''The Invisible Writing: The Second Volume Of An Autobiography, 1932-40'' (1954) is a book by
Arthur Koestler
Arthur Koestler (, ; ; ; 5 September 1905 – 1 March 1983) was an Austria-Hungary, Austro-Hungarian-born author and journalist. Koestler was born in Budapest, and was educated in Austria, apart from his early school years. In 1931, Koestler j ...
.
[Ambrose Ambrose, Peter Peter John John, and P. Calvocoressi. "Spiritual Odyssey." The Times Literary Supplement, no. 2735, 2 July 1954, p. 419.]
It follows on from ''
Arrow in the Blue'', published two years earlier, and which described his life from his birth in 1905, to 1931, and deals with a much shorter period, a mere eight years (as opposed to the twenty six of the previous volume). This was nonetheless, a highly significant period in Koestler's life, as it involved his membership and subsequent alienation from the Communist movement.
As well as his relationship with Communism, ''The Invisible Writing'' is also interesting for its documentation of Europe in the years leading up to
World War II
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
, both his native
Hungary
Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...
and Austria, Germany, and also the west, such as Spain, France and England.
In ''The Invisible Writing'', Koestler recalls that during the summer of 1935 he "wrote about half of a satirical novel called ''
The Good Soldier Schweik Goes to War Again....''. It had been commissioned by
Willy Münzenberg /nowiki>the Comintern.html" ;"title="/nowiki>the Comintern">/nowiki>the Comintern's chief propagandist in the Western world">West
West is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sun sets on the Earth.
Etymology
The word "west" is a Germanic word passed into some Romance langu ...
... but was vetoed by the Communist Party of the Soviet Union">Party
A party is a gathering of people who have been invited by a Hospitality, host for the purposes of socializing, conversation, recreation, or as part of a festival or other commemoration or celebration of a special occasion. A party will oft ...
on the grounds of the book's 'pacifist errors'..." (p. 283).
Much of the experiences in this book, were also to be found in some form elsewhere:
* Koestler's incarceration in the Spanish Civil War, by the FET y de las JONS, Phalange – documented in ''Spanish Testament'' (1937), and revised 1942 as ''Dialogue with Death'', and which formed part of the basis for his novel ''Darkness at Noon'' (1940).
* ''
, and subsequent escape in the pre-World War II period.
* Koestler's experiences with Communism were also discussed by him in the anti-Communist ''
'' (1949), which collected the testimonies of several ex-Communists.
* ''Von Weissen Nächten und Roten Tagen'' ("From White Nights and Red Days"), published in 1933, also recounts some of the early period of this book. It is very difficult to find, being mostly published in the
, and long out of print. It is nonetheless significant as Koestler's first published book.