EM Hull

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EM Hull

Edith Maud Hull (born August 16, 1880 in Hampstead , London as Edith Maud Henderson , † February 11, 1947 in Hazelwood , Derbyshire ) was a British writer. She wrote romance novels and is best known for her bestseller The Sheik (1919), which was filmed in 1921 with Rudolph Valentino .

life and work

Hull was the only daughter of the Canadian Katharine (Katie) Henderson, b. Thorne and James Henderson, a ship owner from Liverpool . She traveled to Algeria in her youth . In 1899 she married the agronomist Percy Winstanley Hull (* 1869), with whom she first lived in Surrey before he took over the parental estate in Derbyshire ("Knowle"), where he then raised pigs, among other things. In 1902 a daughter, Cecil Winstanley Hull, was born.

When her husband became a soldier in World War I , Hull began writing novels. Her first work, The Sheik , appeared in quick succession in England and the United States in 1919 and became a bestseller. The American Famous Players-Lasky Corporation produced a film adaptation of the novel with Agnes Ayres and Rudolph Valentino in the leading roles. The film was released on October 21, 1921 and was Valentino's greatest success. Also Hull's 1922 sequel The Sons of the Sheik was filmed with Valentino ( The Son of the Sheik , 1926).

In 1924 Hull visited Algeria a second time and published a book about this trip Camping in the Desert .

Avoiding the public eye, Hull died in Derbyshire at the age of 66.

The Sheik

The Sheik (Movie Poster)

Hull's novel The Sheik (1919) tells the story of the beautiful Diana Mayo, who is bored in the superficial life of the English aristocracy and therefore sets off on a journey on horseback through the desert of Algeria. She was kidnapped on the second day. Her kidnapper is the powerful and handsome Sheikh Ahmed Ben Hassan, whom she tries to resist, but with whom she falls in love.

Ahmed had planned Diana's kidnapping well in advance, but he only realized his love for her when a rival kidnapped her from his care. What Diana does not know at first, he is not the biological son of the previous sheikh, but the child of a Spanish woman who ran away from her brutal British husband and found refuge in the old sheikh's desert camp. After the death of the Spaniard, the Sheikh Ahmed brought up his own son.

Ahmed frees Diana from his rival's captivity, but is now unclean with himself and distances himself from Diana because he fears that she will not be happy with a brutal person like him. It is only when Diana, out of desperation over his renewed aloofness, tries to commit suicide that the lovers find each other.

Publications

Original edition, unless otherwise noted, by Eveleigh Nash.

Novels

* German: Der Scheich (Publisher: E. Keils, 1927; German also under the title Die Entführung )
  • 1921 - The Shadow of the East
  • 1922 - The Sons of the Sheik
  • 1923 - The Desert Healer
  • 1928 - The Lion-Tamer
  • 1931 - The Captive of the Sahara (Publisher: Methuen)
  • 1939 - The Forest of Terrible Things (publisher: Hutchinson; in the USA: Jungle Captive )

Travel report

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Hull [née Henderson], Edith Maude (1880–1947). In: Oxford Index. Oxford University Press, accessed July 25, 2016 . The National Archives: Papers of Edith Maud Hull. Retrieved July 25, 2016 . Ancestry.com: Winstanley Hull. Retrieved July 25, 2016 .
  2. ^ Women and Silent British Cinema: EM Hull. Retrieved July 26, 2016 .
  3. ↑ Clive Bloom: Bestsellers. Popular Fiction Since 1900 . 2nd Edition. Palgrave Macmillan, 2008, ISBN 978-0-230-53689-0 , pp. 197 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
  4. ↑ Goodreads: The Sheik. Retrieved July 26, 2016 .
personal data
SURNAME Hull, EM
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Hull, Edith Maud (full name); Henderson, Edith Maud
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British writer
DATE OF BIRTH August 16, 1880
PLACE OF BIRTH Hampstead , London
DATE OF DEATH February 11, 1947
Place of death Hazelwood , Derbyshire