Arthur Koestler in Maisons-Laffitte, Yvelines (78)

2 place de Wagram, Maisons-Laffitte.

'Arthur

KOESTLER

1905–1983

Écrivain engagé

a sejourné en 1934

dans cette maison.'

'La Villa Voltaire', as it was then called, was built in 1838 by Saint Georges Catherine Molesworth. In the 1930s it became a children's garden nicknamed 'La Pouponnière' ('The Crèche' | 'The Nursery'), which Koestler organised for two months. He welcomed children whose parents were Jews or communists pursued by the Nazis. Koestler also wrote his first novel here, although it was never published.