Austrian · 1905–1983
Arthur Koestler's "Darkness at Noon" became one of the twentieth century's essential political novels. The 1940 book depicted a Bolshevik revolutionary confessing to crimes he didn't commit during Stalin's show trials, exploring how idealism curdles into totalitarianism. Koestler, a Hungarian-British author who had been a Communist Party member, drew on his own disillusionment to create fiction that changed minds about Soviet communism. He continued writing about science, philosophy, and politics until his death.