Edith Maud Hull (16 August 1880 – 11 February 1947) was a British writer of

romance novels A romance novel or romantic novel generally refers to a type of genre fiction novel which places its primary focus on the relationship and romantic love between two people, and usually has an "emotionally satisfying and optimistic ending." Pre ...

, typically credited as E. M. Hull."Hull, Edith Maud (1880–1947)"
AIM25 website."Papers of Edith Maud Hull"
The National Archives. (U.K. website) She is best known for '' The Sheik'', which became an international best seller in 1921. ''The Sheik'' is credited with beginning a revival of the "desert romance" genre of

romantic fiction A romance novel or romantic novel generally refers to a type of genre fiction novel which places its primary focus on the relationship and romantic love between two people, and usually has an "emotionally satisfying and optimistic ending." Pre ...

.Teo, Hsu-Ming
“Historicizing ''The Sheik'': Comparisons of the British Novel and the American Film”
''Journal of Popular Romance Studies. Hull followed ''The Sheik'' with several other novels with desert settings, such as ''The Shadow of the East'', ''The Desert Healer'', and ''The Sons of the Sheik''.

Personal life

Born Edith Maud Henderson on 16 August 1880 in the Borough of

Hampstead Hampstead () is an area in London, which lies northwest of Charing Cross, and extends from Watling Street, the A5 road (Roman Watling Street) to Hampstead Heath, a large, hilly expanse of parkland. The area forms the northwest part of the Lon ...

, London, England, she was the daughter of James Henderson, a Liverpool shipowner originally from New York City, and Katie Thorne, of

New Brunswick New Brunswick (french: Nouveau-Brunswick, , locally ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is one of the three Maritime provinces and one of the four Atlantic provinces. It is the only province with both English and ...

, Canada. As a child she travelled widely with her parents, even visiting Algeria—- the setting of her novels. In 1899, she married Percy Winstanley Hull (b. 1869), a civil engineer and later a prize-winning pig farmer.Sergeant, Amy
"E M Hull Homepage"
Women in Silent British Cinema website. The couple relocated to the Hull family estate in Derbyshire during the early 1900s. They had a daughter, Cecil Winstanley Hull. Hull was somewhat reclusive and did not seek publicity. She died at age 66, on 11 February 1947 in Hazelwood, in the parish of Duffield, Derbyshire.

Writing career

Hull wrote fiction while her husband was away serving in

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. ''The Sheik'', her first effort, was published in England in 1919 and to her surprise quickly became an international bestseller, scoring among

Publishers Weekly ''Publishers Weekly'' (''PW'') is an American weekly trade news magazine targeted at publishers, librarians, booksellers, and literary agents. Published continuously since 1872, it has carried the tagline, "The International News Magazine of B ...

's ten best sellers in America for both of the years 1921 and 1922.Teo, Hsu-Ming. ''Desert Passions: Orientalism and Romance Novels'' Hull's volume quickly sold more than 1.2 million copies worldwide. Sales further increased when

Paramount Paramount (from the word ''paramount'' meaning "above all others") may refer to: Entertainment and music companies * Paramount Global, also known simply as Paramount, an American mass media company formerly known as ViacomCBS. The following busin ...

released a movie version of '' The Sheik'' during 1921, which greatly increased the fame of the main actor,

Rudolph Valentino Rodolfo Pietro Filiberto Raffaello Guglielmi di Valentina d'Antonguolla (May 6, 1895 – August 23, 1926), known professionally as Rudolph Valentino and nicknamed The Latin Lover, was an Italian actor based in the United States who starred ...

. By 1923, the novel had more than a hundred editions, and sales had surpassed all other best-sellers combined. Melman, Billie. ''Women and the Popular Imagination in the Twenties: Flappers and Nymphs''. (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1988). Hull's novel was not the first desert romance—- the genre had been initiated mainly by writers like

Robert Smythe Hichens Robert Hichens (Robert Smythe Hichens, 14 November 1864 – 20 July 1950) was an English journalist, novelist, music lyricist, short story writer, music critic and collaborated on successful plays. He is best remembered as a satirist of the " ...

and Kathlyn Rhodes—- but it was the most popular and influential on later romance writers. Hull continued to write into the 1930s, and her 1925 novel ''The Sons of the Sheik'' was also a tremendous success, as was the movie version ''

Son of the Sheik ''The Son of the Sheik'' is a 1926 American silent adventure/drama film directed by George Fitzmaurice and starring Rudolph Valentino and Vilma Bánky. The film is based on the 1925 romance novel ''The Sons of the Sheik'' by Edith Maude Hull, a ...

'', which again featured Valentino in what was to be his last movie. During her later life, Hull expressed regret that she had sold the movie rights for her novels for too little money. During the 1940s, Canadian science fiction writer Edna Mayne Hull initially published her work as "E.M. Hull", before switching to the credited name

E. Mayne Hull Edna May Hull van Vogt (May 1, 1905 – January 20, 1975) was a Canadian science fiction writer who published under the name E. Mayne Hull. She was the first wife of A. E. van Vogt, also a science fiction writer. Early life and marriage Edna M ...

to avoid confusion. The two writers are not related.

Bibliography

''The Sheik'' saga

# '' The Sheik'', 1919 # ''The Sons of the Sheik'', 1925

Single novels

* ''The Shadow of the East'', 1921 * ''The Desert Healer, 1923 * ''The Lion-Tamer'', 1928 * ''The Captive of the Sahara'', 1931 * ''The Forest of Terrible Things'', 1939 (title in US: ''Jungle Captive'')

Travel memoir

* ''Camping in the Sahara'', 1926 (with photographs by Hull's daughter Cecil)

References and sources

External links

E. M. Hull Remembered
* * * *
The Sheik and The Shadow of the East
Part of the PublicBookshelf online romance novel collection *

The Women's Library The Women's Library is England's main library and museum resource on women and the women's movement, concentrating on Britain in the 19th and 20th centuries. It has an institutional history as a coherent collection dating back to the mid-1920s, ...

Archives, which contains
Books and papers relating to EM Hull
" * {{DEFAULTSORT:Hull, Edith Maude 1880 births 1947 deaths 19th-century British people 19th-century British women 20th-century British novelists 20th-century British women writers Modernism People from Duffield People from Hampstead Writers from London British people of American descent British people of Canadian descent British romantic fiction writers British women novelists Women romantic fiction writers