- This article is about the novel. For the band, see Lost Horizon (band).
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.
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:
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.
A BBC Radio 4 adaptation of Hilton's novel in three hourly episodes was broadcast in 1981
Last updated: 05-16-2005 14:27:08