Incredible! the Hungarian who had a bestseller and a crater on Venus named after her

There are some Hungarians who achieved great successes, even international fame at times. However, there is one person who, despite her achievements like having her book become one of the 2000 fundamental pieces of literature in America or having a crater on Venus named after her, is shrouded in mystery for most Hungarians.

Emma Orczy has a fascinating story. However, as she spent most of her life abroad and wrote in English instead of Hungarian, perhaps it is no surprise that she is not so well-known among Hungarians – reports Divany.

The beginnings

Emma Orczy was born in 1865 in Tarnaörs (Hungary), into an influential family. Her mother was Countess Emma Wass, her father composer Félix Orczy, who knew people like Ferenc Liszt or Wagner, too. The family travelled a lot and eventually moved to London when Emma was 15 years old. It was there she started to learn English besides learning to paint and draw.

She turned to writing only after meeting her husband, Montague MacLean Barstow. They had a long and happy marriage; however, the beginnings were not easy since the man worked as an illustrator, and money was scarce. Orczy started to write stories to help increase their income a bit.

She was active when it came to social and political affairs as well. For instance, she founded the Women of England’s Active Service League to convince men how important it was to participate actively in the armed forces.

She is one of the few Hungarians who has a crater named after them on Venus. Other examples include Mari Jászai actress and Katalin Klafsky opera singer.

Her success

In her first book, she paid homage to her Hungarian origins, as she gave it the title of Old Hungarian Fairy Tales. Her second book was not very successful; however, in 1903, she published the book that soon brought her international fame and success – The Scarlet Pimpernel. Just two years after it came out, it was turned into a theatre production that became a massive hit – for four years, every production had a full house.