Edith Maude Hull (1880–1947) was a British novelist best known for being the author of the romantic novel The Sheik

The Sheik (novel)

The Sheik is a book by Edith Maude Hull, an English novelist of the early twentieth century. It is similar to many of her other books, but it was her most popular and was the basis for the film of the same name starring Rudolph Valentino in the title role. Published in 1919, it is still in print...

which became an international best seller in 1921.

E. M. Hull was the pseudonym of Edith Maude Winstanley née Henderson. This novel is credited with starting the hugely popular "desert-romance" genre. Hull followed The Sheik with subsequent novels The Shadow of the East, The Desert Healer, and The Sons of the Sheik

Son of the Sheik (film)

Son of the Sheik is a 1926 silent film produced by United Artists, directed by George Fitzmaurice and starring Rudolph Valentino and Vilma Bánky. It was based on a romance novel by Edith Maude Hull The Sons of the Sheik, a sequel to The Sheik...

.

Career

Born Edith Maude Henderson in the Borough of Hampstead

Hampstead

Hampstead is an area of London, England, north-west of Charing Cross. Part of the London Borough of Camden in Inner London, it is known for its intellectual, liberal, artistic, musical and literary associations and for Hampstead Heath, a large, hilly expanse of parkland...

, London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

, on 16 August 1880. Hull dabbled writing fiction in the late 1910s while her husband was away serving in World War I

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

. The Sheik, her first effort, was first published in England in 1919 and quickly became an international blockbuster, placing among Publishers Weekly

Publishers Weekly

Publishers Weekly, aka PW, is an American weekly trade news magazine targeted at publishers, librarians, booksellers and literary agents...

's top ten best sellers for both of the years 1921 and 1922. Hull's volume quickly sold over 1.2 million copies worldwide.

Sales further increased when Paramount

Paramount Pictures

Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film production and distribution company, located at 5555 Melrose Avenue in Hollywood. Founded in 1912 and currently owned by media conglomerate Viacom, it is America's oldest existing film studio; it is also the last major film studio still...

 released a film version of The Sheik

The Sheik (film)

The Sheik is a 1921 silent film produced by Famous Players-Lasky, directed by George Melford and starring Rudolph Valentino, Agnes Ayres, and Adolphe Menjou...

in 1921, which launched Rudolph Valentino

Rudolph Valentino

Rudolph Valentino was an Italian actor, and early pop icon. A sex symbol of the 1920s, Valentino was known as the "Latin Lover". He starred in several well-known silent films including The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, The Sheik, Blood and Sand, The Eagle and Son of the Sheik...

 into cinema immortality as the greatest "lover" of the silent screen.

Hull continue to write into the 1930s and 1925 novel Sons of the Sheik was also a tremendous success, as was the film version Son of the Sheik, which again starred Valentino.

Hull died at age 66 on 11 February 1947. She died in Hazelwood

Hazelwood, Derbyshire

Hazelwood is a village in Derbyshire at the lower end of the Pennines around five miles north of Derby, England. Ordnance Survey maps in the nineteenth century spelt it Hazzlewood....

, in the parish of Duffield, Derbyshire

Derbyshire

Derbyshire is a county in the East Midlands of England. A substantial portion of the Peak District National Park lies within Derbyshire. The northern part of Derbyshire overlaps with the Pennines, a famous chain of hills and mountains. The county contains within its boundary of approx...

.

Works

• The Sheik
  The Sheik (novel)
  The Sheik is a book by Edith Maude Hull, an English novelist of the early twentieth century. It is similar to many of her other books, but it was her most popular and was the basis for the film of the same name starring Rudolph Valentino in the title role. Published in 1919, it is still in print...
  
  , 1919
• Shadow of the East, 1921
• Sons of the Sheik, 1925
• Camping in the Sahara, 1926
• The Lion Tamer, 1928
• The Captive of the Sahara, 1931
• The Forest of Terrible Things (title in US: Jungle Captive), 1939

External links

• E. M. Hull Remembered
• The Women's Library
  The Women's Library (London)
  The Women's Library in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets is Britain's main library and museum resource on women and the women's movement, especially concentrating on Britain in the 19th and 20th centuries.The Library has over 60,000 books and pamphlets...
  
  Archives, which contains "Books and papers relating to EM Hull"