Michael Scummell wrote the latest biography of Arthur Koestler. It is a tour de force of a book. Arthur Koestler was famous in his life time but after his death in 1983, his reputation sunk like a stone, even though he wrote over 30 books, at least 5 considered to be superb. Now I think people are beginning to re-think his works. I thoroughly enjoyed reading about the life of this man, even though I did not like Mr. Koestler.
The question is always about productivity and creativity and this book tells a lot about the process. Koestler was born Hungarian, published first in German, and finally wrote and lectured in English, the only author to have done such a feat. He was clearly very very smart but he was also very very difficult. I have never agreed that clever productive people have a free ride on decency but I enjoyed the whole story of how all those works were written. Creativity is a mystery to me. Reading this biography gave me a bit of insight into how things get done. "Koestler: The Literary and Political Odyssey of a 20th Century..." by Michael Scummell is worth reading.
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