Michael Arlen facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Michael Arlen
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Arlen on the cover of Time in 1927
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| Born | Dikran Sarkis Kouyoumdjian 16 November 1895 Ruse, Bulgaria |
| Died | 23 June 1956 (aged 60) New York City, U.S. |
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| Education | Malvern College |
| Alma mater | University of Edinburgh |
| Spouse |
Atalanta Mercati
(m. 1928) |
| Children | 2, including Michael |
Michael Arlen (born Dikran Sarkis Kouyoumdjian; 16 November 1895 – 23 June 1956) was a British writer. He wrote essays, short stories, novels, plays, and movie scripts. He became very successful in the 1920s while living in England.
Arlen is best known for his funny stories about rich and fashionable English society. But he also wrote scary stories (called gothic horror) and exciting psychological thrillers. For example, his story "The Gentleman from America" was made into a TV episode for Alfred Hitchcock's show Alfred Hitchcock Presents in 1956. Later in his life, Arlen mostly wrote about politics. His writing style was very lively and unique, and people called it 'Arlenesque'.
Michael Arlen was a well-known figure in the 1920s, much like the characters in his books. He was always perfectly dressed and groomed. He drove a fancy yellow Rolls-Royce around London and enjoyed a luxurious lifestyle. However, he knew that some people were suspicious of him because he was a foreigner and successful.
His books inspired famous Hollywood movies. These include A Woman of Affairs (1928) with Greta Garbo, and The Golden Arrow (1936) with Bette Davis. He also helped write the script for The Heavenly Body (1944), starring William Powell and Hedy Lamarr.
Contents
Biography
Early life
Michael Arlen was born Dikran Sarkis Kouyoumdjian on 16 November 1895. His family was Armenian and lived in Ruse, Bulgaria. In 1892, his family moved to Plovdiv, Bulgaria. They had left their home because of persecutions against Armenians in the Ottoman Empire. In Plovdiv, Arlen's father, Sarkis Kouyoumdjian, started a successful import business. Michael was the youngest of five children, with three brothers and one sister. In 1901, his family moved again, this time to Southport in Lancashire, England.
Becoming a writer
After studying at Malvern College and a short time in Switzerland, young Arlen started studying medicine at the University of Edinburgh. He had originally planned to go to the University of Oxford. Arlen later wrote that going to Edinburgh was a "silly mistake." After only a few months, he left Edinburgh and moved to London. He wanted to become a writer.
In 1913, Arlen moved to London to start his writing career. A year later, the First World War began. This made things difficult for Arlen in England because he was a Bulgarian citizen. Bulgaria had disowned him because he would not join their army. Since Bulgaria was allied with Germany, England was suspicious of Arlen. He could not become a British citizen or change his name yet. In London, Arlen found friends among other writers who were also viewed with suspicion or had not served in the military. These friends included Aldous Huxley and D. H. Lawrence.
Starting his career
Arlen began writing in 1916 under his birth name, Dikran Kouyoumdjian. He first wrote for an Armenian magazine in London called Ararat: A Searchlight on Armenia. Soon after, he wrote for The New Age, a British magazine about politics, arts, and literature. For these magazines, Arlen wrote essays, book reviews, and short stories.
His essays about London were collected and published in 1920 as The London Venture. From this time on, he started signing his works as 'Michael Arlen'. He had already published two short stories with this name in The English Review in 1920. In 1922, he officially became a British citizen and legally changed his name to Michael Arlen.
During the 1920s, Arlen lived in Shepherd Market in Mayfair, London. This area was known for its artistic and bohemian residents. He later used Shepherd Market as the setting for his famous novel, The Green Hat.
Fame and success
After The London Venture, Arlen wrote romantic stories. He often added elements of psychological thrills and horror to them. Some of these books were The Romantic Lady, These Charming People, and "Piracy": A Romantic Chronicle of These Days. In These Charming People, he wrote tales with fantasy and horror, like "The Ancient Sin." The title of another story, "When a Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square," inspired a popular song.
These works led to the book that made Arlen famous and wealthy in the 1920s: The Green Hat, published in 1924. This novel tells the story of Iris Storm, a daring and mysterious widow. She owns a yellow Hispano-Suiza car and, of course, the green hat from the title. Arlen turned the novel into a Broadway play in 1925, which was very successful.
The novel was also made into a silent Hollywood film in 1928 called A Woman of Affairs, starring Greta Garbo. Because The Green Hat was considered a bit shocking in the United States, the movie was not allowed to mention the book directly. It was made into a movie again in 1934, called Outcast Lady.
After The Green Hat was published, Arlen became famous almost overnight. He was rich and constantly in the news, like celebrities today. During this time, in the mid-1920s, Arlen often traveled to the United States. He worked on plays and films there.
In 1924, Arlen helped another famous writer, Noël Coward. He gave Coward money to help produce his play The Vortex. This play became a huge success and made Coward very well known.
After all this fame, Arlen felt a bit nervous about writing his next book. He wrote Young Men in Love (1927), which received mixed reviews. He continued to write novels like Lily Christine (1928) and Men Dislike Women (1931). None of these books were as popular as The Green Hat. Arlen also wrote a collection of Ghost Stories (1927).
Later life
In 1927, Arlen felt unwell and joined D. H. Lawrence in Florence, Italy.
Arlen then moved to Cannes, France. In 1928, he married Countess Atalanta Mercati. They had two children: a son, Michael John Arlen, born in 1930, and a daughter, Venetia Arlen, born in 1933.
With his next novel, Man's Mortality (1933), Arlen started writing about politics and science fiction. This book was set fifty years in the future, in 1983. It showed a world that seemed perfect but was actually a Dystopia, a place where things are very bad. Most critics compared it to Aldous Huxley's Brave New World, which had been published the year before.
In the following years, Arlen also returned to writing scary stories with Hell! Said the Duchess: A Bed-Time Story (1934). His last collection of short stories, The Crooked Coronet (1939), brought back his earlier romantic and funny style. Arlen is also known in the world of crime fiction for his short story "Gay Falcon" (1940). In this story, he created a gentleman detective named Gay Stanhope Falcon. This character was later used by Hollywood in 1941 for a series of mystery films.
In 1939, when the Second World War began, Arlen returned to England. While his wife, Atalanta, joined the Red Cross, Arlen wrote articles for The Tatler magazine. That same year, his final book, The Flying Dutchman (1939), was published. It was a political novel that strongly criticized Germany's role in the war.
In 1940, Arlen was given a job as a public relations officer for civil defense in England. However, in 1941, some people in the British Parliament questioned his loyalty to England. He then resigned and moved to America, settling in New York in 1946. For the last ten years of his life, Arlen found it hard to write.
He died of cancer on June 23, 1956, in New York.
See also
In Spanish: Michael Arlen para niños
