Andrea Chalupa🧵 There would have been no George Orwell without Eileen O’Shaughnessy Blair. She saved her husband’s life twice, including when they were fighting fascists on their honeymoon in the Spanish Civil War.
Eileen was more Orwell than Orwell. While Eric Blair was running from his true self in the Indian Imperial Police in Burma, Eileen was studying literature under J.R.R. Tolkien and becoming one of the earliest women to graduate from Oxford.
She later embraced the new field of child psychology. Animal Farm, the breakout book that made Orwell rich and famous, was shaped by Eileen. Her descendants credit her with practically writing it.
Their friends said that Eric Blair's writing transformed after he met Eileen. Mrs. Orwell is the cinematic story, grounded in history, revealing that "George Orwell" was a band name. It takes a team to get the truth out.
None of us can survive these horrific times alone. We need our resilience communities to find our voice and shine our light out into the world. Mrs. Orwell is a reminder that none of us are alone: we have each other, to transform our grief and rage into shining our light for truth and planting seeds of hope for a better world.
Eileen has been a historical mentor of mine for years, ever since I first found her in Orwell’s preface to the Ukrainian translation of Animal Farm, the very book my mother’s family carried from WWII refugee camps to New York City.
Early (terrible) drafts of Mr. Jones shoe-horned Eileen into the script; you can read an excerpt of the opening page of a 2014 draft here, but be warned -- it does not meet my standards today. That journey from a flawed script to this finished book has been over a decade in the making
Eileen's friend Lettice Cooper wrote a novel, published in 1947, called Black Bethlehem, which features Eileen as the character "Ann" and Orwell as "Christopher."
In it, Cooper described Eileen and Eric Blair: "They live by a burning morality."
Here’s an inspiring excerpt on “Ann”:
To hear more about Eileen’s remarkable life and impact on Orwell, come to the Mrs. Orwell launch April 13 at 7pm at PowerHouse Books Arena in DUMBO, NYC. I’ll be joined by Nomiki Konst. Patreon supporters get in free and receive a signed book. Details here.
https://powerhousearena.com/events/book-launch-mrs-orwell-by-andrea-chalupa-in-conversation-with-nomiki-konst/
https://powerhousearena.com/events/book-launch-mrs-orwell-by-andrea-chalupa-in-conversation-with-nomiki-konst/
Book Launch: Mrs. Orwell by Andrea Chalupa in conversation with Nomiki Konst - POWERHOUSE Arena
Eileen Blair, wife and partner of George Orwell, is brought out of her husband’s shadow in this riveting graphic novel, which follows the couples’ tireless campaign to expose difficult political truths through art.
Mrs. Orwell is available now, with art by the brilliant Brahm Revel. It is one of the greatest things I will ever do, transforming years of anger and grief into a flashlight for today. https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250877857/mrsorwell/
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