Literary prize competitions are a bit like lotteries in their seeming randomness, and after making the final cut for biography in Los Angeles only to lose out in the last round, I wasn't expecting too much from making the shortlist for the Spear's magazine awards in London. On July 5, however, the British-based magazine announced its second annual list of prize winners, and I'm delighted to say that Koestler, the Indispensable Intellectual, was chosen as the "Best Biography of 2010." Unfortunately I couldn't fly over from the United States for the awards ceremony, which was held at the Criterion Restaurant in London, but the award was accepted on my behalf by my English literary agent, Derek Johns. A description of the event, and full list of prize winners, can be found at the following URL: http://www.spearswms.com/good-life/books/19077/spears-book-awards-2010-winners.thtml, and here is the text of my brief acceptance speech which was read at the ceremony.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
First let me apologize to Spear’s magazine, to my fellow writers, and to the audience for my absence from this notable occasion. I would have loved to be there, but I find myself on the far side of the Atlantic Ocean, and the cost of flying over for even such a sumptuous lunch as today’s is beyond my modest means. That said, I’m absolutely thrilled to have been awarded this prize from Spear’s for the 2010 “Biography of the Year,” and would like to thank the judges for their vote of confidence in my book.
My subject, Arthur Koestler, was not an easy man to write about, not just because of the difficulty (to put it mildly) of his character, but also because he does not easily fit into any national literary or political tradition. Moreover his protean interests and wildly diverse literary output are guaranteed to stretch the reader’s knowledge and patience to the limit, and all these things, taken together, have contributed to his unfortunate neglect since his death. It has therefore been a pleasure to bring Koestler back to life, and to remind today’s readers both of his notable contributions to our present wellbeing and of his virtues as a political writer, second only to those of his close friend, George Orwell.
I should like to add that I value the very existence of this award as an acknowledgement by Spear’s of the importance of the art of biography, which is neither as widely understood, nor as glamorous, as the other literary arts. We biographers are accustomed to reading lengthy reviews that are all about the exploits of our subjects, which is fine for the most part, because it confirms the aptness of our choices, but we also know that without art, even the most fascinating person can be rendered dull. The good biographer, as Virginia Woolf so memorably put it, is “the novelist on oath,” employing the multiple devices of fiction while observing the factual scrupulosity of the historian and preserving the verifiability of the scholar.
In conclusion, let me salute my fellow biographers: Selina Hastings, Mark Hudson, Robert Service and Ion Trewin, and say I’m proud to be in your company, and sorry I can’t be physically among you today.
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