had misogynistic tendencies.

He engaged in numerous sexual affairs and generally treated the women in his life badly. It is difficult to think of a single important twentieth-century intellectual who did not cross paths with Arthur Koestler, or a single important twentieth-century intellectual movement that Koestler did not either join or oppose. From progressive education and Freudian psychoanalysis through Zionismcommunismand existentialism to psychedelic drugsparapsychologyand euthanasiaKoestler was fascinated by every philosophical fad, serious and unserious, political and apolitical, of his era.

Koestler wrote several major novels, two volumes of autobiographical works, two volumes of reportage, a major work on the history of science, several volumes of essays, and a considerable body of other writing and articles on subjects as varied as genetics, euthanasia, Eastern mysticism, neurology, chess, evolution, psychology, the paranormal and more.

Darkness at Noon was one of the most influential anti-Soviet books ever written. Koestler embraced a multitude of political, as well as non-political issues. Zionism, communism, anti-communism, voluntary euthanasiaabolition of capital punishment, particularly hangingand the abolition of quarantine for dogs being reimported into the United Kingdom are examples.

In his book The Case of the Midwife Toad Koestler defended the biologist Paul Kammererwho claimed to have found experimental support for Lamarckian inheritance.

Arthur koestler autobiography of benjamin: The book is dedicated

According to Koestler, Kammerer's experiments on the midwife toad may have been tampered with by a Nazi sympathiser at the University of Vienna. Koestler came to the conclusion that a kind of modified "Mini-Lamarckism" may explain some rare evolutionary phenomena. Koestler criticised neo-Darwinism in a number of his books but was not opposed to the theory of evolution in general terms.

In addition to his specific critiques of neo-Darwinism, Koestler was opposed to what he saw as dangerous scientific reductionism more generally, including the behaviourism school of psychology, promoted in particular by B. Skinner during the s. WaddingtonW. Thorpeand Ludwig von Bertalanffyfor a meeting at his retreat in Alpbach in This was one of many attempts which Koestler made to gain acceptance within the mainstream of science, a strategy which brought him into conflict with individuals such as Peter Medawar who saw themselves as defending the integrity of science from outsiders.

Mysticism and a fascination with the paranormal imbued much of Koestler's later work and he discussed paranormal phenomena, such as extrasensory perception, psychokinesisand telepathy.

Arthur koestler autobiography of benjamin: The first two volumes

In his book The Roots of Coincidence [ 98 ] he claims that such phenomena can never be explained by theoretical physics. He also presents critically the related concepts of Carl Jung. More controversial were Koestler's studies and experiments on levitation and telepathy. Koestler was Jewish by birth but did not practise the religion. In an interview published in the British newspaper The Jewish Chronicle inhe argued that Jews should either emigrate to Israel or assimilate completely into the majority cultures they lived in.

Koestler argued that a proof that Ashkenazi Jews have no biological connection to biblical Jews would remove the racial basis of European anti-Semitism. In reference to the Balfour DeclarationKoestler stated that "one nation solemnly promised to a second nation the country of a third". Koestler enjoyed strong personal relationships with IRD agents from onwards, and was supportive of the department's anti-communist goals.

Koestler's relationship with the British government was so strong that he had become a de facto advisor to British propagandists, urging them to create a popular series of anti-comunist left-wing literature to rival the success of the Left Book Club.

Arthur koestler autobiography of benjamin: In his autobiographical writing Koestler

Koestler first learned Hungarianbut later his family spoke mostly German at home. From his early years he became fluent in both languages. It is likely that he picked up some Yiddish too, through contact with his grandfather. In AugustKoestler was in Palestine where he read in the Palestine Post about the dropping of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima.

He said to a friend: "That's the end of the world war, and it is also the beginning of the end of the world. Contents move to sidebar hide. Internet Arcade Console Living Room. Open Library American Libraries. Search the Wayback Machine Search icon An illustration of a magnifying glass. Sign up for free Log in. The invisible writing; an autobiography Bookreader Item Preview.

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