Michael Scammell’s latest book...
...is the authorized biography of Arthur Koestler, Koestler: The Literary and Political Odyssey of a Twentieth-Century Skeptic, published in December 2009 by Random House. The UK edition, to be published by Faber in February 2010, will have a different title, Koestler: The Indispensable Intellectual, but the text is the same, and is the fruit of nearly twenty years of effort. His last biography, Solzhenitsyn, A Biography (Norton, USA, 1984, Hutchinson, UK, 1985) won the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for biography and English PEN’s Silver PEN Award for nonfiction.
Scammell has translated numerous books from Russian, including Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Childhood, Boyhood and Youth by Lev Tolstoy, and memoirs by Soviet dissidents Anatoly Marchenko and Vladimir Bukovsky.
The Literary and Political Odyssey of a Twentieth-Century Skeptic
New! “Michael Scammell, in his superb biography, tells us that Koestler read Hemingway....But what strikes me
especially is Scammell’s thorough and judicious account of Koestler’s organizational activities and
agitations as well.... Scammell feels a palpable admiration for Koestler, which is one of the charms of the
biography.... this huge and scrupulous and unfailingly intelligent book.”
—Paul Berman, The New Republic.
New! “Scammell performs a much-needed act of restoration, separating the rumors surrounding Koestler’s
private life from what can reasonably known. Most important for the reader, he conveys the aggressive brio of
Koestler’s story and the sheer excitement of his reportorial adventures in the twentieth century.”
—Nicholas Fraser, Harper’s Magazine.
“Scammell is able to reconstruct complicated scenes from Koestler’s life with real historical and
literary flair.... The main characters are shown from every angle, with all of their faults and virtues. Koestler
himself seems so alive he might leap off the page.”
—Anne Applebaum, The New York Review of Books.
“Readers looking for a terrific biography, as well as a gripping work of intellectual history,
shouldn’t miss this record of “the literary and political history of a twentieth century
skeptic.” Every page is enthralling....”
—Michael Dirda, The Washington Post.
“Arthur Koestler and the twentieth century glow with life in this biography, a triumph of scholarship,
moral acuity, and literary art.”
—Algis Valiunas, Commentary.
“Michael Scammell’s powerful new biography… explores the whole range of Koestler’s
achievements, from the invention of the Hebrew crossword to the abolition of the death penalty in Britain. The
research that has gone into this biography is prodigious.”
—Noel Malcolm, The Sunday Telegraph.
“Michael Scammell’s magisterial biography… will surely become the definitive life.”
—John Carey, The Sunday Times.
“This is a skilfully structured work and… is vastly entertaining.... a warts-and-all work, not
with only warts. Koestler was a super-sophisticated man. At last, in Michael Scammell, he has a super-sophisticated
biographer.”
—Victor Sebestyen, Evening Standard.
“This is the first authorised biography of the Hungarian-Jewish writer and it is a majestic achievement….
Scammell’s style is lively and authoritative, and the stuff of Koestler’s life is engrossing. He brings
alive a sparkling walk-on cast.”
—Anon, The Economist
“As Scammell’s exhaustively researched and often extremely illuminating biography makes clear,
Koestler… possessed undeniable greatness.... In the early twenty-first century, with a callow rationalism back in
fashion, he towers over the scene, a giant figure.”
—John Gray, The Literary Review.
Books
The authorized biography of this legendary Author and polymath. “A compelling, intensely ripping study. Even the porcupine-tempered Koestler would have been proud.” —George Steiner. “A prodigy of research in many languages and a scrupulous piece of fair-minded advocacy.” —Louis Menand in The New Yorker. More »
“This superb biography will certainly be the standard account of the most remarkable literary life story of our time.” —TLS. “An enthralling book.” —NY Times. “What a man. What a life. What a book!” —The Cleveland Plain Dealer. More »
Edited By
The Solzhenitsyn Files
“An amazing compilation of once top-secret Soviet government documents… This newsworthy Book reveals the Soviet leadership as complacent, Inept and out of touch with the masses.” —Publishers Weekly.
From Under the Rubble
by Alexander Solzhenitsyn, et al
“A far reaching meditation on the human condition. I return to it again and again.” —John W. Sewell.
Russia‘s Other Writers, Selections from Samizdat Literature
“An important contribution to the vast and continuing labor of correcting the distorted image of Soviet literature created by fifty years of suppression.” —Max Hayward.
