Arnold Ferdinand Arnold

Arnold Ferdinand Arnold (February 6, 1921 - January 20, 2012) was an author, game designer and cyberneticist, known more for the fame of his relatives and wives in later life. His first and only legal wife, Eve Arnold, was known for photography. His second partner, who he never married, was writer Gail E. Haley. Arnold's two brothers-in-law were Theodor Gaster and Peter Drucker.

Arnold was born in Königstein, Germany on February 6, 1921. He was the youngest child and only son of Clara Lahnstein whose father was the founder of one of Germany's first department stores in Mainz. The family moved from Königstein to Cologne and eventually settled in Frankfurt. He had two older sisters, Doris and Lotte. Arnold's mother was married to Fritz Schmitz in an arranged marriage by her father.

In 1933, the family escaped Hitler's Germany after receiving a warning from the wife of Clara's older brother, Carl, who by then was running the family store in Mainz. The family first fled to the Netherlands, and from there, settled briefly in England. Arnold was the first Jewish student admitted to Bedales, one of the UK's most progressive "public schools." Admitted by the founder, John Badley, Arnold was given a scholarship and a place in the student body if he learned enough English to follow classes in six weeks.

Arnold followed his eldest sister to the United States where he gained work as a writer and cartoonist. He was drafted into the U.S. military in 1941, and after training in South Carolina, was sent to France as a member of the 101st Infantry division. Badly wounded after his jeep ran over a German landmine, he returned to New York where he settled down to married life with Eve.

By the 1950s, Arnold was well established in the New York literary world. He taught at the New School, had a one-man show at MOMA, and published his first book with acquaintance, Ian Ballantine. The success of the book, How To Play With Your Child, which sold over 100,000 initial copies, established Arnold as an author, and allowed the family to buy a house in Long Island Sound.

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