Lost Horizon
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- This article is about the novel. For the 1937 movie, see Lost Horizon (film), for the band, see Lost Horizon (band).
Image:LostHorizon.jpg Lost Horizon is a fantasy adventure novel by James Hilton. Hugh Conway, a veteran member of the British diplomatic service, finds inner peace, love, and a sense of purpose in Shangri-La, a utopian lamasery high in the Himalayas in Tibet whose inhabitants also enjoy longevity. Among the book's themes is the allusion of the possibility of another cataclysmic world war brewing. It is said to have been inspired at least in part by accounts of travels in Tibetan borderlands, published in the National Geographic by the explorer and botanist Joseph Rock. The remote communities he visited, such as Muli, show many similarities to the fictional Shangri-La. One such town, Zhongdian, has now officially renamed itself as Shangri La (Ch: Xianggelila) because of its claim to be the inspiration for the novel.
The book, published in 1933, was a huge success. In 1939 it was chosen to be the first novel published in paperback form, as Pocket Book #1. President Franklin D. Roosevelt named the Presidential hideaway in Maryland after Shangri-La (it has since been renamed Camp David.)
The book has been made into two films:
- 1937, directed by Frank Capra
- 1973, directed by Charles Jarrott (musical version)
Another very different film with the same title Lost Horizon (2000) has the original Spanish title La Cabecita rubia, and is the work of Argentinian director Luis Sampieri. It has been compared to Fellini's La Strada.
Hilton's novel was adapted for BBC Radio 4 in three hour-long episodes.
The novel is said to be a loose basis for the film Star Trek: Insurrection.